Friday Night Jazz iPod’s guilty little pleasures

I will be incommunicado today, winging my way back from Berlin for acht und halben stunden (8 1/2 hours).  I wrote this back in 2005, but never published it widely.

Enjoy:

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What sort of crap do you have lurking hidden on your iPod?

That’s the question I stumbled across from my old essays & effluvia blog. It was based on an article from The Arizona Republic, which asked:

“Those saccharine pop tunes and schmaltzy ballads cloaked from friends? There’s no excuse anymore. No blaming it on a CD that had just one song you liked. No claiming it belonged to your wife, husband or friend.You selected each and every tune. Like it or not, these are your greatest hits.

Now, let the melodic mocking commence.”

Those of you who have read me for a while know my musical tastes are wide-ranging, sharp, and ahead of the curve. (New visitors to TBP should check out our annual “best ofs” from the past few years).

But saccharine pop tunes and schmaltzy ballads hidden on the iPod?

Guilty as charged.

Not only do I have a slew of really embarrassing guilty pleasures on my pod, but they have actually found their way on to various mixes I’ve made. That means, no excuses.

How about you? What embarrassing ditties would your close friends be aghast about — if they knew? Since our big interactive musical discussion — Greatest American R&R Band — was so much fun, let’s take another swipe at it:

What are the most horrendous, embarrassing, guilty pleasures on your iPod?

I’ll start the HD spinning with my hidden collection of pathetic guilty pleasures (‘tho music snob that I am, I foolishly believe my guilty pleasures are superior to most people’s — indefensible as that position might be).

These lists go from least (10) to most (1) embarrassing.

Generally embarrassing pop orotherwise awful commercial song:

10. Semi-Charmed Kinda of Life, Third Eye Blind
9. Undone – The Sweater Song, Weezer
8. Horndog, Overseer
7. Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me), Blessid Union Of Souls
6. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
5. Closing Time, Semisonic
4. Complicated, Avril Lavigne
3. (I Hate) Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe
2. She Hates Me, Puddle of Mudd
1. Mmmm Bop, Hanson

These are the utterly embarrassing songs on my “Gym Mix” :

10. I’m Just a Girl, No Doubt
9. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
8. Take It Off, The Donnas
7. Fantastic Voyage, Coolio
6. Murder On The Dance floor, Sophie Ellis Bextor
5. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark
4. Steal My Sunshine, Len
3. That Don’t Impress Me Much, Shania Twain
2. I Just Want to Make Love to You, Foghat
1. Rico Suave, Gerardo

And lastly, a mix I named “Bad radio from my Youth” — and it is utterly ghastly:

10. Bad Time (for Being in Love), Grand Funk Railroad
9. Keep On Loving You, REO Speedwagon
8. Day After Day, Badfinger
7. Without you, Badfinger

A two way tie of simply awful for 3rd place:

6. (Shake, Shake, Shake) Your Booty, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
5. Keep It Comin’ Love, K.C. & The Sunshine Band
(I’ve actually grown to like some other KC stuff, but these 2 — shudder — sheesh!)

A three way tie totally lacking any redeeming qualities for 2nd place:

4. Cover of the Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
3. When You’re in Love (with a Beautiful Woman), Dr. Hook
2. Sylvia’s Mother, Dr. Hook

Last, and actually least, a song beyond bad:

1. Coconut, Harry Nilsson

There, I’ve outed myself and my misspent youth . . .

There are some interesting comments on this issue over at kottke, which is where I originally saw the pointer for this. Since then, there have been over 100 entries of guilty iPod pleasures, including what must be the playlist from Hell.

Check it out . . .

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Sources:
iPod guilty pleasures
Don Fernandez
Cox News, Sept. 11, 2004 12:00 AM
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/0911ipod11.html