Five Songs that Irritate My Ears

The Five Songs That Really Irritate My Ears

Some of my essay here is going to focus on the technical parts of singing and recording a song. I’ll also take a look at how these songs were received by the public and how they performed on the charts. I’m not necessarily going to say I hate or dislike any of them, but I’ll explain why they made my list of five songs that irritate my ears. For context, I was a teenager in the 1970s, I was 15 for the entire year of 1975, so most of my picks come from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

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“Torn Between Two Lovers” – Mary MacGregor (1976)

This song was a huge hit. At first, it looked like it wasn’t going anywhere, hanging around #29 for several weeks. Then Mary MacGregor’s publicity team began promoting her as “the next Karen Carpenter,” and it worked. By late-January 1977, the song had rocketed to #1 and became a worldwide hit.

At first, I didn’t pay much attention to the song. But once the Karen Carpenter comparison started, I began to like it, though, interestingly, I had never connected MacGregor’s voice to Karen’s before. I know Karen’s voice extremely well, and Mary’s wasn’t even close. That shows how marketing can sway public opinion. Still, it wasn’t lasting. MacGregor’s voice simply wasn’t of Karen’s quality, and she ended up a one-hit wonder.

Listening to the song today, her voice doesn’t sound terrible while the track is playing. But afterward, what lingers with me is a frail, weak tone that wobbles through the words. She was singing in key, and this was long before Auto-Tune, but there was still “studio magic” back then. A common trick was called punching in, replacing a small segment with a better re-recorded version. This helped cover mistakes in pitch, timing, or lyrics.

I have a very keen ear for vocal production. I hear in perfect pitch, meaning I instantly notice when a singer goes off-key. I can also detect problems with timing, pitch, breath control, and so on. Even though professionals fix these things in the studio, I still pick up on them.

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“Physical” – Olivia Newton-John (1981)

I’m not against ONJ. In fact, I like several of her songs such as “Mary Skeffington,” “The River’s Too Wide,” “Every Face Tells a Story,” and “Deeper Than the Night.” But “Physical,” her biggest career hit, is another story.

The song is annoyingly repetitive and unsuited to her voice. She’s out of her comfort zone. Yet, it became the #1 song of the entire 1980s. I guess I was the only one who didn’t like it.

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“It’s Working” – MGMT (2010)

I really tried to like MGMT. Musically, they weren’t bad at all, with tasty guitar work and strong percussion. But Andrew VanWyngarden’s lead vocals drag everything down. His voice just doesn’t carry the songs, it stifles the mood. The song needs a lead vocal with more muscle to it.

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“Solitaire” – Neil Sedaka (1972)

Neil Sedaka first released “Solitaire” in 1972. Two years later, after he scored big with “Laughter in the Rain,” his record company quickly rereleased his 1972 album with a new cover, and it went Gold.

In 1975, Carpenters recorded the same song, and Karen Carpenter delivered a sublime performance. Sedaka, on the other hand, fell flat. He probably should have stuck to easier material like “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”

Still, his album was musically solid, thanks to the members of the British rock band 10cc, who backed him up.

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“Bend It” – Barbara Eden (1967)

In 1967, The Doors were topping the charts with “Light My Fire,” and Aretha Franklin was belting out “Respect.” Meanwhile, Barbara Eden was trying her best with “Bend It.” Unfortunately, it just didn’t work. No surprise that Dot Records, later absorbed into ABC and then MCA, only ever released one Barbara Eden album.

Fortunately, we still have good memories of her playing Jeannie on the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

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Bonus: “Good Friend” – Mary MacGregor (1980)

I’ve always loved songs about friends and friendship, so when this one came out, of course I gave it a listen. But it never clicked with me.

Even the producers and engineers couldn’t save Mary MacGregor’s weak delivery. Her high notes are screechy, and her breath control is inconsistent. The lyrics are nice, but this track will never make it onto one of my FRIENDS playlists.

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In the end, music is personal. What irritates my ears might be another person’s favorite song. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, and that’s okay. These songs just happen to be the ones that never sit right with me, no matter how big the hits were or how popular they became.

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Here is Sam’s challenge:

https://vocal.media/writers/unofficial-challenge-do-your-worst-unbearable-music-recs

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