You may not believe this but there are singers who hate their songs. We’re talking songs that gave them fame, money, and touring success. Fans love the hit, but the artist can get tired of it.
More often than not, the singer gets tired of singing the same track, and only does so due to popular demand.
Some bands are not actually in the business for the money or fame either. Going mainstream means sacrificing the freedom of being a creative artist for the wants of a bigshot telling them what to do.
It’s time to meet some of those artists.
Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”
“Stairway to Heaven,” has to be the band’s most well-known song, and it could be the reason why they put off the whole reunion tour gig for as long as they could.
However, lead guitarist Jimmy Page calls this song “the essence of the band.”
But lead singer Robert Plant despises it, saying, “I’d break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show.”
Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
This song was the first single off the band’s second album, Nevermind, launching them into stardom.
It is called “the anthem for Generation X,” but lead singer Kurt Cobain soon became embarrassed to perform this song live.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Cobain said, “Everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times.”
“It’s been pounded into their brains.” he continued, “But I can barely, especially on a bad night like tonight, get through ‘Teen Spirit.’ I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away. I can’t pretend to have a good time playing it.”
The Who, “Pinball Wizard”
This was one of The Who’s most successful songs on the critically acclaimed rock opera Tommy.
Guitarist Pete Townshend wrote the tune to get a positive review from music critic Nik Cohn, a big fan of pinball.
Describing the process of writing the song, he said, “I knocked it off. I thought, ‘Oh, my God this is awful, the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done.”
Townshend continued, “I scribbled it out and all the verses were the same length and there was no kind of middle eight. It was going to be a complete dud, but I carried on.”
Neil Young, “Heart of Gold”
This was Neil Young’s only single to hit No.1 in the US, though the Grandfather of Grunge thought this song was a “bore.”
In the liner notes of Young’s compilation album Decades, he wrote, “This song put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch.”
Beastie Boys, “Fight for Your Right to Party”
“Fight for Your Right to Party” was the song that introduced the Beastie Boys to the world, thanks in part to MTV.
The song got on their nerves.
In the liner notes of their greatest hits album, The Sounds of Science, the Beastie Boys wrote that they think the song “sucks.”
It’s a song that became an ’80s party anthem, but it was written with irony in mind.
“The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different,” Mike D said. “There were tons of guys singing along to [‘Fight for Your Right’] who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them. Irony is oft missed.”
Radiohead, “Creep”
Radiohead often refers to this song as “crap”.
To think that this is the song that pushed them into the mainstream.
In fact, the band dropped “Creep” from their concert setlists soon after.
An audience member once asked to hear the song, and the response from Yorke was, “F**k off, we’re tired of it.”
John Lennon, Every Beatles Song
The Beatles had many hits, but John Lennon wasn’t really happy with any of them.
In a 1980 interview with Playboy, he said, “I’m dissatisfied with every record the Beatles ever f*cking made. There ain’t one of them I wouldn’t remake… including all the Beatles records and all my individual ones.”
He continued, “I heard ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ on the radio last night. It’s abysmal, you know. The track is just terrible.”
Madonna, “Like a Virgin” and “Holiday”
Everyone’s beloved Material Girl is tired of having to sing “Like a Virgin” and “Holiday.”
If anyone wants to hear those songs, they’ll have to cough up big bucks.
During an interview with New York radio station Z100-FM, she said, “I just can’t – unless somebody paid me like $30 million or something. [Like if] some Russian guy wants me to come to the wedding he’s going to have to a 17 year old, you know it.”
Miley Cyrus, “Party in the U.S.A.” and “Wrecking Ball”
Before Miley Cyrus sang and gyrated to “Wrecking Ball”, she was still very much in the shadow of her Hannah Montana persona.
“Party in the U.S.A.,” is a sugar-coated pop song, the first hit that Cyrus appreciates but has outgrown.
In an interview with V Magazine, she said, “I can never say that I don’t love ‘Party in the U.S.A.’ and that I’m not appreciative of it. It would be like my dad saying that he hated ‘Achy Breaky.’ It’s what gives you everything that you have. I would never take it back. But that’s not who I am, that’s not where I want to sing, that’s not what I want to sing, and that’s not what I want my voice to sound like, because you can’t hear me through there.”
And in 2017 Cyrus told the Zach Sang Show, during a round of F*ck, Marry, Kill, that she’d kill the song:
“That’s something you can’t take away, swinging around naked on a wrecking ball lives forever,” she explained. “I’m never living that down I will always be the naked girl on a wrecking ball…I should’ve thought [about] how long that was going to follow me around. That’s my worst nightmare…is that being played at my funeral.”
Lady Gaga, “Telephone”
Not only did Gaga not like her hit “Telephone,” but she also disliked the music video which featured Beyoncé.
In an interview with Time Out London, she said, “I can’t even watch the ‘Telephone’ video, I hate it so much.”
Asked what she considers her worst song by Popjustice, Lady Gaga said, “I hate ‘Telephone’. Is that terrible to say? It’s the song I have the most difficult time listening to.”
Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
Made famous by the 1985 John Hughes film “The Breakfast Club”, this song was Simple Minds’s only No. 1 hit song in the United States.
But Simple Minds did not like the fact that the song was written by someone else.
The song was a dramatic shift from the band’s own material.
It was their record company that talked them into making a song they “hated.”
Despite its success, Simple Minds did not put this song on any of their albums until 1992, releasing the compilation Glittering Prize 81/92.
Lorde, “Royals”
Lorde’s breakthrough song was “disastrous” according to her.
The New Zealand native explained her hatred of her hit song in an interview with Scotland’s The Daily Record: “I listen to people covering the song and putting their own spin on it—and I listen to it in every single form except the original one I put out—and I realize that actually it sounds horrible.”
Lorde continued, “It sounds like a ringtone from a 2006 Nokia. None of the melodies are cool or good. It’s disastrous. Awful… but for the same reason, in the context of the way I released it, it just worked out.”
Frank Sinatra, “New York, New York,” “My Way,” and “Strangers in the Night”
Frank Sinatra’s long, successful career seemed to have made him tire of the songs that made him famous.
A member of the Friars Club claimed that Sinatra got upset when “New York, New York” played as he walked to the podium during a dinner meant to honor Elizabeth Taylor.
He reportedly yelled, “Don’t ever play that song again! I had enough of ‘My Way,’ which was a pain in the ass, and I don’t want this one to become a pain in the ass!”
Sinatra’s widow Barbara claimed that the song he despised most was “Strangers in the Night.”
He was said to call it a “piece of sh*t” and “the worst f*cking song I’ve ever heard.”
R.E.M., “Shiny Happy People”
This is one of R.E.M.’s biggest hits but Michael Stipe, the lead singer, doesn’t really like it.
He said, “I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed by the song but it is what it is, has limited appeal for me.”
But Stipe did refuse to put the song down, saying, “I never bad-mouth. I try never to say anything bad about the songs that I don’t particularly like. Because there might be someone out there who hears that to whom that song means everything, to whom that song represents something in their life which is essential and I don’t want to take that from them.”
Oasis, “Wonderwall”
Written by Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, “Wonderwall” topped the charts, but Liam Gallagher, Oasis’s lead singer and Noel’s brother, told WENN how much he hates the song. “I can’t f*cking stand that f*cking song! Every time I have to sing it I want to gag.”
“Problem is, it was a big, big tune for us. You go to America and they’re like: ‘Are you Mr Wonderwall?’ You want to chin someone.”
James Blunt, “You’re Beautiful”
Blunt’s biggest single was everywhere in 2005.
“You’re Beautiful” was a global hit that sold millions. The British singer grew tired of the song immediately since it was overplayed.
He told Hello!, “There was one song that was force-fed down people’s throats – ‘You’re Beautiful’ – and it became annoying. And then people start to associate the artist with the same word.”
TLC, “Creep”
“Creep” was a No. 1 hit and a Grammy winner but Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes hated the song because of the narrative.
The song is about a woman who finds out that her man is cheating on her, so she gets revenge by cheating back.
Left Eye stated, “If a girl is going catch her man cheating…instead of telling her to cheat back, why don’t we just tell her to leave?”
She planned to wear black tape over her mouth in the video but decided against it.
Warrant, “Cherry Pie”
Glam-rock band Warrant is known for this hilarious rock song.
Lead singer Jani Lane got tired of his entire life revolving around it though.
“I hate that song. I had no intention of writing that song … And my legacy is ‘Cherry Pie,’ everything about me is ‘Cherry Pie,’ I’m the ‘Cherry Pie’ guy. I could shoot myself in the f*cking head for writing that song.”
He passed away in 2011 from acute alcohol poisoning.
Lane’s upcoming biopic is currently titled Cherry Pie Guy.
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