Rockbands That Don’t Like Their Own Songs

To make a song that will top the charts is no joke for any artists. But to hate a successful chart-topping song is very unusual for them. Here, we will mention some stories behind rock and metal’s all-time biggest tracks and the songwriters who regretted some of their most popular cuts.

The reasons behind an artist publicly decrying their most iconic works are complicated. One reason is, the song becomes so gigantic that the band starts attracting the wrong type of fan. Other times, the track becomes so inescapable that playing it live every night starts to feel like an obligation instead of a joy.

Lastly, probably reaching maturity is another huge factor, being unable to relate to the lyrics they penned or the riffs they wrote. Below is the list of 15 artists who hated their own hit songs and the reasons behind it. Take a look.

Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Undoubtedly one of the greatest and most popular rock anthems of all time is the “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” However, it eventually disappeared from Nirvana’s setlist after singer Kurt Cobain grew tired of the song.

Guns N’ Roses, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
It was hated for years by Slash, “but it would cause such a reaction, so I’ve finally gotten to appreciate it,” he said.

Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”
When Robert Plant grew to dislike “Stairway to Heaven,” he said that song’s instrumental sections were top notch, but found that he could no longer relate to its abstract lyrics. He even said that he’d break out in hives “if I had to sing that song in every show.”

Metallica, “Escape”
James Hetfield isn’t into the lyrics of “Escape” which he actually wrote. The frontman avoided playing the song for decades until the band jammed Ride the Lightning in full at Orion Fest, which the singer called one of his worst nightmares.

The Who, “Pinball Wizard”
The singer is publicly calling the song “awful” and “the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done.”

Beastie Boys, “Fight for Your Right (to Party)”
This New York trio ended up hating the jockish feel of it and even admitted it turned the young rap group into exactly what they’d set out to make fun of.

Dio, “Rainbow in the Dark”
Although it is one of Ronnie James Dio’s most unique songs, he almost destroyed the master tapes to the classic song, initially thinking that it was too poppy.

Queen, “Don’t Stop Me Now”
At first, Brian May, didn’t like the song. He believed the track celebrated the hedonistic and risky lifestyle Freddie Mercury was living at the time, but the guitarist eventually described it as a piece of “unfettered joy.”

Evanescence, “My Immortal”
The vocalist hasn’t always been a fan of this song. “The version that I hear 99.9 percent of the time, I’m in a grocery store and it comes on, is this old demo that I cannot stand. It’s not even a real piano and it’s me singing late at night at my dad’s work where they had a studio and he let us go in there and record and I was in high school,” Ammy Lee justified.

Radiohead, “Creep”
Thom Yorke once yelled at a fan who requested them to sing in in Montreal, “Fuck off, we’re tired of it.”

Oasis, “Wonderwall”
Everyone loves “Wonderwall,” but not Liam Gallagher. “I can’t fucking stand that fucking song,” the former Oasis frontman said. “Every time I have to sing it I want to gag. You go to America and they’re like, ‘Are you Mr. Wonderwall?’ You want to chin someone.”

Warrant, “Cherry Pie”
Jani Lane denounced his own hit song despite of the fact that his band will be remembered for that. He said that he had no intention of writing that song. “I could shoot myself in the head for writing that song,” the singer said in a statement.

Run DMC & Aerosmith, “Walk This Way”
When it was eventually allowed, the collaboration to happen, DMC admits that he didn’t even like his version of the song and saying “it took a minute” for him to appreciate it.

Heart, “All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You”
Ann Wilson described this track as a low point of the band’s career. “It kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from,” she explained. She even called the song’s message “hideous” during an interview.

R.E.M., “Shiny Happy People”
The singer described it as a “fruity pop song written for children.” R.E.M. even refused to have “Shiny Happy People” included on their 2003 greatest hits album.