The concept for this playlist, as I originally described it to my husband, is “songs other people would ridicule.” It wasn’t difficult to put together, since refusing to differentiate between high and low culture when it comes to music is kind of my shtick. This one is all low, in one way or another. It’s got easy listening, disco, bubblegum, hard rock, and Hanson. There’s also a few covers, which prove to be an interesting way to play with the high and low concepts — both through cool people covering bad songs and uncool people covering good songs. Laugh if you must, but I think you’ll enjoy it if you listen in the right spirit.
1. Wings — “Silly Love Songs” (1976) Songs like “Silly Love Songs” are the reason that people don’t take Paul McCartney seriously. But Paul gets that and turns it around on them, arguing both that he doesn’t care and that lots of people love what he’s doing anyway. And is this really any less cheesy than “Imagine?” In addition to baiting his critics, Paul also indulges his love for medley, cycling through various little riffs and melodic lines. It’s hard to tell what’s the chorus and what’s the verse, if anything is. The best part is the middle eight-ish section that begins “Love doesn’t come in a minute/Sometimes it doesn’t come at all.” There’s a sincerity there. I recently saw the delightful promo video for this song, with footage taken from Wings Across America, and it’s obvious that Paul and Linda, sliding into middle age with their terrible matching haircuts, knew love in a way that wasn’t silly at all.
2. Hanson — “Get The Girl Back” (2013) I’ve always not hated Hanson, but Taylor really started to prove himself somewhere around the mid-2000s. Between appearing with cult supergroups L.E.O. and Tinted Windows and singing lead on a couple of well reviewed Hanson albums, he credibly makes the shift from pop ridicule to pop underground. You’ve got to admit he’s a dynamite vocalist and this pop-soul gem, replete with horns and handclaps, should make Daryl Hall proud.
3. Lisa Mychols — “Don’t Give Up on Us” (2013) I love my ‘70s soft rock, but even I have to admit that David Soul’s original version of “Don’t Give Up on Us” is a snoozefest. Pop darling Lisa Mychols comes to the rescue with a sprightlier tempo, glossy vocal, and wash of crunchy guitars. Her treatment lets the beauty of the melody shine through and transforms the song into something not just listenable, but glorious.
4. Willam Shatner — “Common People” (2004) Shatner may be known for his comically terrible spoken word renditions of pop classics, but this take on Pulp’s “Common People” is FOR REAL. It is literally my #1 all-time favorite cover. The material suits him perfectly, with lots of storytelling and dialogue that he can deliver in an an actorly way. Perhaps the built-in irony of the lyrics precludes any ironic take on the performance itself. The duet aspect of it — with Joe Jackson snarling along in the second half — is astounding as well. I suspect many of the kudos should go to producer Ben Folders for syncing up the spoken and sung parts so brilliantly — never too matchy, but always catching up to each other just in time. Brilliant.
5. Stone Temple Pilots — “Big Bang Baby” (1996) I guess it’s hard to recover from getting publicly slammed in a Pavement song, because STP still struggle to shake their reputation has second-wave grunge also-rans. That’s a shame, since they hold the distinction of “most melodic grunge band who is not Nirvana” and I’m always kind of surprised how much I like them. They really took off with the Tiny Music album, largely shedding the seriousness of early grunge and branching out into a more pop-inspired sound. “Big Bang Baby” is ridiculously catchy and cynical take on fame, and the “Nothing’s for free” middle eight is downright Beatlesque.
6. FireHouse — “Don’t Treat Me Bad” (1990) This might be most overtly terrible-seeming song on this mix. FireHouse are a D-list hard rock band who peaked in the early 90s with a number of hit power ballads in Japan. My husband and I laughed for like 10 minutes when we read that they were from Charlotte. But damn if this isn’t good. It’s just a straight up, Cheap Trick-styled rocker. No frills, just a hook and an actually great rock vocal.
7. Bananarama — “No Feelings” (1983) I haven’t actually verified this, but it seems like the idea of an ‘80s girl group covering one of the Sex Pistol’s seminal anti-pop screeds might rub some people the wrong way. But it works, largely because the pop treatment highlights the lurking musicality that is the secret strength of the Pistols. Viva Glen Matlock!
8. The Fortunes — “Storm in a Teacup” (1972) Another Pistols connection: I first heard this song recommended in John Lydon’s autobiography, Anger is an Energy. He frames it as an example of a kind of enjoyably basic (or “bog standard,” as the Brits would say) pop music that he loves, yet feels the need to defend. I can see how this is kind of the wrong side of history, taking the British invasion sound beyond its prime and mixing in the start of adult contemporary. The sax solo on this would not be out of place on an ’80s Billy Joel song. But still, it is pure, enjoyable pop — catchy and melodic, with something comforting about the “storm in a teacup” message as well.
9. MKTO — “Classic” (2014) This song is just so exuberant and, well, classic that it overcomes a lot. The lyrics, despite being written by professional, adult songwriters, sound like a 12-year’s muddled idea of every cool thing of the past 80 years. The rap is also really bad. But I’m over the moon every time I hear it. I’m never opposed to a little bubblegum, and I actually wish I was aware of more recent songs like this one that are fun for kids, but not so trendy in sound that they can’t cross generational lines as well.
10. Andy Gibb — “I Just Want to be Your Everything” (1977) Part of Barry Gibb’s unstoppable hit-writing spree in the late ’70s, this is only nominally disco and only nominally not a Bee Gees song. Younger brother Andy’s voice here is fine and maybe even nice in that it’s break from non-stop falsetto. But the stars are, as usual, Barry’s melody and the group’s harmonies. The melodic line I like the most is the part beginning “Open up the heaven in your heart and let me be.”
11. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass — “This Guy’s in Love With You” (1968) Despite Alpert’s easy listening reputation, it’s an open secret that “This Guy’s in Love With You You” is really cool. It’s a Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition, and it’s even been covered (and ripped off) by Noel Gallagher. Much of the charm comes from Alpert giving the kind of naive vocal performance that’s characteristic of a non-singer. What it always reminds me of, strangely enough, is when Mo Tucker sings for the Velvet Underground.
12. Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark — “Walking on the Milky Way” (1996) After OMD scored this surprise late-career hit, Andy McCluskey was apparently so fed up with the industry’s general indifference to the song that he dissolved the band and began writing songs for a girl group called Atomic Kitten — apparently the only way he could get attention as a songwriter. I think he might regret this now, because OMD are back and sounding even darker than their early days. But “Milky Way” is the group at their adult contemporary best: smooth vocal with a surprising bit of growl, big strings, and singalong chorus. The lines “I don’t believe in miracles/I don’t believe in truth/I don’t believe that anything can recreate your youth” reveal a lurking cynicism and provide a nice counterpoint to the pure pop sound.