10 Favorite Guilty Pleasures (IMHO)

[Scott]

In the Hidden Treasure #27 post I let you all in on a Guilty Pleasure of mine and that's The Goo Goo Dolls.  I've stewed on this topic a couple times but never really put together a list.  So here it is...

My Ten Favorite Guilty Music Pleasures (IMHO)

The Bee Gees:  Come on, I know with a high degree of certainty that at one time or another these guys were in your personal collection in one form or another, whether it was a 45 single or an entire album.  Then your friends gave you crap about it and you moved the album to the back of your collection and bought a "Disco Sucks" t-shirt to "prove" you didn't like them.  hmmm...  Bet you still pop it in every now and then.

KISS:  All KISS Fans lived through a period of ridicule for liking this band.  No one took them seriously and KISS fans took a beating.  But alas we lost many battles, but won the war, at least until The Elder was released and then we had to fight again.  Lick it Up, at least for me, was the bands return to respectability and the one that put these battles to rest.

England Dan and John Ford Coley:  Their catchy pop choruses and smooth melodies worked at dance after dance after dance, so much so that you had to buy them for those anticipated "alone times".  And out of the collection they came when the the time was right.  Probably still works to...

Allison Krauss:  Admit it, when you hear her voice you stop and listen.  Even if you don't like the genre, her voice is stunning! And you took notice when she partnered with the likes of Robert Plant several other Classic Rock artists.

Earth Wind and Fire:  Maurice White is one of the coolest lead singers ever.  Great stage presence great entertainer and songwriter.  Samarian/Egyptian costumes, stage sets, and spiritual lyrics that many think of as strange.  To make the claim of being a "Rocker" and then pop in Boogie Wonderland was a hard lesson in ridicule we've all had to learn whether this was your scenario or not.  But get a friend out of the crowd and they would ask you to put in Fantasy or Serpentine Fire and crank it, of which I gladly obliged!

Huey Lewis and the News:  I bought their "Sports" release and quickly got tired of them and the cheesy videos and overplayed songs.  Also got tired of hearing about how not cool they were. Then they came to town.  I was given a ticket and forced to go see them because I really didn't want to, but man they were good!  Really good!  I heard more than I Wanna New Drug and watched as they jammed!  I have a new respect for these guys that I still have to this day

Rick Springfield:  A soap opera actor?  No way he could be taken seriously!  Until you heard Jesses Girl, and then you still tried to resist, and then you heard Sammy Hagar wrote Ive Done Everything For You, and then you relented, but only a little bit!  And then he released Living In Oz.

Ambrosia:  I could never like this crap!  Too sensitive, too wimpy.  Ya, they suck!  And then I went and bought Life Beyond L.A. and heard what wasn't on the radio.  I still play How Much I Feel also, I admitted it in a therapy session years later and it still feels good to look in the mirror and say "I'm an Ambrosia fan because I'm good enough, smart enough and doggonit, people like me!"  (I kid... maybe?)

Chuck Mangione:  Jazz?  Freakin really?  Yup!  And while I am very particular about liking jazz, it is only certain selections that really strike me as listenable.  George Benson is another artist who I really appreciate.  But I wanted to express my Chuck Mangione guilty pleasure because (ok don't throw anything at me) ... because it Feels So Good.

Coldplay:  Their artsy fartsy, the dude married Gwyneth Paltrow their rhythms are repetitive, and on and on...  but they are so damn good!  My son got me hooked and I pop them in every now and them.


Come now, confession time!  Or ridicule away, Ive heard it all before.  hahahaha.

 

Who are your guilty pleasures?

Heres a playlist of selections from my guilty pleasures....
http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/cd988f628e02aa18f074cbdd0a191008

 

 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Okay, I haven't yet looked to see what your song selections are for these guilty pleasures (I'm really glad that this thread is about music, given the title), so here's my response.  By the way, I really like the vast majority of these.  I'm very interested to see which songs you picked, which I'll do as soon as I'm finished with my list.  I gave Coldplay about 5 minutes of my time, but that's it.  I'm gonna pick a song from each of these that I really like. The best band here I will skip, since they definitely aren't a "guilty pleasure".  So no Kiss for me.  Also, I would have gone with Earth, Wind and Fire if I'd had the song After The Love Is Gone or the song September on my computer, but I don't.  Those are great songs.  However, some of these I'm not particularly familiar with (I've heard of all of 'em, just don't know their music), so I'll replace those with a guilty pleasure of my own.  Here goes:

 

The Bee Gees - Nights On Broadway

Conway Twitty - Goodbye Time

England Dan And John Ford Coley - Nights Are Forever Without You

Dwight Yoakam - Ain't That Lonely Yet

Glen Campbell - Gentle On My Mind

Huey Lewis And The News - If This Is It

Rick Springfield - Alyson

Tim McGraw - Angry All The Time

The Church - Under The Milkyway

Neil Diamond - Love On The Rocks

 

The ones in bold are the guilty pleasures artists we agree on, the ones in italics are my guilty pleasures.  Click the picture below of the hottest band in the world (since I left them out of the list) to hear my playlist.

 

[Scott]

Love the Glen Campbell tune, he had a cool run of hits in the early 70;s that were pretty strong.

 

You like the Oz release too?  I thought that was a really strong album at the time!  Gave him respectability in the music community.  At least that's what I thought.  Been tempted to listen to his new one too, Venus in Overdrive?  May get to that sooner than later now...

 

I was considering Neil Diamond and I had listened to "America", "Love on the Rocks", and "Forever In Blue Jeans" as potential posted tunes.  I also considered Country Music as one as well.  But I opted for Alison Krauss instead. 

 

I actually had the pleasure of waiting on Conway Twitty once in 1981, I was in 10th grade and was working my first job at the Holiday Inn and I got to serve him breakfast.  Nice guy!  Don't remember the tip though, must not have been too nice of a guy!  hahahaha

 

This was a fun topic to pull together and one Ive been sitting on.  I hope it gets some interesting conversation going!

[Scott]

You really need to pick up some EWF!

[RJhog (Admin)]

Like I said, those 2 songs are awesome.  I also liked Phillip Bailey's collaboration with Phil Collins, Easy Lover.  I've often told myself to pick up their greatest hits, just never have for some reason.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Ah, I see we matched one song (The Bee Gees).  But I like your choices.  The Rick Springfield song you picked is awesome.  I'll listen to this at work tomorrow.  Can't wait.  Great topic Scott.

[Jon]

1. Frank Sinatra

2. Abba

3. Bee Gees

4. Sade

5. Sheena Easton

6. Berlin

7. Missing Persons

8. The B-52's

9. Any classical music

10. Glen Miller, etc...any Big Band music 

 

 

Suprised you mentioned Ambrosia as a guilty pleasure. Sure, they had the soft stuff, but a majority is prog rock. 

[RJhog (Admin)]

I like some Sinatra and Sade as well...

[Scott]

The Ambrosia inclusion must have something to do with the crowd I hung around back in the day...  But I woudl agree with you, I could replace them on my list

[Mike Pell]

Scott,

For the most part, I am as guilty as you!
And I am old enough to remember when the Bee Gees were considered Progressive FM Rock, making great albums even before Odessa until they stumbled into disco. Big Mistake! But still catchy tunes.

Ambrosia I love for the song Nice Nice Very Nice, which is the name of a chapter in a famous author's book as I recall.

That book and the author's name escapes me at the moment, I am tired, lol!

Ok I am out of gas...but damn good stuff in that list- I share the guilt, lol!
Mike

[Mike Pell]

I have so many Guilty Pleasures I could never narrow them down to list them.

Hell I don't even know they exist as Guilty Pleasures until I think to play them, lol!

Nice Nice Very Nice by Ambrosia is from a Kurt Vonnegut book.

And RJ and all, while Glen Campbell's version of Gentle On My Mind is very good, check out the best ever one by John Hartford- he WROTE the song!

In fact, check out anything by John Hartford, he was a mad genius!

Good lists here.

Mike

 

[Niels (Mod)]

I would point out Burt Bacharach's songwriting as my guilty pleasure, with great songs like "The Look Of Love", "Do you know the way to San José", "Raindrops keep falling on my head", "Close to you" and "That's what friends are for".

[Scott]

Good one Niels!  He even continued writing hits well into the 80's.  Remember Arthur's Theme from Christopher Cross?