"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

[wardaddy]

John was pretty scrappy growing up, it's astonishing he forgot so quickly

Lennon was world class at projecting his yearning for long lost mum on the rest of the world....that neurosis really defined him.

[Constitution Day]

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"...now THAT'S the worst ever!

Tied for 2nd on my list are "Horse with No Name" by America and "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart.

[AmishDude]

Oh Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Colonel_Flagg]

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

[MoralSense]

Windmills of Your Mind

[tomder55]

let's not forget rhymin Steve Miller . He managed to rhyme in:'Go on take the money and Run' ;Texas,"facts is",justice ,and taxes.

Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'm casting my vote for "Billy, Don't Be A Hero".

[stainlessbanner]

You should hear Robbie Robertson's "TNTDODD" -it's good, sad, but good.

[Pietro]

I could name a dozen, but how could they leave out "Lucille" by Kenny Rodgers or anything by Tony Orlando and Dawn..

[dfwgator]

The cannibalism tune was "Timmy".

[MoralSense]

Or the entire Days of Future Past album by the Moody Blues. My very first show biz gig was in a Village coffeehouse, playing bass for the third bill folksinger. The top of the bill was Monty Rock III, who performed the entire Days album. Note for note.

[jaime1959]

What? "Afternoon Delight" didn't nake the list?

[dakine]

""Anything by Journey...."

....would be the BEST ever..... "

Skeets.

[wardaddy]

You don't like the original version by the Band of "Drove ol Dixie Down".

I'm friends with Gary Puckett's booking agent here....those old 60s crooners still book small clubs and corporate gigs for as long as they want to work...amazing.

I confess to liking all of the Union Gap's old singles....and worse....Paul Revere and the Raiders, Grass Roots, Dave Clarke Five....and on and on

shameful isn't it?

"there's a little gold ring she wears on her hand to make me understand".....reminds me of a 6th grade infatuation with an older gal....she was a 7th grader..lol

[Colonel_Flagg]

Sorry. I guess I don't have much of a sense of humor.

[mabelkitty]

Worst music was anything written by sell-out acts that took over MTV - see The Police (Synchronicity), Phil Collins (No Jacket Required), Huey Lewis & The News (Sports), Genesis (??).

[cyborg]

Wow!

[dts32041]

I would second that, but would include anything by the mobbed four.

Those boys never could figure out which way they wanted to go.

[wardaddy]

yes but look how much lower MTV has sunk....amazing.

the MTV 80s look a lot better from that perspective.

[Rummyfan]

I'll also have to give a close second to Joan Baez' "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." That one just makes me cringe, especially when she sings about "a couple of light-years ago". You're mixing "Dixie" up with "Diamonds and Rust," her song about Dylan.

Really like The Band's version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down....