The Guilty Pleasure Song: What’s Yours?

By Mark Daponte

One question that has (kind of) plagued mankind ever since radios were installed in cars is why certain songs cause some listeners to crank up the volume while others quickly switch to a different station. Back when Boomers were teens, a limited amount of AM music stations meant there was no hiding from a despised ditty: if it was a hit, it was played over and over. And over. Those were the rules, and thus, many an earworm was born.

At some point, it became less than cool to admit to a secret love for a hit song by the Bay City Rollers or the Cowsills, even taking into account their obvious musical talents. But there are some people who just don’t give a damn who knows about their guilty pleasure song(s).

Actor W. Earl Brown cited hanging out with actor/musician Zach Throne and Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister: “Lemmy turns to me at one point and goes, ‘Earl, have you ever listened to ABBA?’ And I think he’s pulling my leg, so I’m like, ‘F**k no.’ He goes, ‘Well, you missed out on the greatest sets of pop melodies outside of Lennon and McCartney. Zach, do you know any ABBA?’ Zach goes, ‘Yeah. ‘Fernando’?’ So he starts playing and Lem is singing. And I’m like, ‘It’s Sunday morning, I’m drunk, and I’m listening to Lemmy sing ABBA.’”

Similarly, in 1973, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi wasn’t shy about stating his preferred guilty pleasure pop groups, noting, “I’ve got a few tapes of Deep Purple in the car, but I prefer to listen to things like Peter Paul and Mary, Sinatra, the Moody Blues, and The Carpenters.”

It’s not shocking that composers of some of the guiltier pleasure songs also composed memorable commercials. Barry Manilow is to be blamed for unleashing State Farm Insurance’s assurance that “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” Joey Levine, who co-wrote bubblegum music like Ohio Express’ “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” and Crazy Elephant’s cool “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” later wrote jingles that suggested scarfing down a Mounds bar (“Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut!”) then guzzling a Diet Coke (“Just For The Taste of It”).

Another commercial song that literally was a commercial is the Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun.” It was originally written to accompany a one-minute commercial for Crocker National Bank. Richard Carpenter saw the ad, contacted fellow A&M label mate Paul Williams who was the co-writer/singer of the jingle, and landed the song #2 on the Billboard charts–and in the “Top Ten of All Time Guilty Pleasure” songs.

In the case of Rick Astley, he couldn’t tell at first if 1987’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” was being lauded as a guilty pleasure or mocked due to an infamous internet prank dubbed “Rickrolling”.

The viral spoof, which started in 2007, featured a supposedly ordinary link that, when clicked, played a clip of Astley warbling away. Astley, who recently performed a batch of Smiths’ hits at the Glastonbury Music Festival, remarked on “Rickrolling:” “It doesn’t really interfere with my day-to-day life. I know it has rekindled some interest in that song and obviously that haircut.”

Guilty pleasure pop songs offer no deep meaning, no shredding guitars — they’re simply great to listen to and make you happy. And these days, we’ll take any opportunity for a little of that.

So boldly raise your hand and champion a track that puts a smile on your face: what’s your #1 guilty pleasure song, Culture Sonaristas?

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This post was previously published on CultureSonar.

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