How would you feel if you recorded a hit song? If it were us, we’d be pretty darn happy about the achievement and brag about it to everybody we knew. And then we’d pray that we weren’t about to become a one-hit wonder and record like mad to ensure we would also have a second hit. Oh, and the popularity (and, theoretically, money) drummed up from the hit song wouldn’t be so bad, either. But that’s just us!
In reality, plenty of singers recorded and released hit songs that they ended up absolutely detesting. In this list, we’ll take a look at ten of those surprising cases. These performers may have reached the world with a massive hit and reaped all the benefits that come from it, but deep down below, they hate these songs for one reason or another. Call them ungrateful, bitter, whiny, or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that these ten singers REALLY don’t care for some of their biggest hits!
Related: Ten Unbelievably Strange or Ill-Advised Covers of Songs
10 Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl”
Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl (Official Music Video)
If Katy Perry had to do it all over again, she would have re-written (or maybe scrapped altogether) her 2008 hit “I Kissed a Girl.” As you probably know, the song is all about a woman kissing another woman for the very first time. While the beat is fun and energetic, and the lyrics are plenty catchy, the content of the song has given Katy some serious pause in the years after it was recorded and released.
“We’ve really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years,” the Santa Barbara-born singer told Glamour years after her 2008 single saw the light of day. “We’ve come a long way. Bisexuality wasn’t as talked about back then or any type of fluidity. If I had to write that song again, I probably would make an edit on it. Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What’s true for you can evolve.”[1]
9 Paramore, “Misery Business”
Paramore: Misery Business [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
The Paramore song “Misery Business” came out nearly two decades ago, so it makes sense that the singer who wrote the lyrics and pushed the song out into the world might think differently now than she did when it was first released. And sure enough, for Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams, that’s exactly the case. The song may have hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify and countless YouTube plays, but its lyrics make Williams cringe. Take this notable verse, for example: “Once you’re a wh*re, you’re nothing more, I’m sorry that’ll never change.” Not exactly a girl power anthem there, is it?!
In 2017, nearly a full decade after “Misery Business” was first released, Paramore spoke to the media outlet Track 7 about it. Looking back on the single, she admitted that it wasn’t one of her finer moments—and she had come to dislike it. “I’m a 26-year-old person,” she told the outlet while looking back on the controversial hit. “And yes, a proud feminist. Just maybe not a perfect one. The thing that annoyed me was that I had already done so much soul-searching about it years before anyone else had decided there was an issue… I was a 17-year-old kid when I wrote the lyrics in question, and if I can somehow exemplify what it means to grow up, get information, and become any shade of ‘woke,’ then that’s a-okay with me.”[2]
8 Lady Gaga, “Do What U Want (With My Body)”
Lady Gaga – Do What u Want with R.Kelly AMA 2013
Back in 2013, Lady Gaga collaborated with the controversial R&B crooner R. Kelly on the single “Do What U Want (With My Body).” The single was a hit after it came out, and the duo went around performing it at shows, festivals, and award events in the months after it dropped.
However, considering the sexual assault and sex trafficking case that came out against R. Kelly in the years after that, the song and its title didn’t exactly hold up so well. Plus, Lady Gaga’s general connection to R. Kelly chilled after he was sentenced to a prison term for his unsettling and illegal sexual history. Enter the public apology! Lady Gaga took to Twitter and was forced to deliver a lengthy one regarding the song and the two singers’ connection.
“I stand by anyone who has ever been the victim of sexual assault,” the superstar singer wrote as part of her public mea culpa over taking part in the song in the aftermath of the Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries that first shed light on his horrible misdeeds. “I stand behind these women 1000%, believe them, know they are suffering and in pain, and feel strongly that their voices should be heard and taken seriously. I’m sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young and for not speaking out sooner.”
She even went so far as to confirm that the song would be removed from iTunes and other streaming platforms—and that she would never work with R. Kelly again![3]
7 Pharrell Williams, “Blurred Lines”
Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines ft. T.I., Pharrell
Pharrell Williams was at first extremely proud of one of the biggest hits of his career—the single “Blurred Lines” performed with Robin Thicke. But as the years ticked by, Pharrell started thinking a bit more deeply about the song’s suggestive and aggressive sexual lyrics. In time, he came to realize that the song actually played directly into the chauvinistic culture that too often victimizes women as merely sex objects in unsettling social situations.
Speaking to GQ about his regrets over the song, Pharrell said at first: “I think ‘Blurred Lines’ opened me up. I didn’t get it at first… When there started to be an issue with it, lyrically, I was, like, ‘What are you talking about?’ There are women who really like the song and connect to the energy that just gets you up. And ‘I know you want it’—women sing those kinds of lyrics all the time. So it’s like, ‘What’s rapey about that?’”
And then, he had his epiphany. The singer-slash-producer went on: “Then I realized that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behavior. Or the way I think about things. It just matters how it affects women… I realized that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country. I hadn’t realized that. Didn’t realize that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind.” Sounds like he realizes all that now, at least![4]
6 Billie Eilish, “Bad Guy”
Billie Eilish – bad guy (Official Music Video)
Billie Eilish may have launched herself into the stratosphere when she released her chart-topping hit single “Bad Guy” back in 2019, but that doesn’t mean that she has to love the song now… or even like it! In fact, she thinks it’s as dumb as can be! The Los Angeles-based singer went on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show in 2023 and told the host that “Bad Guy” is “the stupidest song in the world.” Ouch! Admitting that it’s a “dumb” song, she said, “objectively, ‘Bad Guy’ is, like, the stupidest song in the world. But it’s really good.” Stupid AND good? Oh, to have the mind of a pop star…
Billie wasn’t done there, though. Describing her entire first record as “goofy,” she tried to play down its artistic merits to Kimmel. “You have to have, like, humor in it,” she told the shocked late-night host about her hit track. “Like, that song is… I’m trolling. That song is supposed to be goofy, but it’s just funny because it’s dumb. It’s literally, like, ‘duh.’ Like, what does