Old songs you love to hate

Every now and then you hear a song on the radio that makes you cringe. You're embarrassed that you know every word, and you think to yourself, "How did a song like this ever become popular?"

It might be fate or mass hysteria, but now and then songs just catch on, and years later they just don't sound as good. Each decade has its moments of weakness, like Achy Breaky Heart or Mambo No. 5, but the 1960s are a goldmine of hits that could have easily been misses.

The best example is a seven-minute epic called "MacArthur Park." The song was written by famed country songwriter Jimmy Webb for a vocal group called The Association. They passed on the opportunity, and the actor Richard Harris -- of "Camelot" fame -- picked it up. Harris was far from a rock star at the time, and the song about leaving the cake in the rain made little sense to people, but something about it clicked. It reached No. 2 on the radio charts in June of 1968. Disco fans might also remember Donna Summer's snappy version in the late 1970s. You might not like it -- in fact, it was voted among the worst songs of the 1960's -- but if it comes on the radio, you will know almost every word.

That same year, Herbert Khaury, a street performer from New York City, pulled out a ukulele and sang "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as Tiny Tim. It was a big hit for Tiny Tim, who apparently died of a heart attack in 1996 while performing the same song. If you remember it, you probably hated this song, but you could also find yourself softly singing along in the privacy of your car.

One song to which you may not know the words but could still sing along with is "Dominique," a No. 1 hit from 1963 sung by a Belgian named Sister Luc-Gabrielle, or The Singing Nun. Even though it was sung completely in French, the song became a hit and prevented the classic song "Louie, Louie" from reaching No. 1.

Lyrics were clearly not the lure on "Sukiyaki" either. The 1963 song by Kyu Sakamoto is sung in Japanese. According to Billboard Magazine, the song's original title was "Ue O Muite Aruko (I Look Up When I Walk)." Record producers changed the name to Sukiyaki, a title easier to pronounce but totally unrelated to the song. We have no idea what it means, but we still know the words -- sort of.

When I think of bad songs I couldn't get out of my head, the song "Spill the Wine" comes to mind. Like it or not, I heard it every 20 minutes on AM radio during the summer of 1970. It wasn't the worst song on the radio that summer, though. That distinction goes to a band called The Pipkins and a weird song called "Gimme Dat Ding." The song's popularity defies explanation.

My personal torment is a song that begins with "Breaker 1-9, this here's Rubber Duck." I simply hate this song but could sing it blind in a karaoke bar. As a country music DJ in the mid-1970s, the song couldn't be avoided. It played over and over and over again on the Top 40 station between Crystal Gayle and Tanya Tucker.

So, how about you? Is there a song you know too well and hate too much? If so, drop me an email at flipside@tx.rr.com, and we will revisit our history of bad music later this summer. Until then, let those truckers roll 10-4.

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