MetaChat - The 100 Worst Cover Songs post got me thinking

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25 June 2007

The 100 Worst Cover Songs post got me thinking about something that has been on my mind lately. What songs written in seriousness, just crack you up?

post by: arse_hat at: 23:48 | 21 comments

Some of mine.

Live - I Alone Love You

Live - Lightning Crashes

Paul Simon - Mother And Child Reunion

Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto

And this classic:
Richard Harris - MacArthur Park

I love Richard Harris as an actor but dude, 1968 must have brought you some fine, fine, drugs. Almost anything from Live makes me a laugh like a school girl.

posted by arse_hat 25 June | 23:49

"MacArthur Park" was the first song I thought of. As Dave Barry said when he named it the Worst Song in his Bad Song Survey in 1993:
"It's hard to argue with this selection. My 12-year-old son, Rob, was going through a pile of ballots, and he asked me how 'MacArthur Park' goes, so I sang it, giving it my best shot, and Rob laughed so hard that when I got to the part about leaving the cake out in the rain, and it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again, Rob was on the floor. He didn't BELIEVE those lyrics were real. He was SURE his wacky old humor-columnist dad was making them up."

Also, "Loving You" by Minnie Ripperton.

posted by sisterhavana 26 June | 01:23

Everyone knows... when it comes to bad music, I'm profoundly loyal to Wing. And she does a kickass awful version of In the Ghetto, btw.

Loving You gets me every time, by the way. Did you know it was written for Maya Rudolph of SNL?

posted by miss lynnster 26 June | 01:33

Pretty much anything written and performed by Bon Jovi cracks me up. Those tunes sound themselves like South Park parodies of 80s power ballads.

posted by psmealey 26 June | 05:07

What songs written in seriousness, just crack you up?

MacArthur Park

posted by chuckdarwin 26 June | 05:26

Sexy Back. Are you kidding me?

posted by mike9322 26 June | 07:06

Song Sung Blue
Ode to Billie Joe
Hey, Joe ('shot her down, y'all! I shot her!')
Time (Alan Parsons Project)

posted by Miko 26 June | 07:43

I had an Israeli friend who knew the lyrics to every song, would sing along to the radio or just about any CD someone would put on, and he played what he called the "Glove Jews" song, replacing "love" with "glove" and "you" with "Jews."

"I Will Always Glove Jews"
"I Just Called to Say I Glove Jews"
"Is This Glove?"
"La La Glove Jews"

The list goes on, and no, it's not that funny, except it was hilarious in Israel in 1995, and he was a terrific singer.

posted by Hugh Janus 26 June | 08:21

Cats in the Cradle and Taxi make me laugh every time. Rush's Trees is so ridiculous it's funny. And Miko, good call on Song Sung Blue. I haven't thought about that one in years, but it was always pretty damn funny to me. But I think that MacArthur Park is pretty much the apex of unintentionally funny songs.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 26 June | 08:31

Also, Simon & G's "Cloudy" cracks me up.

posted by Hugh Janus 26 June | 08:35

Blues standard Red House has the greatest punchline in all of rock/blues:

"I'm gonna go back over yonder,
Way back across the hill.
Cause if my baby won't love me no more...
I know...
Her sister will."

posted by psmealey 26 June | 09:02

Honey recorded by Bobby Goldsboro (she wrecked the car and she was sad and so afraid i'd be mad but what the heck). Hilarity always ensues.

posted by crush-onastick 26 June | 09:29

Agree with anything by Rush, will add The Who to that:

If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat

I mean, come on.

posted by mrmoonpie 26 June | 10:56

I have no idea how Bernie Taupin became a successful lyricist. Case in point:
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did

What? If you did...what? If you raised your kids? Then why would you need someone else there to raise them?

How do you make millions torturing words like that?

posted by jrossi4r 26 June | 11:15

jrossi, most people don't know this, but the original lyrics were:

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
'cuz there ain't no one for to give you no pain.

posted by taz 26 June | 11:38

Hey, Joe ('shot her down, y'all! I shot her!')

The trick with Hey Joe is to pretend that Hendrix isn't singing English and to be completely oblivious to the words. Then you can concentrate on that world-ending bassline and Hendrix doing what Hendrix did best.

posted by jokeefe 26 June | 12:26

Oh, and if you haven't heard Gilbert O'Sullivan's Claire yet, you'll find it gives all of them a run for their money, and maxes out on the "creepy" scale, too. Oh look! It's on You Tube! Yay! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27FP0GTlkWA

posted by jokeefe 26 June | 12:28

jokeefe: I'm a guitar player, and it's actually one of my party pieces to play Hey Joe and sing it with great, unintelligble passion. Shot her down, y'all.

psmealey: Some variation on she won't/but her sister will is an ancient standard blues/trad trope. It shows up in an incredible number of verses to an amazing variety of songs, including some sea chanteys.

posted by Miko 26 June | 14:21

Honey recorded by Bobby Goldsboro

I saw Steve Martin (while he was still opening for bands) cover this.

See this tree how big it's grown
You never know how much (don't remember)
But what the heck.

She laughed at me
I squashed her dog
We planted it
The angels came
But what the heck. . .

posted by danf 26 June | 14:26

some variation on she won't/but her sister will is an ancient standard blues/trad trope.

I can't believe I just outed myself as a blues dilettante. Ah well, Miko, I know if you won't buy my authenticity...

I know...

Your sister will.

posted by psmealey 26 June | 17:56

Taz, that made me giggle. (True confession: I own an America album. I love me some "Sister Golden Hair" and I don't care who knows it!)

posted by jrossi4r 26 June | 22:23

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