"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

[-YYZ-]

I'd have to disagree with you on "Blinded by Science" by Thomas Dolby (not his real name, btw). I was in highschool when it came out, and it was cool - one of the early uses of synthesizers and sequencers, but also with talented live musicians. And the video for it was great fun.

"Good heavens Ms. Yamamoto, you're beautiful!"

[TheBigB]

Journey rocks!

[mabelkitty]

I like that song!
Can something be so bad that it's good again?

[Salamander]

Here's a weird image for ya;

When I was a teen, my gramma got a player piano.
[the type that takes the perforated "rolls" of paper and that you have to pedal-pump with your feet]
It came complete with a large, rather eclectic mix of songs.

You haven't experienced "surrealism" until you've watched an [oblivious] 75 year old granny furiously pedaling away while "2525" is being pounded out by an ancient upright piano.

To this day, I can't hear that song without the visualizing that scene.

[Betis70]

That was a good album too. I liked it anyways.

[Constitution Day]

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

That just means you're a flippin' weirdo like stainlessbanner. ;^)

[Protagoras]

"Put The Lime In The Coconut" by Harry Nilsson

Another classic from the same album;
"You're breakin my heart, your tearin it apart, so f--k you"

[South40]

You've seen lt! Than you know what I'm talking about. I doubt Travolta's done anything more embarrassing in his entire life. It was hilarious.

[kb2614]

YEP!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the most puke inducing song ever!!!!

[GSWarrior]

I nominate "Don't You (Forget About Me)" as one of the worst songs of all time. Jim Kerr's wailing was hard on the ears. Overplayed to death, it also turned a respectable band (Simple Minds) into a bombastic shell of itself.

[Digger]

Off of the top these come to mind: (excluding hip-hop, rap)
Sunshine of my life -Stevie Wonder
Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms
Imagine - John Lennon
Everything by Cris Cross
Everything by Peter, Paul & Mary

[7thson]

REO Speedwagon had an album that came out in 72, I think, called R.E.O. T.W.O. They did a cover of Chuck Berry's Little Queenie that I thought rocked. Anyway, I liked it.

[BibChr]

My sympathies. (c;

I used to like "Your Song," "Saturday Night," and a few other early ones... until "Sir" (?!) Elton felt it necessary to inflict on us all the knowledge of the moral monstrosities he's chosen to embrace.

But I never would have liked those other songs!

Dan

[rintense]

"You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by BS and Neil Diamond.

[axel f]

I saw it when VH1 used to play American Bandstand reruns. It was definitely cringe-making.

[mabelkitty]

I don't get it. Oh well.
The love-in with Jefferson Airplane ended with Grace Slick's baby's daddy sued for name rights and won.

They had to change their mediocre 80s vehicle into the Starship.

I think Don Henley's "All she wants to do is dance" stinks. Phil Collins did a puppet video where he used anti-American propoganda and Reagan bashing. He's such scum.

[Snowy]

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"

I heard a different story. Phil was on tour (he was still married to his first wife), and met another woman. HE THEN FAXED HIS WIFE THE DIVORCE PAPERS. So, now he's on wife #2. They're together for serveral years. They even have a daughter together. Then, it happens again. I just heard an interview with him and he said, "I met (latest bimbo) and knew I couldn't live without her. I left my wife and daughter and never went back".

Duke and beyond just stink. I put The Lamb at #2, and Selling England as #1. :)

[alnitak]

Kate Pierson. One of my favourite female vocalists, I love "Roam" and "Love Shack".

[dfwgator]

I'm not ashamed to say it, I thought that whole Thomas Dolby album was greatness. It was the soundtrack to my Freshman year at college.

[headsonpikes]

Filed under quirky facts:

The 'G' in Kenny G stands for Gorelick, according to Trend's review.