"We Built This City" voted as the worst single ever

News.Com.AU | April 21, 2004 | Patrick O'Neil

[yankeedame]

Dotty ditties with cringe factor

By Patrick O'Neil
April 21, 2004

LOVE or hate them you can't get these stinkers out of your head.

Blender magazine Blender Magazine has rated We Built This City as the worst single ever constructed in its list "The 50 Worst Songs Ever".

The magazine said the Starship song earned the accolade because it inspired "the most virulent feelings of outrage".

To make the list, each pungent ditty had to be a hit.

Entry was based on unintentionally poor songwriting.

Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's maudlin duet Ebony and Ivory also featured, as did R.E.M's Shiny, Happy People and John Mayer's Your Body is a Wonderland.

But the inclusion most likely to spark calls of blasphemy is the listing of the Simon and Garfunkel ballad The Sounds of Silence.

"It's the poetry meaningfulness that got our goat," said Blender editor Craig Marks. "With self-important lyrics like, 'Hear my words that I might teach you', it's almost a parody of pretentious '60s folk rock."

Few outside the boot-scooting fraternity would contest the listing of the Billy Ray Cyrus atrocity Achy Breaky Heart at No. 2.

Fallen star Vanilla Ice made it in with perennial dance-floor filler Ice Ice Baby, as did good-times theme song Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.

Eddie Murphy's ill-advised foray into music, with the 1985 tragedy Party All the Time, was evidence actors other than J-Lo should not sing. It ranked No. 8.

Herald Sun

[yankeedame]

Weird Al Yankovic - Achy Breaky Heart Song

You can torture me with Donnie and Marie
You can play some Barry Mantiloe
Or you can play some shlock like New Kids on the Block
Or any Villiage People song you know
Or play Vanilla Ice, hey you can play him twice
and you can play the BeeGees anyday
But Mr. DJ please, I'm begging on my knees
I just can't take no more of Billie Ray

(1st chorus)

Don't play that song. That Achy Breaky song
The most anoying song I know
and if you play that song, that Achy Breaky song
I might blow up my radio. Hooooo

(2nd verse)

You can clear the room by playing Debbie Boone
Or crank your Abba records until dawn
Oh, I could even hear Slim Whitman or Zamfair
Don't mind a Yoko Ono marathon
Or play some Tiffany on 8 track or CD
Or scratch your fingernails across the board
Or tie me to a chair, and kick me down the stairs
Just please don't play that stupid song no more

(2nd chorus)

Don't play that song. That Achy Breaky song
You know I hate that song a bunch
And if you play that song, that Achy Breaky song
It might just make me lose my lunch. Hoooooo

3rd chorus

Don't play that song. That Achy Breaky song
I think it's driving me insane
Oh, please don't play that song, that irritating song
I'd rather have a pitchfork through my brain.

(repeat 1st Chorus)

[KJacob]

Number one should be "Imagine" by John Lennon.

[South40]

I don't know; I think "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy deserves the title.

[prion]

Number one should be "Imagine" by John Lennon.

I absolutely second the notion. I jumped on to post just that. (Though for visceral hatred, his Christmas song possible irritates me even more).

"Ebony and Ivory" earned its slot, though.

[TheBigB]

150+ comments here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1120485/posts

[glock rocks]

how about
MacArthur Park
Yummy Yummy Yummy
You're Having My Baby

[HungarianGypsy]

What about "Ice, Ice baby". Of course, "Kung Fu Fighting" has always been up on the worst list for me.

[bassmaner]

What, no mention of 'Macarthur Park'?

Someone left a cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again

Probably the dumbest lyric ever!

[wardaddy]

The list is endless.

Sorry about Starship, I confess to being an old Airplane fan. Surrealistic Pillow was pretty different back then.

[Cincinatus]

In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans.

[cyborg]

This is my favorite:

Mr. Roboto
Written by Dennis DeYoung
Lead Vocals by Dennis DeYoung

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Mata ah-oo hima de
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Himitsu wo shiri tai

You're wondering who I am-machine or mannequin
With parts made in Japan, I am the modren man

I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin
My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.
So if you see me acting strangely, don't be surprised
I'm just a man who needed someone, and somewhere to hide
To keep me alive-just keep me alive
Somewhere to hide to keep me alive

I'm not a robot without emotions-I'm not what you see
I've come to help you with your problems, so we can be free
I'm not a hero, I'm not a saviour, forget what you know
I'm just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control
Beyond my control-we all need control
I need control-we all need control

I am the modren man, who hides behind a mask
So no one else can see my true identity

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For doing the jobs that nobody wants to
And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For helping me escape just when I needed to
Thank you-thank you, thank you
I want to thank you, please, thank you

The problem's plain to see: too much technology
Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize.

The time has come at last
To throw away this mask
So everyone can see
My true identity...
I'm Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy!

[Old Sarge]

Canteen DeeJay's PING

Let us know what y'all think.

My vote would be "American Pie". Can't stand it...

[wardaddy]

audible ping!

[Mr. Mojo]

"Rock And Roll Hootchie Koo" (by Rick Derringer) has got to be up there near the top.

[Mr. Mojo]

lol......what timing!

[NCPAC]

"We Built this City" as the worst hit-single ever? Granted, it's terrible - but the worst? For my $ the worst hit-single ever was "Put Your Hand in the Hand.." by Ocean. (Summer of '71, I think.)

The Best hit-single (top 40) song ever is "Baby Talks Dirty," by The Knack. What a piece of smarta$$ed, risque ear candy that tune is!

[wardaddy]

ah man, I loved that song...lol "in the year 2525 if hardly a man is still alive" or something like that (1969?)

[wardaddy]

for fun!

[Siegfried]

I personally think that "Mandy" by Barry Marshmallow is the worst of all time (although several of his other hits are right up there).

I'll also have to give a close second to Joan Baez' "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." That one just makes me cringe, especially when she sings about "a couple of light-years ago".

[Badeye]

"I don't know; I think "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy deserves the title."

Yep. And "Daddy don't walk so fast", anything by Donna Fargo....or Yoko Ono.