Musicians often pour their hearts and soul into their craft, especially in an industry where a hit song is hit-and-miss. While there are musical geniuses that have given us timeless hit songs, not everyone is happy about it. Here are popular songs hated by the artists who performed them.
"Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra (1966)
The Sultan of Swoon's 1966 hit earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Record of the Year. It was also the title track for his most commercially successful album.
In his biography "Sinatra: The Life" by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, Sinatra himself told his aide Irving Weiss that he didn't like the song, calling it "a piece of sh*t." He was also publicly heard mentioning, "That's the worst f**king song I ever heard."
"Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin (1971)
"Stairway to Heaven" has become one of Led Zeppelin's signature songs, with its widely-acclaimed guitar solo and the iconic "and she's buying a stairway to heaven" line. The song was co-written by its vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page.
In the 1970s, Robert Plant said in an interview that he would "break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show." His hatred grew with the interviewers' repeated inquiries about the song and the fans' consistent incessant looking for theories and explanations on the lyrics.
Plant himself also gave $10,000 to KBOO, a listener-supported radio station in Portland after a pledge drive, but with the condition that the station never plays the song. He later explained that it "wasn't that he didn't like the song, but he'd heard it before."
"Creep" by Radiohead
The theme song for the 90s teens' feelings of alienation was what endeared Radiohead with the wider, larger mainstream audience. It made the band an overnight sensation, rating across charts shortly after its launch and charting again 16 years after it was released, with their greatest hits compilation album.
However, the one who hated it the most was none other than Thom Yorke, Radiohead's frontman. He felt that the band was only famous because of one song. Moreover, people reportedly attended their shows only to listen to that one song and leave after.
"Pinball Wizard" by The Who (1969)
This particular section of The Who's 1969 concept opera album "Tommy" is from the perspective of "Local Lad," a character in the overarching story who talks about the titular character through its lyrics. "Tommy" was a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who grows up to be a religious leader. In its Oscar-nominated movie adaptation, Elton John portrayed the local pinball champion.
In the album's liner notes, however, The Who's lead guitarist and main songwriter Pete Townshend called "Pinball Wizard" "awful" and said that it was "the most clumsy piece of writing I've ever done." The song was added at the last minute, making Tommy good at pinball, a game adored by music critic Nik Cohn to get on his good side.
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