'We Built This City' ranks as the worst record ever

USA TODAY ^ | Mon, Apr 19, 2004 | Edna Gundersen,

[presidio9]

We Built This City is the single worst single ever constructed, according to Blender's ranking of reeking tunes.

• Kevin Spacey sorry for mugging confusion • Vince Neil sued by former prostitute • Hurdle cleared for James Brown annulment • Frat brothers avoid jail in MTV-taped killing of koi • Worst song... Ever

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search USATODAY.com

Snapshots

USA TODAY Snapshot Do teenagers want to follow in their parents footsteps? More USA TODAY Snapshots

The magazine's list of "The 50 Worst Songs Ever," which hits newsstands Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles and April 27 nationwide, distills the lamest popular rock-era records into one sonic landfill.

Starship's 1985 anthem, the runaway No. 1 stinker, "seems to inspire the most virulent feelings of outrage," editor Craig Marks says. "It purports to be anti-commercial but reeks of '80s corporate-rock commercialism. It's a real reflection of what practically killed rock music in the '80s."

Excerpt

[j.havenfarm]

How any discussion of this topic could omit "MacArhtur Park" eludes me completely.

[RightWhale]

No doubt about it, postmodernism is over.

[TheBigB]

Good grief. You simply can't rank songs as "best" or "worst." Everything about them is subjective. I loved We Built This City, and I enjoyed most of the music of the 80s, my formative years. My CD collection has everything from the Rolling Stones to Creedence Clearwater Revival to Britney Spears to Poison to Neil Diamond to Barry Manilow to Clay Aiken to etc. etc. If you like it, listen to it.

[presidio9]

I loved We Built This City, and I enjoyed most of the music of the 80s, my formative years.

You might want to lower your voice when you say that.

[blackdog]

Thanks for the no harm done post topic.

If "Jerremiah Was a Bullfrog" evades the list I will be disappointed.

[AmishDude]

That's what I was thinking. Dave Barry proved that M. Park is the worst song. Ever.

I think if one were to create a worst song (think Monty Python) one could not create a worse song than MacArthur Park.

Then, if one could choose the worst possible person to sing it, one could not do better (worse?) than Richard Harris.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

It's a rotten song IMHO, but "Seasons in the Sun" is soooo much more lousy it should be #1!

[Maceman]

Sorry -- I think "Yummy, Yummie, Yummie I've Got Love in My Tummie" by the Archies has to be the number one stinkeroo of all time in all dimensions in all universes.

[AmishDude]

You simply can't rank songs as "best" or "worst."

Yes you can. MacArthur Park is the worst song. Ever. Since caveman days.

[Always Right]

There have been worse songs, but I guess they mean the worst hit songs. I never cared much for "We Built this City...., but it is lyrically deep compared to such classics as "Kung Fu Fighting".

[lugsoul]

I dunno. I tend to put the entire Richard Marx catalog at the top of the list. But "We Built This City" is particularly notable because it was generated by the remaining dregs of a once-great band.

[presidio9]

I hereby nominate any pretentious song that lasts over 10 minutes, and sounds deep, but it really about nothing. Candidates include Bohemian Rhapsody, Suite Judy Blue Eyes, and Hey Jude.

Stairway gets a special exemption.

[blackdog]

Richard Harris singing anything could be just as deadly as the "Killer Joke" which enabled the British to defeat the Germans.

[TheBigB]

Why? My musical preferences aren't created with anyone else's approval in mind. I like it, so I listen to it. :) Furthermore...

I think 90% of Beatles songs suck
I think 100% of Eminem's songs suck
The Strokes suck
The White Stripes suck
The Who were overrated
Warren Zevon was WAAAAY overrrated
Bob Dylan sounded like a bullfrog with adenoids
And other assorted goring of musical oxen.

[macamadamia]

"Seasons in the Sun" I want to punch the guy who sings that! It just might be the WIMPIEST song EVER!

There should be a WIMPY award. I nominate "Seasons in the Sun."

[TheBigB]

That was Ohio Express. :) You probably mixed it up with the Archie's "Sugar, Sugar" which I have on tape.

[TheBigB]

That was Ohio Express. :) You probably mixed it up with the Archie's "Sugar, Sugar" which I have on tape.

[blackdog]

Did you know that "Inagodidovida" was an entirely different song?

It seems that the doper lead vocalist for Iron Butterfly could not orrate "In the Garden of Eden", when he sang it. The best his drug/booze impared brain could squeeze out was a phonetic facscimile, which gave us the version now known.........All 22 minutes of it my kids tune in to laugh at every saturday night at 9:00pm.

[presidio9]

We Built This City
Starship
Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Say you don't know me, or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

Someone's always playing corporation games
Who cares they're always changing corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

It's just another Sunday, in a tired old street
police have got the chokehold, and we just lost the beat!

Who counts the money underneath the bar
Who rides the wreaking ball into our guitars
Don't tell us you need us, 'cos we're just simple fools
Looking for America, coming through your schools

(I'm looking out over that Golden Gate bridge
on another gorgeous sunny Saturday and I'm seeing bumper to bumper traffic.)

Don't you remember (remember)

(Here's your favorite radio station, in your favorite radio city
The city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps)

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

Chorus:
We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

(We built, we built this city) built this city (we built, we built this city) (repeats out)