
Earlier this year, Sinead O'Connor revealed she would stop performing "Nothing Compares 2 U" as she no longer feels a personal connection to it. O'Connor isn't alone; many artists have expressed similar disdain for their most iconic tracks.
1. Radiohead, “Creep”
Thom Yorke has dismissed Radiohead’s breakthrough hit as “crap” and consistently avoids including it in their live shows. Jonny Greenwood, the band’s guitarist, admitted his distaste for the track during its production, even attempting to ruin it by aggressively striking his guitar.
Thom Yorke has openly and aggressively expressed his disdain for the band’s initial mainstream success—during a Montreal concert, he silenced a fan’s request for “Creep” by berating the crowd with a sharp, “f*** off, we’re sick of it.”
2. Bob Geldof, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and “We Are the World”
It’s hard to believe anyone could dislike a song that brought together legends like Michael Jackson, Sting, and Phil Collins, yet Irish musician Bob Geldof repeatedly expresses regret for co-writing “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” “I’ll be at the supermarket, heading to the meat aisle, and there it is,” he confessed to the Daily Mail. “Every single Christmas.”
Geldof also feels remorse for his involvement in another star-studded charity anthem: “I’m to blame for two of the worst songs ever created,” he admits. “One is ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and the other is ‘We Are The World.’”
3. Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”
In 2002, Robert Plant offered a donation to a Portland, Oregon radio station that vowed to stop playing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” a track Plant refers to as “that damn wedding song.” His frustration with the song stalled reunion discussions for years, as the singer was utterly fed up with performing it.
Plant endured the song for over 17 years after its creation before confessing to the Los Angeles Times in 1988, “I’d break out in hives if I had to sing that song at every show.” During a one-time concert in London two decades later, he insisted the song not be the finale and urged guitarist Jimmy Page to “avoid turning it into an even longer, solo-heavy spectacle.”
4. Madonna, “Like a Virgin”
Convincing Madonna to perform “Like a Virgin” would require an astronomical sum. In a 2008 interview with New York’s Z100 FM radio station, Madonna confessed, “I’m not sure I can ever sing ‘Holiday’ or ‘Like a Virgin’ again. I just can’t, unless someone paid me, say, $30 million or something.”
In 2009, Madonna shared with reporters that hearing “Like a Virgin” in public irritates her. “For some reason, people think that when you’re dining out or shopping, you want to hear your own songs. It’s usually ‘Like a Virgin,’ and that’s the one I don’t want to hear.”
5. Beastie Boys, “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)”
The Brooklyn-based group openly declares the track “terrible” in the liner notes of their 1999 compilation album, The Sounds of Science. Their disdain, however, stems more from the song’s misinterpretation than its quality. Many fans misunderstood the satirical nature of the track and its over-the-top party anthem music video.
Mike D of the Beastie Boys expressed one major regret about the song that launched their career: “What bothers me is that we might have reinforced certain attitudes in our audience that were completely opposite to our own values.”
6. The Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket”
Chrissie Hynde, the band’s lead singer, despised their 1979 hit, describing it as something she “hated with a passion.” Despite her feelings, her bandmates, manager, producer, and label all recognized its potential as a chart-topper. Hynde, however, saw it as “too predictable” and unremarkable.
The track propelled the band’s debut album to platinum status, but Hynde revealed to the Observer in 2004 that she only released it under duress. “I wasn’t pleased with it and told my producer he could put it out over my dead body,” she admitted.
7. Flock of Seagulls, “I Ran (So Far Away)”
The ‘80s band is best known for two things, both of which frontman Mike Score dislikes: their hit “I Ran (So Far Away)” and his iconic hairstyle. In VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the ‘80s, Score expressed his frustration with the song, stating he only performs it live to please fans: “Every time I perform, all anyone wants to hear is ‘I Ran.’ I’m tired of it.”
The hairstyle lost its charm even faster: Score grew weary of journalists focusing more on his haircut than the band’s music. A former hairdresser, Score told the Daily Record that he now shaves his head to avoid questions about reviving the iconic look (and likely because he has little hair left). “That haircut owns me,” he said. “I don’t own it.”
8. John Mellencamp, “Jack and Diane”
John Cougar claims no other rock ‘n’ roll duo is as famous as his fictional pair (at least according to a 2008 The Sun interview), but even the Americana icon has grown weary of Jack and Diane long after the excitement of writing about them faded. In the same interview, he admitted, “I’m a bit tired of those two.”
“Jack and Diane” remains Mellencamp’s sole #1 hit, so the singer reluctantly credits the fictional couple for a significant part of his 35-year career. “They’ve allowed me to live on my own terms,” he said. “So I can’t despise them too much.”
9. Oasis, “Wonderwall”
Liam Gallagher, one half of the Oasis sibling duo, has little patience for fans who only associate him with the ‘90s mega-ballad “Wonderwall.” He praised Oasis’ final album, Dig Out Your Soul, for avoiding any “Wonderwall”-like tracks, telling MTV, “I can’t stand that bloody song! Every time I sing it, I feel like gagging,” before wrapping up his rant with a jab at casual American fans: “You go to the States, and they’re like, ‘Are you Mr. Wonderwall?’ It makes you want to punch someone.”
10. REM, “Shiny Happy People”
Michael Stipe, the lead vocalist, has never been a fan of his band’s 1991 hit—so much so that he declared his disdain on a 1995 episode of Space Ghost, stating, “I hate that song.” Over time, he’s softened his stance, choosing not to criticize songs he dislikes, as they might hold deep significance for some fans. These days, he describes “Shiny Happy People” as having “minimal appeal” to him and notes that it was the only track the entire band unanimously excluded from their Greatest Hits album.