"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

[ashtanga]

"Signs" by the Five Man Electrical Band. Quintessential Sixties drivel.

[Snowy]

You keep believing that - we all know Sting does.

Ok, Mabel, I'm calling you out. Name your top 3 favorite bands! :)

[TheBigB]

"Gloria" is one of my five favorite songs of all time. :^) Along with "Thunder Island" by Jay Ferguson, "December, 1963" by the Four Seasons, "Blinded by the Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. :^)

[BlazingArizona]

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

Like "In the Year 2525", this fits more into the category of 'pretty decent sings that got WAY overplayed.'

[AgentEcho]

I actually have an 80s compilation CD with Mickey as track 1 and Mickey in Spanish as the last.

Mickey - Bad
Mickey in Spanish - Hilarious

[Sunshine Sister]

My pick for the worst is Sherry by the 4 Seasons. I hate that song!

[Petronski]

Also, the "Sloop John B," any version: absolute excrement.

[mabelkitty]

What was the name of that song they made into a movie about a guy who has gay sex and kills himself? It starred Robbie Benson.

[TheBigB]

Emerson Lake & Palmer

Not to be confused with Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

"Lucky man" was good, though...

[dfwgator]

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.

You do know who wrote "Fire"? (The Pointer Sisters one). It was none other than Bruce Springsteen.

[Petronski]

"Betty Davis Eyes?" Ach! That's one song I wish had been done as an a capella instrumental.

[mabelkitty]

I kindda missed that era.

Was it on his second album or is it on his TBA boxed set?

; )

[hattend]

I know you didn't ask, but mine are:

The Who
Heart
Brooks and Dunn

heheheh

[Petronski]

What was the name of that song they made into a movie about a guy who has gay sex and kills himself?

Is fortunecookie an expert on gay sex suicide films? ;O)

[TheBigB]

Ode to Billy Joe

[SamAdams76]

The song you are referring to about the miners who resorted to cannibalism is "Timothy" by The Buoys. This was a fairly midsize hit back in the summer of 1972. I believe it made it to #17 on the Billboard pop charts.

The song was actually written by Rupert Holmes, who would have fame on his own nearly 10 years later with the number one hit "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" and a follow-up Top 10 smash "Him" which was followed up by the Top 40 hit "Answering Machine." After that brief run of hits, Rupert Holmes faded away for good.

As for The Buoys, they followed up "Timothy" with the single "Liza's Last Ride" which barely cracked the Top 50. Then it was over for them as well.

[Bobby Chang]

Donna Summer's husband Bruce Sudano co-wrote two great #1 songs of the late 1990's:

"That's the Way It's Meant to Be"

"A Different Road" (Donna has covered that song recently.)

But as for singers with quality?

Now that's a singer.

[dfwgator]

Genesis is one of the four most pretentious rock bands of all time.

If you think that it's pretentious, you'll be taken for a ride.

[mabelkitty]

Stop right there, you.

"Take Off", that Rush anthem written SPECIFICALLY, for the greatest entertainment duo to ever come out of Canada, The MacKenzie Brothers, in their debut performance in "Strange Brew".

Oversight and apology accepted. Canada doesn't have much to offer, so we have to give credit where credit is due.

[expatguy]

Eddie Murphy's "Boogie in your butt"

Go ahead and Google the lyrics.