The 10 biggest earworms in rock music history
Every artist’s goal is to find the right hook for their song. Even though it might be interesting to write something complex for one’s audience, it’s a particular art to distil the most basic melodies into a song, creating a melodic hook that people will want to listen to on repeat. Although many artists claim to have unforgettable hooks in their repertoire, a handful by Oasis and The Beatles can be catchy in the wrong ways.
Although there’s no doubt that fans will remember these hooks once the song is over, it tends to be grating to listen to for more than a few minutes. While the artist may have done their job by making a catchy tune, there are only so many times that they can write a melody before it becomes annoying to listen to.
Then again, that hasn’t stopped the public from cranking up the tune every time it comes on the radio. Compared to the beautiful melodies that these artists have put out, the attention typically goes to the earworms, being a catchy run of notes that fall somewhere between perfectly listenable and the kind of chant that one would hear being chanted from the rafters at a particularly tone-deaf football game.
Granted, every artist has at least been able to recover from the supposed earworms, writing better melodies that flexed their musical chops and proved that they were worth having around for more than just an annoying song. Once an artist inflicts a hook this stubborn into the public consciousness, though, the damage is already done.
10 biggest earworms in rock history:
10. ‘I Like Dirt’ – Red Hot Chili Peppers
By the mid-1990s, it looked like Red Hot Chili Peppers had finally learned to put aside their demons. Working with John Frusciante again, Californication marked the moment when the band didn’t have to rely on their vices to make good music anymore. They were finally at peace, but that didn’t excuse Anthony Kiedis from writing one of the least catchy songs that he could come up with.
Granted, not every Red Hot Chili Peppers song is known to be a winner in the lyrical department, especially considering Kiedis’s knack for writing lyrical gems like “what you got you got to get it put it in you” on ‘Give It Away’. Given the intense subject matter on songs like the title track and ‘Otherside’, though, ‘I Like Dirt’ feels tonally out of place, with Kiedis seemingly scat-singing whatever was on his mind then.
The biggest drawback is that the song at the centre of everything is fairly decent, featuring Frusciante laying down a stanky funk groove and Flea responding in kind with some of his most inventive bass playing on the album. The band could have easily been golden by making this song an instrumental, but the all-for-one mentality made it impossible for them to side-step Kiedis’s pen.
9. ‘Crawling’ – Linkin Park
Throughout the 1990s, 99% of nu-metal acts rising to the forefront tended to be too whiny. Although there was genuine turmoil in bands like Korn, it always sounded disingenuous coming out of everyone else, with everyone seemingly complaining about having to take out the trash every night. Although Linkin Park may have been one exception to the rule, one of their biggest hits saw them laying on the melodrama fairly thick.
Although most of Hybrid Theory still sounds like the band were tapping into the future of music, ‘Crawling’ is their one opportunity to make a hit single featuring Chester Bennington’s pained shrieks on the chorus. Even though the verses paint a vivid picture of his frail state of mind, the chorus of “crawling in my skin” sounds more like something that would turn up on a particularly depressed middle schooler’s backpack than anything supposedly deep.
Combined with the heightened melodrama of the crushing power chords rolling in, the chorus feels more like a parody of what nu-metal was supposed to be in the 2000s, only for the band to bring things back to serious topics on songs like ‘In The End’. Hybrid Theory may have its place in rock history as one of the greatest debuts of the 2000s, but this song is where the age shows.
8. ‘With Arms Wide Open’ – Creed
In the wake of grunge’s death, millions of potential rock stars were willing to do unspeakable things to its corpse. While Kurt Cobain’s passing signalled the end of the genre, people from all corners of the globe were adopting the angsty mannerisms of Eddie Vedder and trying their hand at making millions off the same formula. Although Creed may have just one in a long line of copycats, ‘With Arms Wide Open’ got them credit for all the wrong reasons.
Even though Scott Stapp could carry a half-decent tune on the song ‘Higher’, the amount of melodrama he sprinkles into this track is enough to make any potential diabetic concerned. Written as a song for his young child, Stapp talks about showing his son the world’s wonders as soulfully as he can, trying for an Eddie Vedder sense of pathos but coming off more like a caveman trying to articulate sentences.
Although Stapp’s legacy would carry on his legacy with this song, it doesn’t tend to be for the right reasons, with many using the tune to mock the angsty post-grunge popping up around the late 1990s. Creed is far from the most egregious example of post-grunge shallowness, but ‘With Arms Wide Open’ has earned its reputation as one of the biggest jokes of the era.
7. ‘The Tide is High’ – Blondie
As punk started to turn into new wave, Blondie had their finger on the pulse in terms of where rock was heading. Although they may have packed the same clubs that act as the Ramones did, Debbie Harry was already a star, looking to expand her power as an undisputed queen of rock and roll. While ‘Heart of Glass’ may have been one of the greatest disco-tinged rock songs of the era, ‘The Tide is High’ marks the moment where they jumped the shark.
Compared to the natural sounds of ‘Heart of Glass’ building off a disco groove, the band’s interpretation of the Jamaican group The Paragons is devoid of any life whatsoever. Even though the central hook is catchy enough, Harry’s attempts to sound seductive throughout the track often hit a sour note, sometimes sounding like she’d rather be doing anything else but singing at the moment.
While there has been some enthusiasm for the song as a live track, the band’s effort on the recording sounds closer to a half-drunk wedding band trying their hand at reggae music than anything substantial. There’s nothing wrong with a band wanting to toy with their signature sound, but ‘The Tide Is High’ is an experiment not to be repeated.
6. ‘Nookie’ – Limp Bizkit
If there was a singular punching bag that represented everything wrong with nu-metal, chances are it would look something like Limp Bizkit. Although Fred Durst and the band weren’t known as one of the most charming metal bands in the world, their reputation as one of the dumber entries into rock history has put a stamp of lameness across everything they have ever released. They did have at least one colossal hit, though, and rock fans have been hearing Durst’s nasal whine ever since.
Then again, there’s not much to hate about ‘Nookie’ on principle. Although bands have made their fair share of songs about sex before, the backing band behind Durst is doing a serviceable job, with Wes Borland turning in a solid groove with his Primus-like tapping on his electric guitar. Once Durst opens his mouth, though, things start to go south really fast.
Even though Durst’s nasal delivery has been part of his vocal style for years, the dealbreaker behind the song comes with the massive call-and-answer parts, where Durst censors himself by saying ‘Yeah’ in the dorkiest cadence that he knows how. While Limp Bizkit have a solid foundation for a song here, the massive amount of high-school jock energy radiating off Durst’s performance is too potent to deny.
5. ‘We Built This City’ – Starship
Throughout the late 1960s, Jefferson Airplane felt like the wildest version of what the hard rock world looked like in California. While the rest of the city was looking to make zany music informed by the effects of LSD, Grace Slick’s operatic wail over songs like ‘White Rabbit’ was a call to action for the Flower Children to embrace the world of psychedelics. Time can change a band, though, and the group’s reinvention as Starship made for a song that had no business becoming a hit.
Although rock and roll has a habit of celebrating itself more than a few times throughout its history, ‘We Built This City’ is one of the hokiest attempts to sing about the genre. Since the song is about rock and roll’s power, the flashy 1980s production neuters any value that sentiment had, especially when the backing vocals sound like an air raid siren is piercing the eardrums.
While the band would continue to make halfway decent songs in the 1980s on tracks like ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’, ‘We Built This City’ is a good indication of everything that rock and roll didn’t stand for. After years of being known as the antithesis of the mainstream, the genre had finally been given to the corporate overlords the minute the song started.
‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ – Billy Joel
Billy Joel has been known for his strained relationship with his writing style. When talking about his process, Joel would say that he’s proud to have written many songs but finds the process like pulling teeth. While the result makes for sturdy songs that sound like pieces of art, Joel readily admits that he deserves a lot of flak for penning ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’.
Written on a dare to show Sean Lennon the harsh realities that afflicted Joel’s generation, most of his 1980s hit is centred around just one note throughout most of the verse. While that initially leaves room for the audience to focus on the different significant events that Joel is spitting out rapidly, the amount of sensory overload just makes the one note feel like nails on a chalkboard after a while.
Joel even admitted as much when talking about his string of classic hits, stopping one of his concerts midway through the song and moving on to sing something else because he didn’t want to continue. There are many incessant earworms throughout chart history, but it takes a special kind of song to make its writer sick of it.
3. ‘Kokomo’ – The Beach Boys
For a brief moment in the 1980s, it felt like the sounds of the 1960s were suddenly in vogue again. With many hits arriving by rock and roll legends like Steve Winwood and Roy Orbison, hope was high that the golden age of rock stars would see a resurgence in the mainstream once again. Although The Beach Boys were more than capable of throwing their hat in the ring, ‘Kokomo’ lacks any of the emotional punch of the band’s classic material.
Featuring minimal involvement from Brian Wilson, the team that made the band’s 1980s comprises Mike Love and a team of songwriters around him. Although the song’s central hook of going to various exotic locations with the one you love is perfect fodder for the soundtrack to Cocktail, the rest of the band feel like they’re out of their element, with Carl Wilson’s amazing backing vocals sounding like they shouldn’t fit with the rest of the song.
The song is also far too lethargic to get any rise out of The Beach Boys’ camp, sitting somewhere between the mellow ballads they used to make and subtle background music that retired billionaires can listen to as they sip martinis on the beach. Compared to the fun in the sun that Wilson gave millions of people, ‘Kokomo’ is the sound of The Beach Boys giving up on the tunes that made them special in the first place.
2. ‘All Around the World’ – Oasis
At the end of the 1990s, the pressure was on Oasis to lead rock and roll into the next generation. While no one saw the band’s debut, Definitely Maybe, coming, hearing the classic rock pastiches on What’s the Story Morning Glory felt like England had gifted fans an answer to The Beatles 30 years later. Although most of Be Here Now would be a massive disappointment for fans, ‘All Around the World’ was when Noel Gallagher overstepped his bounds by a large margin.
Even though the song was written during the band’s first handful of rehearsals in Manchester, Noel was determined to save the song until he could realise his vision. Bringing in lavish choirs and a humongous orchestra to fill out the sound, the biggest Achilles heel to the song is the way Liam is singing, sounding like a punk kid, ensuring the public that everything will be okay.
While Liam might mean it in his heart, his distinctive English drawl is one of the most grating parts of the song, especially towards the middle of the track when it cuts to him going ‘na-na-na’ for an extended period of time. Standing at just over nine minutes, ‘All Around the World’ is the equivalent of a band trying to make ‘Hey Jude’ but without any of the playful charm that the Fab Four could do so effortlessly.
1. ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ – The Beatles
It almost seems like heresy to put a band as hallowed as The Beatles on a list like this. For all of the great music that John Lennon and Paul McCartney created together, how on Earth could anything be considered on the same level as an earworm? While the band were known to have their silly side, McCartney became a bit too campy when he tried his hand at Jamaican music on The White Album.
Since every member of the band was off in their own world throughout the majority of the album sessions, McCartney’s ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’ would become one of the biggest nuisances in the Fab Four’s canon, with McCartney approaching the story of a man working in a marketplace with the same tone of voice that a father would use to tell his infants a bedtime story. The rest of the band wasn’t much of a fan of the song, either, with Lennon notoriously coming up with the opening piano riff after coming back completely stoned.
McCartney isn’t even off the hook by the end of the album, with George Harrison poking fun at his trite pop song on ‘Savoy Truffle’, saying, “We all know ‘Ob-La-Di-Bla-Da’, but can you show me where you are?”. The massive amount of songs helped define The White Album as an essential part of The Beatles’ canon, but the quality control must have malfunctioned when the token Ringo Starr song sounded better than one of McCartney’s tunes.
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