the most tragically overexposed pop songs -- name them

- imagine (john lennon)
- my girl (not sure how much they play this on "oldies" radio anymore, but in the 1980s-90s you could hear it every 20 or 30 minutes)
- layla
- stairway to heaven
- for what it's worth

and maybe, just maybe, ccr's "fortunate son," although that song somehow still manages to be inspiring

got any others?

fwiw these are all songs with plenty of genuine merit, which is why it's tragic that i can't hear them anymore

oh also

- sweet home alabama

Someone That I Used to Know

Loved the song the first time I heard it. Thought it was immediate, yet had depth. Unique, yet universal. Lyrically and melodically powerful. Never thought it would become the hit it became, and its ubiquity has now wrung whatever emotional attachment I used to have for it. Shame.

i feel like certain of these songs have ceased to be songs and are now just "memes" -- like "bad to the bone"*

*someone ought to make a mashup of every scene from every film and TV show in which the beginning of this song is used

Bad to the Bone, definitely.

Green Onions
Let's Get It On

Groove is in the Heart

Rapper's Delight

from a financial perspective, a songwriter and performer can't really hope for anything better than for their song to become "meme-ified" this way. george thorogood has probably been able to remodel his house 45 times over on the basis of every crass citation of his most famous song. but this process is also a kind of death--the songs cease to express anything other than their own ubiquity.

I'm tempted to say The Hustle, though whether or not The Hustle is good to begin with and not just wallpaper is debatable.

the hustle is good

Oops, that's "Somebody That I Used to Know". Pretty sure everyone here knew what I meant though.

idk where you're still hearing that, though. It's vanished for the most part.

Kinda feel like "Lust For Life" is maybe there - easy shorthand for "dude feeling excellent " the way "Walking on Sunshine" is for womens.

^ true

personally I'm sad that people are sick of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction because it really is the greatest rock song

I'm so much more accustomed to the Devo version that when I hear the Stones' original it still sounds fresh.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Imagine what the 90s might have been like otherwise, and what may have came of Cobain without the overexposure.

You could actually just list a lot of one-hit-wonders here, especially those with hits that weren't very representative of the rest of their output.
My first thought for this thread was actually "Lovefool" by The Cardigans. It's a lovely, lovely song, but, tragically it's all they're known for -- too few people know what a wonderful pop/rock band they truly were, in addition to that song.
Hell, even 75% of twee pop fans, to this day, never really got into The Cardis (especially their first two albums) like they should have, because they thought The Cardis were too mainstream or something (also: maybe twee pop kids are just stuck up, sometimes).

One hit wonders is a totally different thing, though. Lovefool was fairly omnipresent in the mid-90s, but it doesn't really have the kind of long legs things like Bad to the Bone and Let's Get It On do—so ingrained in pop culture that they've ceased to be songs and are now just signifiers of a certain "feel" or "mood" or "impulse".

perhaps. i was just trying to make the point that, had that song not been such a huge hit for the band, they'd have a whole 'nother fanbase who would adore them/would be extremely pleased by them -- it's tragic that that was lost, and could never be because of "lovefool"'s super success.

i get the thread now, though. carry on.

no woman no cry

Bob Marley is definitely in this category, but I Shot the Sheriff would've been my bet.

(record scratch) i feel good.

Definitely yes.

theme from new york, new york

To that end, Empire State of Mind is very close to being one of these if it isn't already.

(But that song has always sucked.)

Beat It and Billie Jean both, many many times over. Breaks my heart.

The CCR song that fits this is Proud Mary

Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" maybe?

i know it's not everyone's cup o' tea but i loved seven nation army until i started hearing it every day.

That song's got longevity via sporting events, for sure.

It's weird how Kool & The Gang's Celebration was one of these songs for a very, very long time and then...it just wasn't anymore.

one that's somehow survived for me, also on the wedding DJ circuit, is "September."

Beat It and Billie Jean both, many many times over. Breaks my heart.

― Doctor Casino, Thursday, December 3, 2015 7:26 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, it's subjective, but billie jean is still capable of surprising me. what a marvelous song.

Any number of early '60s Motown songs. I thought for the longest time that I just disliked that stuff altogether until I heard singles from the same artists/era that hadn't been played into the ground.

you probably mean mid-60s motown songs

Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Rock the Casbah

should i stay or should i go was /always/ a terrible song, but yes.

The House of the Rising Sun
A Whiter Shade of Pale

Born to Be Wild

Unchained Melody
Stand By Me

What a Wonderful World

Weirdly, I never liked What a Wonderful World, and I'm a big Louis fan

Anyway, judging from the Smile poll, Good Vibrations

Good Vibrations being one of these songs was more of an 80s thing, especially when it was used for Sunkist commercials.

Here in SE Asia bars are mainly full of old sexpats who just want to hear 70s rawk. Fine, when you're drinking there's nothing wrong with familiarity. But when they want to be "edgy" and "hip" they revert to three or four punk songs by the Sex Pistols & The Clash, so for me it's those... 60-yos from Brisbane and Birmingham screaming along to God Save the Queen night after night for the past 40 years, never listening to anything newer (even PiL) as nothing reached that level of edge, telling the waiters/waitresses it's real music compared to local and modern Western pop, I swear to God...

Hallelujah

Don't Stop Believing

The Jeff Buckley version of Hallelujah is terrible. I don't really think the original is overexposed though.

will never get ILX's Buckley hate.

"Black Dog"

Might be on its way to being overexposed:
Perfect Day

When the Levee Breaks seems to be in a number of movie trailers

In the Air Tonight

YMCA

this thread is using two (2) key words, which keep doing my mind in.
tragic -and- overexposed, can obviously overlap, but can also both be mutually distinct terms.

i thought about ymca too but i think it's a terrible song imo. dope dance tho

basically every christmas song

Born To Run

Hotel California and Blue Monday.

Pretty much every track of Bob Marley's Legend album, especially No Woman, No Cry and Redemption Song

I always hated Seven Nation Army.

Theme from New York, New York - the Sinatra version. Liza Minnelli's version is way better.

"My Girl" probably owns this thread...so many commercials, weddings, parties, movies etc. But catch it by surprise out of those contexts, really listen to it, you realize that every element--production, playing, arranging, writing, performance--is basically perfection.

I ran a swap meet booth in huge indoor car show over the holiday, and the guy behind me was selling jukeboxes. He had a working 1952 Seeburg packed with a bunch of oldies 45s he played for demo purposes, including a reish of "My Girl" b/w "The Way You Do The Things You Do" that I heard several times over the weekend, each time it was like "WOW".

Rehab

Lots of classic Jobim tunes: Gârota de Ipanema, Corcovado, Chega de Saudade, Desafinado, Samba de uma nota só, Aguas de Março, etc.

honestly, my experience is that you can't ruin a song forever through overexposure. songs i used to hate, like stairway, i now find really nice after avoiding for a decade or so. works kind of like an ssri.

having said that, i never want to hear barber's "adagio for strings" again. the next time we have some terrible tragedy- which, the way things are going now, should be sometime tomorrow- can we just play "threnody for the victims of hiroshima" instead?

Brown Eyed Girl

More Than a bastarding Feeling

There are two that the BBC ruined for me: The intros of Elbow's "One Day Like This" and Sigur Ros' "Hoppipola" seemed to be used on every possible occasion for a good year or so. Thankfully they've stopped doing that now.

Come On Eileen, still kind of like it a lot though

I Will Survive