Bits in songs that make you cringe

[HolidayAtNight]

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.

I wanna be loved by you
'I couldn't aspire to anything higher'

ABC

If you judge a book by the cover
Then you judge the look by the lover

It makes no SENSE

When I was a teenager I used to listen to this really loudly in the dark so that I could imagine what being on drugs would be like.

Course it was, sorry.

I can forgive ABC anything - even Martin's talky bit in Broken Arrow is fine with me

The beginning and pretty much all of Cotton Eye Joe. Especially when you're on a dance floor and everyone else is estatic at the opening bars and you can't escape quick enough. Just awful.

And another weird one that I always found REALLY icky:

Then she looked at me, I heard her softly say
"I know you're young, you don't know what to do or say
But stay with me until the sun has gone away...
And I will chase that boy in you away."

Then she smiled
And we talked for awhile
Then we walked for a mile to the sea
We sat on the sands, and a boy took her hand
But I saw the sun rise as a man

A song about a 17yr old losing his virginity to a random 31 yr old woman who winked at him in the street.

He’d have a job getting my Snags off with his teeth. He’d have his eye out

“Martin, do you think you’ll ever find true love?”

”I don’t know, Barry, do you?”

Omg I hate this bit and cringe so hard everytime 😂😂😂😂😭😭😭😭

Bit of a blast from the past here. In "Glorious" by Andreas Johnson:

"Here she comes like a brand new day
Belly dancing across the room"

The perfect ‘Satellite of Love’ by Lou Reed is spoiled by the middle bit that goes ‘I’ve been told that you’ve been bold with Harry, Mark and John.’

Who was it who had the song Sweet Sixteen?

A number of 60s artists had similar songs. Ringo Starr, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Burnette, Chuck Berry...

All creepy because, if the man/boy had also been 16/17, he wouldn't have thought to pass comment on it as being anything unusual, would he?

In fairness, it's so utterly annoying I imagine your brain is trying to save you from blotting it out 😅😅

Ahaha this is also in "so bad I love it" territory!

For me it's Train 🤮

My heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest

That always gives me a brilliant mental image. I’m lying here trying not to wake DH laughing

You come on like a dream
Peaches and cream
Lips like strawberry wine
You're sixteen, you're beautiful and you're mine

yuck!

Sting: I don’t think it’s a sad song. I think it’s a nasty little song, really rather evil. It’s about jealousy and surveillance and ownership.

The one bit I can't forgive is the "sisters and brothers should help each other" verse in The Look of Love with all the hip hip hooray stuff. I wish you could get a version with the last 30 seconds cut off.

Madonna has had a couple of the most cringe worthy songs. Justify my love! erotica! Aaargh!!

Animals, Maroon 5. The whole thing is just grim, but “I can smell your scent for miles” is just the worst chat up line ever, and “don’t deny the animal that comes alive when I’m inside you” really makes me want to hurl. Also completely agree with most of these, and really wish I didn’t now have “I wanna sex you up” stuck on a loop in my brain…

Ooh but his talky bit in Look of Love… ‘they say Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love… I say maybe’

ERK

I went right off December 63 by the Four Seasons when I realised it was about a guy barely out of his teens being excited about getting seduced by a Mrs Robinson. And a line about his premature ejaculation to boot. Lovely.

Aside from all of the many obvious issues with that song, they must indeed have been extremely little girls if they could fit eight of them (including Fred) in the back seat of a car - presumably without child car seats back then!