The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs Of 2003

The Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2003

In the following article, I take a look at the worst year of the 2000s for the Hot 100 and look at the songs that make it the worst year.

Hey guys, welcome back to Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes for another year-end list. Today, we’re examining the top 10 worst hit songs of 2003!

So after looking at a great year for the 2000s, we're looking at the flip side! Yeah, 2003 is kinda a lousy year for the Hot 100 with my top 3 on this list being what may be the worst top 3 I’ve ever had on a worst list.

That’s not to say there were 0 good songs on the year-end list for 2003 because there were some damn great songs on this year-end list, but that’s not what we’re focusing on, we’re looking at the shitty stuff. There were 31 songs here that were mediocre or worse, including the 2002 repeats. As a rule, the songs had to debut on the year-end Hot 100 in 2003 in order to qualify, that said though, none of the 2002 repeats would’ve made this list, so let’s get things started as always with our dishonorable mentions!

DM #1: Nelly f/P Diddy & Murphy Lee - Shake Ya Tailfeather (YE: #13, PEAK: #1)

Okay, I get the appeal of this one, it’s pretty catchy and the horns definitely give it a sense of fun but the writing is really bad, no other way for me to say it, with the lyric “Is that your ass or your mama half reindeer?” which I genuinely was super confused about when I first heard that lyric, and I had to check Genius.com for what that lyric meant, and from what I can get apparently Nelly is trying to compare this girl’s ass to a reindeer because in cartoons, reindeers are depicted to have big “hindquarters” as genius.com says? But it’s just so bizarre I can’t get past it. Shame because Nelly has a lot of personality here and even if Murphy Lee isn’t really that impressive of a rapper, this could’ve went off but alas, it’s mid instead.

DM #2: 3 Doors Down - When I’m Gone (YE: #5, PEAK: #4)

Not bad by any means but this feels extremely boring and generic.  There’s a reason “Here Without You” is arguably more remembered today.

DM #3: Jewel - Intuition (YE: #73, PEAK: #4)

Couldn’t you have stuck with folk pop like “Standing Still”? Ugh, This is just an annoying mess.  From Jewel’s annoying delivery especially on the word “heart”, to the lyric “I'm just a simple girl/In a high-tech digital world” which just seems like a desperate attempt to sound more intellectual than this song actually is. And this just feels like a sellout song, even with the only work from Jewel that I am familiar with is “Standing Still” from the previous year, this just feels like a sellout move trying to cling to relevance and instead ending any relevance Jewel had, that’s not to mention the production is a clattering annoying mess of synthesizers and a whole bunch of other instruments that I literally can’t even make out, man this is just a disappointment, even as someone who isn’t a big fan of Jewel by any means, man I expected much better.

DM #4: Tim McGraw - Real Good Man (YE: #99, PEAK: #27)

A song about how you could be a real bad boy yet a real good man and I genuinely can’t hear it. Tim McGraw can’t sell this at all, this song just sounds fucking goofy coming out of him. Not to mention the production is an annoying mess here too. The guitars sound extremely irritating and the harmonica can’t save this at all, basically, in short, Tim McGraw should just stick with “Grown Men Don’t Cry”

DM #5: Lil Kim f/50 Cent - Magic Stick (YE: #20, PEAK: #2)

Probably a hot take here, but this is extremely underwhelming for me, 50 Cent’s flow here is an absolute mess and even though Lil Kim has decent charisma, the beat really lets everyone down, the percussion is way too heavy and not any fun, and speaking of which, despite Lil Kim having personality, she doesn’t sound like she’s having any fun!. Just a stodgy, boring slog of a song.

DM #6: 50 Cent f/Nate Dogg - 21 Questions (YE: #90, PEAK: #37)

This is only here because of the beat, that stuttering guitar line sounds annoying. But there are some bad lyrics here too like “I love you like a fat kid love cake”...what?

DM #7: Kid Rock f/Sheryl Crow - Picture (YE: #9, PEAK: #4)

Well, Kid Rock, we meet you again. So this may not be as bad as something like “Only God Knows Why” from 2000, but this is still bad, out of pure boredom honestly, even if Sheryl Crow has decent vocals on this, her and Kid Rock have no chemistry here. It’s so generic that it’s bad, next!

And on that note, let’s get to the list proper...

10...So 2003 was the year before the crunk explosion, but hip hop was still growing in popularity, unfortunately, that meant we got shit like this...

10. Young Gunz - Can’t Stop Won’t Stop (YE: #85, PEAK: #14)

Wow, hip hop didn’t really have a good year in 2003, case in point, this bad song, it’s way too spare instrumentally with just hi-hats and what sounds like a cowbell? That’s it, there’s literally nothin else and Young Gunz aren’t even interesting or impressive enough rappers to elevate this

9...I feel like I’m running out of things to say about this type of shit...

9. Daniel Bedingfield - If You’re Not The One (YE: #60, PEAK: #15)

More sappy boring shit, I swear I’ve been putting a song like this on every one of my worst lists for the 2000s so far it feels like, but genuinely, if I were a girl and a guy sung this to me, I probably would reject him flat, this is so needy that it’s kinda insufferable. And this song just feels so toxic all the way down, let’s get this straight, this is a song about the aftermath of breakup and Bedingfield trying to make a big swing for this girl and convince her that they are destined to be together forever because after all as he says “If [she’s] not the one, then why does [his] hand fit [hers] this way?” Wow what a compelling argument, my dude! Add on top of that Bedingfield's weak falsetto, this is terrible.

8...I hate you Justin Timberlake...

8. Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body (YE: #22, PEAK: #75)

I just feel a bad vibe when I hear anything from JT, I don’t know why, but he just repulses me, to the point where even if the pretty funky beat sounds decent enough, JT’s presence just drags it down horribly, plus the beat boxing is super annoying.

7...I’m beginning to think I wasn’t too harsh on Toby Keith after all when he topped my 2012 worst list…

7. Toby Keith f/Willie Nelson - Beer For My Horses (YE: #13, PEAK: #1)

Okay, if this song is actually about beer for your horses, well it’d be ridiculous but you can’t get too mad at it, but Toby Keith’s delivery is just serious here, not fun at all! Which means the song is probably about something else, and I’ve seen people say it’s about lynching and, I kinda see it I guess? With the lyric “When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune”, I could see how one could interpret it that way but I hated this song way before even knowing what it’s supposedly about, the guitar sounds ugly and the song as a whole is painfully uninteresting, with Toby Keith not doing anything to elevate it. And all the emphasis seems to be about the fact that you want beer for your horses and that makes the anthemic sounding...well, everything really, kinda lose its stakes. Just a ridiculous song and maybe I’m too stupid to find anything about lynching in this song, but as it is, this is still pretty bad. Next!

6...Man, what happened to rock this year!?...

6. Trapt - Headstrong (YE: #16, PEAK: #49)

This is irritating as hell, it gives proto-Imagine Dragons. Chris Taylor Brown screaming over a generic nu-metal instrumentation makes for a pretty repulsive listen, it honestly reminds me a lot of the atrocious “Cutthroat” by Imagine Dragons in terms of the vocals, and given how abysmal those vocals are, that’s not a compliment. Basically this is just terrible all around.

5...Oh god, a flaming hot take here, so let’s just get this over with..

5. Pharrell Williams f/JAY-Z - Frontin’ (YE: #34, PEAK: #5)

Pharrell Williams’ falsetto sounds horrendous here. Plus JAY-Z rhyming “nonchalant” with “audience” just sounds so forced that it hurts, and the beat is boring too. Just organs and boring percussion and no one is doing anything to elevate the song, absolute trash, next!

4...Screw R Kelly..

4. R Kelly - Thoia Thoing (YE: #61, PEAK: #13)

Let me make this clear, even if R Kelly wasn’t a disgusting sex pest, this would still be a shitty song. That irritating pitched up sample is really the main reason but there’s also the messy percussion, this is horrible, bleh, next!

3...You ever come across one of those obviously bad songs that make you laugh the first few times but the more you hear it, the more it grates the fuck on you? Because this is the case with this, ladies and gentlemen, arguably the reason people hate post-grunge...

3. Puddle Of Mudd - She Hates Me (YE: #70, PEAK: #13)

Let’s get this out of the way immediately, Wes Scatlin’s voice is genuinely miserable to

listen to and in the chorus, he just screeches “S̸̢̡̡̛͎͈̼͎̫͙͎̺͉̤̫̯̲̲͇͍̞̠̪͙̦͉͙͑̀̍̂͐́͛̈́͜͝H̵̨͎͈̉̒̋̋͂͋̾͋̽̎̊̑̈͂͒̓́͑̈́̉̚͘̚̚E̸̤̝̩̻͔̥͎̱̝͌͜͠ ̴̨̯̹̹̥̪̰̞̳̘̞͙̠̲̮͉̼̤̟̟̺̞͈͕̃̇̈́̌̎̓̈̿̽͋̾̒̊́͊́̓̚͘͠͝ͅF̸̨̼̼͖̬͇̣͓̖͙͔͍͎̳̺͚͎̱͓̝̙̦̐̆̐̓̀̓̄̈́̄͒͂̂͐̚͘͜͝Ų̸̧̼͎̞̭̰͚͚͖͋̐́͌̋̎̍̽̃̌̓͂͘͘̚͠͝C̸̡̡͎͚̭̘̗̯͓̜̱̍͑͊̐̑͗̽͊̑̐̌͌̉ͅK̸̡̨̥̥̠̳̺̪̙͈̬̗̰̫̰̻̝̝̇͑̑̌̿͗͐̋̀̈̇̏̏̀̊͂͘̚͘ͅİ̷̡̢̹͕͇̥̝̠͎̰͍̜̝̲̞͈̣͎͇͉̝̣̝̔̂̄̂̈́̒́͒̈͆̓͒̋̄͛̈́̈̄̋͘̚̕͜͠͝͠͝͠͝ͅN̷̼̹͙̺̳̬̜̻̝͇̘͔͈̲̼͓̞̣̜̋͛̌̓͒̀͂̒́̾͛̄̾̔̇͒̋̒͘͜͝G̵̢͇̝̝̬̻̺͌̿̅͌̊̿̕͠ ̸̢̡̡͎̠̠̯͍̼̗͚̻̖̝̱͍͍̞͇̬͈͚̫̈́̑̄͑̓̊̅̆͑̈́̓̑̀͋̚͜͜͝ͅḤ̸̡̨̳͉̲͚̹̣̫̻͔̂̔̈́̈́̏̋̓͊́͆̿̏̎̏̈̉̎͆͛̚͜À̷̻̦̯̳̣͉̻͔̮̝̺͓͇̮̈́̈́́͂̀͑Ṫ̷̡̮̭̘̳͓̞̱͋͊͊̿̋͛̅̆̈́̉͋̅̐̈̃̽́̍͂͐̽̊͒̿̋̚̕͠͠E̴̛̛̱̤͈̱͕̠̫̻̪̖̗͕͉̮̜̭̝̹͎̗̞̮͇̜̻͎̻̰͉͑̓̅̐̄̉̂̑̍̈̊̓̀͘̚S̴͉͇͎͔͍̱̙͕̍̄͒͊̽̓̈́ ̸͖͉̲̜̹̰̲̪͔̔̈́̉̔̕ͅM̷̨̨̢̭̳̭̳͚̗̻̟̪̲̦͖͇̩̹̲͎͎̑̍̓̂͋̈́̾͒͝͝E̵̙̭̺̯͐̾ ̸̨̛̹͖̩̩͖̹̗͈̜͉̝͒̓̿̀̈́̎̕L̴̡̧̟̫͖̤̳̞͖̮̥̖͈̬͍͔̞̪͍̖̠͉͙̈́́͗̒̀̐̾͑̈́̇̊̌̅̌͂̿̓̍̇̕͠͝͝Ȃ̶̗̝͔͉̜̠̫͓͕̠͚̤̱͎̰̩̇̍̅̏̔͐̑̂͐̿́̍́͗̆̀͛̒̄͑̍̀̑̄͊̕͜͠ͅ ̸̨̨̡̨̛̛̪̹͇̻̻̳͋̈́̿̉̋̃̓͊̎͘͜͠L̵̡͚͎̼̹̲̹͖̘̬̤͖͕̥̭͉̫̖̲̘̰̜̺̭̹͚̒̈̅̀̍̈́̎͗̒̍͐́̆͐͜͝͠A̸̡͉̭̥̦̣̗̻͚̫̱͓͚̭̩͚̙̞̿̍̒̀͑̈́̆̾ ̷̧͇͈̜͊́L̸̨̡̡̛͚͍͎̜̻͍̮͉̖̼̪͙̘̎̾̀̐̽̎͋̿̎̃̅̄̓̅́͘̕͜͝À̶͉̼̠͖̗̗̺̪̮̠͎̜̟̮͇́̋̈́̚ ̷̨̨̛̛̺̣̗̖͈͎̤͉̜̫̳̪́̆͐̿͗̎̈́͑͑͐̇͂̋̊̈́̔͌̈́͘͝͝͠ͅḼ̸͆̈́̈́O̷̧̧͔͕͉͎͚̼̺̪͖̮͓͓̲̻̹͙̭̝̦̭̪͈͐V̵̬͔̻̲͎̳͉͈̟̫̟͍̟̑͂̋͆͒̃̾̓͌̓̌̔̏̉͗́̊̈́̐̽̾̎̐͌̋͘E̴̛͈͇̔͒̀͆̋̌̆̾̎͋̉́̄͊͛̐̏̇̓̅͊̚̕͠”

over and over again and it sounds insufferable, this is about a relationship that lasted only a week or two, get over yourself drama queen, spoiled 3 year olds throw less of a tantrum than you are in this song, and trust me after this song a lot more  people than just she will fucking hate you trust me. NEXT!

2...Oh god how did one of my least favorite artists of all time with possibly his worst song not top this list? Fuck you Uncle Kracker...

2. Uncle Kracker f/Dobie Gray - Drift Away (YE: #27, PEAK: #6)

This is lazy, just because you get the original artist on your cover doesn’t make it good. Dobie Gray’s original is kinda chill if slightly uninteresting, Uncle Kracker’s cover strips away any of Dobie Gray’s talents and replaces it with Uncle Kracker’s talentless ass. But this was one of my least favorite songs of all time even long before I heard the original, simply because Uncle Kracker cannot sing at all and makes this absolutely DREADFUL! The first time I heard this song in the car in like 2015, I was actively bored to tears, fuck this song to this day, one of my least favorite songs of all time and it’s somehow worse than “Follow Me” and yet, it still wasn’t my #1...

1...So Uncle Kracker would’ve without a shred of doubt topped this list if not for this song, I think I actually hate “Drift Away” more, but this is just so obviously deplorable, it wouldn’t feel right if it wasn’t my #1...

1. Darryl Worley - Have You Forgotten? (YE: #90, PEAK: #22)

For a TLDR of this segment, this is disgusting pro-war propaganda disguised as a 9/11 tribute tugging on people’s heartstrings just to get them to support the Iraq War. There’s a big difference between this and other 9/11 tributes like “Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning?)” by Alan Jackson for instance which came from a place of heart, but this song on the other hand came from a place of anger, and seriously, how else do you interpret this lyric? “I hear people sayin'. We don't need this war/But I say there's some things worth fightin' for” This song probably convinced people back in 2003 to actually support the war in Iraq. Again, this is disgusting pro-war propaganda disguised as a 9/11 tribute to tug at people’s heartstrings to get them to support the war, what, with the delicate instrumentation and Worley having a restrained delivery throughout, this song probably actively caused societal harm in 2003 and thus, I don’t think I need to explain further but “Have You Forgotten?” by Darryl Worley is without question the worst hit song of 2003, and an absolutely deplorable piece of work, may be the worst hit song of the millennium thus far, I won’t lie let’s make sure we forget this work and move on. Well anyway, the Spotify playlist will be below the article and I’ll be working on my best list, but until then, you’ve been reading Fire’s Flaming Hot Takes, and I’ll see you!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0F7tR68VjgFnLeuE3SfCKO?si=36f65fef7d7745d2