10 Hilariously Bad Hard Rock Songs
Riffs So Bad, They're Amazing.
The rock genre has always gone through their fair share of bad songs. No matter what type of pedigree the artist in question may have had to begin with, these songs made all of us collectively scratch our heads as to what the hell happened. Then again, some of these songs will still leave you with a smile on your face by the end.
Make no mistake, these songs are still incredibly cringey for the rock genre as a whole, and yet there's something about them that make you giggle if only for a minute or two. In fact, sometimes these songs drop the ball so hard that they end up coming back around into being great again. For as much as the artists may have wanted to put their heart and soul into these songs though, the fact that these songs are so hilarious almost has nothing to do with them.
It speaks more to the situation that either it's so bad it's good, or it's funny that the idea of this even working got greenlit on the studio floor. Either way, these songs still have reason to exist if only for the laughs alone. We may still listen to these...just not for the reasons you might think.
10. Highway to Hell - Marilyn Manson
Ok, so maybe it's considered cheating to put a cover song on a list like this. Since the artist in question didn't even write the tune, how bad could it actually be? Well, that's the problem. There's making a bad cover song...and then there is whatever Marilyn Manson did to AC/DC.
Granted, Manson in his prime had always fashioned himself as a bit of an eclectic fan of rock music, getting into everything from KISS and Alice Cooper to the Cure and Depeche Mode. Executing them successfully is a whole different thing though, which makes Highway to Hell sound almost cute. It's not like Manson doesn't have the ability to cover material either, given that one of his greatest tracks is a cover of an old Eurythmics tune. When you turn this on though, every ounce of swagger that Bon Scott's original had has been sucked dry, leading to Manson carrying on his in droning croon.
Aside from the fact that it's Manson doing a song like this, it ends up being funnier without the context, almost like you're hearing some random dude try to do mock karaoke of AC/DC after being overserved at the bar. Given his early flirtations with industrial rock, Manson should really just stay away from the classic rock section of his cover tunes at this point.