VH1 40 Most Awesomely Bad Love Songs

[King Kamala]

This is the last Awesomely Bad list, I think. Don't worry.

This is also from 2004


40. Hero - Enrique Iglesias
39. Is This Love - Whitesnake
38. Joanna - Kool & The Gang
37. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You - N'SYNC
36. You're The Inspiration - Chicago
35. The Search Is Over - Survivor
34. Get Here - Oleta Adams
33. Truly, Madly, Deeply - Savage Garden
32. When You Close Your Eyes - Night Ranger
31. Heaven - Warrant
30. Suddenly - Billy Ocean
29. You Got It All - The Jets
28. Endless Nights - Eddie Money
27. Eternal Flame - The Bangles
26. All My Life - K-Ci & Jojo
25. Love Of A Lifetime - Firehouse
24. I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) - Meatloaf
23. Rosanna - Toto
22. I Get Weak - Belinda Carlisle
21. When I See You Smile - Bad English
20. Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry
19. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You - Heart
18. High Enough - Damn Yankees
17. As Long As You Love Me - Backstreet Boys
16. I Drove All Night - Celine Dion
15. All For Love - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting
14. I'll Be Loving You (Forever) - New Kids On The Block
13. The Flame - Cheap Trick
12. Sometimes - Britney Spears
11. To Be With You - Mr. Big
10. I'll Make Love To You - Boyz II Men
9. Hold On To The Nights - Richard Marx
8. I Need A Girl (Part 1) - P. Diddy & Usher
7. Love Somebody - Rick Springfield
6. Key Largo - Bertie Higgins
5. How Can We Be Lovers If We Can't Be Friends - Michael Bolton
4. Tonight I Celebrate My Love - Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack
3. I Adore Mi Amor - Color Me Badd
2. Even The Nights Are Better - Air Supply
1. Truly - Lionel Ritchie


There might be genuinely bad songs here than the other two but the good songs on the list are GREAT. "Eternal Flame" is a legit Top 5 favorite song for the Kamala Man.

Also this was the weird period in the late '90s early '00s when we all pretended Lionel Richie was bad. Maybe taking out anger over his daughter becoming undeservedly famous. "Truly" is definitely treacly and not good but worst?

 

[Valeyard]

There's way more glaringly bad picks on here. The good are so far above the rest that I'm a little confused.

2000s were so afraid of not looking cool.

 

[MFer]

Yeah, I can't abide by most of that list. Maybe some lyrics are cheesy, but isn't that like 75% of love songs?

I will say that Brtiney's mid-tempo and slower songs rarely ever hit for me, and I don't think the public was much for them either.

 

[BUTT]

Britney's "Everytime" is a bona fide classic but the rest of her ballads are pretty weak. I recently revisited her 2000 track "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," penned by Mutt Lange (who I'm going to mention again later in this post - stay tuned) and Shania Twain, and it's actually worse than I remembered it. "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" is also the bad kind of schmaltzy and "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" was pretty nondescript. I didn't keep up with Britney's music after 2003, sorry. I assume she still does ballads but they don't get released as singles.

"Love of a Lifetime" is sappy but it's great. I first heard it when I was in 8th grade and my brother made a mix tape with some hair metal jams on it. "Love of a Lifetime" was right after "I Remember You." There was a girl named Amy who was two years older than me and lived down the street and would listen to it and think about her. :-[ This was 1999 and it's safe to say I was the only kid in my middle school listening to Firehouse. However, their follow-up hit "When I Look Into Your Eyes" is better.

Fun fact: "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" is actually a repurposed Dobie Gray song. Mutt Lange wrote it in the late 70s, then substantially rewrote it a decade later with totally different lyrics and a revised chord progression. The Heart rendition is much better than the original incarnation. We should have a Heart thread some time.

I don't like "I Drove All Night" very much, either by Dion or Lauper, but DID YOU KNOW the song was originally recorded by Roy Orbison, his version was released posthumously on a Nintendo-themed compilation album, and it has a music video with features Jason Priestly and Jennifer Connelly making out on a motorcycle and shit.

Genuinely surprised at the presence of Boyz II Men in the top ten. I thought everyone liked that song.

 

[Epic Springs]

We should have a Heart thread some time.

I'm down!

 

[King Kamala]

Yeah, I can't abide by most of that list. Maybe some lyrics are cheesy, but isn't that like 75% of love songs?

I will say that Brtiney's mid-tempo and slower songs rarely ever hit for me, and I don't think the public was much for them either.

Most notable thing about "Sometimes" was the fact that I got a detention in 5th grade for pointing out that Britney Spears was nipping out performing it outdoors at a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

"Everytime" is Britney Spears' best song though but yeah, I'm in total agreement with TSM great BUTT about her ballads generally being weak.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I want to take this list and make a Venn diagram of songs I like and songs likely to appear in an Adam Sandler movie

 

[King Kamala]

They're doing an I Love New York reunion next month, hosted by Vivica A Fox.

That just made me feel horrible all around. Especially the hosted by Vivica A Fox part. She should still be in theatrical movies not playing straight woman to Tiffany Pollard. Well, come to think of it, nobody is in theatrical movies anymore in this current environment but you get my point!

 

[BruiserBrody]

Oh Sherrie - Steve Perry


FIGHTING WORDS!