Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs

Pretty much a throwaway, Barry gets in a few good lines, but the book is just so tossed-off, it almost hurts to read it. Someone could at least have given Julie London credit for being a singer (and a favorite of Bob Dylan) before she was known as an actress. Hard to argue with most of the choices, however, although some are just more silly than bad. And others were certainly not meant to be taken seriously in the first place. Also, he left out the worst song ever: I Started a Joke by the Bee Gees. "I finally died, which started the whole world living." And the rest is just as bad. (Hey, I love lots of Bee Gees songs, from throughout their career, but there is just something about the tune of this song that even without lyrics would put show more me in a bad mood.) show less

Run, don't walk, to get this book. Despite Dave's warnings at the beginning of the book (DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE!!), read it. Ignore everyone who looks at you as though you are losing your mind as you laugh out loud every few seconds. Chase down those folks who are trying to escape you as you HAVE to read one paragraph after another out loud to them so they can see what you're laughing about!

Then try to get those songs out of your head. Those awful, horrible songs you perpetually keep buried in the deep dark recesses of your subconscious because it just HURTS to much to think about them - and once you think about them they go 'round and 'round and 'round in your head for days on end! ("Songs she sang to me, songs she brang to me...")

Says show more Dave, "I've never written a column that got a bigger response than the one announcing the Bad Song Survey. More than ten thousand readers voted..." This little book is the result. Dave (and his readers/survey respondents) rip up Weenie Music, Love Songs, Songs Women Really Hate, Teen Death Songs, and, ultimately, Songs People Get Wrong. I DARE you to read this and NOT laugh!

I DARE you to read this and listen to "Help Me Rhonda" without hearing "owls pukin' in (your) bed"!!!! show less

For all the songs Neil Diamond "brang" to us. . . for the chair that did not or would not hear poor Neil in "I Am, I Said," and every other song or lyric you've ever loathed--including my personal rip-out-the-radio anthem, "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow. From the weird ones, like "Muskrat Love" and "MacArthur Park," to breakup sobfests like "All By Myself"; from teen-death ditties to all the girls Willie Nelson's loved before, if there are any songs that you would honest-to-God pay cold cash never to hear again, betcha Dave has covered them in this great little book in his inimitable style.

from Mary:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….
When I was shelving books recently, I came across Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs and decided to read it again. I remembered it as being funny, and my memory was correct. You will want to read this to your friends and family, but…ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha… You won’t be able to!

There are chapters about Dave’s Bad Song Survey Results, Weenie Music, Love Songs, Songs Women Really Hate, Teen Death Songs, and Songs People Get Wrong.

WARNING! There are songs in this book that you like, but …ha ha ha ha ha ha…it doesn’t matter. This is a short book, which is a good thing, because your ribs will be so sore from laughing that you couldn’t take any more.

This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. As Barry says, "song badness" is apparently a topic that people care about a *lot*. And how can we not? In a world where Neil Diamond has made a living confessing his innermost feelings to a cruelly unresponsive chair, it is our pleasure, nay, our *duty* to mock.

Funny and on target, but more of a magazine article than a book. Read the whole thing in an hour, I think!

I laughed until I cried. I am, apparently, of a similar vintage to Mr. Barry, and grew up with the same songs. While I don't hate all of his listings, I quite understand others' loathing of the songs that were sang to me, songs that were brang to me.