Horrible Songs By Great Artists

[Alex]

Chuck Berry -- "My Ding-A-Ling"

I love My Ding-a-Ling. The only 45 in my record collection is My-Ding-a-Ling, with a live version of Johnny B. Good as the B-side.


Now if you want to talk about bad songs by good bands, I would say half of every single album Radiohead has put out since OK Computer is pretty bad...or at leat pretty boring.

Everything the Stones did after Brian Jones died does nothing but "follow the formula".

And for atrocities commited by the Beach Boys, just check out most of Summer in Paradise and KTSA, most of Sweet Insanity, all of Mike Love's solo albums, all of Carl's early 80s solo material except for the song Heaven, all of Still Cruisin', half of BB85, half of MIU, half of 15BO, half of Little Deuce Coupe, Sumahama, disco version of Here Comes the Night, I Wanna Pick You Up, Brian's Back, Problem Child, Crocodile Rock, and too many other BB songs to mention.

[Music Machine]

Listening to the Rhino remaster of Yes' Tormato I'm left wondering how the hell the bonus tracks Countryside and You Can Be Saved got shelved from the original album yet Circus of Heaven and Arriving UFO made it on.

[The Heartical Don]

Hey, thanks for writing in you all -
great choices. 'My Ding-A-Ling' truly is dreck, as are many of the other choices. Plus: I always thought this one did harm to racial relations, because it suggests that black men are only out for one thing and that in a very limited vocabulary (just my two cents). That may ring true for mr. Berry (e.g. the infamous toilet VHS stories); but others may feel insulted by it.

My choice for the day: Bruce Springsteen's 'Drive All Night', which has his cliché about cars and girls to the max; and since it pretends to be a 'grand statement', it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on... and in the end you still don't know if he bought her those shoes.

[Alex]

'My Ding-A-Ling' truly is dreck

Is it a crime if I think "My Ding A Ling" is a funny song? I've never even thought about it in racial terms before. I always thought it was just an innocent but dirty joke song.

[donald]

Bee Bop Baby by Perry Como.

You're Havin My Baby by Little Richard

The Dog Gone Girl Is Mine! by McCartney and Jackson

Gray is the Colour of My Tru Luvs Haire by the Olde Farts

Hint: Two of these are actual songs!!!!

[Aegir]

The Girl is Mine is the song that made me realize that not everything released by the Beatles is infallibly amazing.

[lance]

You gotta learn to open your mind and love it FOR being crap, just as if you had a retarded child.(apologies to any retards on this board--I'm being serious anyway.)

[punkinhead]

-Macca's Helen Wheels
-Ringo's No No song
-Dig a Pony always got old to me
-pretty much all the output (official) by the Beach Boys in the 90s is unbearable to me...still havnt listened to Bummer in Paradise all the way through...it's like a hangover and i cant drag my cd player to the toilet.
-I really only like half of Hail to the Theif album by Radiohead
-Bruce's solo stuff is really not for me. I can't stand his take on Don't Worry Baby, I don't like Rock and Roll Survivor, always liked Manalow's IWTS over Bruce's, only enjoyed the BB/Bruce take of Disney Girls (as opposed to his newer recordings), I used to like Tears in the Morning (totally can't stand it now)
-Never enjoyed Elton's Boarder Song
-I kinda feel like half of Sgt. Pepper's (whole album) lyrics are just cheap poetry from 1967. (mostly Fixing a Hole (which I do like), the verses of Getting Better, Lovely Rita, and Good Morning Good Morning)


Just to dance with you, hmmm, I kinda like this song, prolly my least fav on HDN.

[Luther]

^ Does that imply that you believe Bruce Johnston is a "great artist"? Wow, I couldn't agree with that at all. I'd put him more in the category of "talented guy in a sometimes-great band."

[Alex]

"Happy Endings" by Little Richard and The Beach Boys is pretty unbearable overly-sentimental Disney-esque crap!

[punkinhead]

yeah, i guess i forgot what section i was typing in, I do like his stuff with the BB though.   

[mikee]

I'm reluctant  to overly criticize hits that I may not like because they clearly have their place.  There are others who have enjoyed them and who would I be to say they are "bad"?  However (imo) there are some songs that do not belong on the album they appeared on.  They might be ok b sides or rarities but detract from the record they came out on.  An example is Noel Redding's  "She's So Fine" on  Hendrix's 'Axis - Bold As Love'.  So is Redding's  "Little Miss Strange" on "Electric Ladyland".  Noel was a good musician, but to me it is a given if you were playing in Jimi's band or on one of his records that you were there as a sideman and you were there to support him.  I remain astounded with the audacity  suggested by the existance of those tracks on those albums.  Another example would be 'Mother' on the Police's 'Syncronicity'.  Andy Summers song is interesting in it's way, but it does not fit on this album.  It would have been an excellent B side.           

[Luther]

But clearly Jimi was willing to let Noel have his tracks. I mean, they're there. It's not like Noel could use some power and influence over weak little nobody Hendrix! (Btw, I LOVE those songs. No kidding. Not just being difficult. I think they add a great pop touch to albums that can otherwise meander a bit too much for my taste.)

[mikee]

But clearly Jimi was willing to let Noel have his tracks. I mean, they're there. It's not like Noel could use some power and influence over weak little nobody Hendrix!

My understanding is that is exactly what happened.  Hendrix was a soft  touch and easily taken advantage of  - despite the power he theoretically wielded when he made it commercially.  No way should the JHE have been any kind of a democracy. 

(Btw, I LOVE those songs. No kidding. Not just being difficult. I think they add a great pop touch to albums that can otherwise meander a bit too much for my taste.)

I don't hate the songs at all.  I even like "Mother" for what it is.  I just  feel that it  interupts the 'Syncronicity' album like 'Trancedental Meditation' would have if it had been stuck in the middle of 'Friends'.  (Even as it is 'TM' stands out like a sore thumb at the end of the record - and I like the song a lot.) 
In the case of the Hendrix L.P.s, I feel that  Noels stuff would have been better suited on his own album.  He should have been helping Hendrix instead of pestering him and  pressuring him, in order to put his lead vocals and lead guitar on Jimi's records.             

[mikeyj]

How about these Beatles songs - "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", "Revolution 9" (should we even count that as a song?), "Wild Honey Pie", "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" All horrible songs (if you want to call them that) in my opinion

[Luther]

Each individual Beatle went on to a long, distinguished career of putting out mostly mediocre-or-worse songs, in my opinion.

[mikeyj]

Each individual Beatle went on to a long, distinguished career of putting out mostly mediocre-or-worse songs, in my opinion.

Yeah I agree Luther... of course there were still shining moments, but on the whole I agree... and of course there are other Beatles songs that aren't all that good but those are the ones that came to mind immediately.

[Sheriff John Stone]

How about these Beatles songs...."Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"....in my opinion

I know it's your opinion, but, don't know about that one....

[mikeyj]

I know it's your opinion, but, don't know about that one....

Yeah that's cool if you like it but I just think it's awful... I would rather listen to Summer of Love on reverse... okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far, but whenever I'm listening to The White Album, that's one I always skip.

[Aegir]

I like all those songs. I like every officially released Beatles song, though (Love doesn't count).