Songs Their Own Bands Can't Stand

Hits so big the people who made them started flinching at the first chord.

Entries
12
Category
Music
Updated
  1. A Swedish recording studio at dawn with a fiddle on a chair and crumpled lyric sheets around a cold coffee cup.

    12. Dum Dum Diddle

    ABBA · 1976

    Björn says he'd been up all night failing at a lyric and brought this in just to prove he'd been working, expecting the others to reject it. They didn't. Both he and Frida have voiced dislike of it since. ABBA put it on 'Arrival,' next to 'Dancing Queen.'

  2. A smoldering campfire in a Tennessee field at night with a tour van parked nearby.

    11. Sex on Fire

    Kings of Leon · 2008

    Caleb Followill laughed when he first sang the hook, thought it was terrible and didn't want it on the album, because nobody would hear the rest. It became their biggest hit. He's since said he loves it, which makes this the list's only hate story with a happy ending.

  3. A supermarket meat counter decorated with tinsel and a small speaker hanging overhead.

    10. Do They Know It's Christmas?

    Band Aid · 1984

    Bob Geldof co-wrote it and has called it one of the two worst songs in history, griping that he can't visit a supermarket meat counter at Christmas without hearing it. It raised a fortune for famine relief. He's allowed to hate it on his own time.

  4. A dusty country road at dusk with a motorcycle parked by a broken fence.

    09. Run for Your Life

    The Beatles · 1965

    John Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1970 it was one he always hated, and later called it a throwaway he never thought much of, which was George's favorite. It opens with a line borrowed from Elvis, and its jealous threat has aged the worst of anything on Rubber Soul.

  5. A guitar shop wall of hanging electric guitars with one single-cut electric guitar spotlit and an empty stool beneath it.

    08. Sweet Child o' Mine

    Guns N' Roses · 1987

    Slash in 1990: it turned into a huge hit and now it makes me sick; he likes it, he just hates what it represents. The riff came out of goofing around at the band's house. It became the unofficial anthem of every guitar shop on earth, so he had a point.

  6. An acoustic guitar leaning against a painted brick wall, a single picture frame hung on it, empty.

    07. Wonderwall

    Oasis · 1995

    Liam told MTV News that every time he has to sing it he wants to gag; Noel, who wrote it, has said he doesn't particularly like it either. The one thing the Gallagher brothers have ever agreed on, and it's still every acoustic guitar's first song.

  7. A city skyline made of stacked cassette tapes and guitar amplifiers under a 1980s sunset.

    06. We Built This City

    Starship · 1985

    Grace Slick, who sang on it, said her reaction to the song was that it was the worst song ever, and decades of critics agreed. Mickey Thomas still defends it, asking whether Slick would really sing something she hated. Yes, Mickey. That's the whole list.

  8. A trashed suburban living room after a party with a pie on the ceiling and a boombox on the couch.

    05. (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)

    Beastie Boys · 1986

    Written as a parody of dumb frat-boy party anthems and adopted, instantly, as a dumb frat-boy party anthem. The Beasties spent decades regretting the crowd it drew. Satire's eternal problem: the target can't tell it's the target.

  9. A high school gym with a flipped bleacher, a drum kit and a can of deodorant rolling across the floor.

    04. Smells Like Teen Spirit

    Nirvana · 1991

    Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone in 1994 it was almost an embarrassment to play, pounded into people's brains by MTV, and that he'd written songs as good or better. He was right about the other songs. It is still, unfortunately for him, the song.

  10. A spiral staircase rising into clouds with a tiered wedding cake blocking the bottom step.

    03. Stairway to Heaven

    Led Zeppelin · 1971

    Robert Plant called it 'that bloody wedding song' in 1988 and said singing it every night would give him hives. He reportedly pledged money to a Portland radio station on the condition it stop playing it. Eight minutes of mysticism, reduced to a first-dance problem.

  11. An empty festival stage at night with a set list taped to the floor and one song scratched out.

    02. Creep

    Radiohead · 1992

    Thom Yorke has called it crap, and for years the band refused crowds chanting for it. Jonny Greenwood said touring it felt like living the same four and a half minutes over and over. The breakthrough they spent a whole career outrunning, mostly successfully.

  12. A sunny town square full of cheerful balloons with one balloon tied to a locked attic window.

    01. Shiny Happy People

    R.E.M. · 1991

    Michael Stipe told Space Ghost in 1995 he hated it, later called it a fruity bubblegum song and said its success was embarrassing, and R.E.M. left it off their 2003 greatest hits. A US No. 10 with Kate Pierson on board, kept in the attic like a sweater from an aunt.

Honorable mentions

  • An object that evokes Shiny Happy People (the Mike Mills rebuttal).

    Shiny Happy People (the Mike Mills rebuttal)

    R.E.M. · 1991

    Bassist Mike Mills later said it's a great song, he's proud of it and the band doesn't hate it. Every list needs a dissent, and R.E.M. was always a democracy.

Dishonorable mentions

  • An object that evokes We Are the World.

    We Are the World

    USA for Africa · 1985

    Geldof named it as the other of his two worst songs in history. He didn't write it. Hating songs on behalf of other people is a level of commitment we can only admire.

Every list.
On tap.

No newsletter. Point your AI at our public MCP server, or follow the RSS feed. New lists show up in both.

Get the MCP RSS