Recently I put a post on the CPRW Facebook page asking for suggestions for top ten lists that people would like to see. One of the suggestions that stood out was top ten guilty pleasures. That got me thinking straight away about what songs I could pick. It also got me thinking about what actually counts as a ‘guilty pleasure’? I guess most people will think of a guilty pleasure as something that they like but might not be considered cool in their social circle and are a little embarrassed to admit to liking it. For me, I will happily argue with anyone (unless you're much bigger than me) that the songs on my list are big tunes and are not in the slightest bit cringey or embarrassing. So this is more of a list of songs that people might not expect me to enjoy but I actually love.
Narrowing this list down to ten actually proved to be pretty difficult, as it turns out I enjoy a lot of songs that people might construe as a guilty pleasure, so my honourable mentions go to:
Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet's Back)
Fun. – We Are Young
Jamie T – Sticks And Stones
Amy Studt – Just A Little Girl
Joe Esposito – You're The Best Around
Good Charlotte – The entirety of the Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous album
Josie And The Pussycats Soundtrack
Also, before I say this for every song, I'd love them all to be made into ska songs. They'd all work and put a big smile on my face. If anyone from Skatune Network, The Holophonics, El Topo All Stars, Codename Colin, or any other band that likes to do ska covers, is reading this then yes please.
The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Where Is The Love? is without a doubt the song that thrust The Black Eyed Peas into the mainstream and lead to frontman Will.I.Am becoming the most annoying man in all of popular culture. I will forever argue that I Gotta Feeling is a better song however. I love the slow build at the start of the song (aside from the horrific auto-tuned vocals) that soon leads into such a big party banger. This is one of those songs that I could probably recite from start to finish and make myself lose all of my punk points.
Elton John & Kiki Dee – Don't Go Breaking My Heart
I'm such a sucker for a good duet. Two folk singing a song that feels like a conversation is a songwriting technique that always gives me a bit of a kick. Does that make me a bit of a nosey nelly who likes listening to other people’s conversations? I'm pretty sure that this song is the inspiration for Masked Intruder's Heart Shaped Guitar.
John Farnham – You're The Voice
In my humble opinion, this song has absolutely no right to be as good as it is. I wonder if it's one of those songs that fall into the ‘so bad it's good’ category of music. I'm sure you know the song by now. It's an 80s power ballad where John Farnham belts out some impressive vocals. Then, for some reason, around the halfway point some bagpipes come in for no apparent reason. I guess that's the 80s for you? As ridiculous as the song is, it's a pretty inspiring working class anthem about fighting for what you believe in and how everyone is really just the same.
Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
This song came out at a time when I'd completely stopped listening to any form of pop music and I'd properly found punk rock. I think I first heard this Kelly Clarkson classic due to my big sister Leanne playing it at home. It was a pop song that didn't feel massively over-produced, had a great message, didn't use sex to sell it and Kelly Clarkson has the most powerful voice. I can remember seeing her play it with a band on some TV award show and being completely blown away. This is a great pop song.
Len – Steal My Sunshine
I first heard Steal My Sunshine by Len in 1999 and it's still engrained into my tiny brain twenty years, and many bumps to the head, later. Comprised of siblings Marc and Sharon Costanzo, Len were (and, according to Wikipedia, still are) an alternative rock/hip hop duo from Canada. Steal My Sunshine was their big hit and I would imagine 99% of people who have heard of Len only know this song. Paul Be Sharp assures me that the album You Can't Stop The Bum Rush is "proper genre bending" and has some "bangers" on it. My pal Dr Dave absolutely detests this song, this may be another reason it's stuck with me for so long.
Meat Loaf & Cher – Dead Ringer For Love
I grew up with a lot of Meat Loaf in my house. Bat Out Of Hell or I'd Do For Anything For Love are the obvious choices for a guilty pleasures list featuring the great man but Dead Ringer For Love featuring Cher has always been the stand out song in the Meat Loaf back catalogue for me. I love my songs to be overflowing with energy and this certainly has that. Both Mr Loaf and Cher sing their parts with such attitude – it's pretty empowering and you can't helped but get swept away with it.
My Chemical Romance – Welcome To The Black Parade
When I was first putting together this list and I decided on Welcome To The Black Parade, Emma quite quickly questioned it. Her argument was that My Chemical Romance are a bit of a guilty pleasure by themselves and that I'm Not Okay is a better song. I agreed with her but I argued that Welcome To The Black Parade is more of a guilty pleasure as it's really when My Chemical Romance got super theatrical and really stepped away from their past in the punk scene. I love how out there they went with this song. It's completely unnecessary but every time I hear it I get hooked and start doing my best emo impressions.
The OC Supertones – Supertones Strike Back
There are probably many people who say that the whole genre of ska punk is a guilty pleasure. To those people, I say boo! However, I am including one ska punk song on this list. Not because it's ska, but because it's a Christian ska punk song. As a body of music though, it's a song that I can't help but sing along to and skank myself silly, even though the lyrics are packed with things that I happen to think are complete poppy-cock. If you feel so inclined please Google the lyrics to the song. They're kind of ridiculous but my Gandalf this is a lot fun.
Scatman John – Scatman (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop)
I'd like to sit here and argue that I love this song because of the positive message about how a speech impediment shouldn't hold you back and if the Scatman can do it then so can you. If I'd have realised this when I was nine years old and having speech therapy lessons then the song would probably have been pretty inspiring. In truth, it's the chorus that caught me and was like nothing I'd, and probably anyone else, heard before. I struggle to call this a guilty pleasure as doesn't everyone love this song?
Now you've read this, I ask you to go check out some great DIY punk rock music as this is what CPRW is supposed to be about. Not this nonsense!
This top ten was written by Colin Clark.
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