"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

[bondjamesbond]

Ditto "Imagine". All time most appalling song ever.

The local brain-dead FM lite-rock station in NY put Imagine into heavy rotation on 9/11. I am proud to say that I am one of about a million people who jammed their switchboard to have them pull that piece of tripe. They actually apologized on the air...

[Snowy]

Genesis

Ouch! Do you mean Peter Gabriel Genesis, or Phil Collins Genesis?

[South40]

lol!

[Fresh Wind]

Oops, sorry, it's just that the word "worst" and Surfin' Bird should never be found in the same sentence!

[idkfa]

"Put The Lime In The Coconut" by Harry Nilsson

[-YYZ-]

As always with stuff like this, it's a matter of opinion. Obviously a lot of people liked these songs at some point, or they would never have made the top 40.

Starship's "We built this city" is annoying after a number of listenings, but also catchy.

I really can't agree with R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" being on this list. The vocals, including the backing vocals by whatshername from the B52's (Kate _____?) are fantastic.

How they can list some of these songs that may not appeal to every taste with others that are truly execrable, like "Party all the time" or "Achey Breaky Heart", I don't know.

[BurbankKarl]

oh, no. reading those lyrics got me busted at work....

[KillBill]

Shatner's recording of "Mr. Tamborine Man" was FAR worse than "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was just Shatner also.

[Fierce Allegiance]

They even spell collectibles wrong on the album cover!

[mabelkitty]

AAAHHHHHHAHAHAH!!!

I forgot about that one!!!!

What about Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal singing on Solid Gold - They sang (hang on) ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DREAM by The Everly Brothers.

Tragedies such as this tend to stick in my memory. Kinda like a car wreck.

[TimmyO]

I've seen this several times-it has got to be the funniest (worst?) thing I've seen for a while. I bet JT has tried to buy these tapes and failed. Who could blame him?

[South40]

This could turn out to be a very long thread.

[Revolting cat!]

Then, there was Joni Mitchell's (Rolling Stone mag's Old Lady of the Year in the early 70s when she did the entire CSN&Y plus the drummer and a couple of other backup pickers) song Both Sides Now sung by Judy Collins.

[cyborg]

I'll write a letter of explanation to the boss :)

[Snowy]

Shatner's recording of "Mr. Tamborine Man" was FAR worse than "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which was just Shatner also.

I always wanted to know if Shatner and Nimoy took themselves seriously when they recorded their music. They knew they were both jokes, right?

[Betis70]

C'mon, even Al Gore knows:

Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
Ehhhh, MACARENA

[TheBigB]

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"...now THAT'S the worst ever!

What if I tell you I like that one? {dons flame suit}

[bluejean]

Nah. "Tears of a Clown" (GAG) and that hit by one-hit blunder Neil Sadaka which I blocked out of my mind (fortunately)...

[South40]

I forgot about that one!!!!

Are you referring to Let her In?

If so, have you seen the video of JT on American Bandstand?

It was an all time low for that show for sure.

[dfwgator]

Damn Phil's first wife leaving him, he suddenly got the urge the write songs after that. Genesis was so much better when it was Tony, Mike and Steve writing the songs. Even after Gabriel left, Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering were great, then Steve Hackett left and that was that. But nothing ever topped "The Lamb"