DAVID GREENE, HOST:
OK, so earlier this week, a few of us from MORNING EDITION were sitting around a table, and we came up with sort of a crazy idea. We wondered if you, our listeners, might nominate the worst holiday song ever. Boy, did you come through. Here is Joe Ferrera's submission from Attleboro, Mass.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FELIZ NAVIDAD")
UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST #1: (Singing) Feliz navidad. Feliz navidad.
GREENE: Oh, come, on, Joe. I love this. Why do you hate it? This is "Feliz Navidad."
JOE FERRERA: I have been tortured by this song this year since October, and it just drives me up a wall. The lyrics are simplistic. It is not at all representative of the best music that comes out of Latin America. We are bombarded by it day after day for weeks at a time to the point where I want to cry.
GREENE: OK, so other listeners went off on holiday songs they can't stand for very personal reasons.
ERIN DAVIS: I'm Erin Davis, and I'm from Houston, Texas. In 1993, my grandmother died, December 15, we went to her funeral before Christmas, and we're driving back and this horrid song comes on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER")
UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST #2: (Singing) Grandma got ran over by a reindeer.
DAVIS: All of us were just losing it, crying. And to this day, when I hear this song, I cringe, and I get upset. Why does this song exist? It's not catchy. It's not even good.
GREENE: OK, that's just not cool. Well, the best of the worst, there is one song many listeners agreed on.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: "Baby, It's Cold Outside."
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: "Baby, It's Cold Outside."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE")
MARGARET WHITING: (Singing) I really can't stay.
JOHNNY MERCER: (Singing) But baby, it's cold outside.
WHITING: (Singing) I've got to go away.
MERCER: (Singing) But baby, it's cold outside.
GREENE: One listener, Joe Campos from Des Moines, Iowa, explains.
JOE CAMPOS: A woman that's trying to leave this man's house and he keeps trying to convince her to stay after she says no several, several times, there isn't any rendition of that song that doesn't just make me think, let the woman leave your house, you creepy man.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE")
MERCER: (Singing) I'll take your hat. Your hair looks swell.
WHITING: (Singing) I ought to say, no, no, no, sir.
MERCER: (Singing) Mind if I move in close.
WHITING: (Singing) At least I'm going to say that I tried.
GREENE: Creepy indeed, your nominations for worst holiday song ever.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE")
WHITING: (Singing) But it's cold outside.
MERCER: (Singing) Baby, it's cold outside. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.