I must say this is a very impressive list. I have just two complaints. On any all-time worst songs list I’d expect several songs that are, say, a few thousand years old. Schlock didn’t come down in the last shower. (Well actually it did, but not for the first time.)
Complaint two, complaint one notwithstanding, surely Achy Breaky heart could have done better than 17.
Now, address your abusive PMs and emails to the guys who compiled this list. I had nothing to do with it. Honest.
I wonder what their criteria is for good and bad. They didn’t explain how they rated them. I don’t see any consistency.
I wouldn’t have put McArthur Park at #1.
I wouldn’t have put Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald on there at all. I like ballads and story songs. Ode to Billy Joe? One of my favorites of childhood. If that is going to be there then “Harper Valley PTA” should be there.
Then there’s “Teddy Bear” by Red Sovine, a hideous appeal to sentimentality.
And that horrendus thing by Cher, “Do you believe in Love” OMG.
I’m with you, Missy! The last thing I need is to have one of those stupid songs in my head all day. Although, I DO have McArthur Park in my head now (which I would absolutely agree deserves to be #1, so there Flydood).
::still singing:: Yeah, it’s that whole “make a cake and left it in the rain, and I’ll never have that recipe again” part. What kind of lyrics are those? But I admit, it’s a good song to dance to ::goes off singing and dancing around::
Those are definitely not the worst songs of all time, or even the worst modern pop-era songs. I suppose, by some measures, they might be ‘the worst songs by artists who had gold records in the twentieth century’ … err, no, wait, they aren’t. Right, ‘the worst songs that got massive radio exposure and are by artists with gold records in the twentieth century’.
Most of the songs on there are probably there because they were overplayed rather than
because there’s anything particularly wrong with them. Except Disco Duck. There’s something
intrinsically wrong with that one.
Now, you had to go and do that, didn’t you Chris??!!
Sidebar - I graduated from high school in 1976. Just at the beginning / peak of Disco. I hated it then. I hate it now.
“I like that old time rock and roll!!”
The Worst Songs List is composed of suggestions/votes from our visitors. It is very different than the top ten suggestions we started with (MacArthur Park was not on the original list).
The only real criteria is that the song had to be available to be heard by a lot of people, a top 100 hit, being on a big selling album, or even a movie appearance can have a big influence.
For example, a personal favorite is “Its OK to Die”, from a guy named John Palumbo, on a Christian Label in the early 1970s. I’ve never met anyone else who heard of the song, let along the singer. It will probably never appear on the list, although it should.
Pop Culture Madness has a list of many of the top songs from the 1920s through today, along with lists that include, Sad Songs, Stalker Songs, Friendship Songs and more…
How in the world did you ever find this thread? While you’re here, you might as well learn to play tin whistle.
Do you have “trucker songs”?
I get squimish about using the phrase “…of all time…” Regardless of other criteria it means, “this history of the universe”. So the top 41 Random Death songs is great but it’s not “…of all time…”. More like “Top 41 Popular random death songs of the mid to late 20th century.”
You ought to check out some of the murder/death songs of 19th century appalacia.
Oddly enough, I was listening to a show about disco on NPR the other day. It turns out that
disco started in '70-'71, and that old-school disco lovers feel pretty much the same way
about the stuff that came out in '76-'80 as, well, most everybody else. Very strange.
Of course, I think proper dance music comes in several flavors, none of them ‘disco’. Reels come to mind, and jigs, and hornpipes…
Oh, and comicsrus, I did see the disclaimer on the page that it was vote based, but it was more fun to make fun of the list! Sorry!
“Lady in Red” should be in the top three worst songs of all time list along with "Wonderful Tonight " and my other all time headache “Stairway to Heaven”…now that thats off my chest…There are one or two quibbbles I have with this list.
"I will Love you " is a song I am very fond of 'though Dolly Partons version is the one I would prefer.Written for her old friend and Mentor -Porter Waggoner- it marks the break up of their professional partnership at the time that her career was really taking off. Whitneys version is a bit over the top for my liking and there are many songs that show off the sheer power of her voice better than this.
Tenille had a really great voice but it was wasted on “Do it to me one more time” mores the pity.
Gilbert O’Sullivan wrote some really good songs and “Alone again,naturally” was not a bad little ditty at all.
Apart from that ..yeah..there is some dreadful stuff on the list..“Ebony and Ivory”..Eughh…
Thats enough..I gotta go listen to something good now before I really get started..
You guys sent like 50 visits my way today, just thought I’d visit and say HI!
While you’re here, you might as well learn to play tin whistle.
Do you have “trucker songs”?
Not Yet, but it could be fun! Please send a starter list!
I get squimish about using the phrase “…of all time…”
I use the general “common knowledge rule”, anything that happened before the dawn of mass communication (1920s) is pretty fuzzy at best.
Regardless of other criteria it means, “this history of the universe”.
Well, KNOWN Universe!
So the top 41 Random Death songs is great but it’s not “…of all time…”. More like “Top 41 Popular random death songs of the mid to late 20th century.”
We do take suggestions/votes all the time. You never can tell. “The Wreck of the Old 97” or “Night of the Johnstown Flood” could make some kind of PR comeback, and they could crack the list!
You ought to check out some of the murder/death songs of 19th century appalacia.
We will. I’m working on the 17th & 18th and 19th Centuries this spring. Can’t wait to get to some 14th century durges this summer! I have to try to be lighthearted though, since I’m trying to stay “PG”.
(Many schools are linked to PopCultureMadness)
