00:00Every time the weather starts to get hotter, don't worry about toss your clothes and hit the water.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for songs credited with devastating a band's critical and commercial
00:15success, if not signaling their collapse.
00:25Number 10. Humans Being. Van Halen.
00:38Commissioned for the disaster blockbuster Twister,
00:41Human's Being proved to be its own disaster for Van Halen.
00:44This was two years into a contentious relationship between Sammy Hagar and new manager Ray Daniels
00:51that sucked up guitarist Eddie Van Halen during the Balance Tour.
00:54When the frontman came home from a vacation to find that his lyrics had been rewritten,
00:59tensions reached a boiling point.
01:08Human's Being became a chart-topping hit along with Twisters,
01:11but Hagar had left the band shortly after the final recording.
01:15The Gary Cherone era would see a commercial step down and a critical plummet for Van Halen.
01:21Although they'd bounce back by reuniting with their earlier vocalists,
01:25their creative chemistry with Hagar never fully recovered.
01:35Number 9. Cleopatra's Cat, Spin Doctors.
01:45The multi-platinum debut album, Pocketful of Kryptonite, set up the Spin Doctors to become
01:50one of the biggest pop-rock acts of the 1990s.
01:53The follow-up, Turn It Upside Down, would also go platinum, but after a catastrophic stumble
01:58out of the gate.
01:59The lead single, Cleopatra's Cat, polarized listeners with its jazzy noodling and eccentric
02:05lyrics, as well as a music video that MTV pulled after two days.
02:17The song itself stalled at a humiliating number 84.
02:20The more successful later singles couldn't recover enough fans to save Spin Doctors from
02:26being dropped by Epic Records following the even more disappointing next album.
02:36Many releases and personnel changes later, they've still never returned to the top 40.
02:48number 8. Forever, The Beach Boys featuring John Stamos.
03:00The Beach Boys historically panned album, Summer in Paradise, was already adrift without Brian
03:06Wilson.
03:07The track, Summer of Love, was especially hated for Mike Love's cringeworthy rapping.
03:12Every time the weather starts to get hotter, don't worry about toss your clothes and hit
03:19the water.
03:20Still, the greatest insult had to be closing with a redux of the masterpiece, Forever, featuring
03:25John Stamos on lead vocals.
03:28I've been so happy loving you.
03:33The actor, musician, regularly performed the song as Jesse Katsopoulos on the sitcom Full
03:39House.
03:40The commendable gesture of giving a superfan his time in the sun ultimately epitomized
03:45the album's failed attempt to bring the band's sound into the 90s.
03:49The Beach Boys never broke up, but neither did they ever win back listeners with their few
03:54releases after the merciful discontinuation of Summer in Paradise.
04:05number 7.
04:08Can't Stop Partying, Weezer featuring Lil Wayne.
04:18The geek rock trailblazers, Weezer, were mavericks among mavericks in the 1990s.
04:24Their experiments with more commercial styles throughout the 2000s split listeners onto
04:29the album, Ratitude.
04:31At least they agreed that Can't Stop Partying marked rock bottom.
04:42Rivers Cuomo's deadpan crooning about holohedonism clashed with producer Polo de Don's unironic
04:49hip-hop brand.
04:50Then, comes a slurry verse by rapper Lil Wayne in what critics branded a shark jump moment.
05:02Longtime fans felt so betrayed that they inspired a viral campaign offering Weezer 10 million
05:08dollars to break up.
05:09The band instead returned to their roots with the acclaimed 2014 album Everything Will Be
05:15Alright in the End.
05:22Evidently, the Ratitude sessions showed that it was time for the party to end.
05:28Number 6.
05:29Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd.
05:39This highlight of Pink Floyd's rock opera masterpiece, The Wall, is arguably one of the greatest
05:44songs of its genre.
05:46But the uncomfortable truth is that it helped destroy one of rock's greatest songwriting
05:51duos.
05:52Roger Waters' supposed dictatorship over the recording sessions culminated in an argument
05:56with David Gilmour over whether to arrange Comfortably Numb as an orchestral ballad or
06:01a guitar-driven epic.
06:08They ingeniously compromised on a symphonic power ballad featuring one of Gilmour's most
06:13revered guitar performances.
06:15Nonetheless, he came to the conclusion that he could no longer collaborate with Waters.
06:21The Wall's follow-up, The Final Cut, was criticized for Waters' excessive creative control, and Pink
06:27Floyd's last two albums before their collapse would be criticized for his absence.
06:32Oh, Africa comes to me now.
06:38Number 5.
06:39No Way Out, Jefferson Starship.
06:43Nothing's forever but a cool daylight brought me back through my senses.
06:49Paul Kantner's anti-establishment genius was established with Jefferson Airplane, then slowly
06:55compromised with Jefferson Starship.
06:58His resentment toward the band's gradual embrace of pop music in the 1980s came to a
07:02head with the album Nuclear Furniture.
07:05Specifically, the lead single No Way Out alienated friends with its glossy production and radio-friendly
07:11hooks, despite becoming the band's only number one hit on Billboard's mainstream rock
07:16tracks chart.
07:24Kantner left Jefferson Starship after the full album's divisive launch to protect his reputation,
07:29before suing to protect the band's name.
07:32Thus, they rebranded as Starship and continued their descent into corporate fluff.
07:38Kantner would later return to revive the original brand along with their folk and psychedelic rock
07:43artistry.
07:51Number 4.
07:52Sympathy for the Devil, Guns N' Roses.
08:02The infamous friction within Guns N' Roses was set to explode after the grueling recording
08:08sessions and two-year tour for Use Your Illusion.
08:11The Fuse was lit by their cover of The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil for the film
08:16Interview with the Vampire.
08:24Axl Rose unilaterally replaced rhythm guitarist Gilby Clark with childhood friend Paul Tobias,
08:30much to the outrage of lead player Slash.
08:33He wound up disowning GNR's Sympathy for the Devil, describing its divisive overproduction
08:38as the sound of the band breaking up.
08:48After Slash formally departed in 96, GNR wouldn't release a new album until 2008's legendary
08:55letdown, Chinese Democracy.
08:57It was hard to feel sympathy for Rose after he alienated his collaborators.
09:09Number 3.
09:11Door to Door, Credence Clearwater Revival.
09:21Tom Fogarty's departure from Credence Clearwater Revival in 1971 ostensibly
09:27dropped all defenses against John's creative dominance.
09:31The younger Fogarty, in fact, democratized the band's songwriting process, though this
09:36was allegedly an act of self-sabotage based on his lack of confidence in bassist Stu Cook
09:41and drummer Doug Clifford.
09:43Sure enough, reviews for Mardi Gras were harsh, especially for Door to Door.
09:55Cook writing and singing about Clifford's old salesman job represented for many the lack
10:00of creative direction without the full force of the Fogarty brothers.
10:05CCR disbanded shortly thereafter, allowing John to launch his official solo career.
10:10At least his former bandmates didn't have to go back to selling door to door.
10:19Number 2.
10:20We Are The Clash The Clash
10:24So, you got to let me know Should I stay or should I go?
10:31For all the praise justly directed at Joe Strummer, his creative partnership with Mick Jones really
10:38easy to find The Clash.
10:39So, as if Jones was leaving in 83 wasn't already a crisis, manager Bernard Rhodes aggressively
10:46modernized the album Cut The Crap.
10:56The clattering drum machines, cheap synths, and chest-thumping choruses was such a betrayal
11:02of the band's raw sound that the members were largely cut from the final mix.
11:06The obvious punchline was the track We Are The Clash, which critics singled out as a desperate
11:11corporate imitation of punk.
11:19For his grand gesture of disowning the creatively misdirected album, Strummer dismissed the band.
11:25The Clash already had plenty of iconic statements, definitely not including We Are The Clash.
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12:01The album Hotel California brought the Eagles to their commercial peak, but the recording
12:07process brought them to conflict.
12:16Victim of Love marked the beginning of the end as a point of contention between lead singer
12:21Don Henley and guitarist Don Felder.
12:23After the latter sang the self-written song, manager Irving Azoff treated him to dinner, while
12:29Henley secretly re-recorded the vocal track.
12:40This petty power play shattered the creative and financial trust throughout the band.
12:45Following the heated recording of the long run, the Eagles suffered one of the ugliest breakups
12:50in rock history.
12:51One could say that it started with Victim of Love, but as is usually the case with supposedly
12:57ruinous songs, the band was already a victim of ego.
13:09What are some other consequential band bombs?
13:13Drop a cautionary track in the comments below.
13:16Drop a cautionary track in the comments below.
13:16Bye-bye.
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