What Are Your Musical Guilty Pleasures?

A guilty pleasure is something you enjoy against your better judgment. I started thinking about songs that fit into this category after hearing a Fergie song while I was in the grocery store. It took all of my self control to continue shopping like a normal person and not start crooning in the cereal aisle! I’m trying to embrace my musical tastes a bit more these days, and that—for better or worse—includes the awful songs I’m ashamed to admit I love.

Here’s a round up of five of my guilty pleasures, including the original music videos—all of which are special in their own right—plus links to uke tutorials and/or chords and lyrics in case you want to play along. Are you ready to cringe? :)

#1. Fergie — Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)

What makes it terrible: The nonsensical lyrics, the vocals, and the (ridiculous) song title

What I love about it: I really like Fergie’s voice when she’s not doing the sexy, breathless thing. This song, and many of her other hits, like Glamorous and Clumsy, are all so delightfully catchy!

How to play it: I didn’t see an ukulele tutorial for this song on Youtube, but you can find the chords and lyrics here (and the chords sound pretty accurate).

#2. Bryan Adams — Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman

What makes it terrible: The overwrought lyrics, especially the bridge

What I love about it: The very singable melody, the flamenco-y guitar

How to play it: I didn’t see an ukulele tutorial for this one on Youtube (shocking, I know), but you can find the chords and lyrics here (though the chords don’t sound 100% spot-on to me).

#3. Santana ft. Rob Thomas — Smooth

What makes it terrible: The incongruous pairing of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas

What I love about it: The incongruous pairing of Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas. Plus, it’s a cha cha!

How to play it: TenThumbs Production has a ukulele tutorial for Smooth that covers the opening riff and includes a syncopated strum pattern to give your strumming some Latin flavor.

#4. Justin Bieber — Baby

What makes it terrible: Can a song sound more manufactured than this?

What I love about it: My fondness for Baby is, in large part, nostalgia-based. This song came out the year my son was born and it was one of his favorite songs when he was a toddler, so we listened to it A LOT.

How to play it: U CAN UKE has a Baby ukulele tutorial for playing in the key of C using very beginner-friendly chords.