“Bad” & “Worse” Songs

Here's a nice collection of "Bad" and "Worse" Songs – which are actually way better than their titles would indicate – for your listening pleasure. Since I posted some "Good" and "Bad" Songs five-and-a-half years ago (not that you would necessarily remember), there are a few notable exclusions from this set and the one that will follow it. (Apologies to Michael Jackson, George Thorogood, Bon Jovi, Meat Loaf, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Jim Croce, in particular, for the absence of their iconic songs here.) Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar  ~  “Bad Blood”

2)  Robert Plant  ~  “Worse Than Detroit”

3)  Justin Timberlake  ~  “Not A Bad Thing”

4)  Anouk  ~  “For Bitter Or Worse”

5)  Halsey  ~  “Bad At Love”

6)  Matthew Sweet  ~  “Worse To Live”

7)  Linda Ronstadt  ~  “Hurt So Bad”

8)  Bahamas  ~  “What’s Worse”

9)  The Flaming Lips  ~  “Bad Days”

10)  Sunny Sweeney  ~  “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving”

11)  RY X  ~  “Bad Love”

12)  Soundgarden  ~  “Worse Dreams”

13)  Sevyn Streeter  ~  “How Bad Do You Want It?”

14)  Randy Travis  ~  “Only Worse”

15)  Dua Lipa  ~  “Bad Together”

16)  Laura Imbruglia  ~  “It’s Getting Worse”

17)  Chris Isaak  ~  “Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing”

18)  Debbie Gibson  ~  “For Better Or Worse”

19)  Lynyrd Skynyrd  ~  “Cry For The Bad Man”

20)  Snoh Aalegra  ~  “Sometimes” / “Worse”

21)  Rihanna  ~  “Good Girl Gone Bad”

22)  Clint Black  ~  “Better And Worse”

23)  Milky Chance ft. Izzy Bizu  ~  “Bad Things”

24)  Veruca Salt  ~  “Loneliness Is Worse”

25)  Madonna  ~  “Bad Girl”

“Easy” & “Hard” Songs, Vol. 1

A long time ago, I'm not sure exactly when, on my original blog I posted a set of "Easy" and "Hard" Songs. But since then, a) I've gotten better at finding a good variety of quality songs by people you've actually heard of; b) new songs have come out that also merit inclusion; and c) I just felt like doing this theme all over again. And there were plenty of good ones, so this is part 1 of 2. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Alanis Morissette  ~  “Eight Easy Steps”

2)  Queen  ~  “It’s A Hard Life”

3)  Linda Ronstadt  ~  “It’s So Easy”

4)  98°  ~  “The Hardest Thing”

5)  MiMi & The Mad Noise Factory  ~  “Easy”

6)  The Avett Brothers  ~  “No Hard Feelings”

7)  Dragonette  ~  “Easy”

8)  Pearl Jam  ~  “Hard To Imagine”

9)  Rag’n’Bone Man  ~  “Die Easy”

10)  Donna Summer  ~  “She Works Hard For The Money”

11)  Lauv  ~  “Easy Love”

12)  Lykke Li  ~  “Hard Rain”

13)  Max Frost  ~  “Let Me Down Easy”

14)  Rihanna ft. Jeezy  ~  “Hard”

15)  Haroula Rose  ~  “So Easy”

16)  Coldplay  ~  “The Hardest Part”

17)  Phil Collins & Philip Bailey  ~  “Easy Lover”

18)  Brandi Carlile  ~  “Harder To Forgive”

19)  Oriana  ~  "Love Me Down Easy"

20)  DC Talk  ~  “The Hard Way”

21)  Clint Black ft. Lisa Hartman Black  ~  “Easy For Me To Say”

22)  The National  ~  “Hard To Find”

23)  GJan  ~  “Wasn’t Easy”

24)  Cloves  ~  “Hit Me Hard”

25)  Maxi Priest  ~  “Easy To Love”

Songs About Living & Learning

Sometimes you have to make mistakes in order not to make the same mistakes in the future. As the phrase goes, "you live, you learn." That's generally what these songs are all about. A few of them just happen to have both the words "Live" and "Learn" (in some form or another) in their titles. They're all good ones, though! So enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Alanis Morissette  ~  “You Learn”  (The refrain is “You live, you learn…” which may as well be its official title anyway.)

2)  Marshall Crenshaw  ~  “Live And Learn”

3)  Elle Carpenter  ~  “Learning How To Live”

4)  Joe Public  ~  “Live And Learn”

5)  Idina Menzel  ~  “You Learn To Live Without”

6)  Private Line  ~  “Live, Learn, And Grow Apart”

7)  Clannad  ~  “Live And Learn”

8)  Jonathan Jackson  ~  “How You Learn To Live Alone”

9)  Lesley Gore  ~  “Live And Learn”

10)  Dream Theater  ~  “Learning To Live”

11)  Sondr ft. Peg Parnevik  ~  “Live Love Learn”

12)  Clint Black  ~  “Live And Learn”

13)  Beth Hart  ~  “Learning To Live”

14)  Ben Folds  ~  “Learn To Live With What You Are”

15)  Kylie Minogue  ~  “Live And Learn”

16)  Architects  ~  “Learn To Live”

17)  Kesha  ~  “Learn To Let Go”  (Nope, the word “live” doesn’t appear in the title, but the phrase “live and learn” is repeated several times throughout.)

18)  Billy Squier  ~  “Learn How To Live”

19)  Cyndi Lauper & France Gall  ~  “You Have To Learn To Live Alone”

20)  The Silks  ~  “Live And Learn”

21)  Lady Lush & The Vinyls  ~  “Learn How To Live”

22)  Bill Murray  ~  “When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God?”  (Yes, THAT Bill Murray!)

Popular Songs Of 1998, Vol. 2

Well, these sure bring back memories for me. How about you? Popular Songs of 1998, Vol. 2 is a go! Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Aerosmith  ~  “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”

2)  Dixie Chicks  ~  “I Can Love You Better”

3)  Sammy Kershaw  ~  “Love Of My Life”

4)  Garbage  ~  “I Think I’m Paranoid”

5)  Eve 6  ~  “Inside Out”

6)  All Saints  ~  “Never Ever”

7)  Fastball  ~  “The Way”

8)  Lila McCann  ~  “I Wanna Fall In Love”

9)  Goo Goo Dolls  ~  “Iris”

10)  Sarah McLachlan  ~  “Adia”

11)  Everclear  ~  “Father Of Mine”

12)  Xscape  ~  “The Arms Of The One Who Loves You”

13)  Uncle Sam  ~  “I Don’t Ever Want To See You Again”

14)  Faith Hill ft. Tim McGraw  ~  “Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me”

15)  Jimmy Ray  ~  “Are You Jimmy Ray?”

16)  Destiny’s Child  ~  “No, No, No”

17)  Newsboys  ~  “Entertaining Angels”

18)  Ace Of Base  ~  “Cruel Summer”

19)  Metallica  ~  “The Unforgiven II”

20)  Spice Girls  ~  “Too Much”

21)  Clint Black  ~  “Nothin’ But The Taillights”

22)  Paula Cole  ~  “I Don’t Want To Wait”

23)  Harvey Danger  ~  “Flagpole Sitta”

24)  Jennifer Paige  ~  “Crush”

25)  The Wallflowers  ~  “Heroes”

Songs About The Good Old Days

Did you ever wish you could go back to the "good old days"? Yeah, me, too. These artists, too – so much so that they wrote songs about it and I found them. So take a listen...and enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Macklemore ft. Kesha  ~  “Good Old Days”

2)  “Weird Al” Yankovic  ~  “Good Old Days”

3)  Joe Bataan  ~  “Good Ole Days / Muchacho Ordinario”

4)  blink-182  ~  “Good Old Days”

5)  Dolly Parton  ~  “In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)"

6)  To Kill A King  ~  “The Good Old Days”  (This is a profoundly odd video. But the song is good, so I’m willing to appreciate the weirdness.)

7)  The Features  ~  “Good Old Days”

8)  Nia Ekanem  ~  “Good Old Days”

9)  The Judds  ~  “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout The Good Old Days)”

10)  Ray Walston  ~  “Those Were The Good Old Days”

11)  Roger Miller  ~  “The Good Old Days”

12)  Albert Hammond  ~  “These Are The Good Old Days”

13)  P!nk  ~  “Good Old Days”

14)  Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird  ~  “Good Old Bad Old Days”  (I’ve never heard of this guy or his band, but this song is quite good. And quite relevant for these times.)

15)  The Script  ~  “Good Old Days”

16)  Al Green  ~  “One Of These Good Old Days”

17)  Laura Cox Band  ~  “Good Ol’ Days”

18)  Eels  ~  “The Good Old Days”

19)  Jimmy Cliff  ~  “Those Good Good Old Days”

20)  Spencer Lord  ~ “Good Old Days”

21)  Toby Beard  ~  “Good Old Days”

22)  Clint Black  ~  “The Good Old Days”

23)  The Libertines  ~  “The Good Old Days”

24)  Our Gang Theme Song  ~  “Good Old Days”

25)  Smithfield  ~  “Good Ol’ Days”

BONUS TRACK:  twenty one pilots  ~  "Stressed Out"  (No, the phrase "good old days" doesn't appear in any form in the title of this song. But it does appear in the lyrics and is, in fact, repeated many, many times. Plus, it's a fantastic tune! So there ya go...)