One thing I think is fascinating about “Truth Hurts” — and this is true of just about every song on this album — is how short it is. It’s a genuine old school Top 40 throwback in that it’s under 3 minutes long. And one result of that is that most of the time when I hear it, I end up playing it two or three times. Smart, funny, catchy, and Lizzo herself is fine as hell. 4/5.
Truth Hurts It's fine, and I get the appeal, but it's not Top 500 material for me. The beats are indeed generic, but she does have an interesting voice. I agree with @Terrapin Station that Cuz I Love You is better. Ranking so far: 1. Kanye West - Stronger 2. Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty 3. Lizzo - Truth Hurts 4. Supremes - Baby Love
Truth Hurts Looks like it wasn't a big hit in the UK and I confess it completely passed me by. A decent listen and nice clean production but Top 500 material? Ask me again in about 10 years - I find it hard to put something so recent in an all-time list tbh.
Truth Hurts I was never too much of a fan of it when it got heavy radio airplay, I’m still not much a fan of it now. The lyrics are fun, but that’s all it has going for it. Juice, now that’s a great song. 5.5/10 Pancho & Lefty Everything you would want from a classic Country song. Gorgeous and organic instruments and enthralling storytelling. There’s a reason why this song is considered to be legendary. 8/10 Ranking 1. Pancho & Lefty - Townes Van Zandt 2. Stronger - Kanye West 3. Baby Love - The Supremes 4. Truth Hurts - Lizzo
Truth Hurts: I'm someone who enjoys rap and r&b, as long at it is musically interesting and not just the same drone throughout the song. That's where songs like this, despite being barely 3 minutes, fail to keep my attention. The bottom line is that I'm really not very interested what she's singing about. I've always been much more interested in music than in lyrics and the song is lacking on the first imo. I thought the remix posted by Terrapin Station was a bit better. No way this would end up in my top 500.
Ranking so far: 1. Kanye West - Stronger 2. Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty 3. Supremes. Baby Love 4. Lizzo - Truth Hurts
Lizzo has better songs, and I find it interesting that this song was the breakout hit off her album despite being three years old by the time of the album and not even being part of the original configuration. I thought "Juice" was going to be her big hit instead yet that went only to #83 or somewhere in that vicinity
I have a feeling that throughout this list, a number of us will continue the mantra, "Not the artist's best song, but...". So if anyone DOES think a song on the list is their best, please say so!
"Truth Hurts" 4/5 - Great song and doesn't have that prefabricated sound that seemingly most pop released in the last 5-10 years or so seems to have. It feels like time and care were taken to create something that sounded unique and different.
I like Lizzo’s music quite a bit and also thought “Juice” would be her breakthrough. It’s a much stronger song and worthy of placement on this list. As far as contemporary hits go, “Truth Hurts” is better than most and I enjoy it when I hear it, but it’s a 3.9/5 for me. “Juice” is a 5/5. For those who haven’t heard it before:
have to admit that that was my thought about a lot of it: for instance Heart of Gold isn't in Neil's 50 best songs, but I do think I understand why Purple Rain and All Too Well and Like A Rolling Stone made the list. Maybe not the best for fans but the most universal. But SFF may be the Beatles' best.
^This. "Juice" was my introduction to Lizzo and remains my favorite single of hers (9/10). "Truth Hurts" got boosts from TikTok and a Netflix rom-com enabling it to become her mainstream breakthrough. It's a fun song with a melody that's at times reminiscent of Migos' "Black Beatles", which isn't a bad thing. 7/10 Rankings so far: 1. The Supremes - "Baby Love" 2. Kanye West - "Stronger" 3. Townes Van Zandt - "Pancho and Lefty" 4. Lizzo - "Truth Hurts"
Pancho & Lefty I know from Willie & Merle doing it. There's a thin line between enigmatic (good) and incoherent (bad), for me this song is sitting right on that fence. Didn't help that I found the Willie & Merle album weak compared to Willie & Ray Price's San Antonio Rose or even some of Willie's duet albums with lesser lights. TVZ's other work I'm not very familiar with. But P&L has its admirers and has been fairly often recorded, so they must see something in it.
Have solo instrumental sections made a return (or perhaps it's the excising of solo parts have given us the shorter song lengths)?
About a year ago I made an attempt (which failed badly) to get up to speed with current and recent hits and noted three things: few to zero instrumental passages, extremely short song lengths (like early 60's era short) and no fadeouts.
One thing that's cool is that even though Lizzo didn't break big until 2019 (after he'd been dead three years), Prince had the foresight to call her to work on a track with his 3rdeyegirl band in 2014 . So even though she was a relative unknown at the time and wouldn't reach stardom until after his death, he knew there was something there and wanted a piece
It shows that he was watching the local music scene. The Twin Cities press raved about her 2013 debut, and I'm sure that she was in rotation on The Current as well as the Minnesota R&B/Hip-Hop stations. After TIME put her on their year-end list of "14 Musical Acts to Watch in 2014" (quoted below), she got a deal to reissue the album on Virgin.
It looks like the I've-never-heard-this-song-before meme is going to be a prominent one for me in this thread. Pluses: reasonably well produced, like everything else here so far. I like the piano ostinato in the background, but I think it could have been put to much better use (compare, for example, the one in Baby Don't Go by Sonny and Cher). The vocals are competent and more sung than "rapped". Minuses: actually no particular characteristic stands out, except that as a whole I'm not fussy about it. File under the "I've definitely heard a lot worse" category. That is going to be a prominent meme here too. As for the video featuring a bride marrying herself, I'm thinking maybe it could be spliced to that Tom Waits song I once heard about going out with yourself and taking advantage of yourself ...
I had not heard “Truth Hurts” until after the RS list came out and I decided to listen to the 10 bottom-ranked songs. I just gave it another listen and my opinion hasn’t changed much. The song is ok, not particularly special nor deserving to be on the list, imo. Part of it is that I don’t find Lizzo’s rap-singing all that appealing. Maybe it will grow on me if I start listening to her stuff but I’m not really a big enough fan of this genre to do so.
#496. Harry Nilsson, “Without You” (1971) Written by Peter Ham, Tom Evans Wikipedia says: Harry Nilsson, at the time best known for his hit "Everybody's Talkin'" and for composing "One", recorded by Three Dog Night, heard Badfinger's recording of "Without You" at a party, and mistook it for a Beatles song. After realising it was not, he decided to cover the song for his 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson. The single was released by RCA in the autumn of 1971, and first charted on radio stations across the US in early December. "Without You" debuted at number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 18 December 1971, and on its tenth week, in the chart dated 19 February 1972, started its four-week run at number one. Billboard ranked it as the number four single of 1972. The record topped Billboard's Easy Listening chart for five weeks. The record spent five weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart, beginning on 11 March, eventually selling almost 800,000 copies. It went to number one in several other countries, including Australia (for five weeks), Ireland (two weeks) and New Zealand (two weeks). The single, Grammy-nominated for Record of the Year, was produced by Richard Perry, who later explained, "It was a different record for its time. It was a big ballad with a heavy backbeat, and although many artists have cut songs like it since, no one was doing it then. Gary Wright, who worked with Badfinger on George Harrison's projects, played the piano. Also featured are Klaus Voormann (bass), Jim Keltner (drums) and John Uribe (acoustic guitar). The string and horn arrangements are by Paul Buckmaster. In 1973, the single won Nilsson the Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. While Nilsson rarely gave live concerts, he did perform the song with Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in September 1992.
496: Nilsson - Without You An appallingly over-produced, over-sung, overwrought travesty that takes everything good about the wonderful original and bins it. One of those songs that, if it starts playing on the radio or in a shop, I change channels or walk out.
496: Nilsson - Without You I'm having a good laugh at Carlwm's response to this song. The Nilsson version has become something of a cliche, to say the least. But it is the first incredible song (from a song-writing persepctive, rather than production and performance) on the list IMHO. Still packs a great punch but I agree, give me Badfinger any day of the week.
