Bad Albums by your favorite artists

[apes3978]

I feel like I lean on the younger side of things here, but at 37 I'm a huge elvis fan and I can't stand the mid sixties stuff. The movies and the music were so phoned in and all about selling a product. His early stuff and his stuff from 68 to 74 was a return to form and then some. Even though he didn't write his own music, he owned every sing he ever cared to sing.

Yeah, Elvis is pretty good... A lot of the film music is dreck, but there are a few good ones scattered in there...

[Mr.Marion]

I feel like I lean on the younger side of things here, but at 37 I'm a huge elvis fan and I can't stand the mid sixties stuff. The movies and the music were so phoned in and all about selling a product. His early stuff and his stuff from 68 to 74 was a return to form and then some. Even though he didn't write his own music, he owned every sing he ever cared to sing.

I picked up this a few years back.

[kerowack]

I feel like I lean on the younger side of things here, but at 37 I'm a huge elvis fan and I can't stand the mid sixties stuff. The movies and the music were so phoned in and all about selling a product. His early stuff and his stuff from 68 to 74 was a return to form and then some. Even though he didn't write his own music, he owned every sing he ever cared to sing.

[cjefferys]

Really? I liked the album when it first came out and I'm still fond of it. I was more disappointed by KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, it's a toss up between that and the Star Wars Holiday Special as to which one is the television event that I was most looking forward to but horribly disappointed by. The fact that these two events occurred within a month of each other made Fall 1978 a rough season for me! When I was 10 years old, Star Wars and KISS were the only two things I cared about, and both franchises really let me down that fall...

[Wee67]

All this talk about bad albums inspired me to go back and listen to KISS Dynasty. Similar to Mego, I have a strong nostalgia for KISS. They were the first "real" band I liked as a kid and I was nuts for them. Had posters all over my room, made sure not to miss 'KISS Meets The Phantom of the Park' colored in the the KISS color-by-numbers posters. I know KISS was never the most epoch band in music, but I loved them. I also remember being devastated by how much I hated Dynasty. I remember thinking it was so bad. I dropped KISS and never looked back. This thread made me think I should go back and re-listen to it.

So I did.

It still hurts.

[Allie Fox]

Van Halen III screams the title of this thread. God awful.

[kingdom warrior]

The Beatles: A Hard Days Night and Help

I don't know anyone who listens to the instrumentals more than once

Those are the American versions....The EMI UK versions of those two albums are the best... no instrumental music

[mickeymoosemego]

There's actually some very good and funny songs from that Looney Tunes series! Daffy's the Wizard is great one.

[Werewolf]

I love Yosemite Sam's cover of The Flame.

[ZMOQ]

I think I remember hearing Cheap Trick HATES the song "The Flame", because it foisted on them by their record company. It's their biggest hit, and they won't perform it live.

Chris

Well, yes, that is understandable why'd they hate it. Cheap Trick usually wrote their own songs (mostly by Rick Nielsen) and then, all of a sudden, they got pushed to perform a song written by outside writers. But, from Epic (Records) standpoint, Cheap Trick had several years of "no hit singles" and albums that didn't sell well. If they kept going at that rate, they'd be dropped from the label. "The Doctor" was their absolute nadir.

In a way, Cheap Trick and Heart had similar problems in the mid 80's. Both bands were new and fresh in the late 70's, wrote their own songs, had hit singles and albums. But both bands hit a rough spot in the early 80's with rapidly dropping sales and a dearth of hit singles. Both bands were revitalized in the mid-late 80's with songs by outside writers. But, the 2nd wind eventually soured on them and both bands disavowed their mid-late 80's hits and stopped performing them.

That said, "Heart" (1985) and "Bad Animals" are actually pretty good albums.

[Mr.Marion]

I think I remember hearing Cheap Trick HATES the song "The Flame", because it foisted on them by their record company. It's their biggest hit, and they won't perform it live.

Chris

I hate it as well. It's a terrible song. They are a great band otherwise though.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I think I remember hearing Cheap Trick HATES the song "The Flame", because it foisted on them by their record company. It's their biggest hit, and they won't perform it live.

Chris

[ZMOQ]

Ouch, again I find myself somewhat in disagreement! "All Shook Up" and "One On One" had some sterling songs on there....but I admit, for the first time in their career, they started to have some truly "filler" songs and ideas that just really didn't work. But the songs on those records that are good to me are SO good that I still have a fondness for the records overall. However, Cheap Trick's 1986 album, "The Doctor", is pretty much useless. A couple of good riffs and ideas but overall an extremely lackluster record, I can't even tell you when the last time was that I listened to it (probably sometime in 1986 haha!)

And I agree with cjeffreys about "The Idiot", I really dig that album. But then again I love post-punk/new wave, etc.

Oh gosh, don't I know! Side 1 of "All Shook Up" is the good side. But when the needle hit "Love Comes a Tumblin' down" and "High Priest of Rhythmic Noise" I wondered, why is Robin Zander screaming in my ear? Is he trying to be AC/DC? The real *** moment was "Who D' King". Sigh... waste of groove space and the beginning of the end of a great band.

Then we got to "One on One". Great singles, and 2 or 3 good power pop songs ("Ooh La La", "Time is Runnin", maybe "Love's Got a Hold on Me") but the rest is more screaming, or novelty dreck ("I Want Be Man", "Four Letter Word").

They had at least one truly great single, pre-"The Flame". It was "Tonight It's You" that reminded fans of what was right about Cheap Trick all along. It just wasn't a hit and sunk into obscurity, but I still have a very dear spot in my heart for that one.

[Blue Meanie]

For the Cheap Trick fans...If you don't have Robin Zander's Solo album go out and find it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Zander_(album)

When I was an assistant manager at The Wiz here in NY I received one of these as a promo and was immediately hooked on this album. Very Beatlesque and just a really great album. Worth finding if you like Zander's vocals. 'Show Me Heaven' duet with Maria Mckee of Lone Justice is just AMAZING. I didn't know that 'Jump Into The Fire' was originally recorded by Nilson until I got the album that it originally was on. Another great song on the album. You can probably find this for a really good price on Ebay or Amazon. Worth every penny and then some.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

Ouch, again I find myself somewhat in disagreement! "All Shook Up" and "One On One" had some sterling songs on there....but I admit, for the first time in their career, they started to have some truly "filler" songs and ideas that just really didn't work. But the songs on those records that are good to me are SO good that I still have a fondness for the records overall. However, Cheap Trick's 1986 album, "The Doctor", is pretty much useless. A couple of good riffs and ideas but overall an extremely lackluster record, I can't even tell you when the last time was that I listened to it (probably sometime in 1986 haha!)

And I agree with cjeffreys about "The Idiot", I really dig that album. But then again I love post-punk/new wave, etc.