Chris Cagle is a modestly successful country singer who’s managed to chart a few singles since 2000. “I Breathe In, I Breathe Out” was a #1 hit in 2001. There’s…
World’s Worst Songs
43 Articles
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Is there anything more lovely than the voices of little children in song? Most things, actually. At World’s Worst World Headquarters, we did not bother looking up from our Super…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
(Stay with me on this one. I think I can make the case.) Even though some people believe that profanity is a linguistic copout or the sign of a failed…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Hell yes, I read your comments. And you asked for it: this week’s installment of World’s Worst Songs stars “Sequel” by Harry Chapin. But first a bit of historical perspective….
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Good storytelling involves not only what you leave in, but what you leave out. What’s left out is what makes Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” so compulsively listenable over…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Wait, what? Chicago’s third single, “25 or 6 to 4,” was released in the summer of 1970, and it is flat awesome. It proves just how hard a horn band…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
Kenny Rogers scored solo hits beginning in 1977, but many of his early singles seemed to exist out of time. They sure didn’t sound like anything else on the radio…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
This is the final edition of World’s Worst Songs before Christmas, so here are a few short takes on three reviled holiday records, all involving animals, all of which you…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Laura Miller wrote a brilliant essay called “The Kitschification of September 11,” which appeared in Salon in January 2002. Miller discussed the blizzard of sentimental…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
Dan Fogelberg’s wuss-rock holiday epic “Same Old Lang Syne” is the foundation stone upon which World’s Worst Songs is built. In the Olympics of Suck, it’s Michael Phelps. I have…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Between now and Christmas, World’s Worst Songs will single out some of the season’s ickiest perennials, starting with a song that has nothing to do with Christmas, but which gets…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Thanksgiving, the first American holiday and arguably the most unique, doesn’t get much respect anymore. It’s been reduced to a mere speed-bump on the way to Black Friday. Apart from…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
Certain albums in this series present a particular challenge, as we’ve noted before: What can one say that’s fresh about some of the most famous albums ever recorded? For that,…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Hollywood has been making Batman movies more-or-less continuously for a generation now, going back to 1989 and continuing through this past summer’s The Dark Knight Rises. The 1989 Batman was…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
It has been suggested to me that I include “Come Sail Away” by Styx in this feature. But “Come Sail Away” is actually a perfectly fine record. It’s got everything…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
You think finding a different bad song to write about every week is easy? That there’s no psychological price to be paid for this assignment? That no harm is done…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
I am always happy to accept reader suggestions for this feature, although I think this is the first request I’ve actually fulfilled. Art is supposed to reflect the times in…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
We love us some Stevie Wonder around here. From his hits off the Motown production line in the 60s to his groundbreaking solo work in the 70s, writing and playing…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Forty years ago this fall, Chuck Berry’s career was in renaissance. His last hits of any consequence had come in 1964, but in 1972 he benefited from the ongoing rediscovery…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
Louis Armstrong is one of the most important figures in the history of music. Critic Gary Giddins says he “invented modern time.” Kenny G is one of the most polarizing…
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J.A. Bartlett
3 Min Read
While the scope and audacity of the September 11 attacks was shocking, that the United States had finally been hit was not. Informed citizens understood that there were people in…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
How many times have I prefaced one of these features by apologizing? I am a Rod Stewart fan, but “Hot Legs” sucks. I love Bob Seger, but I hate “We’ve…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
I beg of you, in the name of all that’s holy, tread carefully with the video embedded below. It will suck out your soul and kill it in front of…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
The best thing about writing World’s Worst Songs is when people disagree. I am under no illusions that my opinion in these matters is definitive, and I don’t mind being…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
OK, this one hurts. But in the grand scheme of things, it was not entirely unpredictable. No artist with a major reputation needs the comprehensive box-set treatment more than Bob…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
I grew up on a farm. The proceeds from a small herd of dairy cows put clothes on our backs and two of us through college. Farming is hard, and…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
“Wind Beneath My Wings” expresses a lovely sentiment: “you’re my hero, you’re everything I would like to be, whatever I am capable of doing is because of you.” If anyone…
J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Lots of us—and I am a particularly big offender in this area—have praised Rod Stewart’s early solo work to the skies at the expense of what came later. By the…
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J.A. Bartlett
1 Min Read
Novelty songs are a chancy proposition for a feature such as this. Many novelties are awful by design, in their attempts to capitalize on a fad or to insinuate themselves…
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J.A. Bartlett
2 Min Read
When people like me gripe about artists left out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Heart is one of the first bands we mention. As the first superstar…
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