This week at the office, we had fun making a list of the corniest songs, with our friends at Informactions Films.
The first stage of the debate was to define what distinguishes a song and what makes it corny.
“For a song to leave its mark, time needs to have passed. Let’s say at least a year. You have to be careful with songs that now feel out-dated but that were revolutionary for their time, like Love is in the Air, for example. In addition, the singer or performer can be corny, but have songs that aren’t… though this is rare. The opposite is also true, an artist can have a corny song without being corny himself,” says Ian Quenneville.
We had trouble establishing a definition for a ‘corny song’, since several of us had different opinions. Some found songs corny where others didn’t. A colleague had some pretty interesting insight on the matter:
“Maybe I’m confusing lousy with corny. I don’t think so since tastelessness is part of the definition. What defines ‘corny’? Lovely philosophical question, that.
But in the ‘I’m ashamed to have loved it’ category, we could add, “I’m happy and I hum along when I hear it’ or ‘I’ve heard it so many times on the radio that I can’t not hum along and listen till it’s over”.
Why not just, “a song that we’re ashamed to like or to have liked”?
We still agreed on a whole bunch of songs that were evidently ‘real corny songs’.
Here is a list of our first edition of ‘Top Corny Songs’:
1 – Marquer un but – Guy Lafleur
2 – Pleure dans la pluie – Mario Pelchat
3 - La vie chante – René Simard
4 – Vivre dans la nuit – Nuance
5 – Patof blue – Patof
6 – My heart will go on – Céline Dion
7 – Ça va bien – Kathleen
8 – Lavez lavez – Martine St-Clair
9 – Je t’attendais – Daniel Hétu
10 – Un verre sur la table – Julie Daraiche
11 – Tourne la page – René et Nathalie Simard
12 – Snob – Les BB
13 – Shake your bon-bon – Ricky Martin
14 – Métal – Normand Brathwaite
15 – Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus
16 – Voyage Voyage – Desireless
17 – Dur dur d’être bébé – Jordy
18 – I want it that way – Back Street Boys
19 – Together Forever – Rick Ashley
20 – Billy – Julie Masse
21 – Step By Step – New Kidz on the Bloc
22 – Hélène – Rock Voisine
23 - Macarena
24 – Electric Youth -Debbie Gibson
25 – Carrie – Europe
26 – I’m Too Sexy – Right Said Fred
27 – Scatman – John Scatman
28 – Break Down and Cry – Freddy Mercury
29 – Cotton Eyed Joe – Rednecks
30 – Dance Desire – Haywire (Dance Desire)
31 – Histoire d’un soir – Marie-Denise Pelletier
32 – L’aigle noir – Marie Carmen
33 – Closer Together – The Box
34 – Celebration – Fun Factory
Lionel Michée, our web artistic director, also contributed some pretty amazing elements (you’ll recognise his French heritage):
Comme un ouragan – Stéphanie de Monaco – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrJ1Ldwz62M
En rouge et noir – Jeanne Mas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAhv61-s2xY
Les bêtises – Sabine Paturel – http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcrga_sabine-paturel-les-betises
And also EVERYTHING Herbet Léonard, but especially:
Pour le plaisir – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t7T4l9TuG4
