18 Musicians Who Have Admitted They Secretly Hate Their Old Songs

    Lorde thinks "Royals" sounds like a ringtone from 2006.

    Stephen LaConte
    by Stephen LaConte

    BuzzFeed Staff

    1. Miley Cyrus has said she "hates" her hit "Party in the USA," and explained why she doesn't like the way it sounds.

    Miley wearing a low-cut halter top and blond streaks in her hair
    Dia Dipasupil / WireImage / Via Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "I would never take it back. But that’s not who I am, that’s not where I want to sing, that’s not what I want to sing, and that’s not what I want my voice to sound like, because you can’t hear me through there," she told V Magazine.

    2. Zayn Malik says he hated pretty much every song he made with One Direction.

    Zayn at the Grammy Awards
    Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic / Via Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as fuck, so they could use that version. I wasn't 100% behind the music. It wasn't me. It was music that was already given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to these people," he told Fader in 2015.

    3. Ariana Grande revealed that the process of recording "Put Your Hearts Up" was "straight out of hell."

    Ariana wearing a strapless silver outfit and with her hands on hips
    David Crotty / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "For the video, they gave me a bad spray tan and put me in a princess dress and had me frolic around the street. The whole thing was straight out of hell. I still have nightmares about it, and I made them hide it on my Vevo page," she told Rolling Stone.

    4. Selena Gomez thinks "Come and Get It" sounds like a "Rihanna reject."

    Selena in a strapless outfit
    Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "It’s not my song. To me, it sounds like a Rihanna reject. ... That was just in the beginning. I was so young. I was wanting a hit: ‘I don’t know if I need a hit, but maybe I do so people can respect me?’ I’m grateful what it did for me," she told Entertainment Weekly.

    5. Lorde thinks the song that made her famous, "Royals," is "disastrous," saying it sounds like an old ringtone.

    Lorde in a strapless outfit
    Gregg Deguire / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "I listen to people covering the song and putting their own spin on it — and I listen to it in every single form except the original one I put out — and I realize that actually it sounds horrible. It sounds like a ringtone from a 2006 Nokia. None of the melodies are cool or good. It's disastrous. Awful," she told the Daily Record.

    6. Lady Gaga hates her iconic collaboration with Beyoncé, "Telephone."

    Lady Gaga with her hair pulled back and wearing a black thin-strap halter outfit
    Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "I hate 'Telephone.' Is that terrible to say? It's the song I have the most difficult time listening to. ... Ultimately the mix and the process of getting the production finished was very stressful for me. So when I say it's my worst song, it has nothing to do with the song, just my emotional connection to it," she told Pop Justice in 2011.

    7. Katy Perry has some major lyrical regrets about "I Kissed a Girl."

    Katy wearing a V-neck outfit
    Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "We've really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years. We've come a long way. Bisexuality wasn't as talked about back then, or any type of fluidity. If I had to write that song again, I probably would make an edit on it. Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What's true for you can evolve," she told Glamour in 2018.

    8. James Blunt thinks his biggest hit, "You're Beautiful," is "annoying."

    James wearing jeans and a T-shirt and singing and playing guitar onstage
    Tristar Media / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "There was one song that was force-fed down people's throats — 'You're Beautiful' — and it became annoying. And then people start to associate the artist with the same word. I think, at the end of the day, I was marketed by a record company to appeal to women during Desperate Housewives commercials, and you lose 50% of the population in doing so," he told Hello Magazine.

    9. Mandy Moore cringes at her early work, including her iconic song "Candy."

    Mandy in a pink off-the-shoulder top
    Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "Ugh, those were awful — just awful! If I had the money, I would give a refund to everyone who bought my first two albums. Whenever people ask, 'Which of your albums should I listen to?' I say, 'Nothing but Coverage. Burn the rest!'" she told Glamour.

    10. Kanye West says he "never really liked" the song "Gold Digger," but did it (ironically) for money.

    Kanye in a hoodie sweatshirt
    Patrick Kovarik / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "I never really liked that song, but I knew I would get paid for doing 'Gold Digger,' he told Zane Lowe in an interview.

    11. Justin Bieber regrets his Nicki Minaj collab, "Beauty and a Beat."

    Justin wearing a backward cap, thick silver chain, and white sweater
    Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "I never really liked 'Beauty and a Beat.' But uh, I understood what it was at the time. And it was music that was popular at that time, but I was never really a huge fan of that song," he said on The Bert Show.

    12. Liam Gallagher, formerly of Oasis, hates the band's most famous song, "Wonderwall."

    Liam at the microphone and wearing sunglasses
    Sebastian Reuter / Redferns / Via Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "I can't fucking stand that fucking song. Every time I have to sing it, I want to gag. Problem is, it was a big, big tune for us. You go to America and they're like, 'Are you Mr. Wonderwall?' You want to chin someone," he said in an interview.

    13. Kurt Cobain called Nirvana's hit song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" an "embarrassment."

    Kurt sitting with a guitar at a microphone
    Frank Micelotta Archive / Getty Images

    What he said about it: "It’s almost an embarrassment to play [‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’]. Everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It’s been pounded into their brains. … I can barely, especially on a bad night, get through ‘Teen Spirit.’ I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away," he told Rolling Stone.

    14. Robert Plant, the former lead singer of Led Zeppelin, says "Stairway to Heaven" gives him hives.

    Robert singing onstage
    Taylor Hill / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "I’d break out in hives if I had to sing that song in every show. 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. It’s just not for me. ... No more of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for me," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1988.

    15. Madonna says she's sick and tired of her iconic hits "Like a Virgin" and "Holiday."

    Madonna in a sleeveless black outfit
    Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

    What she's said about it: "I’m not sure I can sing ‘Holiday’ or ‘Like a Virgin’ ever again. I just can’t. Unless somebody paid me like $30 million or something," she admitted in a 2008 radio interview.

    16. Pete Townshend, guitarist for the Who, thinks "Pinball Wizard" is the worst song he's ever written.

    Pete onstage playing his guitar
    Ethan Miller / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "I knocked it off. I thought, Oh my god, this is awful, the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done. Oh my god, I’m embarrassed. This sounds like a music hall song. I scribbled it out, and all the verses were the same length and there was no kind of middle eight. It was going to be a complete dud, but I carried on," he later admitted.

    17. Michael Stipe, former front man of R.E.M., groans when he hears "Shiny Happy People."

    Michael wearing glasses and looking very serious
    Jim Spellman / Getty Images

    What he's said about it: "Well, 'hate' is a very strong word. But it's a fruity pop song written for children. It just is what it is. If there was one song that was sent into outer space to represent R.E.M. for the rest of time, I would not want it to be 'Shiny Happy People,'" he said in a 2016 interview.

    18. And finally, John Lennon dissed Paul McCartney's writing of the Beatles' legendary song "Let It Be."

    Black-and-white photo of John
    Michael Putland / Getty Images

    What he said about it: "That’s Paul. What can you say? Nothing to do with the Beatles. It could’ve been [McCartney's later band] Wings. I don’t know what he’s thinking when he writes 'Let It Be,'" he told author David Sheff, adding that he thought McCartney was trying to copy Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."