InkBlog

This Kim Carnes megahit is the single worst record in the history of pop music.

I’m sorry but it’s true.

I guess you havn’t heard pop music in the past twenty years.

OP knows what it takes to make a pro blush.

r2, that's what I was going to say. If your awareness of music ended in 1992, you might have a case OP.

Wrong by a mile. It's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by that other rasping, screaming whore, whatever her name was.

Her name was Screeching Whore R5.

I nominate this song and any one with a lyric about “crinkly nose,” though I would totally nail the guy in the video until he couldn’t walk right for a week.

R5 Nope wrong by ten miles, it is “everything I do , I do it for you” (even the song title is gag worthy) by that other rasping screaming AND screeching whore, Bryan something.

The worst record in the history of pop music is “holiday road“ by Lindsey Buckingham

This is THE cringeist song ever, but amazingly the guys hotness has held up incredibly well.

“Billie Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets!”

This piece of shit is an abomination to humanity. If you want to torture yourself play this.

Carnes looked like a man in drag

R5 that's Bonnie Tyler. How VERY dare you! You are worse than Milo Yiannopoulous's used enema.

One hopes you are joking, r7. And I'd have to agree with r5 about worst pop song ever.

[quote]Carnes looked like a man in drag

And sounded like Rod Stewart with a cold.

Interesting that 1981 had three records that were number one for 9 weeks or longer. BDE 9 weeks (interrupted for one week by the Stars on 45 Medley) Endless Love 9 weeks and Physical by ONJ 10 weeks even though it spilled over into 1982. BDE is a good song op. Love the way Kim sings it in her suggestive playful way. Plus it won record and song of the year Grammys. There were far worse songs in the 1980s. Come On Eileen was probably the worst number one of the decade.

In a universe where Britney Spears' "If You Seek Amy" exists, BDE doesn't even break the top 100 worst songs.

R19 yup pretty horrible too. I hate novelty songs that manage to go to number one.

Whoever is throwing Total Eclipse of the Heart under the bus is a fool. That song is a well deserved classic!

You're all wrong. THIS is the worst fucking song EVER.

The $89.99 casio keyboard. The lyrics that read like they were written by a toddler with water on the brain. The off-key "warbling." That this abomination won an Oscar is a stain on film history.

To be honest, half of the top 40 pop songs right now is way worse than any of those songs

All of those awful screechy songs from the late 70's to mid-80's used to set my teeth on edge. The real problem with them was that they were played over and over again on the radio, ad nauseam. After all these years, they just kind of make me laugh whenever I hear one of em. You *don't* hear them anymore, because nobody listens to the radio nowadays. And overhearing them in stores is out, because you don't go to stores anymore. Problem solved. I have NO idea what "Top 40" even means today, where do people even come into contact with such a thing?

Starship's We Built This City would like a word with you, OP.

Oh how quickly we forget !

I wouldn't say it's the worst, but it is pretty bad, IMO.

But, good for her for using early MTV to propel her to superstardom. Did she have any other charting singles? It's the only song I know of hers. She's no Bonnie Tyler.

I liked it at the time (I was 11 or 12) but I don't listen to it much now. Poor Kim---one of the biggest hits ever, and she doesn't get any songwriting royalties. Or did she "contribute" something "new" where she gets a bit of royalties like so many artists do today?

This one was pretty shitty

This is in the top ten of worst ever songs, for sure.

I'm surprised Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" or Michael Martin Murphey's "Wildfire" hasn't been mentioned yet.

R22 it was the only year in Oscar history that all 5 nominated songs were number one hits. I think they have to him because he was the best known out of the 5. Also the year that DL icon Ann reinking performed “Against all odds” or in Ann’s version “against all OF THE odds”

I’ve never seen “wildfire” on a worst songs list r31 there’s a lot of love for that song I think a movie based on the song was in production until the virus shut things down.

Wildfire is a great song. It doesn't make any sense, but it's fantastic.

Kim Carnes had a handful of charting singles after Bette Davis Eyes but nobody remembers them.

You're all forgetting the first worst, the first most awful, the greatest worst -- ever:

R26 after you see My Fellow Americans you’ll never forget that song.

The original version of Bette Davis Eyes, by Jackie DeShannon from 1974. It's pretty awful. Amazing how they could upgrade this turd into the great Kim Carnes version. That's some musical genius.

I love this song—it takes me back to my childhood in the early '90s, watching late '70s-'80s music videos on VH1. My parents always seemed to have it on the TV, and I was exposed to a lot of music from that era because of it. I've always wondered what was wrong with Kim Carnes' voice, though—it sounds terribly damaged. I've never been able to find any information on it though.

I love Bette Davis Eyes and Kim Carnes.

Jackie DeShannon wrote the song, R38. She seems to be forgotten now, but she was quite popular in the 60's.

I wanted to post this in the "I got hit on today!" thread a couple weeks ago: I was in line at ShopRite and a guy ACTUALLY WALKED OVER TO ME and said "now those are Bette Davis Eyes." My husband was completely unimpressed when I told him, but it's been the highlight of my month.

Don’t forget about me!!

Ugh r44. Paul Anka looked like he had the bodies of young boys buried in his backyard. Creepy looking fucker.

The fact that Bette Davis Eyes stayed at #1 for so long and that Endless Love also stayed at the top so long is an indication of how bad music was in 1981.

Both songs are OK, but neither so outstanding that they deserved to spend 2+ months atop the Billboard charts. It's an idication of how poor the competition for the top spot was.

1981 was just a dismal year for music in general. Yes, there were some great songs but as a whole, rock and pop and even r&b were all in a slump. That's what opened the door for the second British Invasion and all the new wave pop songs that started arriving in 1982 and went into overdrive in 1983.

[quote] The fact that Bette Davis Eyes stayed at #1 for so long and that Endless Love also stayed at the top so long is an indication of how bad music was in 1981. Both songs are OK, but neither so outstanding that they deserved to spend 2+ months atop the Billboard charts. It's an idication of how poor the competition for the top spot was.

Wrong. Top 40 music was incredibly diverse in terms of styles and genres back then. Playlists for radio stations were not as tight and controlled as they have been for the past 20 years, and if you picked any week of the Billboard 100 in 1981, you'd find pop, rock, MOR, country, new wave, metal, hell- even classical and swing (via the "Hooked on" songs). If you want to talk about songs sticking around forever, you'd do well to analyze the charts from the 1990s through about five or so years ago, where radio station program directors were stuck with a very limited number of songs. The list of songs that broke Bette Davis Eyes, Endless Love and Physical's reigns at #1 or hung around on the charts for a year or more is in the double digits.

Now, of course, everything is counted, including streams on youtube, so it's pretty much a free-for-all. But don't let your rotten taste be confused with fact.

Bette Davis Eyes is pretty good. Ugh, you had to be there, OP

Madonna changed everything.

Gould you step over here OP? That's good...

How THE FUCK does this have more than 200 million views!?

There are plenty of Number 1 songs that are as bad, or worse, thatn "Bette Davis Eyes." Among them:

You're Having My Baby

Afternoon Delight

My Ding-a-ling

Seasons In The Sun

We Built This City

Convoy

Escape (The Pina Colada Song)

Ebony and Ivorny

Endless Love

You LIght Up My Life

Jack and Diane

I agree r60. All of those songs are vomitous.

Bette throttling Miriam in Old Acquaintance, r57.

R27 Kim also had two other top 10s. In 1980 More Love and Dont Fall In Love With A Dreamer a duet with Kenny Rogers. It’s really too bad BDE was her last top 10. I really thought she’d be a big hit maker in the 80s. She had a few more top 40s but nothing spectacular.

I love Total Eclipse Of the Heart. To me, that song just epitomizes overwrought 80s pop. It's so over the top.

Shannon by Henry Gross was pretty bad.

This was the epitome of sexy sophistication to my idiot 12 year old self. One of my first Napster downloads.

[quote] Whoever is throwing Total Eclipse of the Heart under the bus is a fool. That song is a well deserved classic!

Absolutely agree, though I do prefer the alternate take over the more common MTV version.

Kim Carnes could never sing for shit.

I have no idea how she had a career as a singer -- unless it was to make JLO and Britney not feel so bad for lipsyncing.

Don't forget "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex. And have you heard "Get Dancin'" by Disco-Tex and the Sexolettes?

For something guaranteed to make you vomit, try "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker or the awful "Imagine" by Lennon.

R49 I was looking at what made it to number 1 in 1981 and I agree with you. Blondie, John Lennon, Eddie rabbitt, kool and the gang, Dolly Parton, and REO Speedwagon all hit number one the first few months in 1981.

R8 God, that song was awful.

i hate this song just as much as Total Eclipse of the Heart. Also up there is "Come on Eileen." Ugh, just ugh.

r74 re-listen to Party All the Time and notice it sounds like he is actually saying POTTY all the time. lol

At least she can sing, now Goop cover, that's something else. But nothing compared with this abomination

I fucking love Kim Carnes. She is a very gifted Oscar winning and Grammy winning singer/songwriter.

Nope. Gloria by Laura Brannigan is the worst.

R77 Kim never won an Oscar.

R78, are you for real? Gloria is a classic, I love that song.

R79 for best song “I’ll Be Here Where The Heart Is” from Flashdance

[quote] [R78], are you for real? Gloria is a classic, I love that song.

Ugh, if it weren't a crappy enough song already, it's now been ruined by its use as Trump's insurrection theme song.

This number one wss pretty bad, especially with this lyric.

There's this cute little girlie, she's a-working there A black leotard and her feet are bare.

[R26]! OK, Blood Sugar Police just called. I gotta scramble 4 eggs with white cheddar and sauteed onions STAT. I read the name of the group as "The Captain and Tenerife." No, no, just NO!

You’re an asshole OP. Bette Davis Eyes rules.

“Her hair is Harlow gold”... worth the price of admission alone.

Twas a huge beloved hit, catchy and fun. whts ur prob OP ?????

THE FLASHDANCE ALBUM IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME.

I liked Katharine Hepburn Tics better.

Erm, R25? Marconie played the mamba. Just remember that.

I just will not stand for any Total Eclipse of the Heart slander. I just wont!

Jim Steinman + Bonnie Tyler = epic '80s rock/pop at its best!

[quote]And have you heard "Get Dancin'" by Disco-Tex and the Sexolettes?

I can't believe you mentioned that. I just looked up their video on YouTube last week. They are mentioned in a Pet Shop Boys song and I thought it was fiction. But then I saw a reference to them so I did a Google search.

This song is very infectious (and not in the disease way):

[quote]“Her hair is Harlow gold”... worth the price of admission alone.

Except Harlow was famous for her platinum, not gold, hair.

Lyric fail.

OP? Not while this shit exists.

Given all the love for Bette Davis Eyes on this thread, how do you all feel about The Pina Colada Song?

R78? I think they’ve got your number. I think they got the elegance that you been living under.

The song "Gloria" will be forever ruined for me after watching the Trump family and mistresses jamming to it in a tent on the day they stoked the mob to rampage the Capitol.

"All the voices in your head"

God, they are stupid people.

R93 OMG! I was such a Sylvia fan when I was a kid growing up! My dad would take me and my friends to see her in concert. I was in her fan club too.

I liked Kim Carnes' "More Love."

Chilean Tribute Band. Really good.

And now Brandon Flowers' cover:

I still love Gloria. Trump can't ruin it for me. And Laura Branigan wasn't alive to see her song used in such a distasteful manner.

Personally I love this song even though it’s so 80s.

Gloria was a song about an aging fucked-out whore, btw.

Personally I’ve always hated this song with a passion. The video is a crime against humanity too. Any hotness I may have seen in this group is destroyed by it all.

This is worse than anything Kim Carnes could even dream of creating

[quote] I think they got the elegance that you been living under.

Sweetheart, it's "alias," not "elegance." WTF does your version even mean?

{R94} Pina Colada Song sucks balls. Bette Davis Eyes is awesome. Any questions?

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