Rating: 
Summary: "Oh NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...."
Review: "This book, like so many of the unpleasant things we encounter as we go through life, is Neil Diamond's fault." So begins Dave Barry's riotous "Book of Bad Songs" an extension of a highly popular column he wrote in 1992. After asking his readers to send in postcards detailing the songs they hated the most, Dave was astonished to receive over 10,000 replies, with votes still coming in to this day. Realizing he had touched a nerve ("People were stopping me on the street, grabbing me by the shirt, and with cold fury in their eyes saying things like: 'You know that song about the pina coladas? I hate that song. I HATE IT.'") Dave devoted two columns to his bad song survey and eventually wrote this book, a celebration of some truly horrifying "music". Included here are the original winners of the survey, as well as special sections on "Teen Death Songs", "Song Women Really Hate" (such as the immortal Crystals' tune "He Hit Me and It Felt Like a Kiss") and "Weenie Music" (Barry Manilow features heavily in this chapter, as I am sure you can imagine). Hilarious from beginning to end, my only complaint about the "Bad Song Book" is that at less than 100 pages it feels a little slight. One hundred pages though IS enough to generate an enormous amount of pain as we remember dreadful song after song (by the time he got to "You Light Up My Life" I had to briefly stop reading so I could roll around the floor, clutching my head), so maybe this kind of thing is better taken in small dosages. Rest assured that Dave suffered a lot more than we will, but as he says "I did it all for you. You you bo boo, bo nan fana fo foo, fee fie mo moo, you." GRADE: A
(Extra points for the gleeful jabs at Gary Puckett.)
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, but the book on tape format begged the question...
Review: ...'why not include parts of the actual songs?'
Yes, I realize it would be a publishing nightmare - trying to convince someone to let you use their song just so you could make fun of it, but it would have been so much more effective!
Oh well, what might have been!
This really is a funny book. Dave's quirky sense of humor was effective, as always. I thoroughly enjoyed Dave's list of bad songs and his analytical dissection of the lyrics, especially when I also intensely disliked the song. However, I liked it even more when I actually loved the song ('American Pie' comes to mind)!
Rating:
Summary: The Beatles Are STILL Singing Na Na Na Na, Hey Jude....
Review: ....and I'm STILL laughing at this book. My goodness this was the best comic tale I ever read. Barry's contest to determine the worst song of all-time resulted in this hysterically funny book. Chances are that one of your favorites is on here.
My own personal choice for worst song of all-time - the one that begins "I am the god of Hell Fire" - wasn't included. But many songs that I would rather (as Dave puts it) endure a rectal exam than sit through again include "Young Girl," "Honey," and the all-time winner in the survey contest, "MacArthur Park." (This last was featured prominently in a "Seinfeld" episode where Jerry's cleaning guy stole a statue).
He also took to task some 'lovable' songs like "Close To You" by the Carpenters - I mean who really wants to be around somebody who makes birds suddenly appear? And the book ends with those songs that you don't know the words to - like "there's a bathroom on the right" (from CCR's "Bad Moon Rising").
And can somebody tell me what is the appeal of "Crystal Blue Persuasion?"
Rating:
Summary: You will laugh out loud!
Review: ...a quick-read "hoot" of a book! You will laugh out loud and find yourself reading portions aloud so others can join in the hilarity! :-
Rating:
Summary: Do not read this book while you are eating...
Review: ...because you will choke on your food from laughing so hard! This is the most hilarious book I have read in ages. Dave takes us down memory lane and causes our brain to remember bad songs from our youth. Anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s needs to read this. Just keep Kleenex at hand because you will laugh until you cry
Rating:
Summary: You Won't Stop Laughing.......
Review: ...when you read this book. I first saw this book at a cousin's house where we'd gone after a family party. I picked it up to flip through while waiting for the coffee to brew and didn't put it down until I was finished. My family thought I was strange because I sat in the corner reading this book and laughing hysterically (OK they think I'm strange anyway but you get the point).
I was not a Dave Barry fan and had never read anything of his until this book but now I'm hooked. If you are a music fan you will appreciate his views on the absurdity of many lyrics. This book grew out of a column he wrote about bad songs/lyrics which generated the biggest reader response ever. From the intro (where he warns you that if you keep reading you're likely to have bad songs running around your head endlessly) he'll have you laughing out loud. You'll never listen to Neil Diamond the same way again. Interestingly enough, he had as many responses for as against Neil Diamond, both sides adamant in their views. Some of the letters he received are just as hilarious as Dave's writings. Everyone is fair game from pop, rock, 50's, even Paul Anka. Even if you're a fan of some of the artists he lampoons you'll have to laugh at his take on the lyrics. A close analogy would be that he's almost "Seinfeldesque" in his commentary, making you think about the lyrics in a way you never did.
Rating:
Summary: Someone left the cake out in the rain...
Review: Back in 1992, Dave Barry, in one of his syndicated newspaper columns, wondered why radio doesn't play more "good songs," and mentioned some of the songs he doesn't like, saying (among other things) that he wouldn't mind if radio stopped playing ballads by Neil Diamond. This column generated a heated response, with some readers defending Neil Diamond and some agreeing with Dave. Some readers also wrote to voice their opinions on artists and songs THEY didn't like. Realizing he'd struck a nerve, Dave announced the "Bad Song Survey," asking readers to write in and tell him which songs they really, REALLY hate. The response to this survey was so overwhelming, Dave compiled the top vote-getters as the achingly-funny "Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs". I haven't laughed so hard while reading a book in a VERY long time! In most cases, the comments by Dave, and numerous survey voters, are right on target. In addition to the expected, much-maligned vote-getters like "MacArthur Park," "Muskrat Love," "Feelings" and "I Write The Songs," this book takes on a diverse group of songs which includes "American Pie," "I'm Too Sexy," "In The Year 2525," "Achy, Breaky Heart," "I've Never Been To Me," "The Candy Man," "Dreams of The Everyday Housewife" (This song was a big vote-getter in a section called "Songs Women Really Hate"), and many more. No artist is impervious to this book's sword, not even Elvis ("Do The Clam") or The Beatles (the four-hour, er, minute "na-na-na-na" section of "Hey Jude".) Since so many songs are mentioned in this book, it's almost inevitable that a song or two which you happen to like, will be included here. For example, I like America's "A Horse With No Name," but even I have to admit that the lyrics quoted by Dave are pretty lame (I'd have included "Ventura Highway" instead, since it features the TRULY lame line about "Alligator lizards in the air".) I agree with other reviewers who have said that this book is too short. Many songs that richly deserve to be included here (Cher's "Half-Breed" immediately comes to mind), are absent. Perhaps Dave could give us a sequel (or two.)
Rating:
Summary: Laughed 'til I cried
Review: Barry did a survey that asked readers of his column to vote for their all-time worst songs, and the results of that effort are the basis of this book. This might be the funniest thing I ever read. I teach school, and I read this on the last day of school this year while the class watched a movie. They kept turning around to stare at me, wondering why I was alternately laughing and crying. I am of the generation that grew up with these songs, so if you are not, it might not be as funny. Be aware also that my wife did not think it was very funny, as she really LIKED most of these songs.
Rating:
Summary: another great barry read
Review: barry's column in which he complained about Neil Diamond's song "I am , I said" generated a lot of hate mail from die hard neil fans, but also generated some of the funniest columns in newspaper history, in which he conducted a bad song survey. This book is sort of like an add on to that, and another hilarious collection by america's (or maybe the world's) funniest author.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely essential boomer book & quintessential Barry!
Review: Barry's observation about those old songs being intensely personal is correct. Even seeing the words (which somehow didn't sound so foolish when we sang them) make you remember where you were and what you were doing when they were popular! It's like riding shotgun in Dave's mother's Valiant on a warm summer night in the early sixties. True Boomers will roar out loud as they evoke the Pompatus of Love!
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