Tuesday, 11 September 2018 09:09

Five artists who won't perform their biggest hits

American band Paramore are retiring one of their biggest hits, Misery Business.

Frontwoman Hayley Williams revealed the news at a special homecoming show in Nashville.

She said the band "feel like it's time to move away from it for a little while".

The song has been criticised in the past for some of its language, which has been seen as anti-feminist and has attracted a backlash.

Williams said in an interview last year: "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."

But Paramore aren't alone in shunning one of their best-known songs. Here are five other artists who have stopped performing some of their biggest hits.

1. Radiohead - Creep
It was the breakthrough song for Thom Yorke and his band in 1993, but Radiohead are sick of their song Creep.

Yorke even gave it the nickname "crap", despite it being part of the band's sets for much of the 90s.

The group said by the time they were touring their 1997 album, Ok Computer, they were sick of it.

At a gig in Montreal when the crowd started shouting requests for it, Yorke even shouted an expletive adding: "We're tired of it!"

They went seven years without performing the song, bringing it back very briefly in 2016.

2. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Robert Plant told the Los Angeles Times in 1988: "I'd break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show,".

What song is he referring to? Stairway to Heaven, one of Led Zeppelin's biggest and most well-known songs.

He wrote the song in 1971, but said as he grew older that it didn't make sense anymore.

"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."

Plant's disdain for the song is even credited as causing a huge divide between him and Jimmy Page, the band's guitarist.

When they came together for a reunion gig in 2007, the pair argued about whether the song would make it into the set (it eventually did, but Plant refused to end on it).

3. Madonna - Like a Virgin
She's the Queen of Pop, known for constantly reinventing herself over the years.

But Madonna's future-facing outlook means she's happy to leave some of her biggest hits behind - Like a Virgin being one of them.

She told New York's Z100 radio in 2008 that she wasn't sure she could sing the song ever again.

"I just can't, unless somebody paid me, like, $30 million or something."

Not only that - Madge doesn't even want to hear the song - she said in another interview a year later that people often try and play her songs.



4. Oasis - Wonderwall
While at present an Oasis reunion might seem pretty unlikely, the odds of getting to hear Liam and Noel perform Wonderwall together have even worse odds.

When asked by MTV what he thought of the song, Liam 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."

And despite Liam and Noel not getting along - they share the same feelings about the song.

Earlier this year Noel told Absolute Radio, "I don't particularly like that song - I think 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' is a far superior song."

5. R.E.M - Shiny Happy People
Shiny Happy People was released in 1991, at a time when grunge bands like Nirvana were taking over.

The band weren't a huge fan of the song, despite it being arguably their most popular hit.

It wasn't chosen for the band's 2003 best of compilation, nor was it played much live, as Michael Stipe says he didn't want the band to be remembered for it.

When asked about the track in 2006, he told The Sun, "OK, I don't want it to be the song R.E.M. are remembered by in 100 years' time but it should be recognised as one of our minor hits . . . though not our finest moment."


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