C90 - Best kitschy songs by bands that are taken seriously

ciccone youth "addicted to love"

Daft Punk 'One More Time'
Air 'Sexy Boy'
Blur 'Music Is My Radar'
Ladytron 'Oops Oh My'
Muse 'Plug In Baby'
Zoot Woman 'Its Automatic'
St Etienne 'He's On The Phone'

Add (N) To X 'Plug Me In'
Orbital 'Style'
Peter Gabriel 'Sledgehammer'
Devo 'Whip It'
Tom Tom Club 'Genius Of Love'
Malcolm Mclaren 'Double Dutch'
Moloko 'Indigo'
The Avalanches 'Stay Another Season'
White Stripes 'Well Its True That We Love One Another'

Zeppelin, "Hot Dog"

R.E.M., "Burning Hell"

The Cure - The Lovecats
Metallica - Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)

The Sisters of Mercy - "This Corrosion"

El-P - "Dr. Hellno and the Praying Mantus"
Modest Mouse - "Jesus Christ Was An Only Child"

the cardigans -lovefool, among others.
garbage -cherry lips (go baby go)

Tom Verlaine 'Yonki Time', Led Zeppelin 'The Crunge'

who takes muse seriously?

I can't remember the name of the song but how 'bout the velvet underground song where Mo and Lou duet and the chorus is:
"I'm sitcking with you-'cause I'm made out of glue"? "Bands who know what they're doing" is kind of a vague stipulation. I mean, "shiny happy people" fits in here-but, that song was basically R.E.M.'s death knell. Kooks from David Bowie fits as well but, that freaky brit has always been hit or miss.The question you pose is basically the reason the Pet Shop Boys and They Might Be Giants sold any records, ever. Hell, if you wanna get technical
Nirvana's "about a girl" could go here too. How 'bout ''is it love?"
by gang of four? All of sonic youth's "Goo" fits but, they did it intentonally and it still rocked. Same goes for metallica's "black"
record, but they blew it with the next record and came off like a bunch of ham-fisted jane's addiction wanna-bees. The Ramones could piss this whole dicussion up a rope because they always knew that they were doing and they were always "kitchy". "Isolation" by Iggy Pop was a bit of a kitch-out but it's still a great tune. per the Cicconi youth mention- I agree but you can't mention that without noting M. Watt's version of "burnin' up". As to the Beatles mention, yeah sgt. p. is silly but, so is everything macca ever wrote-"michelle"?- geeze! this is the guy who brought you "temporary secetary" for fuck sakes!! And now the obligitory radiohead speil: fuck- nobody in they're right mind can sit there and tell me they suck. 'Cause I'd calmly explain why the don't suck, but you wont ever catch me playing one of they're records. I don't have the energy to listen to them! They just make me feel like shit!! They are energy sucking IndieGods! Listening to "hail to the the theif" is like jogging- i know it's good for me but it fucking sucks! I think I have "sea changes syndrome" S.C.S. for short. It's symptoms include; not giving a shit about Yoshi's robot problems, inability to give a fuck about the bright eyes hype but still blowing 17 bucks on that piece of folkturd at the union square Virgin record store leading to a short-lived, false feeling of "cool". Selling the bright eyes c.d. in brooklyn the next day for beer money, leading to a short-lived, false feeling of "cool".
Other symptoms include; inability to feel sorry for cat power but still thinking she is somehow oppressed by unknown powers beyond her control, bad dreams about the dirty three on david letterman, overt N.P.R. listening..
VICTIMS:
ME
frickin' axl rose when he got the dude from the replacements to join his band. for a minute.
frickin the dude frome the replacements when he teamed up with axl. for a minute.
lisa loeb.
lisa loeb.
Liz Phair dosen't count 'cause she has this kinda Mick Jagger-ish edge in as much as the less sexy she gets more she tries to be sexy. she gets irony points.
Boston.
The other night i was taking the Q train outta manhattan after work and this dude who looked like maybe 10 years ago he bore a slight resembelence to the lead singer of The Cult and started dressing like him and had been playing the same mystic druggy leather pants in late june on the subway persona for the past decade, and announced to me and two other guys sitting there;"fuck your college degree bullshit". The kid from long island sitting across from me blushed and nervously fiddled with the tail of his mullet. The handsome black man in the nice suit fluttered his new york times and politely cleared his throat.
I just sat there and thought: "I used to like The Cult, I wanna rock,
and I own a pair of leather pants, but listen you ankh earring wearing asshole, I never completed the 10th grade and if you tried I bet we could find we have alot in common. All I wanted to say to him was: "fuck your leatherpants rock and roll bullshit"
FUCK YOUR LEATHERPANTS ROCK AND ROLL BULLSHIT.
And so forth....................K

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping

Come Dancing

this box set
Every song they do sound superficially like mentalist gooftwaddle...but its really intensely highbrow surrealism.

Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow (it's the prototype twee pop song)

The Cure 'Friday I'm In Love' - twee if not exactly kitsch

The Cure 'Friday I'm In Love' - pee if not exactly shit
Worst song on the record. They shoulda released "High" as the big single.

They did - it was the first single in the UK. Reached no 8 I think.

it was the first single in the us also, did pretty well as well

Okay, I'll amend my previous statement.
"Friday, I'm In Love" shoulda been relegated to an obscure B-side to a single only released in places very very very far away from the east coast of the US.

Dreadful, dreadful song. And I'm a FAN of the band.

"come dancing" is kitschy how?

'Rednecks' by Blur (I'm a trucking redneck and I just refuse to die/I was built big and strong on the State's best Apple Pie.) Alex's Song was also on the EP with this track. Maybe Blur didn't quite 'know better'. ;)

I don't know much of Tori Amos, but from what I've heard, Mr. Zebra might qualify.

How about that crank call T-Boz makes on Crazy Sexy Cool?

Rolling Stones-Faraway Eyes
Merle Haggard-Okie From Muskogee
Nirvana-Sliver
Beatles-Why Don't We Do It In The Road?

WDWDIITR is hardly kitschy, esp compared to Maxwell's Silver Hammer or Rocky Raccoon or Ringo period.

I guess, but it was the first thing to pop into my head that met the (my?) requirement, and also had not already been mentioned. Really, to be accurate, about 1/2 to 3/4s of The White Album could qualify.

Plus, kitsch is fairly subjective.

Agreed.

Here's some more(all Bob Dylan):
All The Tired Horses
Please Mrs.Henry
Yea Heavy and A Bottle of Bread
Clothsline Saga
Catfish

("Friday I'm In Love" is a great song and succeeds in all of the way that "Mint Car" fails.)