Just thinking today about this because I realised that Björk's "It's Oh So Quiet" isn't on her Greatest Hits album. Similarly, there is no sign of "Shiny Happy People" on REM's best of album.

 

These are a couple of other examples I thought of where the artist either disliked their own song at first and grew to love it (grudgingly or otherwise), or subsequently disowned it and dropped it from their live sets etc in later years...

 

- Girls Aloud "Love Machine". Quite well documented that they didn't like this at first, thinking they were going to be a laughing stock and calling a meeting with their label bosses at Polydor to tell them it was the wrong choice and that people would say they sounded like Busted or McFly(?). Of course it went onto be one of their biggest hits and they grew to love it.

 

- Daniel Bedingfield "If You're Not The One". By some distance, other than "Gotta Get Thru This", his biggest hit, but he said at the time that he didn't want to release it or even have it on the album: "Commercialism, sappy lyrics and meek tunes are the things I hate most in the universe, but I’m not sure even Bob Dylan could get record company interest without hooks these days."

Interesting thread!

 

I just found out Sophie Ellis-Bextor has long hated I Won’t Change You. I think the Sugababes 1.0. have had a jolly laugh on camera over Get Sexy and rightfully so. I think Gaga has disowned Do What U Want also.

Bruno Mars hates The Lazy Song which is a shame as it's one of his best.

 

Avril Lavigne hates What The Hell but her label made her push it, also one of her best tbh.

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

Celine Dion was not a fan of recording My Heart Will Go On - but now understands its beauty

 

Jesy Nelson also hates 'Black Magic' - I've seen a few interviews where she races to give that answer when asked about songs they don't like

James Blunt understandably hates You're Beautiful, at least performing it anyway.

James Blunt understandably hates You're Beautiful, at least performing it anyway.

 

It must be difficult to have to perform the same song more than all your others

 

I remember Toploader saying something to that affect about 'Dancing In The Moonlight'. I also saw Vanessa Carlton live and she came out and went 'Let's get this over with' before going straight into 'A Thousand Miles'

 

At the same time, I've been to see Passenger a few times now and he always introduces 'Let Her Go' in a way that pays homage to what the song did for his life/his career and he makes it a moment between him and the audience.

 

Celine Dion was not a fan of recording My Heart Will Go On - but now understands its beauty

 

Jesy Nelson also hates 'Black Magic' - I've seen a few interviews where she races to give that answer when asked about songs they don't like

 

It’s actually not just jesy, all 4 little mix girls have stated black magic is their least favourite in various different interviews.

I thought their least favourite was their winners single Cannonball or do they just pretend that never happened

Lola Young doesn't like her earlier stuff but her reasoning is fair enough, she doesn't feel it's her.

 

The Wanted don't hide the fact that they hate Walks Like Rihanna.

Edited November 29, 2024Nov 29 by Hassaan

It’s actually not just jesy, all 4 little mix girls have stated black magic is their least favourite in various different interviews.

 

I thought they disowned 'Change Your Life' which is sad as I think its one of their best.

Bruno Mars hates The Lazy Song which is a shame as it's one of his best.

 

I never knew he had such remarkably good taste!

 

Shame he had to inflict it on us in the first place.

Nicola Roberts famously tweeted that she wasn't a fan of Girls Aloud's The Loving Kind, but in more recent times has tweeted that she likes it more now (and, although it didn't make the tour setlist, they did perform it at Brighton Pride this year). The girls recently expressed a dislike of See the Day (and, if I remember correctly, I Think We're Alone Now received a dig or two as well) - understandable as it's not exactly an essential cover version. On that same note, I can't remember where I heard/read this but I'm sure Rachel Stevens was never keen on More, More, More.

 

I know Jon from S Club isn't quite so fond of Reach as a song, though he's said it's his favourite to perform because of the crowd's reaction to it. Similarly, I'm sure I remember Liam Payne saying he wasn't that huge on What Makes You Beautiful. Gotta Be You pretty much got disowned by the whole group very early on.

 

Keisha from Sugababes very much isn't a fan of Get Sexy...!!!

 

Doja Cat has slagged off most songs she's released it seems but Say So and Kiss Me More both stand out as songs she says she's not keen on. Greyson Chance has disowned his debut album, though it was released eight years before his second, and he was 13/14 years old at the time and a long way off coming out as gay (therefore Little London Girl hasn't aged very well lol). Lily Allen is notably outspoken about her views on her own music, Somewhere Only We Know and Air Balloon have come under fire (and she ranked Sheezus as her worst album overall).

 

I know many artists who are one hit wonders, or have one notably bigger hit than anything else, end up somewhat resenting their big hit. I don't think death bed is Powfu's favourite song that he's put out (though death bed, Pt.2 is now a thing), and beabadoobee wasn't ever a fan of it despite (and probably because of) the sample of her song throughout it.

It must be difficult to have to perform the same song more than all your others

 

I remember Toploader saying something to that affect about 'Dancing In The Moonlight'. I also saw Vanessa Carlton live and she came out and went 'Let's get this over with' before going straight into 'A Thousand Miles'

 

At the same time, I've been to see Passenger a few times now and he always introduces 'Let Her Go' in a way that pays homage to what the song did for his life/his career and he makes it a moment between him and the audience.

Grant Nicholas (Feeder) does the same thing as Vanessa pretty often, before getting Buck Rogers over and done with! Sometimes combines that with what Passenger says...

Keisha from Sugababes very much isn't a fan of Get Sexy...!!!

 

Not me listening to Get Sexy whilst reading this :lol:

I would say it's pretty common. The reality is that if you want to make a healthy living from making music then you need to make music that will sell to the masses.

 

Aside from that, I cannot think of a single artist where I like every tune they've made so I can't imagine an artist liking everything they've done either.

 

 

I wonder how Kelly Clarkson feels about the songs from her All I Ever Wanted album... it's common knowledge (among us pop fans at least lol) that My December was the album she was let loose creatively but the label didn't fully support it. Then with AIEW, it felt like a massive retread to her Breakaway sound but more poppy. 'My Life Would Suck Without You' was very much in the same vein as 'Since U Been Gone', then there was 'Already Gone' which was so similar to Beyonce's 'Halo'. 'Long Shot' and 'I Do Not Hook Up' were Katy Perry co-writes presumably originally intended for her One Of The Boys album. I just can't imagine Kelly was particularly thrilled with the final product. :unsure:

Gotta Be You pretty much got disowned by the whole group very early on.

I don't know why they released that as a single in the first place. There were so many more suitable tracks on that first album.

 

More Than This would have even been better. Yes, it's very "classic boyband" but they'd already done the "not a typical boyband" thing with WMYB.

It’s Oh So Quiet is actually because it was a fan vote for the tracklist but she does hate it too, she feels that it doesn’t represent her and is a bit novelty, I can imagine it’s frustrating for something so far removed from who you are to be the song everyone knows you for. As a big Bjork fan I actually love it but I can see why others don’t and why she isn’t keen.

 

Madonna I believe kind of hates Holiday and Like A Virgin, but she did perform them both on tour recently. I guess them being her first two really big hits, she’s sang them for 40+ years at this point and you probably would be fed up of them :lol:

Radiohead quite famously dislike 'Creep' for all the reasons mentioned in this thread, and they didn't play it live for a good few years.

Noel Gallagher has often spoken of his dislike of the Be Here Now album (personally I think it's a fantastic album but there you go).