36 Popular Songs That Artists Regret Creating (5 of 7)

Beauty and a Beat (feat. Nicki Minaj) – Justin Bieber

It’s not completely clear what Bieber’s regret is with the song. To him, it simply wasn’t a song he was that much into. Despite that, he doesn’t regret it being a hit and working with Nicki on this project.

“I never really liked ‘Beauty and a Beat.’ But I understood what it was at the time. And it was music that was popular at that time, as well. But I was never really a huge fan of that song.”

Put Your Hearts Up – Ariana Grande

An early hit and one that Ariana deeply and absolutely loathes is this bubblegum-pop song.

“It was geared toward kids and felt so inauthentic and fake. That was the worst moment of my life. 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.”

Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin

The band’s member Robert Plant is notorious for being against this classic hit:

“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.”

Over the years, his contempt for the song didn’t die down with Plant calling it “that bloody wedding song” in 2002, and donating to the Portland radio station that announced the song was being banned from their station.

The hatred for this song is so deep that it’s cited as a major division between him and the band’s guitarist and composer, Jimmy Page.

Heart of Gold – Neil Young

By the mid-1970s, this song stopped being performed at live shows. Eventually, the song was referred to as a “bore” amongst Young’s greatest hits collection.

“This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I met more interesting people there.”

Ballad in Plain D – Bob Dylan

This particular song allowed Dylan to get very candid about the relationship he had with Suze Rotolo through this song. It went as far as detailing the conflicts there were between himself and his mother and sister.

Later on, he told Bill Flanagan for Written In My Soul that he regretted ever writing that song: “Oh yeah, that one! I look back and say ‘I must have been a real schmuck to write that.’ I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I’ve written, maybe I could have left that alone.”