Tag Archives: Worst List

As I mentioned in the best list intro, 1969 was when many of the worst pop trends of the early 70s started rearing their ugly heads. Although the foremost bad trend on display this year is gutless, edgeless pop-rock of a variety that would rapidly fizzle out over the next year or two, even inContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1969”

As I said in the intro to my best list, 1968 saw a distinct shifting of trends in the pop world, but as usual, the less impressive chart acts were a bit slower on the uptake. Though easy listening was steadily gaining ground, ‘68 still delivered a glut of passe proto-soul, stale bubblegum pop, andContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1968”

1967 is a famously great year for pop music, but as I’ve said before (and will undoubtedly say dozens more times over the course of this project), even the best years have their low points. Between the crass copyists who were eager to make a quick buck by xeroxing the sounds of the British InvasionContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1967”

The bad songs of 1966 were, predictably, largely a blend of trend-hopping opportunism and the outdated ‘50s pop that was still gasping its last few breaths of popular relevancy, with that weird sort of half-50s/half-70s gunk I’ve mentioned before filling up the remainder. By now the ‘60s were in full swing, and plenty of songwritersContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1966”

It has to be clarified here that, whenever I say a chart year was “good” or “bad”, I’m always speaking pretty broadly. Every year delivers a wide range of quality: you get some good, some bad, and a whole lot of just-kinda-ehh. That’s just the way it is when you’re looking at stuff marketed toContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1965”

Like the year before, many of 1964’s less impressive pop songs found themselves lagging behind the times. Trends that started the decade on top were now yesterday’s news, and as a new crop of young, hungry artists breathed life back into the charts, not everyone in the record industry was so quick on the uptake.Continue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1964”

1963 may have marked the point where the pop scene began the uphill climb towards its glorious pinnacle in the latter half of the decade (a pinnacle which, in the eyes of many, remains to this day unmatched), but the operative word there is “began”. In 1963, things were finally starting to liven up aContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1963”

Compared to the best list, the 1962 worst list was not quite as tough to fill out.  #10: Dee Dee Sharp- Gravy (For My Mashed Potatoes) Dee Dee Sharp scored big this year with “Mashed Potato Time”, a frivolous little dance tune that shot all the way to #2 on the charts. In the briefContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1962”

Well, with the good songs out of the way, I’ve no choice but to bite the bullet of wading through the heaps of sub-par pop 1961 had to offer. ‘61 continued the trend of eschewing the truly repugnant in favor of the mind-numbingly dull, and so many of this year’s hits were so thoroughly drabContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1961”

In the intro to this year’s best list, I said 1960 was overall a bit better than the years surrounding it- particularly the doldrums of 1961-63. While I do think it’s true that the rot hadn’t fully set in at this point, it’s definitely getting there, and despite the standout cuts my overall impression ofContinue reading “The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1960”