"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

[South40]

That's basically what I said.

It didn't work.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Fine - you be that way! LOL!

(btw, thanks for getting my cube mates suspicious of me. I freep, they scope porn & I am the one getting the odd looks!)

[glock rocks]

The very worst version of this horrible song was played on the first episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. Before the station converted from [whatever] to rock, Johnny Fever played "You're Having My Baby" ... by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

LMAO... and as a lifelong Salt Lake valley resident, I can relate to the gravity of this!

sheesh, I'm still laughing (my eyes are watering).

[-YYZ-]

Well, I don't know if I'd say that song was good music per se, but it was fun and had lot's of interesting sounds and hooks in it. You may not have noticed, but the early 80's were not exactly a great time for music.

[hattend]

200+ posts and nobody has mentioned "Snoopy and the Red Baron"

[mabelkitty]

Yes!
I'm not sure what he was going for, but if he just held out, Grease would have spared him! It was just around the corner!

[SB00]

I heard "McArthur Park" was an attempt to see if a really dumb song could be made into a hit with a good tune and a star performing the song.

They succeeded I guess.

[MagnumRancid]

<> Ha Ha! About 1970 Paul Kantner, Mr. Grace Slick, did something of a solo project called "Jefferson Starship - Blows against the Empire". It is something of a concept album. Things evolved from there. Out of the 45 min. or so of music, there may be 35-37 seconds worth listening to.

[GSWarrior]

Elton could rock when he put his mind to it. I still occasionally listen to Rock of The Westies.

[TheBigB]

"One Night In Bangkok" by Murray Head

Somebody here has a secret camera trained on my 45 collection...

Not many know, but Murray Head is the brother of Anthony Stewart Head, best known as Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ASH does a very good version of the song in his personal appearances.

[mabelkitty]

And he also dated gorgeous models.
Gotta give props to a nerd who can date Angela Cartright.

[reagan_fanatic]

How 'bout 'Baby, Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me' by Mac Davis.

BARF!!

[mabelkitty]

His evil alliance with the Disney Corporation convinced me we are indeed facing the end-times.

[-YYZ-]

Thanks for the tip, maybe I'll check them out. Does one of those albums have "Rock Lobster" on it?

[TheBigB]

Rock on, dudette!!! ;) I like the new guy, Steve Augeri, okay. But he ain't no Steve Perry!

[cyborg]

hehehe... yes it was.

[MotleyGirl70]

Or how about "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"?

GEORGE: Hey.

JERRY: Hey. How's the new place?!

GEORGE: Gone. (Moves over to a chair in the living room. Kramer takes the carton of food to the table, and begins eating) The tenant association made me give it to this guy because he was an Andrea Doria survivor..

ELAINE: Andrea Doria? Isn't that the one they did the song about?

JERRY: (Correcting her) Edmund Fitzgerald.

ELIANE: I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice.

JERRY: (Gives Elaine a look) No, Gordon Lightfoot was the singer. Edmund Fitzgerald was the ship.

GEORGE: (Talking about his would-be apartment) You could fit 15 people in that bathroom..

ELAINE: I think Gordon Lightfoot was the boat.

JERRY: (Sarcastic) Yeah, and it was rammed by the Cat Stevens.

KRAMER: (Like a teacher) The Andrea Doria collided with the Stockholm in dense fog 21 miles off the coast of Nantucket. (Makes a clicking sound with his tongue)

[Sam the Sham]

How can anyone forget that creepy child molester song "Claire" by Gilbert O'Sullivan ?

And "Fire" was by the Pointer Sisters unless you mean the Ohio Players song. Two different songs. The Pointer Sisters song, I think, was covered by a country artist as well.

Who can forget "Honey" by Bobby Vinton ? Hard as you try.

Or any of those soppy Bread songs in the early 70's ?

"I found her diary underneath a tree"
"And started reading about me"

[rintense]

Funny story about that line, 'Tin Roof Rusted'. Cindy Wilson actually yelled it out during a recording session. Fred Schneider replied to her, 'You're what?'. They liked it so much, they kept it in the song.

The only B's stuff I knew of before college was 'Legal Tender' and 'Song for a Future Generation'. Never even heard 'Rock Lobster' until I was a junior in college. I felt so deprived!

[kidd]

Worst: "Rock Lobster" by the B52s. Here's a sample:

We were at the beach
Everybody had matching towels
Somebody went under a dock
And there they saw a rock
It wasn't a rock
It was a rock lobster