Cringe Songs!

[Corky Marlowe]

Some of the songs I've seen here aren't so much cringe-inducing as they are burnt out beyond all hope (was there an FCC regulation at one point that mandated oldies stations to play "Unchained Melody" every 2 hours?) Back to true cringedom...I haven't seen anything from MIZZZZZ Helen Reddy listed. Nor have I seen, off the top of my head, "Tall Paul" by Annette Funicello, or "Chanson D'Amour" by Art and Dotty Todd (Rat-ta-dat-ta-dah...). One interesting constant seems to be the "it's in your contract" stuff by TV stars (Paul Peterson, Shelley Fabares, Annette, Johnny Crawford). Rock and roll was by no means dead before the Beatles showed up, but you'd never know it by listening to stuff like that.

For later cringers, how about "Which Way You Goin' Billy?" by Susan Jacks & The Poppy Family?

 

[cyberdad]

Those of us who frequently find ourselves in the land of Can-Con are familiar with Susan Jacks' whole string of "cringers". Most notably "Is That What Good Friends are For", "That's Where I Went Wrong", and "Which Way You Goin', Billy". Of course, these straddle the line between hardcore "cringe" and "guilty pleasures", since she was drop-dead gorgeous!

All time Can-Con "cringe" song? My vote goes to the excessively pompous "Conquistador". Runner up....Jack Scott's "Burning Bridges". Or perhaps at the other end of the spectrum....Bobby Curtola's "Three Rows Over" (which is actually on my iPod!)

 

[kenb]

To Rico-- Cindy's Birthday, Johnny Angel & Patches are three of my favorites. Of course, I grew up with them on my six transistor radio. They play on my MP3 player regularly along with Don't Just Stand There/Patty Duke, That's Old Fashioned & Ebony Eyes/Everly Brothers. I love all the oldies of the 50's-60's & 70's era.

 

[Silkie]

To Rico-- Cindy's Birthday, Johnny Angel & Patches are three of my favorites. Of course, I grew up with them on my six transistor radio. They play on my MP3 player regularly along with Don't Just Stand There/Patty Duke, That's Old Fashioned & Ebony Eyes/Everly Brothers. I love all the oldies of the 50's-60's & 70's era.

That's because you are smart and have good taste in music.

 

[joybandit]

"Mony, Mony" by Tommy James and the Shondells. God I hate that song.

. . . . my father loved "Honey", but he liked the Robert Goulet version not Bobby Goldsboro's.

 

[2MANYHATS]

Number 1 on my list is "Billy" by Cathy Linden...it's the song from hell!
"Patches" by Dickey Lee is the next runner -up.
"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro makes me want to turn up the gas.
"Tell Laura I Love Her"....please hide the cutlery!
more to come later..

 

[cyberdad]

Number 1 on my list is "Billy" by Cathy Linden...it's the song from hell!
"Patches" by Dickey Lee is the next runner -up.
"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro makes me want to turn up the gas.
"Tell Laura I Love Her"....please hide the cutlery!
more to come later..

Pretty much agree with you but probably in reverse order. At least Cathy Linden had a sexy...if overly cloying....voice.

 

[radioman148]

Number 1 on my list is "Billy" by Cathy Linden...it's the song from hell!
"Patches" by Dickey Lee is the next runner -up.
"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro makes me want to turn up the gas.
"Tell Laura I Love Her"....please hide the cutlery!
more to come later..

Ditto on "Honey" the all time major puker.

 

[RicoGregg]

To Rico-- Cindy's Birthday, Johnny Angel & Patches are three of my favorites. 

Then you have partially answered a longtime question of mine: When it comes to the people who made these songs hits, in the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld, Who are these people?

Of course, I grew up with them on my six transistor radio.

 

Those of us who grew up in that era had a transistor radio. A part-time hobby of mine is collecting them. Some of them still work great.

Ebony Eyes/Everly Brothers.[/b]

A good song, even though it was recorded after what some music lovers consider to be the Everly Brothers' "shark jump" when they switched labels from Cadence to Warner Bros.

I love all the oldies of the 50's-60's & 70's era. 

Another first. I don't know anyone who liked, let alone loved, every song from that era. I certainly didn't, and I consider that my coming of age music.

 

[Silkie]

Sheesh, I don't think he said he loved every song. It was a statement of generality.

 

[RicoGregg]

Sheesh, I don't think he said he loved every song. It was a statement of generality.

Then why, pray tell, did he highlight "all the oldies" in red? To me, "all the oldies" means every song. He already admitted to liking songs that I, & I'm sure others, consider croakers and the cause of 1960's tune-out.

 

[nightfly61]

Fancy Pants(I Think I Can Dance)-Leo Sayer. blaaaa.
Sweet City Woman-Stampeders.
Then there are the ones so redundand you want to rip your hair out:
Sir Duke
Love To Love You Baby
I think I had a thread about redundant songs a while ago. Any others?

 

[radioman148]

I know everyone is going to disagree with me on this one but IMO "Unchained Melody" is the most overplayed record in the history of Rock & Roll. It was a fine song when it was originally recorded and the first time around as an oldie. However, it has been re-incarnated so many times that as soon as it comes on the radio I immediately hit the button for any other station.

 

[cyberdad]

I know everyone is going to disagree with me on this one but IMO "Unchained Melody" is the most overplayed record in the history of Rock & Roll. It was a fine song when it was originally recorded and the first time around as an oldie. However, it has been re-incarnated so many times that as soon as it comes on the radio I immediately hit the button for any other station.

Nope....not everyone disagrees. I certainly don't. If I were a dictionary publisher, "Unchained Melody" would be the definition of the word "overplayed". Certainly the Righteous Brothers' version. I still, however, like Al Hibbler's version (and I like almost everything else the Righteous Brothers did.)

 

[nightfly61]

I think "Brown Eyed Girl is the most overplayed I've ever heard. Seems to come on every CheapChannel oldies station as a "core song" literally, every 9 hours. Plus since it's crossed over to AOR you hear it that much on their rock stations too. I think it's ridiculous the way songs like BEG, Downtown, Old Time R & R, Baby Love, Teddy Bear, & many others have been turned into ultimately HATED songs by me just by them burning them out. Fill the space with some forgotten hits & for God's sake...make Brown Eyed Girl come up once every THREE to SIX MONTHS!!! Same with Old Time Rock & Roll. :

 

[pqgeorge]

I've looked and read some of the postings of this thread and have to admit, some of the comments regarding some of these "croakers" (including the "Tell Laura I Love Her" or "Teen Angel" of the teenage death ilk) are rather funny. I operate a non-commercial oldies FM'er in Dudley, MA. Our playlist is about 2000 songs (getting bigger every day) dating from 1954 through 1979 (give or take a few crossovers into 1980/81). We don't use consultants of any way, shape or form. What we do use is "gut instinct". If a song is upbeat, brings up great memories or has a message (like "Abraham, Martin and John"- Dion), we'll play it.

I've been listening to oldies stations all my life, like the famous (the original) WROR ("The Golden Great 98!"), WCBS-FM in New York and recently to WLS-FM (during their live jock shifts like the great Dick Biondi). I'm 50 years old and was born many years after the great songs of the 50's made their debut. Rock & roll's first quarter century, to me was some of the greatest music ever made. To not include any pre-Beatles tunes on a play-list would be a mistake. To many listeners, at least to my station, they are hearing some of these pre-Beatles tunes for the first time. I'm amazed on how many of our listeners are younger than 25 years old. Some are teenagers. They love the Motown Sound, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Elvis, Leslie Gore, Bobby Darin..... the list goes on and on. On the other hand, even some of the moderately disco tunes like "Turn The Beat Around", "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel" or "Jungle Boogie"... are all there, too. A "train wreck", maybe....... But somehow, it all fits nicely.

No doubt, The Beatles changed the music forever. But to get there, you need to know what made the Beatles so important. The Beatles had already charted since '62. Check out "Songfacts" (http://songfacts.com) and you'll see what I mean. What brought the Beatles to America, indirectly, was the loss of President Kennedy on 11/22/63. The country was still in state of mourning. The Beatles were the "tonic" to get the country moving again. And boy, did it! The rest is history (Sullivan, the concerts etc.). Beatle-mania was in full swing.

No doubt, there are some tunes that I will simply will not play. The so-called "death tunes" from Mark Dinning ("Teen Angel") all the way up to Bloodrock ("D.O.A.") just don't cut it (no pun intended, I assure you). Since we are non-commercial, we're not worried about ratings, "upper demographic" jargon or any of that Madison Avenue hoopla. If it sounds good, makes you feel good and if it's part of rock and roll's first quarter century, we'll play it.


To rock and roll,

Peter Q. George
WXRB-FM, Dudley, MA
http://wxrbfm.bravehost.com

 

[johnbasalla]

I heard this being done commercially, and it worked very well. The station was WELW AM in an East suburban suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The morning drive host played sets chronologically. He's start with a song from 1956, then mabye 1959, then 1962, then 1965, then 1969... up to 1980. Once playing one from the mid or late 1970s, he'd start again with something from then 1950s. Flowed very well.

 

[pqgeorge]

I heard this being done commercially, and it worked very well. The station was WELW AM in an East suburban suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. The morning drive host played sets chronologically. He's start with a song from 1956, then mabye 1959, then 1962, then 1965, then 1969... up to 1980. Once playing one from the mid or late 1970s, he'd start again with something from then 1950s. Flowed very well.

I heard that that WELW in Willoughby, OH is a great local station, very community minded and was a very good oldies station at one time. You don't find many stations like that much anymore. I wonder what they are doing now?

 

[billyg]

No doubt, there are some tunes that I will simply will not play. The so-called "death tunes" from Mark Dinning ("Teen Angel") all the way up to Bloodrock ("D.O.A.") just don't cut it (no pun intended, I assure you). .

Most death songs are depressing, like Dickey Lee's "Patches" or the horrible "Last Kiss" by Frank J. Wilson. After Pear Jam covered it, oldies stations really burned it into the ground.

(PS: your station sounds great.. nice mix of oldies)

 

[hornet61]

One Man's Cringe song is another man's Treasure. If you are a Program Director and you use this philosophy you will program a poor station.