What was the worst Number 1 single of the 1960s?

[NightTrain]

Poll question: What was the worst Number 1 single of the 1960s?

For this poll, I've picked what I personally consider the worst #1 pop single of each year of the '60s. Let's pit them against each other and see which one DU considers the worst chart-topper of the decade!

[HEyHEY]

1. Herman's Hermit...you included Hereman's HErmits!

BUt....BUt... the were the poor man's beatles!

[dreissig]

3. Herman's Hermits

Herman's Hermits played the World Trade Center about a month or so before September 11th. There was a stage in the plaza and once a week some moderately famous group would play there at lunchtime. There were country/western singers and bands. Office workers would dance that two-step they do in the honky-tonk bars.

[Swede]

2. I still love all that old crap

[soupkitchen]

4. Well if "I Got You Under My Skin" by the Four Seasons ever made it to

No 1, that would be my vote. Heard it for the first time in years on the radio last month didn't believe how badly they covered this standard.

[newyawker99]

5. I voted for "Teen Angel"

I hate those sappy tragedy songs!!

:puke:

[liberalhistorian]

30. "Johnny Angel" is even worse!

My teeth ache whenever I'm forced to listen to that!

[Rooktoven]

6. Sugar Shack by a mile

unless Rag Doll made it to #1. Ugh.

[Capn Sunshine]

31. I heard that in the Supermarket!

I was stunned.

[mitchum]

7. "I tell you Bob, when the kids hear Sgt. Sadler...

they'll forget all about that yeah yeah yeah music. What young man wouldn't want to be him? What young lady wouldn't want to be his girlfriend? They'll recognise good music and good values..."

[joeybee12]

8. Hey--most of these songs are pretty damn good!

Except Ballad of the Green Berets.

[ET Awful]

9. If it wasn't for John Wayne . . .

Nobody would've given a damn about the Green Berets, and the song never would have mattered.

Blame the Duke :)

[VOX]

34. Except the movie was released 2 years *after* the song was a hit...

Too many "Fighting Soldiers from the sky" all around!

:toast:

[mlawson]

50. He was a draft dodger in WWII!!!

That's right -- he didn't even go!!! Hollywood got him out...

[Old and In the Way]

10. "They're coming to take me Away, Haha"

hehe, hoho to the funny farm......

That was as bad as it gets.

[Athletic Grrl]

49. Hey, you be dissin' Zappa.....

I won't stand for it. :P

I was scrolling down waiting to see Honey. It was a no-brainer for me. Next would have to be Easy Come, Easy Go, by the other helmet hair head, Bobby Sherman.

[Rowdyboy]

11. Honey is the

sappiest song ever written...Just hearing the name is like sugar shock, it sets my teeth on edge.

[newyawker99]

12. LOL Rowdy!! I agree but all of Bobby Goldsboro's

songs were sappy. :hi:

[NightTrain]

14. "Little Things" wasn't sappy

Which is undoubtedly why it's the only Goldsboro record to which I can actually listen.

[newyawker99]

17. Ok....so he had one good one!

:P

[Iverson]

13. Honey (retch, barf)

"Honey" makes "Teen Angel" sound like sophisticated composition and philosophical inquiry. God, is that song bad!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:
:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[NightTrain]

15. I think I can figure out which record you voted for!

:hi:

[Iverson]

35. uhhhhhhhh, oh yeah?

:toast:

[Clete]

16. Hey you forgot, "Hooray for Hazel",

"Birds of a Feather" and "Sugar Shack". I don't remember the the groups that recorded them, but they did get a lot of broadcast time.

[newyawker99]

18. I think Hooray for Hazel was by Tommy Roe. n/t

[NightTrain]

19. "Birds of a Feather" and "Hooray For Hazel" were not Number 1 hits.

"Sugar Shack" was a #1 record in '63, but I thought "Blue Velvet" was worse.

[Clete]

20. You're probably right.

[DancingBear]

37. If I'm not mistaken

"Sugar Shack" was one of only two million selling 45's in '63.

The other? - "Hey Paula".

[eauclaireliberal]

21. You forgot the Archies

BARF ALERT!



Sugar, ah honey honey
you are my candy girl
and you've got me wanting you.
Honey, ah sugar sugar
you are my candy girl
and you've got me wanting you.

[ironflange]

22. My Ding-a-Ling

So sad that this is Chuck's only #1.

[Lithos]

23. That was also early 70's if I remember

Not 60's.

L-

[ironflange]

24. So it was, 1972

In that case, I vote for "Honey." God, I hate that song.

:puke:

[union_maid]

25. Honey, Honey...oh, and Honey

Would be the top three of the songs I hope I never hear again.

If you do one on the 70's, can I vote for "You Light Up My Life" in advance?

[VOX]

26. "Honey" is wretched, but Barry Sadler was a freeper's wet dream...

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/specials/0004/vietnam.cultural.timeline/1966.1.html

Barry Sadler was an Army staff sergeant and medic in Vietnam who co-wrote "The Ballad of the Green Berets" while recovering from a leg wound. The song, which Sadler later recorded, topped the U.S. charts for five weeks in 1966, sold 9 million copies and became the anthem for the Special Forces.

Sadler died in 1989 at age 49, 14 months after being shot in the head in Guatemala, where he was said to have been training Contra rebels. The mysterious shooting -- conflicting accounts described it as accidentally self-inflicted, the result of a robbery, or the culmination of death threats -- left Sadler brain-damaged and at the center of a guardianship dispute between family members.

Sadler wrote more than 20 adventure books featuring the mercenary Casca, but he never repeated the success of "The Ballad of the Green Berets"...

[union_maid]

28. True that, about Green Berets

On policital grounds it was the worst, but at least Sadler had a decent voice. What about the answer to The Green Berets? Can't remember who did that, but it was supposed to be the wife.

[Iverson]

45. indoctrination vs. brain removal

That's the difference between the two songs. You can recover from indoctrination, but you cannot grow a new brain. That's why Honey is the worse of those admittedly horribly awful choices.

[Capn Sunshine]

27. I can't belive you left off Yummy Yummy Yummy I've got Love in My Tummy

Gad.

[union_maid]

29. That song is what give me hope for the culture

When pop culture is particularly discouraging, I remember that Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I've got Love in My Tummy was in the top 40 while the FM stations were broadcasting a musical renaissance.

[NightTrain]

33. It wasn't a #1 hit! "Yummy" peaked at #4.

C'mon folks, read the bloody thread title!

[dae]

32. Honey, edges out Ballad of the Green Beret, who beats Teen

Angel by a nose.
BTW for the record, Ring My Bell (1970?) still gives me the shits whenever I think about....shit, gotta go!!!!

[InkAddict]

36. 96 Tears by ? and The Mysterians

theme song of Mom's nightmare.

[GalleryGod]

38. "Mr. Lonely" was a Big Favorite on the "Hanoi Hannah Show"

blaring it out to disgruntled GI's In Country.

[kayell]

39. Honey nauseated me at age 11

It takes a lot to nauseate an 11 year old. Even thinking about it now is making me uh, er, oh no... :puke:

Damn it, the song is now stuck in my head! :grr: Time for the old Dave Berry trick to remove annoying songs by passing them on. :evilgrin:

See the tree, how big it's grown but friend it hasn't been too long it wasn't big
I laughed at her and she got mad, the first day that she planted, it, was just a twig
Then the first snow came and she ran out to brush the snow away
So it wouldn't die
Came runnin' in all excited, slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed till I cried
She was always young at heart, kinda dumb and kinda smart and I loved her so
And I surprised her with a puppy
Kept me up all Christmas Eve two years ago
And it would sure embarrass her
When I came in from workin' late 'cause I would know
That she'd been sittin' there and cryin'
Over some sad and silly late, late show

And honey, I miss you and I'm bein' good
And I'd love to be with you if only I could

She wrecked the car and she was sad
And so afraid that I'd be mad but what the heck
Though I pretended hard to be
Guess you could say she saw through me and hugged my neck
I came home unexpectedly and caught her cryin' needlessly
In the middle of a day
And it was in the early Spring when flowers bloom and robins sing
She went away

And honey, I miss you and I'm bein' good
And I'd love to be with you if only I could

One day while I was not at home while she was there and all alone
The angels came
Now all I have is memories of Honey and I wake up nights and call her name
Now my life's an empty stage where Honey lived and Honey played
And love grew up
And a small cloud passes overhead and cries down on the flower bed
That Honey loved

And see the tree how big it's grown but friend it hasn't been too long it wasn't big
And I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it, was just a twig

--------------------

Ah, now I feel much better.

[AntiCoup2K4]

41. I never actually paid attention to the lyrics of that sappy shit before

Obviously, the implication is that his wife died, but the reasons aren't given. But what we do know is that she cried.... a LOT!

Could it be that Bobby's sickening music drove the poor woman into serious depression, and she killed herself? :scared:

[kayell]

43. LOL, I will never think of that song the same way again!

Thank you. I'm still laughing.

[Snow]

40. # 1 singles that were really bad? Let's see.......

"The Lion sleeps tonight" (wimba-wacka wimba-wacka)
"One-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater" (Hmmmm, is it for hire? Does it like bushies?)
"The Witch Doctor" (another ethnic theme. ooo-eee oooo-ahh-ahh, ting, tang, walla-walla bing-bang)

[AntiCoup2K4]

42. Witch Doctor - the song that gave birth to.....

[JitterbugPerfume]

44. Do not speak ill of

Peter Paul and Mary

Jitterbug loves them

[youngred]

46. I agree

PP+M are great, and Leavin on a jet plane is a classic! No way that deserves to be on the list!

[NightTrain]

47. Peter, Paul and Mary...feh!

Self-important pomposity + contempt for rock and roll = loathsome, vacuous music.

"Heaving On A Jet Plane" is more like it!

[CBHagman]

48. "Honey" has infernally bad lyrics.

So I chose that. On my very first job, I heard Bobby Goldsboro perform that tune live. :puke:

[mlawson]

51. Gary Puckett: "This Girl is a Woman Now".

YECH!!! Puckett's warbling vocal on that was nauseating. The whole thing was so overwrought, the first time we heard it, we thought it was a 'joke' song.

[Cat Atomic]

52. "Fearless men... who jump and die..."

That remains the single strangest line I've ever heard in a song.

[Scree]

53. "Watching Scotty Grow" by Bobby Goldsboro

[Norbert]

54. In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans...

should have been in the 1969 slot for sure.

"In the year 4545,
Your arms and legs by your side."

Oh how I wished this date happened when the got the idea to write this song. Then the useless arms and fingers couldn't put the damn song on paper.

I write this song in. It's worse than any song Bobby Goldsboro did, worse than Staff Sargeant Barry Sadler songs, worse then Barry Sadler endorsed Christy Lane songs. Face it it's worse than just about anything on the planet.

[NightTrain]

55. '69 was a toss-up (throw-up?) between "2525" and "Jet Plane."

Obviously, I went with Peter, Paul and Mary.

[regnaD kciN]

56. Sex or violence...?

In other words, "Honey" or "Ballad of the Green Berets?"

I can't decide!!!!!

[emad]

57. In the UK 'Blue Velvet' made such an impact that a manufacturer

of lavatory paper promptly named their latest loo roll after it.
It's got to be the crappiest song ever...