Today’s category is…
A Song You Hate by an Artist You Love.
Here are the staff picks:
Kevin Coyne: “Honk if You Honky Tonk” – George Strait
Not even Trace Adkins would cut this.
Oh, who am I kidding? Of course he would.
But it should be beneath the stature of a legend like George Strait. His talent helped him pull of “Write This Down” and “Don’t Make Me Come Over There and Love You”, but there was no saving this one.
Leeann Ward: “Pretty Little Adriana” – Vince Gill
Anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time likely knows about my love for Vince Gill’s music and even his character. I don’t, however, love every song that he sings, which is probably why I don’t understand those super fans who love every song that their favorite artists sing. That’s certainly not the case for me.
Vince has some album tracks that I don’t like, but one single in particular that has never sat well with me is “Pretty Little Adriana.” The melody is plodding, but my bigger problem is that Vince has said that it was inspired by a missing child by the name of Adriana, but the lyrics sound like an intimately longing love song. And even if it was only very loosely inspired by a child (as fictional license might allow), I still don’t like “little” to be applied to a woman, as in “the little woman,” or in this case, “Pretty little Adriana.”
Dan Milliken: “Why’s it Feel So Long” – Keith Urban
About him sitting on the couch and calling Nicole a half-hour after she’s left for the airport ‘cause he just loves her sOooOoOoOO much. Jack Johnson would gag.
A Matter Of Time – Randy Travis
“Mama Don’t Get Dressed Up for Nothing” – Brooks & Dunn
By far my least favorite single B&D ever released. (I’m choosing to pretend Honky Tonk Stomp never existed.)
Ooh, this was a good idea for a category. Where to begin. For me, the first artists that come to mind are the ones that always used to be great, but that have gone downhill in recent years.
I [always used to] Tim McGraw, but I can’t stand “Southern Voice.” Or “Felt Good On My Lips.” Or “Me & Tennessee.” Or… Reba is another one. Always loved me some Reba, but then comes “Turn On the Radio”… Also, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a big Sara Evans fan, but I can’t stand the song “Anyway” from her new album.
I could tolerate “Honk if You Honky Tonk.” Never could stand “How ‘Bout Them Cowgirls,” though.
Great question!
I’ve never liked Martina’s “Anything and Everything” ( From Emotion) – It’s just a boring love song to me.
I definitely agree with “Honk If You’re Honkeytonk” That song is too silly. Quite a few options for this came to my mind and it ends with a toss up between Keith Urban’s “Everybody” (which I find boring and a bit too long) and Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake it For Me)”, which is just a stupid song.
Since songs I hate don’t make it to my i-Tunes, this was harder than finding a song I love from an artist I generally don’t like. I’ll go with Keith Urban’s hit from 10 years ago, “Where the Blacktop Ends”. It was more the music than the lyrics that bothered me – what a grating sound.
Others I considered:
“Chicken Fried” from ZBB
“Dirty Girl” from Terri Clark
I like almost everything George Strait has done – he has been consistantly good although seldom great. I cringe whenever I hear “The Chair” and “The Fireman”
I love tim mcgraw. but i don’t like live like you
were dying
Like most people who aren’t sentimental Hallmark addicts, I dislike Martina’s “In My Daughter’s Eyes”. “That’s What I Like About You” from Trisha Yearwood’s debut always grated on my nerves too. However, all of these pale in comparison to Reba’s abysmal “We’re So Good Together”. The ONLY good thing that song has got going for it is Reba’s powerful vocal.
“Dont Make Me Come Over There and Love You” George Strait
Love Faith Hill but still don’t really like Mississsippi Girl.
i love tim and faith. but i don’t love let make love.toby keith american ride
Paul, I like “The Chair”, but I don’t like “the Fireman” either.
tim mcgraw feel good on my lips
It’s always a lot tougher to admit there’s a song from a favorite of yours that you don’t like than to pin down a song you like from someone whose music you’d otherwise not be caught dead listening to. You really have to swallow your pride sometimes. And in my case, this one was enormously difficult:
HIGH SIERRA–Linda Ronstadt: An absolute shocker to many here, I’m sure, but it’s the hard truth. To me, Linda seems to be straining for a high, lonesome sound in her voice, something she never had to do back in the early 70s, when she did this so naturally at L.A. clubs like the Troubadour and the Palomino. The lyrics aren’t the problem by any means. I just don’t like the way Linda sings them, however; this is one of her worst vocal performances in my book, be it on Feels Like Home or Trio 2.
SheDaisy – Knock on the Sky
SheDaisy trying to rap and it just didn’t work all that well. Kind of sad too because it was the title track to a pretty underrated album
Love Faith Hill,
but I could never stand her first duet with her husband Tim McGraw (“It’s Your Love”), I much preferred “Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me” which was released a year after “It’s Your Love” became a smash hit.
“Bringing Out the Elvis” – Faith Hill
“Powerful Thing” – Trisha Yearwood
“If I Were A Boy” – Reba
“Turn on the Radio” was already mentioned, and I hate mentioning things that have already been discussed.
“Bringing Out the Elvis” is so stunningly bad it may actually be brilliant.
Trisha is my favorite and I have been trying to come up with one of hers that I don’t like but haven’t yet.
Garth, Down in Baton Rouge
Sugarland, Stuck like glue
“Callin’ Batton Rouge” could fit the song I used to hate but now love category.
“Country Girls (Shake It For Me)” by Luke Bryan
I’ve yet to encounter a single person who actually likes “Bringing Out The Elvis” – I sometimes wonder if Faith put it there as some sort of a bad joke.
“When I’m with you
I never have to feel like a sardine
In a little metal can
I’m more like a wild shark
That travels in a pink limosuine, yeah
Yeah, together with my fans”
I mean, seriously?
I like Merle Haggard but “My Own Kind Of Hat” stinks. I mean he actually sings “there’s two kinds of cherries.” I mean do we really need to be hearing a song about the hymen? And I’m not a prude. I like when the Bellamy Brothers sing about orgasms in “Just Let Your Love Flow,” when they sing “Just feel the thunder as it warms your face – you can’t hold back.” But the Bellamy Brothers song is romantic – even when it talks about a feeling that will “grab you deep inside” and you wonder if its really a “feeling” they are talking about or if its more of a male body part. But Merle Haggard just comes across as a dirty old man with a juvenile mind.
“I’m Gonna Getcha Good” is the only Shania Twain single I actively dislike. Her vocals are very low and nasal, plus the distorted guitars and that broken melody just ruin the song for me.
I haven’t really liked Kenny Chesney’s songs on radio for the past couple of years till his recent album, but “The Boys of Fall” is a song that I still can’t really grow to like. He sings better than a lot of his songs in the late 00s but I just think ‘why should I feel that sorry for jockey football players who thought they ruled the school?’
“Hillbilly Deluxe” by Brooks & Dunn. I like a lot of their music, especially the earlier stuff, but this song, along with a few more of their later songs, was just not great. I’m not a big fan of these redneck, hillbilly, pickup truck songs from anyone.
The worst song in Gary Allan’s catalog in my opinion is “Wrecking Ball.” It’s so cliched and shallow and subpar, I’d love to ask him “What the hell were you thinking when you picked that song?” I totally agreed with the Billboard magazine review that said it was too weak for even Big & Rich to touch.
I like “Honk if You Honky Tonk” but I found George Strait’s “You’ll Be There” too saccharin for my tastes.
As much as I love most anything LeeAnn Womack touches, just about every song on her Something Worth Leaving Behind album is so adult contemporary pop I think it’s by far her weakest album. Although I give her credit, it’s not as bad as Faith Hill’s Cry album, that was awful by even pop standards.
I too never caught the love for Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying.” don’t hate it per se but not a favorite by any means.
Carrie Underwood- “I Told You So.”
I love almost everything Carrie has recorded, but I almost never listen to her version of this song. I actually adore most of her live performances of this song, but the studio voice does nothing for her- the arrangement is boring, her vocal is stripped of all character & it’s a darn shame.
Toby Keith “Get out of My Car.”
This is one instance when allegations of misogny would be totally justified. [Possibly the only instance, though Lord knows Slant Magazine slings them at Toby like a monkey will its feces.]
Not only is it a terible song, but it is completely out of place on ‘Bullets in the Gun.’ I can’t imagine the protagonists of any of the other tracks seriously saying the title phrase to anybody. My bafflement is multiplied by Toby’s telling GAC that he’d written dozens of potential songs for the album. The tenth one he ended up choosing was a stinker through and through.
OK, I’ve got a rock one and a country one:
Rock:
Lover’s Rock by The Clash. Erghhh….that falsetto…….
Country:
Country Boy by Alan Jackson. He just sounds like a stalker in this song.
I can agree with Stephanie. Mississippi Girl is quite mediocre