"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 like REM's "Monster" of 1994 about as much as "Automatic for the people". They both had 3 or 4 songs each that I like, and the rest leave me cold. Apparently "Monster" is the last of their albums I bought (10 years ago!). They went off in some other direction, and so did my tastes.

[Colonel_Flagg]

But since we're talking about hits, how about this one:

Remember "The Safety Dance", by Men Without Talent ... err, Hats?

[rintense]

Monster was also the last one I bought. I saw them that summer in East Lansing, MI and it was the WORST concert I've ever been to. Not only do they suck live, but Stipe got on stage and starting screaming crap about politics- AND brought Patty Smith on stage to sing some anti-war song. The only good thing about the concert was seeing Radiohead- and seeing their lead singer walk past our car in the parking lot. ;)

[Houmatt]

"Float On" by The Floaters was extremely vile.

Especially when you consider the term "floater" is slang for a corpse in a body of water.

[TheBigB]

Hey, I love that song! :^)

We can dance if we want to...we can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance, well they're...no friends of mine

[Colonel_Flagg]

Are you feverish? :)

Personally I think that that song had the most ridiculous video ever made. But if you like that one, how about:

"Puttin' On The Ritz", by Taco?

[TheBigB]

I prefer the Wilder/Boyle version...

"The Sign" by Ace of Base

[Colonel_Flagg]

You're good ..

"Karma Chameleon" - Culture Club

[MattAMiller]

How about "At 17?" God freaking awful. More recently there was "We Were Mearly Freshmen" by Verve Pipe.

[TheBigB]

"Let 'Em In" by Paul McCartney. He actually wrote these lyrics:

Someone's knockin' at the door
Somebody's ringin' the bell
Do me favor, open the door
And let 'em in...

[Khurkris]

"I'm hip now. I never could remember ..."

You're hip and I'm groovy...old joke. I'll stop now.

[oyez]

Is it hep or is it hip?

[Wampus SC]

ANy of these make me throw the radio against the wall:

Muskrat Love - The Capt. and Tenille
Brand New Key - Melanie
Land of the Brave - Bonnie and the ????
DOA - Bloodrock
The Great Airplane Strike of '67 - Paul Revere & Raiders
Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band (embarassed I remembered who did it)
Undercover Angel
Hello It's Me - or most anything by Rundgren
Silver Bird and/or Arizona by Mark Lindsay
Hocus Pocus - Focus (that yodeling song)

And the most aggravating of all time:
How Do You Do - Mouth & McNeil

[expatguy]

Oh my God, Painful memories of trying to unhook my girlfriend's bra while slow dancing to "Muskrat Love" by The Captain & Tennille at my High School Prom.

Im so ashamed. I want to go slit my wrists now.

[Lady Composer]

RE: "Feelings"

Actually, I thought it was pretty good song the first few times I listened to it but after the 1,000th time on the radio OR sung by a bad lounge singer.....Ugh

[NCPAC]

From Doug Fieger and The Knack killing disco to Geoffrey Fieger representing Doctor Death who assisted in the killing of "terminal" patients....mom and dad must be very proud!

I remember when Geoffrey Fieger ran for Governor of Michigan - basically as "Jack Kevorkian's Lawyer." He got crushed.

[NCPAC]

Mouth and McNeal's "How Do You Do" is my girlfriend's and my song! For better or worse, it does kinda sum up our relationship. Perhaps I should be very afraid.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Yeah, and just think people actually shelled out money to buy that on singles......

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

I've also never understood the big attraction to a 2-chord song like "Louie, Louie" but... then again, there is no accounting for taste!

Apparently someone, though, has even devoted a website to this song.

Why "LOUIE LOUIE?"

LOUIE LOUIE represents a feeling, a groove, a state of being that can't always be completely verbalized.

LOUIE LOUIE is a license to use extremely simple tools, and develop a beautiful monster of staggering proportions.

LOUIE LOUIE is road map meant to be lost, found, ripped apart, and pieced back together by musically-minded people that seek a path of 3-part purity and intensely beautiful noise.

Back in 1963, when a band known as the Kingsmen recorded the song "LOUIE LOUIE," they had no idea that people would ever latch onto it, and make it some sort of iconic beacon of great garage rock. They were just five white teenagers out of Oregon, trying to cut a demo, just so they could get other jobs outside of their regular gig at the local teen dance hall. They didn't even like the sound of their recording, and were shocked when their producer asked them for $50 to cover the costs of the recording session!!

LOUIE LOUIE represents freedom at it's purest level.

You don't have to be a millionaire rock star with the latest technology to make great music. Any schmoo with a guitar, a drum kit, a tin can, or simply a voice to sing with, has the power to make real music from the heart. With a passion for what one believes in, one can create great music, images, moving pictures, or writings. With the spirit of that which is LOUIE LOUIE, one can take the simplest of concepts, drive it with intense passion, and transcend stereotypes of bland simplicity.

If the concept behind LOUIE LOUIE could ever be distilled, it would probably be outlawed.

Join us.

Eric Predoehl
producer/ director of THE MEANING OF LOUIE,
webmaster for LOUIELOUIE.NET

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Pardon me ...... make that 3-chord song - 3 chords over and over again ad nauseum.

Links to school bands who play "Louie, Louie"