#1 - Dexy's Midnight Runners
A little over 2 weeks ago I presented a list of 46 “guilty pleasure” songs, nominated by my friends on Twitter, and asked you to pick your favorites. The votes are now in, and you have selected your Top Ten Guilty Tunes – those songs we most hate to love.
They are all in our iPods, I’m sure, bringing us “the joy of awfulness”.
Let us now celebrate these 10 with this public group confession (I’ve linked to their videos for your further entertainment, and to really complete the picture, added some useless trivia):
- “Come on Eileen” – Dexy’s Midnight Runners, 1982 (50% of the vote) Did you know that this band was named after the drug Dexedrine, an upper that allowed the band to “dance all night”? Too-Rye-Ay!
- “Copacabana“ - Barry Manilow, 1978 (44%) This guilt-ridden tune actually spawned a made-for-television musical in 1985, starring Annette O’ Toole a Lola and Barry Manilow himself as Tony. Aye-aye-aye!
- “White Wedding” – Billy Idol, 1982 (39%) Legend has it that this rocker wrote this song because of his “displeasure” with his sister’s fiance. Ouch!
- ‘Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)” – Wham, 1984 (35%) The big question about the video of this song is “what’s up with the white shirts?” Apparently George Michael displayed “Choose Life” to implore his audience to avoid using illegal drugs and committing suicide. Jitterbug!
- “Staying Alive” – Bee Gees, 1977 (35%) Barry Gibb was a hitmaking machine in 1977-78 – he wrote 4 consecutive #1 hits on the Billboard charts (this was one of them). A record that stands to this day. Ah, ah, ah, ah!
- “U Can’t Touch This” – MC Hammer, 1990 (33%) You know the best bit of trivia here is the fact that Mr. Hammer is on Twitter, and yes, we can touch him (you HAVE to watch his dancing on the video – pure joyful energy!). Hammer Time!
- ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun” – Cyndi Lauper, 1983 (32.5%) This song was actually written by a man (the lyrics were only slightly changed to give it a woman’s point of view). Bonus useless trivia: the video only cost $35,000. Some fun!
- “Thriller” – Michael Jackson, 1984 (30%) This song even made Michael Jackson guilty, in that he put a disclaimer in front of the famous video disavowing any “belief in the occult”. That video ended up selling 9 million units (that’s not a misprint). HaHaHaHaHa…..
- “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)“- Rupert Holmes, 1979 (30%) Poor Rupert is so tied to this #1 Hit that he has remarked “No matter what else I do, my tombstone will be a giant pineapple”. Come with me, and escape!
- “Karma Chameleon“-Culture Club, 1984 (30%) It’s hard to fathom more than 20 years down the road that in a span of 4 years this band had TEN US Top 10 hits – in fact, at the time they were the 1st British group since the Beatles to have 3 Top Tens in the US from their debut album . Karma, karma, karma!
There you have it – 10 songs that, until now, we’ve never put on any “favorites” list. I know I feel better now getting the truth out – how about you? 
And yes, we also have a winner of the $300 prize package that I offered to those who took the time to vote (thank you all, once again):
AmyL at EarnestParenting.com! (On Twitter – @earnestone)
Congratulations Amy!
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Thanks Terry for sponsoring such a fun contest. I loved looking at the list and playing them online.
Love them or hate them, they are all fun catchy tunes!