In spring of 1973, as a teen, I heard the original Alice Cooper band’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy” for the first time. By then, I’d loved the group for years. I screamed along with “I’m Eighteen” and “Under My Wheels” and celebrated each summer’s beginning by blasting “School’s Out.” When I took up the guitar that winter, Killer’s “Desperado” was one of the first songs I learned. But I thought “Nice Guy” sounded too commercial and instead preferred other cuts off Billion Dollar Babies, like “Elected” and “Hello Hooray.”
It took me only about five or ten years to warm up to the sparkly “Nice Guy” intro. The tune boasts a perfect rock ’n’ roll riff, clever lyrics, a catchy verse, and a melodic yet hard-driving chorus that kicks in without haste. I can’t name many radio-friendly songs that have stood the test of time as well as this glowing ember of the incendiary ’70s.
In 1981, on a cool fall evening, I headed west on the Santa Monica Freeway toward an orange sunset. Stuck in traffic, I dialed in the mighty KMET-FM for the debut of the new Rod Stewart single, “Young Turks.” I fixated on the patterned drums and synthesizer and thought, “Yech.” Yet over the years, I came to love the romance, sense of adventure, and freedom in the arrangement. I’d even go so far as to say I think it’s one of Rod’s best musical stories.
Which brings us to 2026 and the first Rolling Stones single from their new album, set for release in July, Foreign Tongues. It’s a bluesy blur entitled “Rough and Twisted.” I considered it a big disappointment and figured the band did too since they rolled it out under the pseudonym “The Cockroaches.” But it got to me after I heard it enough times. It doesn’t aspire to be a hit—the reason for the alter ego band name?—and can’t compare with the infectious “In the Stars,” the second single. But “Twisted” accomplished its goal of serving as a meaty appetizer for the new album because it sounds like it was fired up in the backwoods and barbecues on the swamps of the Mississippi.
There are other tunes that I initially disliked too. Here’s today’s question: What song took time to grow on you?