Los Angeles Radio Songs That Make You Cringe

Even the best L.A. radio stations have those pesky songs; The ones that stick around month after month after month, even though you can't conceive any purpose they can possibly serve for that particular station. This isn't meant to flame any station specifically, but is just a fun way to vent about the songs that truly make us cringe. This is all my uneducated opinion. I'm sure PDs can simply rebut with callout numbers, but like I said...all in fun.

Here's what we're NOT talking about:

(a) Currents or recent (say, a year old or less) recurrents.
(b) Songs that have justified spots on a station's playlist, but make you cringe because you simply have a personal dislike for them.

Here's what we ARE talking about:

(a) Songs that have stuck around ENTIRELY too long and have earned a prolonged rest period, or at least should move into a less prominent category.
(b) Songs that stick out like a sore thumb on a respective station (not a hit, doesn't fit the station's overall sound, etc.)
(c) Overplayed "classic" songs.

Anything on KHHT you could add to that list. I have no problem with them playing Rhythmic Oldies but it would be nice to open up the playlist. I wasnt around that long when Mega was on. Was their Jammin Oldies playlist more open? I assume it featured more 70's and 80's music.

Hotel California by The Eagles, always and forever, amen. Give the song a rest guys. Seriously.

Robnoxious said:

Hotel California by The Eagles, always and forever, amen. Give the song a rest guys. Seriously.

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I was going to mention that, as well as The Doors' "Light My Fire" and Van Halen's "Runnin' with the Devil".

Robnoxious said:

Hotel California by The Eagles, always and forever, amen. Give the song a rest guys. Seriously.

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Yes! I could never stand that song - even when it was new. Of course, if you want to go historical - I'd nominate Seasons in the Sun, by Terry Jacks. Fortunately, that song was so repugnant that Oldies/Classic Hits stations avoided it like the plague.

Starship's "We Built This City"

No, it doesn't get played very much, but this is a song that should NEVER grace the airwaves. It should really never be played in ANY context except for VH-1 specials that show how vapid some of the music of the 80's really was or how a good rock band can devolve into something that is the exact antithesis of rock over ten years. A musical case study, as it were.

KDM 7000 said:

Here's what we ARE talking about:

(a) Songs that have stuck around ENTIRELY too long and have earned a prolonged rest period, or at least should move into a less prominent category.
(b) Songs that stick out like a sore thumb on a respective station (not a hit, doesn't fit the station's overall sound, etc.)
(c) Overplayed "classic" songs.

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I think that's all pretty subjective, kind of like one's man trash is another man's treasure. Heck, I could never figure out what the entire rest of the world is not totally burned out on Phil Collins.

Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison 1967
Boys of Summer - Don Henley 1985
My Girl - Temptations 1965
Low Rider - War 1975

Great songs, but overplayed.

And the poster who mentioned "Seasons in the Sun"....it's never played anyways, so how can it make one cringe?? But I suppose, once a month on KRTH would not be such a bad idea on their 70's at 7 special.....It was #1 in 1974 by the way.....

ChannelFlipper said:

Starship's "We Built This City"
No, it doesn't get played very much, but this is a song that should NEVER grace the airwaves.

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"Sara" is so much better. Such a great song!

oldies76 said:

ChannelFlipper said:

Starship's "We Built This City"
No, it doesn't get played very much, but this is a song that should NEVER grace the airwaves.

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"Sara" is so much better. Such a great song!

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No, "Sara" not a great song (as I know you are implying), but compared to "We Built This City"...

And "Brown Eyed Girl" must be the highest testing song of all time. It has never been off the playlist as far as I know. Even "My Girl" gets rotated off every now and then.

ChannelFlipper said:

oldies76 said:

ChannelFlipper said:

Starship's "We Built This City"
No, it doesn't get played very much, but this is a song that should NEVER grace the airwaves.

Click to expand...

"Sara" is so much better. Such a great song!

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No, "Sara" not a great song (as I know you are implying), but compared to "We Built This City"...

And "Brown Eyed Girl" must be the highest testing song of all time. It has never been off the playlist as far as I know. Even "My Girl" gets rotated off every now and then.

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Since we're talking about over-played and "highly-tested" songs, how about Let's Stay Together by Al Green? I just read that downloads of that song were up 500% since Obama did his much televised Al Green impression. Do these people not listen to Oldies radio?

If you channel-flip ( ;D) between your local "Old School, " Classic Hits and Lite Rock stations, you will hear that song at least a half-dozen times a day.

Lkeller said:

Since we're talking about over-played and "highly-tested" songs, how about Let's Stay Together by Al Green? I just read that downloads of that song were up 500% since Obama did his much televised Al Green impression. Do these people not listen to Oldies radio?

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And half of them, probably never knew it was from the early 70's.....or #1 for that matter. ;D

Yeah, that song is overplayed but it's got such a groove, it overcomes that. "Look What You've Done For Me" is another Al Green classic that should be played more. Radio needs to balance the music, so that we hear more popular tracks by the same artist evenly spread out.

I guess I'm in the wrong demographic for this thread, since everyone has mentioned some variation of rock from the 1960s-80s.

However, I once bet myself that I could hear 2Pac & Dr Dre "California Love" at LEAST once a day if I flipped amongst KDAY, KIIS, KAMP and KPWR. I tried the experiment one summer and was successful for over two weeks before I gave up out of boredom.

I don't cringe because its a bad song- I just cringe because its way overplayed. We get it....we live in California.

justpassingthough said:

I guess I'm in the wrong demographic for this thread, since everyone has mentioned some variation of rock from the 1960s-80s.

However, I once bet myself that I could hear 2Pac & Dr Dre "California Love" at LEAST once a day if I flipped amongst KDAY, KIIS, KAMP and KPWR. I tried the experiment one summer and was successful for over two weeks before I gave up out of boredom.

I don't cringe because its a bad song- I just cringe because its way overplayed. We get it....we live in California.

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Being a fogey, I have to ask - are those current hit songs? If so, it's no different than Top 40 radio in the 60s. You'd hear the same 30 or so hit songs on KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB...though they also mixed in recurrents and "goldens" (oldies). It wasn't unusual to flip between stations and hear the same song at the same time. At least once, I tried it and got a "trifecta" - same song playing simultaneously on all 3 stations.

Lkeller said:

justpassingthough said:

I guess I'm in the wrong demographic for this thread, since everyone has mentioned some variation of rock from the 1960s-80s.

However, I once bet myself that I could hear 2Pac & Dr Dre "California Love" at LEAST once a day if I flipped amongst KDAY, KIIS, KAMP and KPWR. I tried the experiment one summer and was successful for over two weeks before I gave up out of boredom.

I don't cringe because its a bad song- I just cringe because its way overplayed. We get it....we live in California.

Click to expand...

Being a fogey, I have to ask - are those current hit songs? If so, it's no different than Top 40 radio in the 60s. You'd hear the same 30 or so hit songs on KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB...though they also mixed in recurrents and "goldens" (oldies). It wasn't unusual to flip between stations and hear the same song at the same time. At least once, I tried it and got a "trifecta" - same song playing simultaneously on all 3 stations.

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I've had this happen once with Jack, KLOS and KSWD - I don't remember the song anymore but I remember being pretty amazed.

Lkeller said:

justpassingthough said:

I guess I'm in the wrong demographic for this thread, since everyone has mentioned some variation of rock from the 1960s-80s.

However, I once bet myself that I could hear 2Pac & Dr Dre "California Love" at LEAST once a day if I flipped amongst KDAY, KIIS, KAMP and KPWR. I tried the experiment one summer and was successful for over two weeks before I gave up out of boredom.

I don't cringe because its a bad song- I just cringe because its way overplayed. We get it....we live in California.

Click to expand...

Being a fogey, I have to ask - are those current hit songs? If so, it's no different than Top 40 radio in the 60s. You'd hear the same 30 or so hit songs on KHJ, KRLA, and KFWB...though they also mixed in recurrents and "goldens" (oldies). It wasn't unusual to flip between stations and hear the same song at the same time. At least once, I tried it and got a "trifecta" - same song playing simultaneously on all 3 stations.

Click to expand...

No, it was a hit at rhythmic and urban in 1995, and had somewhat limited crossover appeal to CHR at the time, but its one of those hip hop songs that has endured and still gets played endlessly over 15 years later.