How many posts until someone posts a Rickroll?

I love show tunes, to the amusement of my guy friends, who think that if you like show tunes you must be gay. Which I'm not.

But my guilty pop-song is "Oh, Babe, What Would You Say?" by Hurricane Smith. I can still remember listening to it on the transistor radio in my bedroom when I was 12 years old, building model airplanes.

Jim,
I know you could come up with a useful business plan for the space formally held by the wellness center. (woo-hoo) Something kid friendly, with WI-FI and a bit of nostalgia added. The fabric shop is closing too so I wait for what is next to come with 54th and Penn south.

FYI, the southdale target has had lots of cars in the lot. Just a few more weeks.

I hope this was done to aggravate Simon Cowell,
but Cake's send-up of I Will Survive is so ...words escape me.

-Joan

Some of my guilty pleasures include, or did include The Bangles and Sheryl Crow. I think everybody had Crow's album "Tuesday Night Music Club", even if they won't admit it.

My main guilty pleasure is novelty songs. I used to have the Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary CD until I pawned it for some gas money, along with a few other CDs. Some of the songs on that album include:

Wet Dream by Kip Adotta
Der Fuehrer's Face by Spike Jones
Cocktails for Two by Spike Jones
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah by Allen Sherman
Time Warp by Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast

I also listened to a lot of Weird Al and Ray Stevens in my youth.

James' Bleat entry about cleaning out the desk brought back memories of cleaning out the desk of an employee I replaced five years ago. The guy only came in two or three days a week due to limited access to transportation. He was supposed to come get some of his stuff, and clean out his desk. Two or three days into the job I did it myself. Some things I kept, some I threw away. I found a pair of shoes, a tupperware bowl, a stack of CDs, and some other items that I put in a box for him to take home. It was a week before he collected it. Had one drawer completely filled with candy, mostly hard candy. A lot of it dating back to Halloween. It was March when I cleaned out the desk. In one of the bottom drawers, which are twice as deep as the top drawers, there were probably five or six reams of paper, all printed with different stories he had gotten off the Internet. I clearly remember finding "Hound of the Baskervilles" among all the stories. I showed it to my boss, and he got a bit ticked off. He told me I could toss it, or keep it if I wanted. I tossed it. When the guy came back for his box, he went looking for the stories. I told him the boss said I could toss them. I needed the desk cleaned out in order to begin working, and moving my junk in.

I really like Move Over by the Spice Girls.

Also, Fat Bottom Girls by Queen.

I heard one of my favorite guilty pleasures on the way to work this morning: "Rebel Yell," by Billy Idol--and I could add a lot of his other songs, actually. I know it's not great music, but it makes me turn the radio up anyway. I also have to confess a great fondness for a lot of dance music, including disco. Oh, and "SexyBack." I try to balance out the bad stuff with classical, opera, and jazz, just so I don't completely rot my brain.

As far as desks go, my division moved to a new office a little over a year ago, and my desk has...something in one of the drawers. I can't tell what it is, so I've been loathe to remove it. It looks kind of like rabbit poo. So I've just decided not to use that drawer, and I don't open it.

"Watching Scotty Grow" and "Honey," by Bobby Goldsboro
"Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted" and "I Think I Love You," by The Partridge Family

Tracey Ullman's album "You Broke My Heart in 17 Places".

Although I see that allmusic rates it 4.5 stars (calling it "kitschy pop fluff at its best"), so maybe I shouldn't feel so guilty.

http://wm10.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jcfuxql5ldde

From Slapshot by Maxine Nightingale "Get Right Back Where We Started From". It's friggin' awesome!

Also, "Useful to boot" from Sam & Max Season 1 Soundtrack.

Someone mentioned "Doesn't Somebody Want to be Wanted" by The Partridge Family. Whenever I hear the song I think of Steven Wright as the DJ in RESEVOIR DOGS saying the song title (the song isn't actually in the movie).

I have to own up to MY HUMPS by Black Eyed Peas as my most recent guilty pleasure.

ABBA's "Dancing Queen" was cemented as a guilty favorite a couple of years back. Went to Philly for a Marah show (they were, as always, beyond-description fabulous). Afterwards, we crammed a local pub to wiggle-room only, gabbing, laughing, and having a great time. At some point, someone queued "Dancing Queen" up on the jukebox ... all the talk stopped for a moment, then hundreds of voices swelled in song.

YOU CAN DANCE! YOU CAN JI-IVE! YOU'RE HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!

Gotta be "(Listen to The) Flower People" by Spinal Tap.

A flashback to all the cheesy sitar karma-rock from the 60's

Tap into America!!!

Anything with da shoo lang lang in it.

My brother-in-law was a member (he played keyboards) of Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, after their, um, big hit ("Billy, Don't Be A Hero") and right before they descended into well-deserved obscurity. Then they broke up.

He was also almost a member of the Doobie Brothers, but that's another story.

Maybe this is a bit of a different take, since the music itself is actually good. A while back, I came across Warren Zevon's "Lawyers Guns and Money".

Can't say I approve of the S-bomb in the lyrics, though I understand the "hit the fan" reference. If one of the kids came into the room, I'd feel guilty enough to turn it down or off.

Fun song though...gotta listen once in a while.

I absolutely adore the Bee Gees. Everything from 1967 through Robin Gibb's last solo album.

Yes, I was a fan as a kid, loooong before Disco and remain a fan to this day.

Losing Maurice Gibb was like losing a family member. I had come home from work and found out reading news on the computer. I burst into tears (freaked out my son who was sleeping on the couch) and I bawled for days.

The only reason it's a guilty pleasure on this site is because James is not a Bee Gees fan, despite what Hugh Hewitt says.

Okay, you can open your eyes! : )

This bunch of posts is filled with earworms! Run away! Run Away!

Suzy

Credo quia absurdum.

Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother--Jerry Jeff. And yes, I'm pretty much apology-free on this one.

It is difficult for me to say it, but I like the music of Michael Bolton, especially "Steel Bars".

A song that makes me go nuts (in a bad way) is "We Built This City" by Starship.

...."I'm all out of love..." Actually quite a bit of the mid/late 80s constitutes a guilty pleasure for me.

For some reason, I always associate "Billy, Don't be a Hero" with "The Night Chicago Died." Plus, I like "The Night Chicago Died." I've always thought it ripe for a re-working around the events of 9/11, but I've never gotten around to it.

Plus, I like Billy, Don't be a Hero, so cheese off.

....your job seems like one long vacation. And, you should be glad about that! It's a wonderful thing to be able to do what you love for a living, as long as it doesn't burn you out.

I felt better about "Billy don't be a Hero" after the episode of Power Puff Girls (Slave The Day) where Big Billy of the Gangrene Gang befriends the girls for saving his life, when he repays the girls by trowing himself in front of a train, Ace cries out" ," well you can guess what he says.

GAH!!!!!

I ignored the warning and opened the link to the Paper Lace music video. GAH!!!! This should be mandatory viewing for any sadist that tries to reprise 1970's fashion, or culture. Not even kitsch, or irony are valid excuses anymore. Can we please get the government to appropriate funds for mandatory hypnosis to try to wash our brain free of such memories?

I wrestled in high school, and 'Vision Quest' is the closest thing to a good movie about the sport that exists.

"Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider is the defining song of the movie, which isn't saying that much since the soundtrack also includes a bad Don Henly song, Only the Young by Journey, and 'Gambler' by Madonna.

To this day I at least turn up the volume when it comes on, and if possible just lean back and close my eyes, remembering all the torture I was putting myself through with that song playing on my walkman.

It's almost like bad word association. Seeing "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy, Don't Be Hero" in the same day totally made me think of the other awful song from that era--David Geddes' ode to teen pregnancy and gunplay, "Run, Joey, Run."

You spend every day at the Fair, take a weeklong cruise, and now management is making you take more vacation time.

Trying to generate some sympathy, but it will probably come right after I feel some for photographers and reporters who get grazed by the cars of people who don't want to help give the readers what they want. Take the bruises with the Pulitzers.

I am a 40-somethingish mom of two nearly adult boys, and I love Disturbed (Ten Thousand Fists is a fave) and Godsmack (I Stand Alone is a classic from The Scorpion King soundtrack. Which I purchased. Just for this song.). I guess this is only a guilty pleasure among my peers, because my kids' friends are always pleasantly surprised to walk into our house to find me cooking dinner to metal rock in all it's base profanity and male angst.

I can barely stand the stuff from my youth, though I do have a soft spot for the "Grease" soundtrack. Which I knew by heart, including all of the dance moves, when I was 12.

Oooh, some of mine have already been mentioned, specifically, "The Night Chicago Died" and "Dancing Queen".

My others include "Isn't It Time" by the Babys, and the disco version of "Star Wars" by Meco.

Yes, yes, Dancing Queen has already been mentioned, and I should be more original. But it goes far deeper than Dancing Queen. I own "ABBA Gold." What's more, I also own "More ABBA Gold."

What can I say? I love ABBA. Their first greatest hits collection wasn't enough for me; I needed More!!!

I like Neil Diamond, even the soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull. However, I do not like "Turn on your Love Heart Light." It was bad enough and then someone pointed out that it was about E.T. and then I really knew it was wrong.

"Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot are the closest I'm going to get to a guilty pleasure.

Oh, and "Separate Ways" by Journey and most yacht rock, too.

Guilty Pleasures

"Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA and "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees--songs I like by bands that I don't listen to much else of. Plus I just downloaded "1234" by Feist, which is the latest iPod commercial song. Don't know if I shouldn't like it yet, but judging from my teenage son's reaction to it, it qualifies.

It doesn't hurt to lose vacation days. I lose them all the time. The lesson is get a job that's also a hobby.

I like listening to interviews on Radio Japan, at least before they slashed the budget and went nonstop goofy lefty.

Consider the Bamboo Expert (1999), the Cartoon Expert (2000) or the Economy Class Syndrome expert (2001).

I love the collapse of the frame they set up by way of little mistakes in English.

Not to mock them (I know zero Japanese) but just seeing the fictions involved.

Anyway, I am clearly listening for the wrong reasons!

Why are so many on this list from 1974? I have always thought that 1974 produced the cheesiest songs ever, and now Lileks is proving it... We could get the K-tel Guilty Pleasure Album all from the hit songs of '74.... Sundown (my favorite), Billy don't be a Hero, The Night Chicago Died, Benny and the Jets, The Way We Were, and last and perhaps least.... Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks.

Order now! LP or 8-track tape! Operators are standing by!

If you liked Edmund Fitzgerald, try Bernard Bolan's Not Many Fish , which always struck me as very similar.

I wrote to Bolan (Australian) and he says he never heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald, so I guess the similarity comes from the ballad form.

Bolan has many amusing CDs out.

"But it goes far deeper than Dancing Queen. I own "ABBA Gold." What's more, I also own "More ABBA Gold."

Best laugh of the day. Thanks!

So, exactly what does this have to do with Twin Cities communities? No wonder no one else with the Strib wants to have anything to do with your personal kitty-litter box.

It's funny how we're talking about guilty music pleasures.

The other day I was watching the local news and they had a story about the judge who made a group of kids sit in his courtroom and listen to Barry Manilow for one hour, as their punishment for violating the noise ordinance law. They make other people listen to their awful music, they have to suffer the same.

I laughed about it, and mom said Manilow was one of those guilty pleasures. Everyone had his albums, but won't admit to it. Hating Manilow's music was "cool". But at night, when no one was looking, you went into the closet, dragged your turntable in there, and lip-synched to "Copacabana."

When she said Manilow was one of those guilty pleasures, I immediately asked "like Abba?"

I didn't mention it in my earlier post, but "Copacabana" is one of my guilty pleasures, too--I know every word. My husband was horrified when he found out. Oh, the shame.

For those that yearn to hear these 1974 goodies:

http://www.tropicalglen.com/YR-1974.html

That’s a good question, “Keith.” Since the moderator is on vacation, there are two choices for today:

Announce that the site will be dead for a day

Post a topic the site’s community can enjoy

If there’s a particular issue you’d like raised, start a blog here and post away. I’ll be happy to push it up to the front page. Deal?

Oooh, looks like there's a cat fight going on in the kitty litter box!

And speaking of cat-related music I would be embarrassed to admit to enjoying (if you knew my True Identity):

"The Year of the Cat." Most people hate Al Stewart's wispy/lispy rendition, and I know it's on a lot of people's most-hated-songs list, but I like it. I even bought the album when it came out.

Top THAT for truly awful!

Ha! I still have the album with "Year of the Cat". Burned it to CD with a few other guilty pleasures but #1 on the list may be "What If I'd Been the One?" by 38 Special. Love those guitars...

Careful, James; 'tis prolly the same "Keith" who took issue with a lass over what she was wearing on a Southwest flight to Tuscon.

In fact, I bet that's the issue he'd like to raise here.

*singing quietly* Sundown, you better take care if I find you creepin' 'round my back stair...

And I'm 29, today, so any guilty pleasure b-day songs you've got, rock 'em!

Putting "Seasons in the Sun" in my head ... just as I'm getting ready to go home! That was a terrible song!

Benny and the Jets, on the other hand, was quite nice. Anybody groove on "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy"?

is "Stairway to Heaven" for high school theater majors.

Nice arrangement and produciton, though; that middle instrumental section was more welcome on the radio than another Pablo Cruise song. Still, there's something wrong with a song that describes the scene as a Bogart movie and puts you in the role of Peter Lorre.

No one's mentioned Andrew Gold's "Lonely Boy"...I don't what it is about songs with a story, but those are the one's I secretly love. "The Pina Colada Song" and "The Gambler" are a couple of others. I know every single word to those tunes and have never admitted so out loud. It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders! Thanks, buzz.mn!

I absolutely love "Jingle Jangle," which I bought the 45 of and played to death in the fall of 1969. Bought it recently again on iTunes and grin every time it comes up on my Shuffle.

Another one "guilty as charged" with a thing for The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Glad to know that I'm not alone!

For years, I maintained a socially acceptable disdain for the song. Each time the song came on or all 14 verses were resurrected by a struggling guitar student, I could roll my eyes with the best of them.

After becoming frequent visitors to the Keweenaw Peninsula of the U.P. 7 years ago, Lake Superior became a part of my life, in all of its amazing moods. My son now lives up there. Through on online community from that area, I have read the firsthand memories of those who experienced the awful gale of November 10, 1975, and the reflections of a daughter of a crew member lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald. That the storm and the wreck will always haunt those people, people who now have recognizable names & faces for me.

It completely changed the way I listen to that song, especially when I hear it in November. Now I always get a lump in my throat when it reaches the line:

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Sappy? I suppose, but at my age being cool is impossible anyway.

By the way... as someone who was 15 years old in 1974 and remembers it well, I firmly agree that some of the worst songs of the 1970s came out of that year.

I must confess that I always sing along with Looking Glass' Brandy, when WOLX, the local oldies station plays it.

A few "guilty" pleasure songs of mine:

-"Money for nothing" by Dire Straits
-"Separate Ways" by Journey (if you can find it on Youtube, the video for this one is a prime example of unintentional comedy)
-A lot of stuff by the Aquabats (a ska group reminiscent of the old Saturday Morning superhero cartoons best appreciated while hopped up on three bowls of Cocoa Puffs. In their live shows they wear superhero costumes and battle villains on stage.)

As for some of the other stuff here, I think The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is the type of song you play at a funeral when you're worried that people aren't acting melancholy enough...

What was that kid's problem, anyway? His most aching trauma, according to the song, happened when his parents had a second child. But you said I was the only one! And then his sister grows up and has a kid, described with the same lyrics - ergo, what? I never quite got that. In the "Cat's Cradle" scheme of childhood heartache and irony, it seems to rate about a four.

Then again, in 1977, I liked it a lot, too. Had a guitar solo that always stuck in my mind; I think it was Waddy Wachtel, who played on all those SoCal / Rondstadt albums. Googling . . . yep. Bonus info: Wachtel co-wrote "Werewolves of London," and wrote the lyrics for the first verse.

I remember that video: consisted almost entirely of a peeved-off woman walking around, going her separate way.

How can "Money For Nothing" be a guilty pleasure? Anything that contains Mark Knopfler is guar-an-teed quality music, even if he is taking a slam at Prince. And the video's a great period piece; state of the art computer graphics for 1984. Block-o-riffic!

Now that I have an iPod, I can indulge all my guilty pleasure music without having to order those CDs off the "I can't believe I'm sitting here with Air Supply"-type infomercials.

Of course I have tons of 80s songs--the one-hit wonder era. But I've started collecting all the random songs that still rattle around in my head from my AM radio childhood--Year of the Cat, Do You Know What I Mean by Badfinger, Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes and Jeremiah, Bad Company by Bad Company... It kinda hurts to admit that out loud.

I'm also quite fond of overemotional folk music from the 60s--Someday Soon by Ian and Sylvia, If I Were Alone by We Five, Lady Came from Baltimore by Tim Hardin, Baby the Rain Must Fall by Glen Yarborough ...

Best line:

"His hair was PERFECT!" - LOL! I used to sing that song to my oldest daughter when she was a baby (that was 1980) and it would make her laugh. My mother was horrified.

Yeah, that chick in Separate Ways was a real 80's creation.

But Steve Perry! Ahhhhh.....I just love when he hits the wall and wails "Pay-een". He always adds a few syllables to each word..

NOT a guilty pleasure, though - I take FULL credit for loving everything that man has ever done. No one can touch that VOICE.

The video for Separate Ways is so freaking funny it stopped being embarrassing to fans years ago - even WE make fun of it.

It is a guilty pleasure if you have to sing along with the "I want my MTV" parts every time you hear it. And I'm pretty sure that (on some stations at least) the aforementioned slam generally falls victim to political correctness these days, and gets edited out.

I always wondered if the sailor wasn’t letting Brandy down gently. I mean, he’s a sailor in port, and the waitress hits on him, and what’s his response? “My wife, my life and my lady is the sea.” Maybe she just wanted a date.

“Say, would you like to come over after the bar closes?”

“Sorry, my wife, my life and my lady is the sea.”

“Uh – that’s a metaphor for your dedication to your career, right? It’s not legally binding.”

“Sorry, married to the sea.”

I think there was something else going on there. 

My wife and I used to play a cruel game on each other... We'd come up with a particularly nasty earbug/70s song and sing it or hum it when the other wasn't expecting it. It would all be worthwhile if you could hear the other person humming said song later that day or even the next day.

But guilty pleasures, that haven't already been mentioned, would be, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" by Zappa, "Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, & "I'm a Believer" by "The Monkees".

All of my shameful music secrets are coming out on of this thread! McAllisterK, I've always liked Steve Perry's voice, too...he has the kind of range that most rock/pop singers lack. Journey was one of my first boyfriend's favorite bands, and "Faithfully" was one of "our" songs. I still get a little teary sometimes when I hear it. I like "Oh Sherry," too.

I have discovered that I must not have listened very closely to a lot of the songs mentioned here; I had no idea that "Brandy" was so complex, for example.

How could anyone mention Warren Zevon without naming my favorite, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner?

Sorry, James... the lyric is

"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea".

Nothing legally binding to point to there. Morally, yeah, sure.

"Sorry, wouldn't want to cheat on the sea... that just wouldn't be right. You're a fine girl, though, Brandy, and I'm sure you'd be a good wife. But I'm in a relationship right now. The sea and I are happy together."

My Baby Loves Lovin'. It's such a cheesy song, but it reminds me of the first girl I ever had a crush on, which means the beginning of puberty. You don't forget those things.

I still get teary whenever I hear our National Anthem.
And, yes, it's my favorite song.

My tastes run to R&B, punk, and garage, generally, so it is with some embarrassment that I admit that "Sex Dwarf" by Soft Cell cracks me up every time. It was the one bright, shining moment in the Stygian darkness that was '80's music (not counting the Cars, or as we local fans say, "the Caahhs," who could also qualify).

The one they used as a theme for the "Highlander" movie and series, can't think of the name of it, but it asks "Do you want to live forever". I can't help it. I always liked that song. And the question.

If they begin to suspect you will come in and post on a day off, they will make all of your days "days off", and just give you the site password forever. This heads in a disadvantageous direction (for you) quickly.

I was a freshman in high school at the time, so I know how bad the music was. But what about young adulthood, when you should know better? The one band in my CD collection that I find myself dismissing as having "received as a gift" (except for the crud I really DID receive as a gift) is the B-52s. The most embarrassing song? That's easy: Love Shack.

AAAHHH! I just remembered in high school that the class before us chose "Separate Ways" as their class song. Of course that meant the dreaded Pop Song Choral Arrangement. It was horrible! And other than the title, the song was completely pointless as a graduation theme (but I shouldn't talk; the next year our class chose Pat Benetar's "We Belong"). I remember doing "Eye of the Tiger", too. Ack! All those repressed memories are flooding back. If only I could wash the palette clean...

I'd have to say "Low Rider" and "Green Eyed Lady" since "Brandy" has already been claimed!

I have to set the record straight: Paper Lace didn't "cover" "Billy Don't Be a Hero", they originated it. According to Wikipedia, their recording spent 3 weeks at #1 on the UK charts, and just happened to be released in the US about the time Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods released their cover version. Both "Hero" and "The Night Chicago Died" were written by the same songwriting team, Mitch Murray and Peter Callendar.

I remember hearing PL's version first, and prefer theirs to Bo and co.'s, so I had to chime in and prove what a pathetic waste I am that I actually looked this stuff up!

A truly guilty pleasure for a Texan who cut his teeth on Merle Haggard, George Jones, and Willie Nelson, but I have a soft spot for the 1910 Fruitgum Company.

Their name would make anybody cringe, but they put out a string of solid pop hits: "Simple Simon Says," "1-2-3 Red Light" (later covered by the Talking Heads), "Indian Giver." Several videos of them on YouTube...just close your eyes and listen. All good.

A few years ago my daughter was into 60's music so we got a tape for her.(Yes,a cassette tape! It was a while back.) Every time "Hair" and "Sugar,Sugar" came on, we had to listen to them over & over. And, SURPRISE! I remembered I use to love the Archies as a child and still loved that song. And "Hair" wasn't so bad either! Bad, bad mama. I still find myself singing those 2 songs in my head sometimes and now I've taught them to my grandson! I am sooooo bad!

"Venus" by the (Swedish group?) "Shocking Blue" in 1969.

"Walk Like an Egyptian" had a great sound, some cool guitar rhythms, and the best looking lead singer, possibly EVER!

The most embarrassing song? That's easy: Love Shack.

I love that song! Well, to clarify, I loved the video on MTV, they used to play it 87 times a day back in the day.

Hmm too, I guess side b of the 45, "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha" by Napoleon qualifies as being weird as well!

There! I said it! Those are my guilty pleasures, and I'm a little surprised that neither of them has turned up here yet.

"AFTERNOON DELIGHT" (STARLAND VOCAL BAND) In 1976 I was dating a woman who told me about taking her two toddlers to Marine World near San Francisco, where they watched porpoises dance while "Afternoon Delight" played over the loudspeakers. Before that, I could sort of take or leave the song, but ever since, I've been unable to hear it without imagining a quartet of porpoises synch-swimming around, leaping up through huge rings and waggling their tails as they plunge back into the water. I find the thought whimsical and amusing, and because of it the song always brings a smile.

"ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE" (BREWER & SHIPLEY) Well, no excuse here. I just like it. So sue me.

Chorus, by Erasure.

I'm afraid to give my name.

Oh, I shoudn't like it, but... the first season Pokémon theme song. I don't even like the lyrics! Or the show, for that matter! But... It's so catchy! And happy! And fun!

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
*doo doo doo!*
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
It's pokémon to understand
The power that's inside

Pokémon!
It's you and me
I know it's my destiny
Pokémon!
Oh, you're my best friend
In a world we must defend
Pokémon!
A heart so true
Our courage will pull us though
You teach me and I'll teach you
Pokémon!
Gotta catch 'em, gotta catch 'em all!

Then they went and changed the theme song for the second season and added all these new pokémon I didn't know. PFFFFT to that!

Sentry...this will have to do for your b-day song...

"This is your birthday song...
It doesn't last too long..."

First 45 I ever bought.

Sailing
Takes me away
To where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

by Devo in my head. Whip it good... dadadadat

I'd have to say that every song I like is a guilty pleasure, at least in the sense that there isn't one song I like for which I can't find a friend who HATES it. When I'm not arguing that I simply have no sense of humor, I have to explain that I just don't have any taste, either.

Probably the worst, though, is that I like anything done by anyone who was on the (new) Mickey Mouse Club or Kids Incorporated. Fergie? Yup. Justin? You betcha. Christina, even when she's doing duets with people I can't stand? Regrettable, but yes. Britney? Duh. Jennifer Love Hewitt? Indeed, though I liked her better when she was just "Love." It's a curse, really. My sisters can't stand to put their playlists near mine, for fear the tracks from Muse and U2 will delete themselves as a political statement. On the other hand, I'm really loving those new commercials for the muskrat show on Animal Planet.

Oh, and I like almost every one of the songs listed in the 75 or so comments before me.

Thank you for the short song, and may your toes warm up very soon.

I also forgot "In the Year 2525 (Exordium and Terminus)" by Zager & Evans; I have a version of the song by Fields of the Nephilim in my iTunes collection, but both have their merits.

I love "On and On" by Stephen Bishop. I crank it up every time it comes on and sing along. With lyrics like "takes a ladder, steals the stars from the sky, puts on Sinatra and starts to cry" how could I do otherwise?

Also, "White Flag" by Dido. My daughter and I always turn it up as high as we can stand and then sing along. We never fail to feel empowered, despite the fact that it's slightly creepy and pathetic. Guess we're easily empowered.

Man, that brings me way back to my gawky pre-teen years (vs. my gawky adulthood) - the best line in that song? "Man, she drank like a... she drank a lot".

I love that cover - if nothing else, it underscores how incredibly bad-ass the bassline in that song is - we're talking Chic levels of bad-assery.

One of my great guilty pleasure songs is "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meatloaf. Great rock 'n roll tune, but as a all growed up daddy, I can't condone it. Of course, Rocky Horror fans will see the connection to Time Warp mentioned in another comment.

Someone mentioned Fat Bottom Girls by Queen. That's another.

There's one more. It's on the back of the tip of my tongue. I had it a minute ago.

Nope, it's gone. Must have swallowed it.

Ah. Got it. Went back and read other comments, and someone mentioned the Late Great One - Warren Zevon. Lawyers, Guns & Money and Werewolves of London are awesome. The man could rock. May he rest in peace.

I'm embarrassed to say I know the name of that song is "Escape" by Rupert-something ('Rupert Holmes' - I had to google that).

bobby b,
Who's to say our fearless leader can't join the conversation as a 'civilian'? As a fellow netizen, I feel James is entitled to partake in this (or any other) thread on his own time. The difference here is he is adding to the conversation vs. initiating a new thread. Personally I appreciate his input as much as I do yours...that's what 'Freedom of Speech' is all about.

And no, I'm not missing your point about 'why buy the cow...'. I pray the strib powers that be are smart enough to realize 'ya gots ta pay if ya wants to play'...and those same powers that be should be happy I like playing in my own buzzy-backyard and that means buying James' cow!!! :)

I can't hide it any more. While we are here confessing all of our deepest darkest secretest guilty pleasure songs I am forced to own up to this:
Vanilla Ice- Ice, Ice Baby.

Alright STOP! Colaborate and Listen! Ice is back with a brand new invention!

I could go on, but I'm crying inside...Because I have it all in memory.

hardly a guilty pleasure; this still causes the room to get a bit dusty when I watch it:

9/12/2001 - the Coldstream Guards play the Star-Spangled Banner:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOQWAKnB1Q

(the only time they've _ever_ played another nation's anthem).

I have always figured that the Port, on the Western Bay, was Duluth Superior. It's as far West on the lakes as you can go, and is a very busy port, indeed. So I figure Brandy was probably a Good Minnesota Lutheran Swedish Girl. Brandy Lindskog, probably.

The sailor was probably a Merchant Marine sailor, not a USN Sailor, ( note that USN Sailors get the S capitalized), As is well known, USN types always behave properly to the ladies. He just didn't want to get her hopes up, only to dash them. Truly a Noble Fellow.

...I think I went to high school with ALL you people!

(...lemme check the Olan Mills Yearbook Photography archives to be sure...)

"Is That All There Is?" A Peggy Lee song based on Thomas Mann's "Disillusionment". That is, if the thread is based upon "guilty pleasures".

For those not familiar with the story, "(T)he narrator is sitting in St Mark's Square in Venice when he falls into a conversation with a fellow countryman.

The man asks, "Do you know what disillusionment is? Not a miscarriage in small unimportant matters, but the great and general disappointment which everything, all of life, has in store?"

He tells how, as a small boy, the house caught fire; yet as they watched it burn down he was thinking, "So this is a house on fire? Is that all?" And ever since then, life has been a series of disappointments; all the great experiences have left him with the feeling: "Is that all?"

Only when he saw the sea for the first time, he says, did he feel a sudden tremendous craving for freedom, for a sea without a horizon... And one day, death will come, and he expects it to be the last great disappointment. "Is this all?"

From Colin Wilson's "The Craft of the Novel".

While out on a drive this evening, "Casey Jones" by the Grateful Dead came on the radio. Not only is it freakin' hippie music, but it's STONER music, for Pete's sake. It's just too catchy to not sing along to.

The Brady Bunch's "It's a Sunshine Day" is everything that's great about modern pop music...hooky, boppy, fluffy, bouncy, catchy, giggly...

"Everybody's smilin'
(Sunshine day-y-y)
Everybody's laughin'
(Sunshine day-y-y)
Everybody seems
So happy today!"

I have all the BB records. I was truly, madly, deeply in love with Maureen McCormick from 1973-75. The aching and longing were exquisite, and I am proud to wear it as an Honor Badge of Love. Her hairstyle is back now, and so is she, trying to lose weight I hear. Dynomite, and bummer. Marcia was THE original American Girl, and I shall never forget her.

I don't have any specific guilty pleasure songs, but I do have a guilty pleasure artist.

Yanni.

Hey, at least I drew the line before John Tesh.

Apparently you're the only one who objects to open threads, since there are 100 posts here. I think this discussion has been loads of fun.

By Olivia Newton John, from the movie. I even paid to see the movie when it came out. But that was because it had roller skating in it.

"Love or let me be lonely" (Friends of Distinction cover)

&

"Dancing Fool" (the Guess Who song)

Beach Baby. Formulaic, teeny-bopperish, with a weird sort of Mahler horn interlude to boot, but catchy and reminiscent of teenage summer.

Whew. Alright, I admit it. For some reason, that song keeps appearing on Chicago radio and it always catches my attention.

I never would have attached to it if I hadn't had a crush on a girl named Eileen back in high school just when that song came out. I have the original 45 in my record collection and I still like the song.

Too rye too rye too rye too rye aaaayyyyy!!!
We'll hum this tune forever!

That song is "Who Wants to Live Forever?" and I love it. Pretty much anything from Queen. As well as most of the stuff mentioned above.

I find myself singing along to a lot of things probably because they got a lot of airplay when first released so they're stuck in my head. And, I too was in junior high in 1974 so a lot of music from that year is embedded in my psyche!

Year of the Cat ... "is 'Stairway to Heaven' for high school theater majors."

Well, that explains it. I was one of those high school theater types.

By the time the Al Stewart was on the radio I was already out of college, although I was performing in a Dinner Theater at the time.

Other cat-related pop tunes, some good, some bad, some ugly:

Anything from the musical "Cats"
Cat's in the Cradle (Harry Chapin)
Cat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent)
Stray Cat Blues (Rolling Stones)
Stray Cat Strut (Stray Cats)
Honky Cat (Elton John)

I couldn't stand it in high school, but I have to admit when I listen to their songs now, it's amazingly good music.

Remember the scene in "Tommy Boy" where Chris Farley and David Spade are kind of embarrassed when a Carpenters song comes on the car radio and in the next scene they're both singing as loud as they can "Don't you remember you told me you loved me baby."? I think they were basically saying that it was one of the great "guilty pleasures" songs.

I could go further. "The Rain, The Park and Other Things" by the Cowsills. "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence.

Sorry gotta go. Time for my therapy group.

I'll show you guilt: "I Don't Want Her, You Can Have Her, She's Too Fat for Me" and "Slap Her Down Again, Pa" sung by Arthur Godfrey; "Dig You Later (A Hubba Hubba Hubba) sung by Perry Como ("It was mighty smokey over Tokyo..."; "Oy How I Hate that Fellow Nathan" sung by Fanny Brice; "You Can't Pooh-Pooh Paducah".... I'll spare you the rest of the long list. Have a nice vacation, James.

Here's another "bad" song I simply enjoy: "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head. I was reminded of it when it popped up on my mp3 player at work.

Now, I'm a person who's constantly listening to The 40's XM and High Standards XM, because if it was up to me, the majority of music would sound like that.

But, my guilty pleasure is music from my teens. Particularly, Debbie Gibson. I caught a video the other day on YouTube and my husband just shook his head as I remembered and sung every word.

I used to wear the black hat and vest and white tshirts to school just like her. Oh yeah...

I promise I'll stop after this.

Cool For Cats (Squeeze)

Keith,
Who in the world cares what other people at the strib want anything to do with?

Sort of a geeky comment to make.

... and raise you a "Dancin' in the Moonlight," which I always thought was the sweetest hippie song of all time.

"Everybody here is outtasight ..."

Ooh, I forgot all about her--I loved her early stuff in my teens, too. The songs were just so catchy. I alternated between liking her and being insanely jealous of her, since she was my age and a professional singer.

I always wondered the same thing -- why was the fact that his parents had another child when he was 2 years old such a big deal? Little too over-sensitive there, fella.

As to some of the songs listed here, it has always seemed to me that for a song to be a "guilty pleasure," it has to be generally regarded as dreck from a critical perspective. Some of the songs here, it seems to me, have always been regarded as perfectly respectable songs. "Brandy," for example.

Now, "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo," that's another story.

hallelujiah! i was wondering if anyone had the sense and good taste to include AFTERNOON DELIGHT. it is one of the most evocative songs ever for me. i go back to a single point in time. out in the middle of the chesapeake bay on the bay bridge tunnel. we had stopped at one of the "overlooks", which is one of the points where the bridge becomes a tunnel. this song was playing and it was one of the first times i had heard it. the fog, the sea, and big ships, why does it have such an effect? love, love, love that damn song!

it's no wonder i like the song BRANDY too. perhaps there is a connection. who knows or cares?

the scene in anchorman where they get together and sing afternoon delight is a classic. "rubbing sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite"

bwa-ha-ha, good stuff!

i think it must be the harmonies. kinda why abba is so good. their sound is just perfect.

Together now... ;o)

"Every time I'm telling secrets,
I remember how it used to be,
And, I realize how much I miss you,
Then, I remember how it feels to be free..."

I didn't understand any of the people being caricatured in the cartoon, but the premise resonated with me growing up, and the theme song really put it out of the park:

When criminals in this world appear
and break the laws that they should fear
and frighten all who see or hear
the cry goes out both far and near for
UNNNDERDOG!

Oh, and I loved the episode of Scrubs where the incidental background music was provided by lawyer Ted and friends where they covered the song.

Now I'll log back on as myself. "Keith" is either crazy or JL is doing his own troll work to stir up controversy (you're nobody if your blog doesn't get trolls).

What?? No Captain and Tennille on this list?

LOVE! Love will keep us together....

"Love, only in my dreeeams,
As real as it may se-ee-eem,
It was only in my dreams."

Apparently my sense of music appreciation didn't make it through the 80's completely intact. Three that bring a guilty smile to my face:

867-5309/Jenny by Tommy Tutone

Space Age Love Song by Flock of Seagulls

White Wedding by Billy Idol

Anything by ABBA. Especially "Fernando" and "Dancing Queen".

"Electic Youth - Feel the power, you see the energy..."

Sorry, that's been in my head since one of you first mentioned Debbie Gibson.

Okay, its time to don some LA Gears, layer those socks, and break out the mousse! ;op

Don't forget to bathe in the "Electric Youth" perfume!! Gotta be able to smell us coming a mile away. LOL

Sweetbug74, Heather8875 and I are heading back to 1987! I still have some Swatch watches around somewhere--be sure to wear as many as you can fit on your arm!

But a few weeks ago, I actually paid 99 cents in cash money to download "Informer" by Snow (from the oh-so-tastefully named album "12 Inches of Snow"):

"Informer, you no say daddy me snow me I'll go blame
A licky boom boom down."

Um. Oookay. Catchy tune, though.

Also, this faithful Chicagoland Lileks reader of eight years would like to tell "Keith" that if he's that starved for local focus, maybe he should go bore himself to tears at a zoning committee meeting or something, while the rest of us entertain ourselves with a topic of universal interest. Guess Keith is one Minnesotan who isn't interested in potentially having any of my tourist dollars.

I'll hop on, only because I still haven't found what I'm looking for in this decade, though it may be in the Floodland somewhere, and will take true faith to find it.

Oh my...so many songs, so little space. How about two categories:

Guilty Pleasures
--"Julie, Do Ya Love Me" and "La La La" (Bobby Sherman)
--"Hey Deanie" (Shawn Cassidy)
--"They Don't Know About Us" (Tracey Ullman)
--"Sukiyaki" (Kyu Sakamoto)
--"I'm Telling You Now" (Freddie and the Dreamers)
--"Good Friends?" (love the question mark) and "That's
Where I Went Wrong" (The Poppy Family)
--"Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" (Herman's
Hermits)
--"Cara Mia" (Jay and the Americans-I've heard a
version where Jay holds the famous note for what
seems like a minute....outstanding!)

Just Awful
--"Time Passages" (Al Stewart)
--"Rock and Roll Music" (Peter, Paul and Mary)
--"Kung Foo Fighting" (Bustop)
--"The Men in My Little Girl's Life" (Mike Douglas)

Who can forget "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves"?

If the dread words "Billy Ocean" don't produce intense feelings of self-loathing, the lyrics are guaranteed to finish the job:

She dashed by me in painted on jeans
And all heads turned ‘cause she was the cream
In the blink of an eye I knew her number and her name, yeah
She said I was the tiger she wanted to tame

I was in search of a good time
Just running my game, yeah
Love was the furthest from my mind

Caribbean queen
Now we’re sharing the same dream
And our hearts they beat as one
No more love on the run

Must...not... shake...booty :D

...this has been! I concur.

And while we're all confessing, "Midnight at The Oasis" by Maria Muldaur was the perfect getcha-goin' song for a hormonally infused teenaged boy in the early 70's.

To this day, "...and you won't need no camel, no no...when I take you for a ride" still gets me hot.

What? T. M. I.?

I have no guilty pleasures, because I feel no guilt whatsoever over my music choices. Erasure, ABBA, heck, even Britney Spears has a good song or two (though I much prefer the Z cover of "Baby One More Time.")

And no one should ever feel guilty about Weird Al. The man is a brilliant lyricist, and I say that as someone who knows just how hard it is to build a decent lyric, let alone one whose cadences match a pre-arranged melody.

Oh, hey, I know one to drive Lileks mad: "In the Summertime." It's got happy childhood memories for me, and it makes me smile every time I hear it.

(Incidentally, if you're one of those who loves "Tuesday Night Music Club," you should check out the work of Kevin Gilbert, who was a major influence/composer on the songs. There's some truly wonderful work out there on albums like "Thud" and "Shaming of the True." NB: A lot of the work will be under various band names, such as Toy Matinee.)

..but I actually liked "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung. I can't believe nobody's mentioned that one already...

To those who mentioned "Year of the Cat"--if you thought Al Stewart's hissing was bad on that one, you should hear the song "On the Border" on that album, where he actually wrote the line "smuggling guns and arms across the Spanish border." Sssoundsss like a sssnake was let loossse in the ssstudio.

willkim--"Oh Babe, What Would You Say" was a huge deal for me when it came out, because it was the first song I heard that featured a saxophone after I started to play one in beginning band. (I still play and teach for a living.)

The biggest obscure favorite of mine is the soundtrack for the Brian de Palma movie 'Phantom of the Paradise.' Not only did Paul Williams give a great performance as the villain, he also composed a set of song spanning at least six major genres. A Beach Boys, a Fleetwood Mac, a 70s metaler, etc., along with some others that served the Faustian plot.

"Carbeurators, man. Thats what life is all about"

"Hearts are broken and the bad guys win."

"If I could live my life half as worthlessly as you, I'm convinced that I'd wind up burning, too."

Plus my favorite spoken line: "You can't kill me, Winslow. I'm under contract, too."

A local theater had that movie as a second feature for half a year way back when, so I saw it an absurd number of times for the era before home videos made repeat viewing common. Warped my mind. Had the vinyl release of the soundtrack but it went missing, along with the rest of my LPs during a year I spent away from the family home. I'm pretty sure my worthless pothead brother-in-law sold them before my sister threw him out.

It was many years before I could replace it with a CD because A&M Records didn't think there was a market. They didn't seem to realize the movie had something of a cult status. I was finally able to get the Japanese import version, then not long after there was a US realize for half of what I paid.

Lets see, what else? Remember the Sweet? Fox on the Run? I listened to the 'Best of' frequently a few years ago and would have had difficulty explaining this to anyone who noticed.

Badfinger. Another 'Best of' gem but always a bit of a downer because I cannot help remembering that not one but two members of that band died by their own hands.

...and i feel the need to add my guilty pleasure songs since everyone else was kind enough to get their songs stuck in my head =)
I love "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany. I have several versions of it on my Ipod
Also pretty much any music you'll find in the movie "The Goonies"

Bad enough that I love this music, but this is coming from a girl that primarily listens to metal music!

Isn't that the old Tommy James & the Shondells song?

but the Tiffany version just reminds me so much of my childhood, so i generally associate the song with her =). Both versions are on my Ipod too by the way!

Dear Mr. Lileks,

With your brazen audacity to insult one of the finest melodic works in all of human history, you have defiled the sanctity of holy ground.

You see, good Sir, my name is Bill, a variation of which is Billy which is also the name of the character in the song you so brazenly disrespected .

Long about the year 1983, perhaps 1984, as a young sophomore in high school, I was enjoying the company of several friends at the home of a beautiful young lady of my acquaintance. Occasionally I had dared entertain the thought of requesting the company of my acquaintance on a date, however, believed myself not to be worthy of her class and stature. She was, after all, a senior.

At one point in the evening, while waiting for the others to return to the festivities with sustenance and libations, the beautiful young woman said she had found a song in her collection of vinyl that she wished to share with me. Having a penchant for music, I expressed my appreciation at her thoughtfulness and wish to hear the tune.

We went downstairs to the family game room where the stereo system was pumping out the best of the 80's radio top 40 hits. Our beautiful host went over to the stereo, flipped a switch to put the system in phonograph mode, lifted the turntable's cover and then picked up the tone arm and gently, gracefully, set the tone arm on the vinyl platter.

Through the scratches, the melody began and steadily grew in volume—the sound of military-esque drumming followed by whistling. Then came the lyrics, lyrics which featured my name.

The lyrics played and my host softly sang them to herself and danced around the room. By the time the second round of the chorus were making their way out of the stereo speakers and her lovely lips, she had danced her way to stand mere inches in front of me. She reached her arms up and around my neck and looked deeply into my eyes as she sang the words of the chorus. My heart was beating as though it never had before and I was dizzy heady mix of confusion and anticipation and fear. Is this really happening? Am I dreaming? Is she just teasing me?

My thoughts were interrupted by a sensation which I had not experienced before—her lips upon mine. Soft. Warm. Gentle. Alive. Tender. My first kiss.

So, what was that song she played and sang for me? The song in question was, Mr. Lileks, "Billy, Don't Be a Hero," by Paper Lace.

Mr. Lileks, you, good Sir, have dared to defy the sanctity of this sacred memory and most holy of all songs.

It is pistols at dawn, good Sir. Pistols at dawn. (And yes, yours will be loaded with blanks.)

Well, ChelleK81, it just goes to show you what an old geezer I am! Who would have thought that song would have been a hit a second time around (20 years later, I would guess).

OsakaBill, don't be a hero!

If they go through with this senseless act, I hope as the life drains from their bullet riddle bodies and they give up the ghost, the following lyrics are running throught their heads:

Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die,
when all the birds are singing in the sky,
Now that the spring is in the air.
Pretty girls are everywhere.
When you see them I'll be there.
We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time. . .*

*actually it is pretty amazing how Terry Jacks managed to wimp out this song which in its original French was a powerful song written by and sung by a man who was really dying.

Very good sonnymoon42, the original was released in 1967 with the Tiffany cover coming out in 1987. And I've been singing this silly song all day and managed to get 4 guys at work singing it too lol =)

Sirrah, I await your seconds.

It was a French song? How did they get Fun and Sun to rhyme?

I am not sure if Jacques Brel ever rhymed, I don't speak French and it all sounds so angry or sad. Literal:

Good-bye, my wife, I loved you well
Good-bye, my wife, I loved you well, you know,
But I'm taking the train for the Good Lord,
I'm taking the train before yours
But you take whatever train you can;
Goodbye, my wife, I'm going to die,
It's hard to die in springtime, you know,
But I'm leaving for the flowers with my eyes closed, my wife,
Because I closed them often,
I know you will take care of my soul.

Yess, it's a novelty song, and goes way back (late 50's) but "Witch Doctor" has the kind of Chorus you can't get out of your head.

Twistin' By the Pool -- Dire Straits

OK, try this one on for size. Prince's hyper-falsetto hit, Kiss, as covered by Tom Jones.

There is something about Mr. Jones' delivery on this one that is both addictive and sort of hysterical, in that you can tell he believes himself to be THE baddest bad-ass that ever kissed somebody.

Even if it is an octave lower than the original version.

Sure, Billy Joel himself isn't a guilty pleasure, but one song of his is. I'm sure you know which one it is. You can hear it playing while reading this, can't you. Come on, sing along now:

"We didn't start the fire
It was always burnin' since the world's been turnin'
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it"

You in the back row, I don't hear singing!

Oh my god, as I was reading the lyrics the entire song started running through my head. I remember in Jr. High one of my teachers playing that song and then assigning each of us a different part of the song to do projects on =)

Is this thread the all-time Buzz record for most replies?

Anyways - "Kung Foo Fighting". Yeah, that brings back memories. And the entire "Best of Earth, Wind and Fire, Vol. 1". Oh man, that's some smooth harmony.

But my guiltiest (is that a word?) pleasure? Maybe "Return to Pooh Corner" by Kenny Loggins. Still brings a tear to my eye.

And since we mentioned Kenny Loggins, here's an earbug for you - the bass line from "I'm Alright".

Bass - "Dub Dub Dub Dub Dub Dub Dub"
Kenny - "I'm...."
Bass - "Dub Dub Dub..."

YEA!!! Hurricane sounds just like Carol Channing!!!