Alan Smithee

Don't remember if this has been done here before, but I'm in the mood to list these right now:

Love and Rockets- So Alive
Berlin- Take My Breath Away
Pet Shop Boys- It's Alright
Echo and the Bunnymen- Lips Like Sugar
B-52s- Love Shack
The Police- Every Breath You Take

PhantomStranger

Leonard Cohen's Jazz Police. It's such a goofy song in his illustrious career and sticks out like a sore thumb in his entire catalog.

rw2516

Van Halen-Jump
Queen-Another One Bites The Dust and that shitty Bicycle song
ACDC-You Shook Me All Night Long

bralph

Jimmy Buffett - Cheeseburger In Paradise

I've been going to Buffett concerts for 20 years, but I've never liked this song. Every year I hope he doesn't play it, but every year he does...

Perkinsun Dzees

Love Hall and Oates but I can't stand most of the hit songs from the MTV phase of their career (ie. Maneater, I Can't Go For That, You Make My Dreams, Kiss on My List, etc).

The Cow

Silent Lucidity - Queensryche

milo bloom

With few exceptions, these are basically the songs I know these artists for.

Ky-Fi

I love "Lips like Sugar", but other than that I concur with you on these.

Let's see, I'd add "Numb" from U2.

hdnmickey

Rush - "Tears"

Inhumans99

Milo bloom, I am with you on this...is this the thread where a bunch of DVD talkers go to try and be too cool for school by declaring their hate for signature songs from Van Halen, The Police, Queen, B-52s, etc.?

The last time I checked, these artists have not disowned these songs, or declared they were the weakest ones in their catalogs (but then again, I am not obsessed with any of the above groups, so I could be wrong).

The Cow

No, it's some people answering the question "Songs you hate by artists you love?" Pretty simple, really.

stvn1974

Led Zeppelin - "The Crunge"

Pink Floyd - "Money"

hdnmickey

It's the impression I'm getting, not that they will ever admit it. It's the like music version of hate watching a TV show.


That said, the Zeppelin tune that does cause me to hit the skip button more often that not is pretty popular - Battle of Evermore. But I've felt that way for years going back to the years where I would have to hit FF on the cassette.

bralph

Well for me there are other Buffett songs I don't care for (God's Own Drunk, for example), but I didn't think other people would really know those songs, so I didn't list them. I guess I inserted the word "popular" or "well-known" in the topic when considering my response, since that's seemingly what the OP did.

Paff

I don't think so. Often, a band becomes most famous for a song that is a radical departure from their usual style and it becomes their "signature song" as you call it, much to the chagrin of their longtime fans. In the original example, the synth-pop band Berlin, who originally made edgy songs like "Sex (I'm a...)" or upbeat tunes like "No More Words", eventually became most well-known for the by-the-numbers generic ballad "Take My Breath Away".

It's not being "too cool for school", but rather being disappointed when an artist creates something far less daring, often solely for radio airplay and usually due to pressure from their studio to create something with more mainstream appeal.

hdnmickey

I think that would be more interesting discussion. I could come up with a few of those myself.

Jason

Yeah, this sounds like the "I hate it when my favorite band has a big hit" thread.

Alan Smithee

More like "I hate it when my favorite band has a big hit that sucks!" When I first saw "Top Gun" I thought the song "Take My Breath Away" was awful, and I was shocked at the end to see that it was performed by Berlin! The extras on the Top Gun Blu-Ray show that many members of the band didn't like the song that much either, they basically recorded it as a favor to Giorgio Moroder (whose music I mostly like as well, but not this!) I should do a re-edit of Top Gun replacing Take My Breath Away with "Sex (I'm a...)," that'd improve it a bit!

I also bought the B-52s "Cosmic Thing" album shortly after it came out and hated "Love Shack", and was mortified when that went on to become their biggest hit.

Another one that just came to mind from the same era: "Human" by Human League. I guess you could say I don't like "slow jams."

I actually like "Jump" by Van Halen and most of the "1984" album (one of the first 5 CDs I ever bought) but that's just because I like synth- I can see how their usual fans would've hated that. Kind of like when some rock groups dabbled in disco in the late 70s.

milo bloom

Perhaps we could spin this off into another discussion: songs that were big hits but weren't really indicative of the band's regular style.

First one that comes to mind is Len's "Steal My Sunshine". Massive radio hit, I know I bought the CD on the strength of that CD and was just aghast at the rest of the album. I can't even remember what it was like it was so different.

Sugar Ray's albums are a curious mix of their radio pop and some kind of pop-metal fusion songs. Very disconcerting listening to those albums.

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I'm also a big fan of the B-52s other albums, but I still love Love Shack. The 12" remix just came up on shuffle a few minutes ago and I still love it every time.

I honestly don't know of any other Berlin songs, but I still love Take My Breath Away. Maybe it was the time of life I first heard it, first year of college and Top Gun was everywhere, along with the soundtrack.

cungar

Every song the Who did after Who Are You.

rhpsozzy

"She-Wolf" from Megadeth. Couldn't really get into the song and yet they've played it nearly every time I've seen them live.

Alan Smithee

Thankfully Pet Shop Boys' "It's Alright" wasn't a big hit- Most of their stuff is musical genius and there's hardly a bad song on any of their albums, but "It's Alright" just sucks- the lyrics are basically "All kinds of bad things are happening, but I hope it's gonna be alright and the music plays forever." "I Want A Dog" is pretty bad too, but you hardly ever hear that one.

PhantomStranger

Overexposure killed Money for me. I have no idea why it became the one song from DSOTM to remain on Classic Rock stations for decades.

DieselsDen

The following songs by Prince make me cringe terribly-

"Diamonds and Pearls"
"3 Chains of Gold"
"I Like It There"
"I Love U In Me"
"Glam Slam"

I could do without Bruce Springsteen's-

"Glory Days"
"I'm on Fire"
"One Step Up"
"Atlantic City"

And I will never miss hearing Michael Jackson's-

"The Way You Make Me Feel"
"You Are Not Alone"
"Thriller"

JeffTheAlpaca

Metallica - Enter Sandman

Van Halen - Hot for Teacher

U2 - Get on Your Boots

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off