Most annoying song, period.

Ok, 16f4 wins for a moment (and we all lose). 1-877-KARS...must be the ultimate parasite of a song but it has been done so well that it crossed into the art.

For anyone annoyed by Seasons in the Sun (by Terry Jacks, I suppose), try Le moribond by Jacques Brel. The same song that Brel actually wrote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h02pNUKInBo

But Joe Queenan may have said it best:


“For years, I'd been vaguely aware of Michael Bolton's existence, just as I'd been vaguely aware that there was an ebola virus plague in Africa. Horrible tragedies, yes, but they had nothing to do with me. All that changed when I purchased a copy of The Classics. When you work up the gumption to put a record like The Classics on your CD player, it's not much different from deliberately inoculating yourself with rabies. With his heart-on-my-sleeve appeals to every emotion no decent human being should even dream of possessing, Michael Bolton is the only person in history who has figured out a way to make "Yesterday" sound worse than the original. He's Mandy Patinkin squared. His sacrilegious version of Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me" is a premeditated act of cultural ghoulism, a crime of musical genocide tantamount to a Jerry Vale rerecording of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" And having to sit there, and listen while this Kmart Joe Cocker mutilates "You Send Me" is like sitting through a performance of King Lear with Don Knotts in the title role. Which leads to the inevitable question: If it's a crime to deface the Statue of Liberty or to spraypaint swastikas on Mount Rushmore or to burn the American flag, why isn't it a crime for Michael Bolton to butcher Irving Berlin's "White Christmas"?”

Wow!

almarg: "I always thought of "Surfin’ Bird" as a satire, and found it to be kind of funny in a likable sort of way. Although I don’t know how serious or satirical it was intended to be."


Hello Al,

     I’ve always thought the same about "Surfin’ Bird" by the Trashmen being a satire.  I love that song but always thought the words were "Bird, bird, bird, bird is a whale" until I discovered he was actually singing "Bird, bird, bird, bird is the word".
     It’s a fairly common sight when surfing with whales around. From a distance when paddling out, a seagull standing on a surfaced whale looks like the bird’s standing on the water. I like my version of the lyrics better, which are almost as cool as this old classic video of the Trashmen performing the song live:

ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gc4QTqslN4

     Speaking of cool, here’s another newer video classic of Christopher Walken dancing cool to Fat Boy Slim’s "Weapon of Choice":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDIYvFmgW8

Tim

Ignoring obvious earworms like Disney's "It's a Small World" that need a good week to get out of your head, lots of truly annoying songs are relics of the best-forgotten Disco era. Others should appear on a "never-play-any-of-these-songs-ever-again" list signed under penalty of death by every DJ hired for a wedding or other function. (And of course, some of the very worst fit into both categories!)

For example, here are a few songs I'd be happy to never hear again:

• 'Celebration' - Kool & the Gang
• 'We Are Family' - Sister Sledge
• 'Love Shack' - B52's
• 'YMCA' - Village People
• 'Macarena' - Los Del Rio
• 'Brick House' - The Commodores
• 'Electric Slide' - Marcia Griffiths

And my all-time favorite: 'The Time of My Life' by Jennifer Warnes & Bill Medley -- a hugely overplayed song that's expanded from weddings to TV commercials, where it easily crosses that fine line between 'memorable' and 'annoying'...