Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Bits in songs that make you cringe

723 replies

HolidayAtNight · 08/09/2024 22:22

Inspired by the thread the other day about "More Than Words" by Extreme. Like many posters, I hadn't heard the song in years, so went to listen to it. It was all going well until the bit when he sings "Hold me close don't EVAH LET ME GO" and I had to turn it off immediately.

What bits of songs do you find jarring and/or embarrassing? I have so many, but will try to choose a few. Lines where they've had to awkwardly shift the words around or use old-fashioned vocab/syntax to make them fit are definitely among the worst offenders.

In "Upside Down" by Diana Ross: "Respectfully I say to thee..." Whyyyy

In "A Spaceman Came Travelling" - the bit where he sings about a baby's cry and then the guitar imitates a newborn crying. This might be the worst one.

In "Come On Eileen" - "You in that dress, my thoughts, I confess, verge on dirty" Just no. The awkward old-fashioned phrasing, and the way his voice goes when he sings "dirty". Unbearable.

OP posts:
StMarieforme · 12/09/2024 23:35

LunaNorth · 08/09/2024 23:11

Mull of Kintyre. The whole thing is a complete cringe-fest, compounded by the presence of the be-mulleted Linda McCartney, absent-mindedly smacking a cow-bell or whatever.

Awful. Especially when the bagpipes turn up.

Stayed at number one for about 16 weeks iirc tho!

TheMarzipanDildo · 12/09/2024 23:37

Against my better instincts, I find Mull of Kintyre really sweet. My dad has to turn the radio off if it comes on though.

StMarieforme · 12/09/2024 23:38

@SpidersAreShitheads the 'little girls' is not referring to children though. It was always depicted with women. It was terminology at the time.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Music
StMarieforme · 12/09/2024 23:49

VivaLaSpag · 08/09/2024 23:32

East 17-Stay Another Day

’I touch your face while you are sleeeeeeping….’

Absofuckinglutely not.
Call the police.
Immediate non mol.

Shudder

This is about his brother taking his own life.

StMarieforme · 12/09/2024 23:50

PyongyangKipperbang · 08/09/2024 23:32

Its not cringeworth but it fucking pisses me off every time I hear it, if I am in the car I turn the radio off.

Perfect 10 by Beautiful South the line "The anorexic chics, the model 6, dont hold no weight with me". If the line line was "Those big fat chicks, the 26, they hold too much weight for me" there would be outcry and rightly so.

I hate the slim=anorexic thing too, I have had anorexia, I am slim but not skinny anymore. I have managed to put weight on and am now a healthy looking 10. I feel very fat though and am having to fight the urge to starve myself. That song feeds into my self loathing for having the illness but also for being fat (yes "not ill" brain tells me that I am not but my self loathing tells me that I am).

But some women are just naturally very slim. My friend is and has always been very thin, I have never seen anyone eat the way she does, she makes Man V Food look like an amateur. But she is always on the move and didnt even gain fat anywhere during her pregnancies, thats just how she is.

"Don't wanna bump no more with no big fat woman"

Years before.

StMarieforme · 12/09/2024 23:55

Vivalavida1 · 08/09/2024 23:51

The names shaniqua and wot line from ouch by n-dubz

They had some crackers - “I am the biggest female boss that ever lived”

What's wrong with the name Shaniqua? I don't know the song. Doesn't it scan?

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:02

CanadianJohn · 09/09/2024 00:09

"MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing running down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cos it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again"

and from the same song

"I will have the things that I desire
And my passions flow like rivers through the sky"

It's symbolic. Art.

RainBow725 · 13/09/2024 00:03

@PyongyangKipperbang yes! I was going to mention this one. Must be the worst Elton John / Bernie Taupin line ever written! I cringe every time.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:04

Rhyming Skyfall with Crumble always gets me!

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:05

TealTraybake · 09/09/2024 00:18

Baby it’s cold outside. Creepy all the way through.

Blurred Lines.
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl

etc. Vomit.

Baby it's cold outside was written in different times. It's only creepy when it has modern connotations put on it.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:10

Ed Sheeran Shape of you is about initial attraction in a pub. Physical attraction and falling for her immediately. And he does mention his heart. Context is everything.

I'm in love with the shape of you
We push and pull like a magnet do
Although my heart is falling too
I'm in love with your body

shonapop · 13/09/2024 00:10

mynewname25 · 08/09/2024 22:37

It's a modern one for me....

Snow Patrol In the Beginning, the "unequivocally" part, its so cringe and I hate it.

Totally agree. Despise it.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:11

ClairDeLaLune · 09/09/2024 00:31

Every Breath You Take. Stalky.

That's exactly what it is. Never was a love song.

Ditto James blunt "you're beautiful'. Not a love song. Stalker song.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:12

@KreedKafer totally agree re BICO!

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:14

@JudyP no Does Your Mother Know is about a too young girl flirting with him in a club and he's shooing her away. Being quite firm in telling her she's too young.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:22

I agree that it's a very creepy song - shame, as Neil is a very talented songwriter and performer, and I love a number of his songs.

But I don't think he was actually saying that he WAS her big brother; just that they were neighbours or something and it kind of seemed like that!

Or were you pointing it out to demonstrate that he was clearly older than her (by how much, we don't know, to be fair)? I don't think that would be in question, would it, if he's remarking on the fact that she's 16? If he too were 16, why would he even think to mention it?

Years ago I used to think the big brother thing meant he was only a couple of years older, and hadn't wanted to ask her out till she was 16. They were more innocent times for song lyrics.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:27

I think there is an actual real life ‘Clair’ that inspired the song, like a relative or godchild. Sure I’ve seen her interviewed about it.

God daughter. And it was about how much he adored her. As her godfather. Not creepy. Not all men are creepy.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:28

Well, quite. For me it’s the line, “and now my bedsheets smell like you.” Yuck!!
I’m sure that’s caused a few embarrassing conversations with kids at some point.

Her perfume?

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:30

MorrisseyGladioli · 09/09/2024 02:15

This morning at 4.50, i took her rather nifty, down to an incubator where 20 minutes later, she gave birth to a daughter..
Squeeze. Up the junction.

Well yes. Crass. But he is meant to be a loser.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:44

the80sweregreat · 09/09/2024 11:24

I'm a Blur fan , but what is ' Parklife' ?
He isn't homeless in the song so we know he doesn't live in an actual park !
It baffles me ( not one of their best ones)

It's about people doing stuff in the Park as they were walking through to the studio. Kid of real Britishness about it. But tongue in cheek.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:45

Wham’s Last Christmas “do you recognise me? Well it’s been a year it doesn’t surprise me” Do what? Unrecognisable in only a year???

It's sarcasm.

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 00:57

Shangrilalala · 10/09/2024 12:47

Massive ABBA fan but another one where Bjorn surely knew better:

Our Last Summer ‘it was the time of THE flower power’

I loved this song as an album track years before Mamma Mia but even in my youth I rolled my eyes. Just wrong, Bjorn.

English is the only language to use the article as we do. In other languages they would say "I'm going to shop" "Could you get me loaf?"
So it may have been confusion there.

Or he may have done it intentionally to magnify the whole era as The Flower Power.

It didn't work in Mamma Mia because it would have meant the daughter was born in the 70s and would have been way older lol!

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 01:05

Emmz1510 · 11/09/2024 17:30

Oh loads. But Under My Thumb by the Rolling Stones makes me cringe. All the lyrics are just horrible.

Totally agree!

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 01:20

YoghurtPotWashingMachine · 12/09/2024 12:59

Great song but this line in Red light spells danger by Billy Ocean. It goes:

"An' now I'm like a child again
Calling out his mama's name"

What child calls their mum by their name? "Sharon! I need my nappy changed!"

🤣🤣🤣

StMarieforme · 13/09/2024 01:22

AlecTrevelyan006 · 12/09/2024 17:49

I love Queen but the whole of I want to break free makes me cringe. Especially the video and the following lyric:

I’ve fallen in love
Ive fallen in love for the first time
And THIS time I know it’s for real
I’ve fallen in love

makes no sense!!!

Because he thought he had before but now he realises he hadn't.