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Cringe Songs!

The names & numbers catagories and leprechauns inspired me to start this. What songs make you cringe? What songs do you NEVER want to hear ever again? If you worked in radio, what songs made you tremble as you put the record or cart in, ready to cue it up?

Maybe this has been done before, but what the hay, maybe the lists of some have changed.

I could make a long, lengthy list, but I won't take up all the fun.


Patches                                      Dickey Lee
Puff, The Magic Dragon                Peter, Paul & Mary
Artificial Flowers                          Bobby Darin 
Johnny Angel                              Shelley Fabares
Cindy's Birthday                          Johnny Crawford


These and other songs just as putrid made me glad the British Invasion came along. Very Glad. Glad All Over.
 
I will have to think about it for awhile, but for now it is not the song that is a turn off, but the manner in which is arranged with other songs. When you have a jock or jockette who has no ear for music, doesn't care, or feels like screwing with people you lost your audience and, in the end, have to make up an audience.
 
Just about any of the dead teenager songs, but most especially "Tell Laura I Love Her". I've also heard waaaaay too much of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" and Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World". With these latter two, I like the sentiment and the artists, but puh-leeze. (And I still like Al Hibbler's version of "Unchained")
 
cyberdad said:
Just about any of the dead teenager songs, but most especially "Tell Laura I Love Her". I've also heard waaaaay too much of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" and Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World". With these latter two, I like the sentiment and the artists, but puh-leeze. (And I still like Al Hibbler's version of "Unchained")

Agree 100%
 
the lion sleeps tonight,keep on dancin', la bamba..there are more..but these three and the others are not even in my playlist...and never will be..thanks God the Beatles arrived and american music had to get better to keep up with them and the rest of the british groups..ditto on dead teen anthems, for me most everything pre '63 is just not very good..i know..just stepped on some toes out there..but the 40 years in radio/music biz/and live bands taught me what people want to hear..and more importantly don't want to hear..
 
deltas69 said:
...the 40 years in radio/music biz/and live bands taught me what people want to hear..and more importantly don't want to hear..
The fortunate thing about music is that there are multiple genres available, enough to satisfy the appetite of any and all music buffs, whether it be R&R, blues, jazz, pop or whatever. My tastes will differ from the next person, and the next with the next, and so on.

What people want to hear or don’t want to hear will differ from venue to venue, depending upon many factors. For example, Allen Fontenot and the Country Cajuns would not be as well received at a night club in Albuquerque as Travis Tritt. This is not to say that there are no followers of Zydeco in Albuquerque, but the lovers of CW tend to be much stronger in this region. Turn it around and make the venue Baton Rouge, LA and you’ll probably come up with highly different and opposite numbers.
 
Ode To Billie Joe - Bobby Gentry
Harper Valley PTA – Jeannie C. Riley

There are many more but this is a start from the top of my list.
 
deltas69 said:
the lion sleeps tonight,keep on dancin', la bamba..there are more..but these three and the others are not even in my playlist...and never will be..thanks God the Beatles arrived and american music had to get better to keep up with them and the rest of the british groups..ditto on dead teen anthems, for me most everything pre '63 is just not very good..i know..just stepped on some toes out there..but the 40 years in radio/music biz/and live bands taught me what people want to hear..and more importantly don't want to hear..

Eliminate everything pre-63 and you have killed off most of the inspiration for your beloved Beatles as well as most other British Invasion groups. You also killed off Rick Nelson, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino just to name three that set be-bop and popular music up and led directly to what we now call Rock 'n Roll. And LaBamba, which you dissed, was the intro for latin-flavored rock and set the stage for other very popular artists like Freddy Cannon. The Doo Wop groups of the 50's linked the classical love songs of the 40's and 50's to the pop versions of the 60's, 70's and beyond.

I can understand anyone not liking a particular song, artist or genre but cannot understand anyone in the music business not understanding or appreciating the history.
 
Eliminate everything pre-63 and you have killed off most of the inspiration for your beloved Beatles as well as most other British Invasion groups. You also killed off Rick Nelson, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino just to name three that set be-bop and popular music up and led directly to what we now call Rock 'n Roll. And LaBamba, which you dissed, was the intro for latin-flavored rock and set the stage for other very popular artists like Freddy Cannon. The Doo Wop groups of the 50's linked the classical love songs of the 40's and 50's to the pop versions of the 60's, 70's and beyond.

I can understand anyone not liking a particular song, artist or genre but cannot understand anyone in the music business not understanding or appreciating the history.
yep..your right..killed them all..they may have been the inspiration for the british groups as you say, as john and paul often remarked about listening to those guys..and i'm NOT a beatle nut..but do recognize the fact they changed the face of rock music from 64 on.and i didn't say i don't understand the above artists place in the historical progression of music...but just don't care for any of the artists you named..my tastes start with jan and dean, four seasons..and go forward from there..didn't care for 50's elvis either but fully understand his rightful place in the evolution of things.. i like vegas elvis quite a bit..his version of "my way" and "what now my love" are two of my favorites. my station playlist goes from 63 to 93..with a little fudging before and after those dates..little anthony..great. he can still belt it out today like then..great showman..but just don't care for most of the fifties stuff at all..my guess is you about 10 years older than me...every age has their favorites..from a musician standpoint, i really like the big band era..those guys could tear up an arrangement..much more complicated than rocks standard 1-4-5 chord progression that most songs ae based on..
 
Watching Scotty Grow – Bobbie Goldsboro
 
deltas69 said:
..little anthony..great. he can still belt it out today like then..great showman..

You kind of made the previous poster's point. Little Anthony is one of your faves, to me HE is a "cringe" artist. I'm sure there are artists I like that you can't stand. Taste is very subjective.
 
Oldbones said:
Taste is very subjective.
Nothing more need be said - taste, whether in music, art, sports or whatever, is ... subjective. Thanks Oldbones. 8)
 
Yes, I cringe at nearly all top 10 hits. As a pro radio jock, I've played the tested list to absolute death and have NO interest in hearing them again--in any format. My jock buds & I have always loved the mid-chart never-made-it type tunes, because they are fresh to us. Now, if you program a station that way you are doomed, but hey, there's internet radio! We can address micro-niches in music. Maybe can't make a buck, but that's life. My personal Cringe list would include: Green-Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf and anything by Boston.
 
Any playlist by amateurs who make it their business to play arrangements that impose on other people's relationships; however, cringe is probably not the right word, because it implies cowering somehow. More like everyone just lets the station go down the toilet at their own hands.
 
Silkie said:
however, cringe is probably not the right word, because it implies cowering somehow.
I would describe “to cringe” (in the sense in which this thread is designed) as the act of recoiling from something one finds abhorrent rather than as a cowardly act.

Thus I cringe and immediately hit the “mute” button when the intro for "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by Looking Glass moves my speaker cones. ;)
 
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