RSS Awards

Welcome to the first monthly Really Stupid Song Awards.

Runner-up: Shakira. She sings, “Lucky that my breasts are small and humble so you don’t confuse them with the mountains.” This song narrowly missed the top spot because something might have gotten lost in the translation, as so often happens. The song was probably even stupider in Spanish, but this is an English award.
And the winner is: Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb for Stranger in a Strange Land, the ultimate soundtrack to a delusion. Barbra sings, “I write a letter every single day to a stranger in a strange land far away.” Barry sings, “Da-dada-da dadada-da-dada”… They’re so… happy! Starry-voiced and wrapped in warm, fudgy vanilla emotion. Little flocks of bluebirds dart through the song, you can see the rainbows stretched across sparkling waterfalls. A pink butterfly flutters coyly on each phrase. Lambs and lions lie down in dewy pastures, and in the hazy distance you can see a little nuclear family skipping along, waving goodbye to “somebody’s son” who’s going off to fight “somebody else’s war” with a flask of hot chocolate tucked into his rucksack.

Congrats Barbra and Barry! You win a fools-gold-plated copy of Springbok Hits Country Style (the one with Barbara’s Daughter and Snakes Crawl at Night, around summer ’81 – “I am Barbara’s daughter, I am Barbara’s child”; “Oh the snakes crawl at night, that’s what they sa-ay, when the sun goes down, then the snakes do pla-ay”), and a big box of Quality Street.

Nominations for next month’s award can be posted to Comments. To qualify, songs must have actual lyrics, but needn’t be current hits.