"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

[dasboot]

I thought "True" by Spandau Ballet was , by a long measure, the worst song ever recorded.

"Bought a ticket to the world,

But now I've come back again.

Why do I find it hard to write the next line?

Oh I want the truth to descend!"

Yccch!

[TheBigB]

See if I ping -you- to any more Anna threads! :^)

BTW, does anybody else like the song "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson?

[Fierce Allegiance]

I also like it. Now we have a club! We all like it!

[South40]

That Harry Nilsson tune got me and a friend in trouble in high school. We hijacked the mike for the PA system and played the chorus line for all the school to hear. The result was a 5 day suspension.

[mabelkitty]

I can't help it, but I think of Ernest Borgnine when I hear that song.

Must be because of that movie he did (can't remember the name now).

[NCPAC]

Yes, most of that MTV stuff was pretty bad. What makes "Put your Hand in the Hand" so hideously bad to me is that the band (Ocean) tried to cloak a certain pro-Jesus piety (which is fine in and of itself) in a ridiculous (and poorly executed) pop melody. It was horrid on all accounts.

"Imagine," as many here have pointed out was pretty bad too as concerns its communist message - but musically it was fine; a very engaging melody.

[dfwgator]

I doubt Travolta's done anything more embarrassing in his entire life.

You obviously didn't see "Battlefield Earth."

[-YYZ-]

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

Yeah, he had a lot of imagination and a unique sound.

I can't remember all of the other songs that were on the "Blinded by Science" EP that I had. I do remember "One of our submarines" got some airplay, and "Windpower," which I at least liked. Very atmospheric music.

[bondjamesbond]

I see your Travolta, and raise you a David Soul...

Don't Give Up On Us, Baby...

[alnitak]

The entire output of Elton John should be added to the list. In fact, ANY song recorded in a studio which Elton John ever used should be added to the list, just out of principle (the vibrations might have gone into the walls and contaminated later artistes).

[KJacob]

Yeah "True" had bad lyrics. But it is a nostalgic song from high school so I have to listen when it comes on.

[TheBigB]

Everybody!

As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most, with a crew and good captain well-seasoned...

[Protagoras]

That Harry Nilsson tune got me and a friend in trouble in high school. We hijacked the mike for the PA system and played the chorus line for all the school to hear. The result was a 5 day suspension.

Oops! "Gee ma, we was just foolin around"

[Betis70]

I think I was in that horrible middle school period of early adolescence, but I thought it was good. I have the LP someplace (unless my parents sold it at a garage sale or something).

[Bobby Chang]

All of these songs, plus songs from today's rap artists and even the thugs, plus Britney, et al, are pathetic to the point the artists will be called to the Oval Office.

[stainlessbanner]

Hey Chippewas, time for a Stainless Cover Band tune- let's play!

WRECK OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD

[mabelkitty]

Phil Collins! He looked like someone's soccer coach fer cryin' out loud.

Peter Gabriel is good. Wonder why he never became an actor...

[Salamander]

You forgot "The Night Chicago Died" and "Billy, Don't Be A Hero"......:))

[Constitution Day]

[bondjamesbond]

GMTA