Great songs with lame lyrics

What song is a guilty pleasure because you really like the tune, but the words are so embarrassing you're afraid to be caught singing along? Maybe the words ruin the song for you, or maybe you still love it but try to put the lyrics out of your mind.

My no. 1:

ABBA - Dum Dum Diddle

The title says it all. As if that were not enough, in the middle of the song we have the following "rhyming" couplet:

Urrgh.

Infuriating, because it's one of their best tunes, especially the chorus.

 

Lady Marmalade

 

In a Gadda Da Vida

 

I'd dispute the title. If a song has lame lyrics, it's not a great song, pretty much by definition. Someone might like the song -- or more commonly the recording or the performance of a song that's has lame or inane lyrics...I mean, hello, "Surfin' Bird"! That's a record I can never tire of. But it's not a "great song."

 

Basically 98% of rock and pop songs

 

It isn't?

 

Well technically you might be right. Still, I think most people would know what I am trying to put across with the thread title.

 

Can't understand a word

 

Don't worry. If a great melody has a bad lyric, it's a great song with a bad lyric.

 

As much as I love Husker Du I think their lyrics are more often than not just terrible.

 

My Sweet Lord.

 

I enjoy Nine Inch Nails....but sometimes...yikes.

 

Imagine

 

Riders On The Storm

 

R.E.M.- "Mine Smell Like Honey"

 

Pretty much everything by The Steve Miller Band.

Great bands over the years, fantastic playing. Love the way he writes catchy melodies and yes, he sings in tune! However, his lyrics I find often ridiculous. None more so than:

 

Yep. Consider Hate Paper Doll. Good grief!

 

"Abracadabra" is Johnny Mercer compared to "Take The Money & Run"

 

Ha! My point exactly. Just silly those lyrics, but we all remember the song.

 

Queenie Eye
Queenie Eye
Who's got the ball
I haven't got it
It isn't in my pocket
O-U-T spells 'out'
That's 'out'
Without a shadow of a doubt

This man wrote "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude", people.

 

Surfin’ Bird is a truly great song and that’s why you can never tire of it. One thing is absurd and a very different one being lame. Surfin’ Bird lyrics don’t make sense but that only adds to the greatness of it.

 

Most of them

 

Or the "pompatus" of love...Now he's just making up words!

 

I'd add Shiny Happy People, but I can't bring myself to call it a good song, much less great. Sad would be the word I'd choose.

 

Aerosmith - Livin’ on the Edge