Really, its an awful song. The lyrics are middle- school wannabe-profound level . Prince was never a great lyricist , but this is overall laughably bad.
There's a good moment with the "you're just like my mother/i'm just like my father" lines, but then "animals strike curious poses" bit is hilarious and from that point, the song can't be redeemed
The song not only hit #1 and stayed there for weeks, but according to the Wikipedia it is " ranked No. 37 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll " .
Hugo Montenegro's really god awful cover of Morricone's, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, just a complete pile of crap, reached #1 in the UK & stayed there for a few weeks (I think it got to #2 in the States).
Probably the very worst is one of the many one-note auto-tuned plastic tracks that have gone to #1 in the last 10 to 12 years, but I don't have the time to wade through those.
But I found an absolute "winner" - not surprisingly it's one of those godawful European tunes that inexplicably sell huge over there. This one, a bouncy, annoying sub-ABBA thing with music that sounds like the theme to The Flintstones, is some sort of Dutch-German concoction that amazingly was awarded the #1 U.S. Adult Contemporary hit of the year 1976 - but has any American ever heard of this before? Listen forewarned. It's mind-numbingly bad.
Jonathan King (“Everybody’s Gone ToThe Moon”) recorded the original version. The George Baker Selection actually hit the Top 40 before in ‘70 with “Little Green Bag”, which I prefer over “Paloma Blanca”.
Hugo Montenegro's really god awful cover of Morricone's, The Good The Bad & The Ugly, just a complete pile of crap, reached #1 in the UK & stayed there for a few weeks (I think it got to #2 in the States).
I didn’t think Montenegro’s cover of the theme for “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” wasn’t that bad, even if Morricone himself didn’t care for it. At least it was better than any of a LeRoy Holmes’ covers of Morricone Spaghetti Western themes (save for “A Few Dollars More”).
At least it wasn’t the theme for “Eight Is Enough”!, which has one of the worst vocals of all time.
Yes, the 12-inch extended disco version was way too long. I prefer the 45 rpm radio edit.
I actually have a version of this song on a 45 rpm single from Germany in which they cut off the slow beginning! The song just "starts" right away as soon as you put the needle on the record.
Maybe they could do a remake with Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas filling in for Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer?
Probably the very worst is one of the many one-note auto-tuned plastic tracks that have gone to #1 in the last 10 to 12 years, but I don't have the time to wade through those.
But I found an absolute "winner" - not surprisingly it's one of those godawful European tunes that inexplicably sell huge over there. This one, a bouncy, annoying sub-ABBA thing with music that sounds like the theme to The Flintstones, is some sort of Dutch-German concoction that amazingly was awarded the #1 U.S. Adult Contemporary hit of the year 1976 - but has any American ever heard of this before? Listen forewarned. It's mind-numbingly bad.
AAAAHHHHHH! My brain!!! I'd almost forgotten that one! That was one of those MOR songs that your folks said, "Oh, that's a pretty song!" Made you wish you could reach thru the radio, grab the DJ and....
Another one that infects you with a maddening case of earworm is Pass the Dutchie (1982): The words from the original source material were changed to "clean it up", if you will, so that instead of being about marijuana ("Kouchie") it was about food ("Dutchie").
Funny, I had to go listen to "Disco Duck." I don't ever remember hearing it back in the day. Now that I have, I agree that it's the worst of those mentioned so far. (But only by default. I actually like all the others mentioned).
Oh man that song is a classic! I remember it well.
I was very much alive that year and have no memory of it. I must have purged it from my memory banks.
Some real stinkers here (some not too bad as well).
It made #1 on the R&B chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, but Janet Jackson’s “Nasty” is so grating, those synthesizers sound like they were trying to emulate fingernails scraping on a blackboard!!! So annoying!!!
I have to admit that for the last 30 (maybe 40) years I haven't had a clue what's #1 (or any of the chart entries really). Is it important anymore? I do get the impression that you don't have to see that many copies to get into the charts these days. It used to be said that if you had a big hit (esp. worldwide) that you could live off it for the rest of your life, I don't think that's the case anymore.