There are more hit songs than hit song titles, partly because there are only so many meaningful ways to string together a small number of common words.
Sometimes when two hits have the same name (but are otherwise unrelated), the lesser hit is a truly atrocious song.
"Big Girls Don't Cry" is probably the best example (hence the title of this post). If for some reason you despised the Bobby Brown song "Don't Be Cruel" then that too would qualify. (I'm indifferent to it.)
Here's another example (I didn't like the original either but goodness gracious the more recent song is bad.)
Find your own favorite example(s) of this phenomenon.
UPDATE: Through the magic of in-frame volume knobs and tabbed browsing, you can watch one and listen to the other. I think the Bush video plus Good Charlotte audio works better than the other way around. (Is that a surprising result? I can't tell.)
Posted by Matt Bruce at January 28, 2008 02:38 PM"Heart and Soul" was better as a Huey Lewis hit than it was as a T'Pau hit.
"Heartbeat" was much better for Taana Gardner than it was when Don Johnson tried to sing.
Strangely, I like "Baby Love" by both the Supremes and Regina. Same for "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears and the Go-Gos.
"Crazy" was okay by Icehouse, but Patsy Cline's version is a true classic.
"Point of No Return" was better for Nu Shooz than for Exposé. (And "Point of Know Return" by Kansas is better than both.)
"Love Will Find a Way" was better by Pablo Cruise than by Yes.
"Runaway" by Del Shannon was better than by Bon Jovi, and both were much better than Janet Jackson's version.
(I developed a 30-song playlist, including all of these, for a contest the radio program "Crap From the Past" had to make your own playlist, with a promise that the winner's list would be played on the program. I lost.)
Posted by: Dave at January 29, 2008 07:35 AM