A playlist for Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs – and more bad singing

I wouldn’t normally link to this playlist because we’ve been through this discussion so many times, but I was startled to see, in the middle of the familiar earworms, a real surprise. You probably know that there have been many versions of Try a Little Tenderness. Bing Crosby crooned it back in the 1930s, and Otis Redding totally nailed an R&B version in the 1960s.

But I think you’ve never heard the song until you hear it performed by Dragnet’s Jack Webb, from his never-to-be-forgotten album, “Just the Tracks, Ma’am.” (I did not make that up.) Perhaps you thought Otis Redding had some soul? Amateur! It’s Webb that really brought the downtown funk! This will remain the definitive version unless we can coax one out of Shatner.

While we’re on the topic – have you ever heard Donald Trump singing the theme to Green Acres? This could make your day.