I'm in the minority of the SAP on this one; I actually like "Billy, Don't Be a Hero." Well, I do have a weakness for teen death songs.
Is "Billy" sap? It does have the overweening emotion and avoidable tragedy -- Billy volunteers for the army (apparently the song is set during the Civil War, but it could just as easily be about Vietnam or any other war) against his fiancee's objections. Naturally, Billy dies.
"Billy" also has the weirdness of a male lead singer crooning "Billy, don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life/Billy, don't be a hero, come back and make me your wife" (he's quoting the fiancee, you see). And that military beat that opens and closes the song adds to that je ne sais quoi that says "sap."
So why am I reluctant to call it sap? Because I like it? Because it has a good beat and you can dance to it? All right, it's sap. Grumble.
-- SAPster Randi
Oh, how the debate raged! "Is it sap?" was the question. It does indeed have a beat you can dance to, an aspect which could disqualify a lesser song. However, the lyrics (almost) remove all doubt that this is nothing other than a classic of the genre. The faux-whistle-over-snare-drum opening riff sets the stage for the tragic tale of a woman who exhorts her cannon fodder boyfriend to be something beside, well, cannon fodder. Alas, her words were in vain; Billy, apparently unable to remember that she wanted him to survive, volunteers for a suicide mission. The closing verse, in which she (allegedly) throws away the notification of Billy's death, almost saves the song from being sap; the girlfriend's anger suggests that she's getting on with her life, rather than spending it in regret for her lost love. Unfortunately, the #1 chart position nudged the song over the precipice into sap, and there it remains to this day.
-- SAPster Half