00:00Sing that, uh, shiny, shiny people song.
00:04No.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at songs that artists have publicly admitted to being reluctant to perform, or
00:10purge from set lists entirely.
00:12You gotta fight for your right to party!
00:19Brian Johnson. It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
00:23Riding on the highway, going to a show.
00:28It seemed unthinkable to top the Bon Scott era of ACDC, until Brian Johnson came wailing in.
00:34And yet, he didn't even think he should touch It's a Long Way to the Top if you want to
00:38rock and roll.
00:43In the years since Scott's untimely death in 1980, Johnson has forbidden the band from performing what was widely recognized
00:50as his predecessor's signature song.
00:52It was Scott's autobiography about the music industry hustle, complete with a tribute to his Scottish musical heritage.
00:58There's also the headache of getting another bagpipe player.
01:01It's a Long Way to the Top assuredly lives on as Scott's great classic, with ACDC respecting Johnson's moratorium, even
01:07with other vocalists.
01:08It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
01:13Liam and Noel Gallagher.
01:15Wonderwall.
01:16Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you.
01:20Oasis fans may find it ironic that the ballad Wonderwall is the rock revivalist's biggest international hit.
01:26It's definitely ironic as far as the Gallagher brothers are concerned.
01:29In 2008, the always-candid Liam flat-out said that the song makes him want to gag.
01:42He resents being widely known in America as Mr. Wonderwall.
01:46Even Noel, who wrote one of the defining classics of the 90s, claims that it has always felt unfinished to
01:50him.
01:51For better or worse, it's just something else for the notoriously dysfunctional brothers to power through at concerts for love
01:57of the fans.
01:57Maybe the least we could do to repay them is not pick Wonderwall on karaoke night.
02:01I said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me.
02:09Pat Benatar.
02:11Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
02:12You're the real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts like you wanted me.
02:19Classic rock radio would have you believe that Hit Me With Your Best Shot is an empowering staple of its
02:24era.
02:25Pat Benatar herself believes otherwise, and not just for the song's quality.
02:28In a 1984 interview with Songwriter Connection, she claimed to have outgrown Eddie Schwartz's lightweight lyrics.
02:43Benatar still accepted it as a live centerpiece until 2022, when she formally retired the lyrics for the weight they
02:48suddenly held.
02:49She told USA Today, as she couldn't bring herself to belt out playfully violent illusions amid the rise of mass
02:55shootings in the US.
02:57Benatar encourages people to enjoy Hit Me With Your Best Shot on their own, though her heart hasn't really been
03:01in it for a while.
03:02Hit Me With Your Best Shot.
03:05Fire away.
03:10Charlie XCX, Break The Rules.
03:18At just 22 years old, Charlie XCX was already breaking the rules of pop music with her sophomore album, Sucker.
03:25But in a 2017 Q interview, she admitted to finding Break The Rules more just sophomoric.
03:30She reluctantly recorded the teen rebel lyrics she threw together at a writing camp, expecting it would become someone else's
03:36filler track.
03:37I don't wanna go to school, I just wanna break the rules.
03:40Boys and girls across the world, put it on our jobs and shoes.
03:44It instead became a gold single, boxing the singer into a bratty image she'd later disavow as phony.
03:50A more mature and personally authentic Charlie XCX mentioned in 2020, that she regrets recording the career-defining hit in
03:56the first place.
03:57Her biggest fight since then, has been to keep Break The Rules off the set list.
04:09Michael Stipe, Shiny Happy People.
04:11Leave me in the crowd, people, people.
04:18Mystery and melancholy defined R.E.M. as college rock royalty, and yet, the mainstream didn't seem to get the
04:24joke behind Shiny Happy People.
04:26The bubblegum tone superseded the loopy lyrics and titular reference to Chinese propaganda's misrepresentation of the Tiananmen Square protests.
04:34Frontman Michael Stipe has repeatedly expressed hatred for the song, or at least resentments about his commercial success.
04:40The band tried to get around it on set lists, and even compilation albums.
04:44Bassist Mike Mills says that Shiny Happy People is perfectly enjoyable when taken the way it was written, as a
04:50cynical children's song.
04:59For Stipe, though, being rid of the accidental hit was a major upside to R.E.M.'s split in 2011.
05:04Shiny, shiny people, shiny, shiny people.
05:07I hate that song, space ghost.
05:09Oh, me too, Michael, me too.
05:10Don't miss out on interesting facts about your favorite music.
05:13Tune in to the 24-7 WatchMojo pop culture livestream.
05:17Radiohead. Creep.
05:18When you were before
05:23Couldn't look you in the eye
05:25Radiohead owes global fame to their multi-platinum grunge debut, Creep.
05:29Being art rockers at heart, though, they quickly grew tired of the demand for it during early tours.
05:34But I'm a crook
05:40I'm a crook
05:42Frontman Tom York told Rolling Stone in 1993 that this was not only tedious, but made the song feel owned
05:48by the public.
05:49Whatever Radiohead thinks of the song itself, the fatigue facilitated the pivot toward avant-garde that made them one of
05:55the most acclaimed acts in modern rock.
06:05Creep is still in their live rotation, but has been an extreme rarity since the 90s.
06:10And York doesn't mind telling audiences exactly what he thinks if they have the nerve to request his star maker.
06:16Hayley Williams. Misery Business.
06:17In the business of misery, let's take it from the top.
06:20She's got a body like an hourglass.
06:22It's ticking like a clock.
06:23An anthem about high school jealousy exploded Paramore into a pop-punk powerhouse.
06:28It was never Hayley Williams' intention to be defined for over a decade by the breakout she wrote when she
06:32was 17.
06:33Finally, in 2018, she announced the retirement of Misery Business, believing that it promoted a regressive image of competition for
06:40male attention.
06:46She couldn't relate to that even on an ironic level, after publicly dedicating herself to feminism.
06:51But four years later, Coachella attendees were thrilled when Williams crashed a Billie Eilish set for an acoustic duet of
06:57Misery Business.
07:03The song has since returned to Paramore's set list, though Williams is careful to emphasize her change in perspective with
07:09age.
07:10Kurt Cobain. Smells Like Teen Spirit.
07:20Nirvana announced the 90s grunge era with a tirade against conformity.
07:23For Kurt Cobain, Smells Like Teen Spirit turning into a pop-culture sensation wasn't just the ultimate irony.
07:29He grew weary of incessant MTV rotations and obligatory live performances.
07:35Cobain lamented to Rolling Stone that he couldn't tell if audiences were cheering because of the song's message or because
07:40they were programmed to.
07:48Plus, he thought Nirvana had much better songs.
07:51The band played on, with perhaps the most legendary performance being a surreally botched take on Top of the Pops
07:57to protest the show's miming policy.
07:59That was much truer to Cobain than the fame that Smells Like Teen Spirit burdened him with.
08:11BC Boys. You gotta fight for your right to party.
08:14Kick it!
08:21Fresh out of the Brooklyn punk scene, the BC Boys spoofed the party anthems that were dominating to the 1980s.
08:27Unfortunately, they accidentally made the ultimate one.
08:30Wake up late for school, man, you don't wanna go!
08:35You gotta fight for your right to party became a career-making hit through the very frat house culture it
08:40was satirizing.
08:41The band embraced the rap-rock rebrand to the extent of promoting more serious hip-hop to the mainstream.
08:46Otherwise, they've been vocal about their disappointment in how they got there through listeners' ignorance of irony.
08:51You gotta fight for your right to party!
08:58Whether that's an indictment of pop music's quality at the time, or the Beastie Boys' ability to craft a classic
09:03even as a joke,
09:04they retired Fight for Your Right after first touring it.
09:08Party!
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09:21Are you not entertained?
09:23Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire.
09:26We didn't start the fire.
09:29It was always burning since the world's been turning.
09:32A crash course in the baby boomer generation was one of Billy Joel's biggest commercial hits,
09:37and one of his most polarizing.
09:38He himself hasn't minced words about his thoughts on We Didn't Start the Fire.
09:42Joel revealed in the 1993 documentary Shades of Grey that he hates the song,
09:46believing it to be his worst melody ever.
09:48If you take a song like We Didn't Start the Fire, it's really not much of a song.
09:53If you go like this.
10:05He does like the rapid-fire lyric, though it's always been a pain to keep up with.
10:09That's actually the real reason why Joel has performed We Didn't Start the Fire sparingly.
10:13The fans love it, and he loves them enough to keep the fire burning in his live rotation.
10:17He just won't pretend that he's happy about it.
10:29We're taking requests in the comments below.
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