| "Too Bad" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Doug and the Slugs | |
| from the album Cognac and Bologna | |
| B-side | "The Move" |
| Released | December 1979 |
| Songwriter(s) | Doug Bennett |
"Too Bad" is a song by the Canadian band Doug and the Slugs that was written by the group's lead vocalist, Doug Bennett.[1] It reached No. 20 on Canada's RPM singles chart on July 26, 1980.[2] The single performed higher on some local charts,[3] including No. 2 on Vancouver's CFUN listing,[4] and No. 1 on Regina's CJME chart.[5] Slugs member John Burton has explained this difference between the national and local charts as being because the national chart was sales-based, while local charts were partly determined by radio requests.[6]
Burton has recalled an early moment of realization for the band of the single's success: One day during the song's chart run, three members were at an ice cream parlour when the song came on the shop's radio. Two teenage girls working at the parlour "went bananas" shouting "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! I LOVE THIS SONG!" and were "almost trampling each other over" to reach the radio and turn up the volume.[7]
The song won the award for the best independent single of 1980 at the West Coast Music Awards,[8] a precursor to the Western Canadian Music Awards,[9] as well as being nominated for Single of the Year and Composer of the Year (Doug Bennett) for the country-wide Juno Awards.[10] It was voted among the best singles in The Province's readers poll for 1980,[11] and the best local single in the Vancouver Sun's readers' poll for the same year;[12] Vancouver Sun critic Fiona McQuarrie likewise named it one of the best local singles of the first half of the year, writing that "Even after hearing it a thousand times on the radio, you still don't hate it—the test of a great song."[13] "Too Bad" was included on The Georgia Straight's 2017 list of the best 50 songs to come out of Vancouver.[14]
The song was released on Doug and the Slugs' 1980 album Cognac and Bologna (1980),[15] as well as their greatest hits albums Ten Big Ones (1984) and Slugcology 101 (1996).[16][17] It also appeared on the multi-artist compilations Hitline (1980, K-Tel Records) and Oh What a Feeling: A Vital Collection of Canadian Music Vol. 2 (2001).[18][19] "Too Bad" was used as the theme song to The Norm Show, which ran from 1999 to 2001.[1]