"Most hated songs from your formative years." Topic

We all know the songs we loved from the Good Old Days.
But what about the ones you couldn't stand. The ones that made you change the channel on your transistor radio!
No other criterion than that. It would be nice to give your reasons, but not necessary. Up to you.
Is there a really disgusting sappy love song that shivers your timbers? Post it!
Can't stand his/her voice? Your ex-girlfriend loved it, but you hated it? 👍
All reasons are valid, so please give them.

"The night the lights went out in Georgia". Dumb story, horrible fake accent.

"Signs". "I'm better than you are, you dumb jerk!"

"One Tin Soldier". Same as above. The self righteousness is top tier. I hope the band was screwed by the record company.

"Little Boxes". I'm sensing a trend here? I always thought that Pete Seeger was a sanctimonious hypocrite. ("This is folk music! It's good for you!") By the way, he also stole "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from a Black man in South Africa. Look it up. Here's the clip.
YouTube link

If this takes off, let's refrain from "Hey! That's a really good song!" But, if you feel you must, go ahead. I'm not going to try to police this. 😄

One comes quickly to mind. Overplayed, sappy as hell, a 🤮🤮🤮🤮 on the vomit meter

Honey (I Miss You)

Two by John Lennon:

Imagine- I can imagine every version of it gone, like the library of Alexandria.

Happy Christmas – what a depressing Christmas.

Oh, and for Pete Seeger ripping off Solomon Linda…
link
I also disliked The Weavers. All of their songs wanted to shove The Message down your throat. Or in your ears.
Folk Music is good for you! It's amazing that they didn't turn me off to Folk Music entirely. In that they failed.

Any and all "Children are Starving Somewhere" songs where the singers graciously only take half of their usual fees for performing. And we must anoint them with holy oils for that.
To give it a name:
"We are the World".

I was a DJ way back when. One to many all Beatles weekend…

My special place in hell has Imagine playing 24/7.

My goodness you're in a grumpy mood today – although I am with you on Little Boxes, a horrible patronising song.

Okie from Muskogee
Stand by your man
Jolene
Coward of the county
I walk the line

There's a bit of a pattern here….

Islands in the stream
I'll do anything for love
Sweet child of mine

Unchained Melody. All other bad music--even "Imagine" and "Seasons in the Sun"--stands when "Unchained" enters the room.

I'd concede that "Little Boxes" deserves some sort of (dis)honorable mention, though. Burl Ives shouting--"stay in the slums, you peasants! No escape for you!" (Incidentally, if you want to hear the same ideology done right, listen to The Limeliters singing "Charlie the Midnight Marauder." Propaganda for a bad cause can still be good art.)

the green berets

this link 'My Old Man's A Dustman' greeted me back from Kenya not what I wanted to hear.

x42

I'm not sure about the title but Billy Jo McAllister jumping off a Tallahassee bridge.

In retrospect as a junior high school student I thought the early Beatles ‘I want to hold your hand' and ‘She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah' were great. They are/were not.

Some context on Little Boxes.
It's a slap at all the Levittowns in the country. The ones built for GIs returning from the War. They were … affordable! And thus built to a plan.
Yes. "Crawl back to the slums ye came from! You don't deserve any better!"

I first heard it on the Smothers Brothers show, sung by some insufferable hippie chick, glowing in self congratulation. I'm not sure if it was Joni Mitchell or not. 🤷
They were the comedy version of the Weavers. Folk Music is good for you!

Almost all Conway Twitty songs. My ex loved him. Me, not so much
Tight Fitting Jeans
You've Never Been this Far Before

I am with you that "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" became nails on a chalkboard for me too

Love Shack – never liked it
One Tin Soldier – too sanctimonious
Ditto for Imagine
The Ontario Provincial Anthem – which we had to sing for the brief time I was in Ontario as a kid – too sing-song and hated the lyrics
Shannon – no disrespect for dog owners who loves their dog so much?
Too many sappy Christmas songs to list

I must be younger than you guys. Mine are all from the disco era with Funky Town by Lipps Inc topping my list of "can't stand it" songs. Closely followed by Brick House, Disco Duck, and Pop Music.

I was in my Beethoven / Wagner phase right around the start of the 70s, so thankfully missed most of the junk.

@McKinstry
That would be "Ode to Billy Joe".
I can't disagree.

I can listen to most things, some stuff I tolerate. But two bands annoy me intensely. My sister played Abba, plus it was everywhere in the 70s. Hate it with a passion.

My mother used to play the Carpenters. Hate it slightly less than Abba.

My father played Jim Reeves when he was in his car by himself. I appreciate his tact.

Any Michael Jackson or Madonna song. Culture Clubs "Do you really want to hurt me", answer: yes after hearing that song hundred times!!!!

Most of my stuff was 70's and 80's stuff; More 80's than 70's because even in the 70's I realized that the music of that decade pretty much sucked like a drunk prom date.

For me it was pretty much anything "70's disco oriented", ("Physical" by ONJ, Anything by Donna Summer, or the Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine Band, etc.) Because I didn't get into it, I found myself liking Classical, Big Band, and 50's doo wop.

In the 80's I would say that the song "Alone" by Heart made me sad/angry at the time, and then I realized that most songs by Heart made me want to eat a sidearm because it basically said that "All my relationship problems were my fault. Even when it was her fault, it was still "my fault".)

Heart was doing this way long before Taylor Swift cashed in on "Breakup relationship ex bf songs".

Stuff by Madonna…no thanks.

Most 80's music was good I believe. True there were some real stinkers out there, ("Dog Police", "Anything by the Beastie Boys" Culture Club, etc.)
But by the time I had gotten to Europe I was swinging into metal bands.

90's music and up is pretty much awful. Autotune ruined it for the music industry.
"Jagged Little Pill" and anything else by Alannis Morissette stands out.

I rarely listen to "new stuff" anymore. listening now to classical, big band, swing, and a lot of soundtrack/ambience music as well as Celtic.

Oh and for country, I'd have to say the song "Strawberry wine" in the late 90's made me want to puke. The western town I worked at had the country station on in their office and shops and it was guaranteed to be heard about every 20 odd minutes per set.

I guess I am a grumpy old man….

@Frederick – Love Shack is what we cool kids call "a banger"!

I always hated Michael Jackson's "Ben", even more so when I realised it was a love song to a rat…

The Frog Chorus
Ebony & Ivory
Pipes of Peace
…can you believe this guy was once a Beatle…

@Murphy – Staying Alive is what we cool kids call "a banger"!

When I had a summer job in college, one of the labs I worked in had very poor radio reception. It could only get one station.
It played "The number One Song every hour, on the hour!" Real programming genius there! 🙄
It was Rod Stewart "Maggie Mae". Enough said.

Geez, and I thought I was a grumpy old guy! Some people here, naming no names, make me look absolutely cheerful! How is that possible???

And how could I have forgotten? The theme song of the pro-Communist left in the late 60's and early 70's. "Get Together" by the Youngbloods. Somehow the love of the "celebrating difference" crowd never actually extends to people who are actually, you know, different. Or want to go their own way.

Generation Midwich--I think they're called "Z" these days--has roots going back to the dullest, least imaginative and loudest of the Boomers.

I may need to break out Tom Lehrer tonight--at least long enough to play "Folk Song Army."

("The courage it takes to stand up and be against things that everyone else is for--like poverty, war and injustice.")

Fly Like and Eagle by the otherwise fantastic Steve Miller is one notable song that I just can't stand. I tend to be pretty open to most older music. More recent stuff rarely makes it within earshot of me.

MacArthur Park, by Richard Harris. Accept no substitutes!

I wonder how many yoots this song discouraged from taking LSD?

Oh, not MacArthur Park! Horrors. Somebody left their cake out. IN THE RAIN!!! Noooooooooooooooooooo. I had forgotten that awful mess until YOU had to bring it up. Thanks much.

So I had never heard of "Little Boxes". Of course I had to find it on YouTube and take a listen. Man that IS turrible to quote Sir Charles.

+1 Grattan54. (My buddy, a radio DJ in high school, made me a cassette tape for my car, done as if it was an actual radio station with lead ins, fake news stories, and ads for non-existent products (one was Weird Al's "Spatula City" ad). At one point he announced Culture Club, started the song, and then immediately broke in with "That song sucks," made a insult targeting Boy George, and then played another song. I got a kick out of playing this tape while driving around with unsuspecting friends. One of my college pals heard the Culture Club bit (he actually like the band) and was aghast— "I can't believe they did that on the air!" I laughed and revealed it was a tape.

I think The Doors are over-rated. Atonal, acid-head garbage. Jim Morrison a poet? Absurd.

I Shot the Sheriff may be one of the most overblown, obnoxious, repetitive piece-o-crap songs I've ever heard.

Hungry Like a Wolf by Duran Duran made me want to shoot the radio.
So did A View to a Kill, possibly the worst Bond theme song ever foisted on movie-going audiences (and every one else who lived through that summer).

Anything by Joan Baez. (Or however it's spelled. Couldn't really care.)

"Born in the USA"— whiny, repetitive and self-righteous, not to mention ignorant as hell.
Don't belittle the lives of hardworking people while you rake in dough for doing nothing more than scream into a microphone while banging the same chords over and over on a guitar. What a hypocrite. Complete poser.

And I can go on, but I won't.

Imagine , Hands down

The one that came to mind was "Rockin' Robin" by the Jackson Five (actually Michael solo). I found it the stupidest song at the time. Just listened to it on Youtube and found it to be sorta OK.

Now "MacArthur Park" is still terrible.

I turn off the radio when BOC's "Don't fear the reaper" comes on; It's a depressing song. It should followed or interrupted by a Suicide Prevention Hotline PSA…