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You are here: Home / Music / Started humming a song from 1962

Started humming a song from 1962

by | 211 Comments

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I thought I’d do a follow-up to the oldies thread I did before. First, the good: what are your top 5 Motown songs from all time? I’ll go with

1. You’re All I Need To Get By
2. Band of Gold
3. Nowhere To Hide
4. Papa Was A Rolling Stone
5. Tears Of A Clown

And now for the ugly. I was thinking the other day about what one thing from routine would I like to be different in order for my life to be better. And I realized it would probably be not having to hear so much Michael Bubble Buble when I go grocery shopping. It got me thinking: why is is there so much bad Canadian music? Although Canada has one-tenth the population of the US, I’d say that close to half of the truly awful things on the radio are Canadian. One theory is that production of awful music in a country is proportional to the land mass of the country, not to the population.

So what are the worst Canadian songs of all time?

1. The Bryan Adams song from Don Juan of de DeMarco
2. I Just Haven’t Met You Yet — Michael Bubble Buble
3. My Heart Will Go On — Celine Dion
4. Freewill — Rush
5. The Bryan Adams song from Robin Hood

What are yours?

Reader Interactions

211Comments

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    One theory is that production of awful music in a country is proportional to the land mass of the country, not to the population.

    But Russia has like two bands.

    ETA: @Doug!: I would be surprised if even BNL likes that song.

  10. 10.

    Death Panel Truck

    Worst Canadian songs? Pretty much everything Rush has ever recorded.

    And “Summer of ’69.” It rings totally false, considering Bryan Adams was 12 years old in 1969.

  14. 14.

    daverave

    Appropriate for the current situation on our planet, The Temps “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)” is one of my faves.

  15. 15.

    dedc79

    @Death Panel Truck: Yeah, there’s absolutely nothing in the lyrics to suggest 1969 (or any particular year, for that matter). It’s about 1969 , the way a Hallmark card is about a particular person.

  17. 17.

    mai naem mobile

    Worst Canadian Song
    Anne Murray – I Needed You and anything by Rush. Anything. How do you even twll their songs apart? Just sounds like a bunch of teens learning how to play guitar and they’re really bad at it.

  18. 18.

    Irony Abounds

    Don’t know about “Nowhere to Hide,” but “Nowhere to Run” is a damn good song. Tears of a Clown is great also, hard to pick between it and the other “Tears” song, The Tracks of My Tears. I’d add Let’s Get it On as one of the greatest Motown Hits, and probably put Ain’t No Mountain High Enough ahead of You’re All I Need to Get By.

    Forgot to add: Band of Gold is very underappreciated.

  19. 19.

    Cacti

    @Death Panel Truck:

    And “Summer of ’69.” It rings totally false, considering Bryan Adams was 12 years old in 1969.

    The record company made him change the title to appeal to boomer nostalgia. His original title was “Summer of ’75”.

  21. 21.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Hands down worst Canuckian – Gordon Lightfoot, Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

    I rate that as awful death schlock in the worst way, along with “Shannon” and “Where oh Where can my baby be” (which I hate for its religiousity and the singer’s facile attempt to shift blame for his own wreckless driving).

  25. 25.

    scottinnj

    Worst Canadian Songs:
    1) Bad Day by Daniel Powter
    2) One Week – BNL
    3) Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm – Crash Test Dummies
    4) Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
    5) Man I Feel Like a Woman – Shania Twain

  26. 26.

    Faction

    Just a few weeks ago I actually paid attention to the lyrics of Bryan Adams’ “Run To You” and realized it was about a guy who’s trying to rationalize cheating on his wife/gf….

    “She says her love for me could never die.
    That’d change if she ever found about about you and I”

    Oh, but her love is cold…so that makes it okay.

  27. 27.

    Keith

    @raven: Round 1 – 24 million lose insurance, round 2 23 lose theirs, round 3, 22 million lose insurance.
    Do you think if they try 23 more times they will end up covering more people?

  28. 28.

    Cacti

    “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette.

    A super angst-y break up song…

    About Dave Coulier.

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    How does your Motown list have zero Aretha? Some R.E.S.P.E.C.T. please!

    (Yes I spelled her name wrong. Yes I just fixed it.)

  30. 30.

    joel hanes

    Motown too narrow; just an aspect of SoulR&B

    wonderful soul songs :

    Stevie Wonder : Living Just Enough For The City
    Marvin Gaye : What’s Goin’ On
    Laura Nyro with Patti LaBelle : The Bells
    Ben E King : Stand By Me
    Rev. Al Green covering Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready
    Aretha covering Carole King’s (You Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman
    The Undisputed Truth : Smiling Faces
    Sam Cooke : Bring It On Home To Me
    Otis Redding : Try A Little Tenderness
    St. Paul and the Broken Bones : Call Me (youtube vinyl sessions video)

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    So many great Supremes songs, I hardly know which ones to name. My two sisters and I used to do a stirring rendition of Stop In the Name of Love (before you break my heart…)

    I would get a kick out of seeing that now, if only there had been video.

  34. 34.

    JMG

    Dancin’ in the Streets has to be on a Motown top five. My favorite Smokey song, and we could have a thread on this just by itself, is “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” Also “I Want You Back” should be in there.

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major

    @JPL: I’ll wait for somebody who knows what they’re talking about to weigh in, which knowing the media means I have to wait for the health policy expert at this top-10,000 blog I read (n.b.: actually the 28,157th most popular domain in the world!) to weigh in.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @joel hanes: I don’t know if Aretha was Motown or not, but I surely loved her singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T in her waitress uniform in the diner scene in The Blues Brothers movie.

    @Yutsano: Hadn’t seen your comment before i posted mine. I obviously agree with you.

  38. 38.

    scottinnj

    As for greatest Motown song – and this may be a stretch admittedly to call this Motown ‘sound’ though definitely a Motown artist- “Papa was a Rollin Stone’

  40. 40.

    joel hanes

    @Yutsano:

    According to Wikipedia, Berry Gordy pitched his record company to Aretha’s manager (her father) when she was about 18, but was turned down.

  41. 41.

    ThresherK

    Tangential to topic: Chiliwack’s Whatcha Gonna Do is infectiously catchy, and the band named themselves after a BC city.

    I don’t know at what point we can continue to call Shania Twain’s music “Canadian”. (And I’m not talking about Canadian content laws, hoser.)

  43. 43.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Faction:

    “She says her love for me could never die.
    That’d change if she ever found about about you and I”

    Oh, but her love is cold…so that makes it okay.

    I can forgive the infidelity, but not the grammar mistake

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    List of bad Canuck songs must necessarily include Loverboy and Guess Who. Celine Dion is their greatest international crime, even ahead of Rush and that’s saying lots.

    Marvin Gaye Motown? because “What’s Goin’ On” would be on my list; also, too something by the Four Tops, just not sure which and wasn’t Little Stevie Wonder Motown?

    Speaking of the Fitzgerald, the captain and watch crew are utterly fvcked if this proves true.

    A U.S. warship struck by a container vessel in Japanese waters failed to respond to warning signals or take evasive action before a collision that killed seven of its crew, according to a report of the incident by the Philippine cargo ship’s captain.

    Multiple U.S. and Japanese investigations are under way into how the guided missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald and the much larger ACX Crystal container ship collided in clear weather south of Tokyo Bay in the early hours of June 17. In the first detailed account from one of those directly involved, the cargo ship’s captain said the ACX Crystal had signaled with flashing lights after the Fitzgerald “suddenly” steamed on to a course to cross its path.

    –Reuters

  46. 46.

    mai naem mobile

    @raven: so what? 400 deserving families got some nice big fat tax cuts because Jeezus thinks they are awesome. And the GOP.

  49. 49.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I tend to prefer Stax and the other Memphis labels to Motown.

    Great point. This is why you are regularly considered a top-500 poster here.

  56. 56.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Bad Canuck music: Informer by Snow (the Great White North’s answer to Vanilla Ice).

  58. 58.

    joel hanes

    @WaterGirl:

    I don’t know if Aretha was Motown or not

    Grew up in Detroit, but signed with Columbia and moved to New York.

    Queen of Soul regardless.

  59. 59.

    JoJo

    From my perspective, “the Bryan Adams song…” is often all you need to get close to the worst Canada (or 80s pop rock) has to offer.

    And Rush. Sweet Lord, why Rush?

  61. 61.

    piratedan

    MoTown top 5 (this is personal taste, ymmv)

    The Happening: The Supremes
    And Then He Kissed Me: The Crystals
    Living For The City: Stevie Wonder
    Nowhere to Run: Martha and the Vandellas
    Shotgun: Junior Walker and the Allstars

    Bad Canadian music:

    Saga: On The Loose
    Men Without Hats: Safety Dance
    Nickleback

    secret Canadian bands I adore:

    Red Rider
    k.d. lang
    Doug and the Slugs

  64. 64.

    Just One More Canuck

    A country that has produced Achy Breaky Heart, We Built This City, and My Humps is complaining about another country’s music?

    Besides, we gave you 4/5 of The Band

  65. 65.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’m insulted as a former Canadian!! How dare you?!! There are no bad Canadian songs.

    Why don’t you do a thread on great foreign songs or something more positive? Harumph **stamps away pouting**

  67. 67.

    maurinsky

    If being by Bryan Adams makes it Canadian, Have You Ever Loved A Woman is terrible in every possible way.

    Papa Was A Rolling Stone
    My Girl
    Superstition
    Chain of Fools
    Tears of a Clown
    Let’s Get It On
    Someday We’ll Be Together

  68. 68.

    raven

    My Canadian-American friend always has a big music gig for her birthday and this year it was all Canadian music with many of the tunes mentioned here.

  69. 69.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: Sorry, I wanted the video of my sisters and I signing Stop in the Name of Love!

    After watching the beginning of the video at your link, i have to say I am retroactively impressed with my sisters and I. (( know it’s supposed to be “me” now, but the nuns drilled “I” into me and I just can’t let it go.)

    I had remembered the obvious “STOP” motion with the arms flinging forward, but now that I’ve seen the video I recall that we also did the wavy arm thing and the hip movements. Clearly I missed my original calling!

  70. 70.

    tom

    @Yutsano: I am going to be that guy on the internet and point out that Aretha did not record for Motowm records – she recorded first for Atlantic and later Arista. But she’s a Detroiter! (as am I).

    I love so much Marvin (I Heard it Through the Grapevine, What’s Goin’ On), Smokey (Tears of a Clown, Mama Told Me), Stevie (I Just Called to Say; Signed, Sealed, Delivered; Sir Duke), etc., etc., etc.

    Worst Canadian Song – Anne Murray, Snowbird.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    @joel hanes:
    Aretha found her success at Atlantic through Ahmet Ertegun, who insisted she be herself and not packaged as another R&B singer. Her thoughts about him, here.

  75. 75.

    mai naem mobile

    Too many for a.Top 5
    Stevie Wonder Signed Sealed Delivered, You’re the Sunshine of My Life, Jammin’
    Smokey Robinson – Cruising,Shop Around
    Marvin Gaye – What’s going on, Heard it Through the Grapevine
    Jr Walker – Shotgun

  76. 76.

    stinger

    Ah, Motown/R&B – Sam Cooke, A Change Is Gonna Come; Temptations, Just My Imagination; Marvin Gaye, I Heard It Through the Grapevine; Martha & the Vandellas, Dancing in the Streets; Aretha, Natural Woman; hard to pick just five!

  77. 77.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven:

    My Canadian-American friend always has a big music gig for her birthday and this year it was all Canadian music with many of the tunes mentioned here.

    What about Chilliwack’s “Gone So Long”? That’s a guilty pleasure of mine. Like, once every 20 years.

  78. 78.

    JMG

    Gang, Percy Sledge, the Ronettes and the Crystals, all of whom were tremendous, were not Motown artists.

  79. 79.

    daverave

    Sure are a lot of haters here for a band in the R+R Hall of Fame… not that they are one of my top 10 or even 100 R+R bands but somebody must see something in Rush.

  80. 80.

    Cacti

    It’s only fitting that the worst Robin Hood of all-time (Kevin Costner) would have his love theme written by Bryan Adams.

  81. 81.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Yutsano: Knew about the law, and it was really last decade where its Western animated series were THE WORST. Off the top of my head, the good Canadian series were Ed, Edd and Eddy and Beast Machines (holdovers from the ’90s); X-Men: Evolution, 6teen, Grossology, and the Total Drama franchise.

    Though its voice actors (especially Ocean Group/Westwood) are good enough to at least cancel out much of the awfulness.

  82. 82.

    tom

    @tom: For some reason, FYWP won’t let me edit my comment. Anyway, I see others have pointed that Aretha didn’t record for Motown records.

  84. 84.

    joel hanes

    @Just One More Canuck:

    we gave you 4/5 of The Band

    for which I am forever grateful.
    Add Levon Helm and you have The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, one for the ages.

    Thanks for Neil Young, too.

  85. 85.

    Steve in the ATL

    @tom:

    Stevie (I Just Called to Say; Signed, Sealed, Delivered; Sir Duke)

    You forgot “Fingertips”!

  88. 88.

    sherparick

    The Captain and the Officer of the Deck of the U.S.S. Fitzgerald are both likely heading for a court martial. The Navy, unlike the Air Force, does not protect its own when it comes to risking their ships and their crews.

  89. 89.

    les

    @Cathie from Canada:

    But but but — Nickelback! You’ve forgotten Nickelback!

    And to bottom it all out, I just saw an ad for a new Nickelback album. Maybe it was just a bad acid flashback.

  91. 91.

    Keith

    My top 5 motown would be

    Dancin’ In The Street – Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
    Superstition – Stevie Wonder
    What’s Goin’ On – Marvin Gaye
    I heard it Thru the Grapevine – ibid
    Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone – Temptations

    Special mention to War – Edwin Starr

  92. 92.

    Yutsano

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I actually know a few of the people who do voice acting for Ocean (although they’re contractors) but the best example is petite (and very awesome) Marÿke Hendrikse as Revy. Especially since she hardly EVER swears in person!

  93. 93.

    Cacti

    @daverave:

    Sure are a lot of haters here for a band in the R+R Hall of Fame… not that they are one of my top 10 or even 100 R+R bands but somebody must see something in Rush.

    Green Day is also in the R+R hall of fame.

  94. 94.

    moops

    I blame Canadian Content laws in Canada. As a mediocre Canadian band you have a huge advantage against foreign competition in the Canadian market. So, a producer just has to get a passably decent band recorded and you can get time on stations that need to check off there domestic quota rules. It also means that Top 40 stations have to recycle Canadian acts on their airwaves a bajillion times. So the Canadian muzak wings had a leg up since they could license the material pretty cheap and it was familiar to all Canadians, and those states that are within Canadian radio stations.

    So, Canadian bands can get through the valley-of-death due to Canadian protectionism. I honestly don’t know how Canadian jazz stations or metal stations manage this. When I DJ’d for a Canadian radio station we had a pretty worn out set of records from Canadian bands that stayed in the booth, and the hallway racks for music from rest of earth.

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    @daverave: I love Rush. I can’t even begin to understand the hatred against Rush when you have awful bands like Huey Lewis and the News out there.

  98. 98.

    Angrifon

    Any list of best Motown songs has to include, “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye and “Let’s Stay Together” by Reverend Al Green.

  102. 102.

    SatanicPanic

    @Cacti: Green Day is better than half the crap in there. KISS is in the RnR Hall of Fame, they’re the actual worst.

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    @Angrifon: You’re right! You know, I thought about that before I posted and decided that “you better think” were some of the lyrics from RESPECT. Oh well, it was a truly awesome scene. Thanks for the correction!

  111. 111.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    Fuck What You Think isn’t awful, but Main Source wasn’t as good without Large Professor (and even with him the group could’ve just as easily been called “Large Professor and Some Assholes.”)

    @Yutsano: Their dubs during the ’00s were a lot better than a lot of the country’s native programming.

  112. 112.

    Turner Hedenkoff

    From “The Trip to Italy” —
    Rob Brydon: Where do you stand on Michael Buble?
    Steve Coogan: His windpipe.

  113. 113.

    toine

    @Patricia Kayden:

    not to mention Foreigner, GnR, Van Halen…. shlock rock worse than any Rush ever… man, it took Canadian content laws to produce any Canadian music almost as bad…

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Hey Robert was/isn’t a bad guy. He just got caught doing what I think a lot of people were doing. Not a fan for sure, don’t mistake this for that. I’ve actually met him in another, completely different setting not long after he was exposed and he was nothing like I expected.

  116. 116.

    Angrifon

    @DougJ: Interesting. First time I ever heard the song was on a Motown comp I bought when I was a teenager in the 80s, I thought. Must be a memory misfire.

  117. 117.

    Origuy

    Lots of good Canadian in the folk and traditional genres. Loreena McKennitt, Natalie McMaster, Buffy Saint Marie, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen.
    Then there’s Acadian and Quebecois traditional. In the latter, I’m a fan of Geniticorum.

  118. 118.

    Fnarf

    “Band Of Gold” was not on Motown. It was on Invictus, the label Holland-Dozier-Holland formed after they left Motown. Al Green wasn’t on Motown, either; he recorded for Hi, out of Memphis.

  121. 121.

    burnspbesq

    You forgot two truly awful Canadian songs: “Snowbird” (Anne Murray) and “Insensitive” (Jann Arden).

    Fave Motown tracks:

    You’re All I Need to Get By
    Come See About Me
    My Girl
    Tracks of My Tears
    Ain’t Too Proud to Beg

  123. 123.

    Angrifon

    @Cacti: Unpossible. Gene Simmons invented the devil horns handsign. He even applied for a trademark, so it must be true. QED, KISS is awesome.

  124. 124.

    dance around in your bones

    Worst American song of that time (relatively – there’s lots of ‘worsts’) was ‘Annie had a baby, can’t work no more {would you believe it Annie had a baby?} etc ad nauseum.
    I’m sure I’ll think of more. Purple Polka Dot Bikini etc. That Australian song about the hide on the wall. InaGaddaDaVida etc. Ack ??‍♂️??!!!

    ETA: I probably got this thread’s gist wrong, too. What I get for speed reading sloppily.

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    There was that Canadian woman with the smoky voice and the short blonde hair, I hated her.

  130. 130.

    burnspbesq

    Even the best Canadian artists are prone to the occasional clunker. See, e.g. “Wondering Where the Lions Are.”

  132. 132.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “Wreck” is awful, but “Sundown” is even worse.

    Worstest: Celine Dion, “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (although I have seen an awesome drag queen lip sync version that almost reconciled me to it).

    Great Motown: Stevie Wonder, “As.”

  133. 133.

    germy

    @Angrifon:

    Gene Simmons invented the devil horns handsign.

    John Lennon is giving it on the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour album cover (or his cartoon avatar is, anyway)

  134. 134.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Okay, guess Geddy Lee’s voice must not be for everyone… (but I found that out the hard way back in the day)

  139. 139.

    Shalimar

    Freewill is the most annoying and pretentious Rush song (other than maybe The Trees), which is saying something, but I still think that is a long way from worst Canadian songs ever.

    edit to add: The category you’re really proposing is “Extremely Popular Songs I Think Suck”, which is a different thing.

  140. 140.

    Patricia Kayden

    @toine: @toine: Guns and Roses is too loud for me but those other bands you named are okay. I grew up with that kind of rock so perhaps I’m brainwashed. LOL.

  142. 142.

    Byrookorbycrook

    You can’t blame Canada for a lot of that bad music as there was a tremendous market in the US for said music. Rush may be Canadian, but they are fueled and funded by Americans. And Celine Dion does not have a residency in Montreal, but Sin City U.S.A.

  145. 145.

    Patricia Kayden

    @germy: Gene Simmons needs to sue John Lennon then.

    What a preposterous claim for Simmons to make. He must be desperate for money.

  149. 149.

    NCSteve

    @Shalimar: Arguing about the what the most annoying and pretentious Rush song is is like aruging about who is the most objectively evil person in the Trump Administration. Bannon? Pruitt? Mulvaney? Sessions? Whatever differences exist, they are so far beyond the threshold of tolerability as to make no difference.

  154. 154.

    Louis

    @dance around in your bones:
    Rick James is Canadian and Motown! Someone not liking Hank Ballard and The Midnighters “Annie Had a Baby”. Why? Too many great Mowtown for just 5. What about the Canadian band (cannot remember but someone will) that was supposed to have put out the missing Beatles album. And what about that record by Monty Hall? And what about Ringo by Lorne Greene? And the split single by Count Floyd and Johnnie LaRue?

  157. 157.

    Shalimar

    @zhena gogolia: Anne Murray sang Canadian music for people who couldn’t afford an anesthesiologist for their surgery. I never listened long enough to know if it was bad.

  158. 158.

    ArchTeryx

    @Doug!: Yakov Smirnoff is just a vile human being, period. His music (he had music?) had little to do with it.

    And I really liked Freewill. It’s definitely something that resonates with my struggles in the political arena: “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.” And that choice put Trump in the WH.

  161. 161.

    Shalimar

    @NCSteve: Fair point. I like Rush, though I do find some of it annoying and almost all of it pretentious, so I get that many people don’t.

  163. 163.

    HeleninEire

    @Iowa Old Lady: LOL. It’s June 26th and 52 degrees and raining here in Dublin. Thinking about turning on the heat!!!!

    Is it HOTTTTTTTT where you are?

    I LOVE IT HERE. Come visit IOL.

  166. 166.

    Ian G.

    @scottinnj:

    Damn, that’s an impressive list of horrible songs, especially since it doesn’t include any Nickelback or Justin Bieber.

  169. 169.

    dance around in your bones

    @Louis: ‘Annie Had a Baby’ ranks right down there with that ‘If I was a carpenter and you were a lady would you marry me anyway would you have my baby ‘ song….can’t remember the title TG. Lots of schlocky songs that I lived through and some I happily sang, knowing no better, alas.

  170. 170.

    germy

    @ArchTeryx: Fun fact: For a few years, Smirnoff owned the house in L.A. that Lenny Bruce lived and died in. When Smirnoff’s career took a downturn, he had to sell it and move to Missouri.

  172. 172.

    Patricia Kayden

    @zhena gogolia: I was just joking. But I demand a thread covering great Canadian (and foreign) bands to make up for this insult to Canadians.

  173. 173.

    ArchTeryx

    @Major Major Major Major: I’d have to agree there. 2112 is actually dedicated to Ayn Rand, but the weird thing is that it has much more of a 1984 vibe to it then a Randian one.

    Fortunately, Rush – particularly Neal Peart – got over their Objectivist phase. Untimely deaths in the family will tend to knock the selfish right out of you, and it certainly did him. Snakes and Arrows, little known outside of the hard core fans like myself, is a giant swing at the Religious Wrong.

    Keep holding on so long
    ‘Cause there’s a chance
    That we might not be so wrong
    We could be down and gone
    But we hold on…

  175. 175.

    dance around in your bones

    @germy: I believe I have blotted that fact out of my limited for those kind of songs memory, thank FSM. But thanks germy ???‍♂️

  179. 179.

    NorthLeft12

    @Just One More Canuck: Yep, more American exceptionalism. I am sure Doug! and his cohorts will figure out some way to blame Canada for the crappy songs made by US producers of musical product.
    Can’t believe the Guess Who was named in this thread…come on man, they were great and a lot of fun to listen to.

  180. 180.

    different-church-lady

    I’m just going to go with a blanket respone to this whole thread: “Phuck u, haters.”

  181. 181.

    Gravenstone

    @Patricia Kayden: Most of the knee jerk Rush hate seems to stem from their early curiosity with objectivism. As a result, lots of holier than though sorts turned their backs and utterly ignored the evolution of the band through their 40+ year history.

  183. 183.

    john fremont

    @JoJo: Kids Wanna Rock by Bryan Adams. Every cliché of eighties rock in one song. Heck every cliché of nineties rock rolled into one band , Nickelback, I’m sensing a pattern here.

  184. 184.

    Gravenstone

    @Shalimar: It’s also 41 fucking years old! At the time it was basically a fuck you to their label for lack of support and their efforts to aggressively commercialize the band. Everyone was basically shocked when it took off on the back of very aggressive touring. Hate it now if you must, but it had a hell of a lot of impact in its day.

  187. 187.

    Bonnie

    Worst song by a Canadian – Anything sung by William Shatner

    Best Motown:
    Anything sung by Aretha Franklin
    I Can’t Help Myself, It’s the Same Old Song, and Walk Away Renee by The Four Tops
    Papa Is A Rolling Stone and Can’t Get Next to You by The Temptations
    Someday We’ll Be Together and Reflections by Diana Ross and The Supremes

    My Favorite Canadians: Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, and Leonard Cohen

  189. 189.

    OldDave

    When we get around to “Best Canadian Musicians” I’ll be going out on a limb and mention Margo Timmins along with the more obvious ones.

    Motown? Love is like a Heat Wave, by Martha and the Vandellas. Actually, pretty much anything the Funk Brothers played on.

  192. 192.

    Bill

    If anyone wants to check out some Canadian music that sucks not at all, pull up a band called Big Wreck on the youtube. Song called I Digress should get you started nicely. Really meaty, heavy yet tuneful verses, and a chorus that will have you doing a double-take.

  194. 194.

    Tim from MI

    Best Motown (also from a born and raised Detroiter)
    Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over) – Four Tops
    Signed, Sealed, and Delivered – Stevie
    Tears of a Clown – Smoky and the Miracles
    Keep Me Hangin’ On – Supremes
    Dancing in the Streets – Martha and the Vandellas

    Worst Canadian Song –
    I can’t believe nobody mentioned Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks! Legendarily bad!

  199. 199.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Tim from MI:

    Worst Canadian Song –
    I can’t believe nobody mentioned Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks! Legendarily bad!

    You nailed it!

  201. 201.

    worn

    Doug –

    As for Motown, I can’t sing the praises of David Ruffin’s ‘lost’ 1970 album. So much good stuff on that one. Though it may be considered sacrilegious, I think I actually am more partial to his take on the perfect pop song “I Want You Back” than Michael’s, if only for the worldliness of an adult voice carrying the tune. A Rainy Night in Georgia & Dinah are also outstanding, the latter especially if you one is partial to great bass playing (as I am). Motown records are just full of it.

    Which leads us to, ahem, Rush. [full disclosure: prog rock fan, guilty as charged] But Freewill? Over ‘Big Money’ ? Good Lord, when that sharker-jumper came out I was a senior in HS, a fan of the band’s, and was accordingly gobsmacked…from that 1st cheese fart synth lick I was just like ‘what the fuuuuuck is this?’ No link, because, why?

  203. 203.

    James Powell

    Can’t possibly list five best or five favorite Motown songs. I could probably do 25 favorite. I have a playlist that has 60 songs on it and I had to leave some good ones off.

    You know what’s always a great Motown song? The one you forgot about.

  206. 206.

    Shalimar

    @Gravenstone: I know the band history, though I think Rush and Fly By Night are much better albums and it is disappointing that they weren’t more popular. As far as ultra-long songs that were still excellent, I prefer Hemispheres and particularly La Villa Strangiato.

  207. 207.

    Amanda Toth

    One Week by the BareNaked Ladies is awful. Also, anything by Justin Bieber, especially “Baby”.

  208. 208.

    Amanda Toth

    @Bonnie — I recommend “Struggle” by William Shatner. Perfect example of so awful, it’s amazing.

  209. 209.

    Jamey

    Worst Canadian song?

    Corey-Fucking-Hart, “Sunglasses at Night.”
    Bruce Cockburn, “If I Had a Rocket-Launcher.”
    99% of the Rush catalogue

  210. 210.

    tones

    @daverave: French pronunciation of bubble I guessed… it is bubble music, elevator music with no substance and the worst lyrics you ever imagined possible.
    That guy is the worst and you just know they plan to make him the next Sinatra or whoever could not sing but became famous singers.

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