Musicians Who Can't Stand Their Own Hit Songs

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It's rare for listeners to grow sick of their favorite songs. Play it once — or 20 times — it doesn't matter, because it's still a bop (even for a one-person party). For musicians, though, they don't always have that same level of attachment to their creations. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that they may come to despise some of their biggest hits either right out of the gate or over time.

It's something of a catch-22, isn't it? These tracks can be considered the money makers and what elevate artists to the next level of the pop-culture zeitgeist, but musicians can develop a complicated relationship with their own music. Sometimes, being in the jam room and coming up with the songs, or playing them over and over for a sustained period of time, results in the music meaning less to them than to others. It takes nothing away from anybody's personal enjoyment of it, but it's fascinating to explore it from the other perspective.

From Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant to Heart's Ann Wilson, here are the musicians who can't stand their own hit songs. At least they can dry their tears with all the dollar bills they made with them.

Whenever someone mentions Oasis, one of the first songs that comes to mind is "Wonderwall," which is off the Britpop band's "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" album. Even though the average person has no idea what a "wonderwall" is, it's still a high school hit that every teen of the '90s will remember forever, as they belt out the unmistakable chorus of: "Because maybe / You're gonna be the one that saves me / And after all / You're my wonderwall." While it's now a staple of '90s rock and Oasis' most famous track, don't expect to hear singer Liam Gallagher gush about it much. 

The Gallagher brothers are notorious for their radical (and brutal) honesty at times, and Liam once didn't pull any punches when he revealed that he was physically repulsed to croon the tune. While promoting 2008's "Dig Out Your Soul," Liam decided to put up his dukes and take aim at the group's hit song — just because he could. "At least there's no 'Wonderwall' on there," he told MTV News (via the Irish Examiner). "I can't stand that song! Every time I have to sing it, I want to gag. Problem is, it was a big, big tune for us." 

While Liam's temperament may have cooled with age, as Oasis' 2025 reunion tour demonstrated, his thoughts on one of the band's most successful songs are still lukewarm at best, telling LADBible in 2022 (via NME), "It's alright and that ..."

There's an ethereal quality to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." From the song's structure to the poetic lyrics, it's a song that nearly every rock band in the world wishes they had written once upon a time. It's also a '70s song that literally changed the course of music, because how can anybody not appreciate "Stairway to Heaven"?! Well, there's one person who doesn't see all the hype behind it, and he's one of the individuals responsible for creating it.

Famously, Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant isn't a big fan of the track off 1971's "Led Zeppelin IV." In 1988, Plant spoke to the Los Angeles Times, mentioning how he was open to singing some Zeppelin classics on tour — except for "Stairway to Heaven." He said, "I won't go that far. I'd break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show. I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don't know. It's just not for me."

Plant has played the song since then, notably at major events, but it's unlikely to be part of his gym playlist on Spotify or Apple Music. As Plant reiterated in 2024 to Dan Rather (via AXS TV), "It belongs to a particular time ... coming out of the mind of a 23-year-old guy ... it landed in the years and the era of 23-year-old guys."

"All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" is not a Heart original. A version of that track was performed by Dobie Gray years before the song appeared on the group's 1990 album, "Brigade." It turned out to be a major hit for Heart, landing up at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming one of the band's biggest tracks. Despite this, singer Ann Wilson has been vocal about her disdain for the song, sung from the point of view of a woman who picks up a stranger from the side of the road and seduces him to become pregnant. 

In the 2017 documentary "Ann Wilson: In Focus," she opened up more about her specific issues with "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You," saying, "Essentially, in songs that I don't write, I become a storyteller, and I think I'm at my best as a storyteller when I can dig what's being said. I'm not that good of an actress with things I don't believe in. I didn't believe in the way the original lyrics were devaluing the man in the story." For many years, Wilson never played the song live, but eventually she brought it back — albeit with her own rendition of the lyrics.

Korn and Limp Bizkit are widely regarded as the founding fathers of nu metal. Their histories are closely intertwined and include a number of collaborations. A notable example occurred on Korn's 1998 album, "Follow the Leader," in which Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst lent his pipes to the track "All in the Family."

The song features Durst and Korn singer Jonathan Davis going back and forth with each other, trading childish barbs and offensive insults. It's a product of its era, when edginess was done simply for the sake of attention, and it's aged about as well as 82-week-old hot dog water. Truth be told, it was boorish stunts like this that aided Limp Bizkit to become one of the most hated bands in music.

Looking back at it in hindsight, Davis regrets ever doing the track with Durst. "'All in the Family' is the worst song ever," he said to Metal Hammer. "It's horrible. We were all drunk in the studio and I was trying to rap. At the time, we were having a good time, but now I just cringe. I've got nothing against Fred, it just sucks!"

Sometimes, it isn't the actual song that sours the experience for a musician, but the resulting music video for it. For former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, this is exactly what he experienced with the video for "Country House," from the British band's 1995 album, "The Great Escape."

As Coxon explained in his memoir "Verse, Chorus, Monster!" (via The Times), he didn't like how the music video for "Country House" embraced elements that he believed the Britpop group stood against as a musical act. "It made me angry because here I was, finally in a band, and the experience seemed to be getting cheapened by Page 3-type imagery, a revival of sexism and football hooliganism, and bands wearing windcheaters and trainers," Coxon stated. "Something about this grated with me."

Despite Coxon disliking it, the "Country House" music video was nominated for British video of the year at the 1996 Brit Awards, losing out to Blur's nemesis, Oasis, and its iconic "Wonderwall." Coxon and Blur would experience a fallout in the early 2000s; however, he would make up with the band later that decade.

Look, let's be real for a second: Radiohead's "Creep" – which is off the group's 1993 album, "Pablo Honey" — is creepy with a capital C. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what vocalist Thom Yorke is singing about here. Yet, despite this being an uncomfortable anthem for all the stalkers around the world, the song took on a life of its own, becoming one of Radiohead's signature musical calling cards.

In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Yorke expressed shock at how big "Creep" had become, especially since he hadn't viewed it as anything special. "I wasn't very happy with the lyrics; I thought they were pretty crap," he said, adding that it had begun to feel like "it's not our song anymore; when we play it, it feels like we're doing a cover."

Years later, several members of Radiohead revealed that there was a time when they considered pulling the plug on the band, and because they were tired of being defined only by "Creep." They pushed on, though, determined to become renowned for more than that single song. Well, it's safe to say it's mission accomplished for Radiohead in the long run.

The story of Deftones' 2000 album, "White Pony," is a lesson in how the music industry only makes sense to the people inside of it and operates under its own set of weird rules. After the group released the album, the record label decided it wanted another single, so it pressed for Deftones to produce a radio-friendly song in the same vein as commercially accessible rock bands of the era. According to vocalist Chino Moreno, there was an initial reluctance, but Deftones eventually agreed to rework the song "Pink Maggit" into a radio-ready track called "Back to School (Mini Maggit)." "They kept hounding me about [it], so I was like 'watch this,' because formulaic songs are so easy to write," Moreno told Rock Sound.

"White Pony" was re-released with "Back to School (Mini Maggit)," which features a more nu metal-esque sound than the rest of the record. The song also received its own music video that turned out to be immensely popular. Speaking to Visions (via DeftonesWorld), Moreno didn't hold back in his assessment of the song and his own actions, referring to himself as "an idiot" for following through with the label's request. "'Back to School' was a mistake," Moreno said. "A calculated song that has been built up with only one aim in mind: It should be [a] single."

In the past, bands didn't have the luxury of streaming algorithms and social media to spread the word about their music. Instead, they relied on mediums like magazines, newspapers, radio, and television to spread the word. If they could get notable critics and media personalities to give their music a thumbs-up, that would be as good as gold. For The Who's Pete Townshend, he wanted to get positive press for the group's 1969 album, "Tommy." The record wasn't finished, but Townshend played it for music critic Nik Cohn to gauge his thoughts. Even though Cohn and Townshend had built up a cordial relationship by playing pinball together, Cohn was honest about being unimpressed by what he had heard, which then led to a song that Townshend would later despise: "Pinball Wizard."

In an interview with Uncut (via Ultimate Classic Rock), Townshend revealed how he addressed Cohn's criticism at the time. "I just remember saying to him, with maybe an element of sarcasm, 'So, if it had pinball in it, would you give it a decent review?' He went, 'Of course I would. Anything with pinball in it's fantastic.' And so I wrote 'Pinball Wizard,' purely as a scam." The song was a hit and reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Despite the success and popularity of "Pinball Wizard," Townshend didn't see the track as any kind of jackpot. Indeed, in the liner notes of the "Tommy" reissue, he panned the song: "This is awful, the most clumsy piece of writing I've ever done."

As it turns out, Kurt Cobain, the late front man of grunge royalty Nirvana, wasn't a fan of "Smells Like a Teen Spirit" — a now-legendary track off 1991's "Nevermind," one of the rock albums that defined the '90s. So, what was Cobain's issue with the song? It was the fact that it had become so big and overshadowed everything else that Nirvana had done. "Everyone has focused on that song so much," Cobain told Rolling Stone. "The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It's been pounded into their brains. But I think there are so many other songs that I've written that are as good, if not better, than that song."

Cobain provided a savage assessment of the musicianship on the track, stating it's a "clichéd riff" and how he "was basically trying to rip off the Pixies" at the time of coming up with it. The rocker also admitted that there were instances when he struggled to get through "Smells Like Teen Spirit" during a live performance.

Warrant's "Cherry Pie," which is off the outfit's 1990 album of the same name, is exactly what you'd expect from glam at the time. It's a shallow and superficial song about a lady with a catchy hook that turns it into an instant arena rock anthem. Mozart, this is not. Regardless, it became a smash hit for Warrant, heating up the Billboard Hot 100 and peaking at the No. 10 position, and even being picked by Rolling Stone readers as one of the best hair metal songs of all time in 2012. However, the late Warrant singer Jani Lane revealed on an episode of VH1's "Heavy: The Story of Metal" that he didn't care for a slice of "Cherry Pie."

"I hate that song," Lane said. "I had no intention of writing that song." Lane elaborated that Warrant had completed the album under the name of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but the band was told it needed a similar song to Aerosmith's "Love in an Elevator," so Lane went back to the drawing board and came up with "Cherry Pie" the next day. Little did anyone know how much this quick fix would turn into such a big deal for Warrant. Before he died, Lane walked back his disdain for the song.

When discussing the rock songs from the '80s that we'll be blasting on repeat until the end of time, one cannot ignore Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" from the 1980 album of the same name. Put simply, it's no-nonsense, straight-up rock 'n' roll delivered in a raw and aggressive fashion. Other famous rock and metal musicians have cited this song's influence on them and their love for it, including Metallica's James Hetfield and DevilDriver's Dez Fafara.

Even though it's become a worthy addition to any classic rock playlist, its writer — the late great Lemmy — ended up despising it. "To be honest, although 'Ace of Spades' is a good song, I'm sick to death of it now," Lemmy wrote in his early 2000s memoir "White Line Fever," which he co-wrote with Janiss Garza. "Two decades on, whenever people think of Motörhead, they think 'Ace of Spades.' We didn't become fossilized after that record, you know. We've had quite a few good releases since then. But the fans want to hear it so we still play it every night. For myself, I've had enough of that song."

Lemmy made a good point. Even so, "Ace of Spades" turned out to be the band's ace up its sleeve, since no other song reached the same level of fame and success.