"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

[reagan_fanatic]

"I'm a little bit country, I'm a little bit rock and roll"

I'm a little bit nauseous...

[SavageRepublican]

"The Bird", followed by "Oak Tree", by Morris Day (?) and The Time. (I guess the dance floor was getting too hard to move around in with everyone stickin' their arms out doing the Bird, so they switched to the Oak Tree, because putting your hands straight up takes up less room!)

"State of Shock" (embarrassing duo between Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger)

"De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" by the Police (most of their other stuff wasn't bad, IMO, but this one was dumb).

"Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters, I think.

anything by Yoko Ono (scrreeeeech!)

[-YYZ-]

"Kate Pierson was awesome on "Out of Time" for R.E.M. "Shiny, Happy People" was fun but not great. However, her work on "Me In Honey" at the end of the album was terrific. Too bad I hate the B-52s so much..."

Yeah, I was re-listening to that album several times this summer while on tour on my bike (MP3 CD player and Koss "The Plug" earphone earplugs). I'd forgotten the contribution her vocals made to that album. The lyrics in "Shiny" were pretty inane, but the vocals were good. I also really liked "Me In Honey".

REM's albums are so uneven. In my opinion most of their best work was done more than 10 years ago or so.

[Auntbee]

"Lovin' You," Minnie Riperton. Says it all. And after you hear the high note, you won't hear anything for a week.



You win. Worse song EVER. Now I'm gonna hear that in my head for the rest of the day!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[-YYZ-]

Pretentious? No doubt, but they did produce some very enjoyable music, too. Of all the YES songs, I like "Yours in no disgrace" the best, I think.

[dfwgator]

"State of Shock" (embarrassing duo between Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger)

Like I said, Keef should have whacked Mick on the side his head with his guitar for that one.

[Darnright]

>Domo arigato, Al Gore Roboto

Dang bang it, I just wasted perfectly good Dr Pepper! How the heck do I get it off this flat screen monitor, anyway?

(and posted by a person with the screen name, "Cyborg" - ROTFLMAO!!!)

Good one Cyborg, you get my vote for post of the day.

[Sam the Sham]

"Dr Hook & The Medicine Show, "Sylvia's Mother." Or most anything by Dr. Hook & Co. (gag!),"

Oyez, "Rolling Stone" atones for many sins.

We're real rock singers, we've got golden fingers
and we're loved everywhere we go...
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
for $10,000 a show...

We take all kinds of pills to give us all kinds of thrils
but the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that it gits you when you git your picture
on the cover of the Rolling Stone

chorus...
Rolling Stone
Wanna see my picture on the cover
Wanna buy five copies for my mother
Wanna see my smiling face on the cover of the rolling stone..

I've got a freaky old lady name of Cocaine Sady
who embroiders on my jeans
I've got my poor old grey haired Daddy
driving my limousines
Well its all decided to blow our minds but our minds won't realy be blown
Like the blow that it gits you when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone

chorus

We got a lot of little teenage blue eyed groupies
who do anything we say
We got a genuine Indian guru
he's teaching us a better way
Well it's all decided to blow our minds
But our minds won't really be blown
Till the blow that it gits when you git your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone

[AgentEcho]

The End of The World As We Know It is a personal favorite. My wife likes it too as it's one of very few songs I won't try to sing in the car.

[-YYZ-]

"And the winner is: "If you like pina coladas, getting caught in the rain ... ""

OK, that one would definitely get a vote from me ;)

[Future Snake Eater]

Kinda like the church piano player in the Simpsons playing Iron Buttery's "Ina Godda Da Vida" (sp).

"In the Garden of Eden, honey..."

Definitely one of the best gags in the series.

[dfwgator]

"Long Distance Runaround" followed by Chris Squire's all-bass "The Fish" on Fragile, cool stuff.

[cyborg]

LOL!! I came across that little ditty while looking for the Mr.Roboto lyrics. I'm going to send it to Rush Limbaugh.

[Sam the Sham]

Other annoying songs from that same period that had child molester potential was "Candy Man" by Sammy Davis Jr. and "Playground In My Mind" by Rupert Holmes.

But a "Candy Man" is a drug dealer. That is what the expression means.

[Cagey]

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

Hard as I try, I still think it was Bobby Goldsboro who sang "Honey". Although, Bobby Vinton can get on my nerves too. Just think...."Roses are Red".

[MotleyGirl70]

I was Google searching for Toni Basil and saw these CD's:

The Best of Toni Basil: Mickey and Other Love Songs

The Very Best of Toni Basil

Huh? "The Best of..." and "The Very Best of..."

LOL!

[Sam the Sham]

Yes. You are right. Bobby Goldsboro sang "Honey".

Sorry.

[SamAdams76]

"De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" by the Police (most of their other stuff wasn't bad, IMO, but this one was dumb).

Bear in mind that Sting was the real song-writing talent behind The Police. However, the other band members insisted on contributing songs to each album. I believe this demand so grated on Sting (who was understandably embarrassed by some of those songs) that it eventually broke up the band.

Nevertheless, "De Do Do Da..." ended up being a pretty big hit for The Police. Might even have been written by Sting too, for that matter. But surely there was a lot of junk on those Police albums that just didn't belong there.

[Auntbee]

You're right. It was Bobby Goldsboro. Sad that I know that.

[fortunecookie]

ohhhh, I kind of like Bread ... and Three Dog Night!

;-)