What was the most annoying song you had to play on the radio?

[marsneedsscoop]

There are two types of schlock that usually come up when people discuss worst/least favorite songs. Bopper/novelty/reaction/bubble-gum shlock--which I personally kinda like. (No problems with "Long Tall Glasses" or Foxy/"Get Off" here.) Then there's ballad schlock, and I'm right there with those of you who cite "Mandy," or the like. I'm a big believer in the evil of banality.

There are a lot of candidates for my least favorite record. The worst is probably Charlene/"I've Never Been To Me." (Corny and sappy and sexist and came out twice and became a hit at the end of a tailspin for CHR.

But I never had to play that one.

I did, however, have to play the attempted follow-up, "Used To Be," by Charlene & Stevie Wonder at the Urban station where I did P/T on Saturday nights in 1983. Even sappier. Even more dreadful. But Stevie was on it, so some R&B stations played it.

If you've never heard it, think of Tom Clay's equally sappy "What The World Needs Now" a decade later -- a litany of the world's troubles that opens with "Superman was killed in Dallas/there's no love left in the palace/someone stole the Beatles' lead guitar." Goes on with Stevie and Charlene swapping lines: "Let's cut a class"/"I've got some grass." Big poignant finish is "I believe that love can set us free/Someone tried to say that/and we nailed him to a cross/so I guess it's how it used to be."

And my station didn't daypart, so I was playing this on Saturday night in between "1999" and "Atomic Dog."

[Tom Wells]

That thoughtful response leads to the question, how exactly is it that we distinguish shlock?
Maybe it even deserves a thread somewhere in programming..


I agree that I like the quirky shlock, but not the banal, unless it has that certain "je ne sais quack" to it.

I didn't say Get Off bothered me, just that I had expected it to show up.

Hey! how about that " Heartbeat it's a love beat" by the Di Franco family!

I have always held special contempt for vocalists whose method involves groaning and wailing as though impaled on a fence, with
little outcome melodically, the "ballad shlock".

[Kennesawnative]

Working at KGMZ in Hawaii...Archie Bell and the Drells.  The song, "Tighten Up."  At that moment I realized I wasent cut out for oldies.

[waynewatkins]

Come on now, tighten up on that comment...Kennesaw, tighten up on that oldie...come on now tighten up on that segue...tighten up...boo doo boop boop da boo boo...boo boo boopo pa do...I said now tighten up...

 

[CW]

Had to add my $.02 in:

Top 40: Debbie Boone "You Light Up my Life" and Trovolta's "Let Her in" were two of the worst...(though you gotta admit, Debbie was the cutest thing back then! Disco Duck got on my nerves after the 3 or 4th day..but we had a 4 hr rotation on currents then....

One song I didnt play as a jock but an ex-fiance and I will always have it as our song (it reminds me of the nut-job, psycho, witch, lying little......oh never mind! .....soo/too much! "Arms of the Angel"

Country: Drop Kick Me Jesus through the Goalposts of Life and CB Savage!!! OMG those two take the award!!
especially since the rotation had dropped to 2 hrs on the same station (from Top40 to country...BLEAHH!)

[ShadowB]

"Dear Mr. Jesus."
 OH MY GOD!!! I was on the aif at Zoo 98 in Little Rock when that came out...Kids loved it and would call over and over...One said.." If you don't play my song I'm gonna kill you"...I say " what song do you want nice young person"...She says.." Dear Mr. Jesus you F-ing ass! I've been requesting it all G D day now play the F-er"....and with that the kid went straight to hell!   

[kudzooter]

Shadow B, your Zoo 98 requester must have moved up from Lafayette.  Back in the early 80s, my 3:05 break started with The K94/Ticketmaster Concert Calendar.  One afternoon, I finished with "...and tonight, in the Baton Rouge Centroplex small-arena configuration, the religious rock band, Stryper."  Hit the spots, phone rings, and this nasally little voice says, "Would you play me some Stryper?"  I tell him I'm sorry, but I don't have anything by them ... but by the way, did he hear me say they would be in concert 50 miles away, that night?  "Yessir, I did.  That's why I called to request them.  So, are you going to play me some Stryper, or not?"  I again apologized for the fact that I didn't have anything by them.  "You don't have any Stryper?"  Once more, I told him I didn't ... and his Christian-rock-requesting reply was, "Well, f*** you."

[smashedcd]

Shadow B, your Zoo 98 requester must have moved up from Lafayette.  Back in the early 80s, my 3:05 break started with The K94/Ticketmaster Concert Calendar.  One afternoon, I finished with "...and tonight, in the Baton Rouge Centroplex small-arena configuration, the religious rock band, Stryper."  Hit the spots, phone rings, and this nasally little voice says, "Would you play me some Stryper?"  I tell him I'm sorry, but I don't have anything by them ... but by the way, did he hear me say they would be in concert 50 miles away, that night?  "Yessir, I did.  That's why I called to request them.  So, are you going to play me some Stryper, or not?"  I again apologized for the fact that I didn't have anything by them.  "You don't have any Stryper?"  Once more, I told him I didn't ... and his Christian-rock-requesting reply was, "Well, f*** you."

ou worked at K94? That was the one station I listened to day and night 24/7 until the flip to top 40 in 1984. That was a sad day in louisiana. For a year I had no rock station to 92.3 flipped to rock. WRNO had started playing lionel richie already

As for the Stryper request...most fans of Stryper were not church goers. I was a fan and I drank, smoked, smoked pot, took pills, swore. I did it all! And still did most of that when I worked in christian radio Bob Carlisle would be on the radio and Megadeth would be on my boombox!

[mimo]

During one of my first radio shows, I had a listener call up for a song that I had just played.  I asked if there was something else they wanted to hear, they swore at me and then requested something else.  I figured if they were going to swear at me I'd just play something other than what they asked for.  They never called back.

[billyg]

Buckner & Garcia's "Pac-Man Fever"..thankfully only for a month.

I played that stupid Charline song too, but other songs that stick in my head was working at a tiny 1K AC-Oldies station in Oklahoma, 1986 during a bad time in my life. The station was in receivership with a bank and we went through 3 potential owners in 7 months...and not one of them had a clue about running a radio station. Our top 10 included Atlantic Starr's "Secret Lovers", Mr. Misters "Broken Wings", The Pet Shop Boys "West Side Girls" and Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love Of All".