Starship ~ We Built This City (1985)

Yes its horribly cheesy and horribly 80s, but i still love it =)

"We Built This City" is a song written by Bernie Taupin, Martin Page, Dennis Lambert, and Peter Wolf, and originally recorded by the group Starship and released as its debut single on November 10, 1985. The lyrics were written by Bernie Taupin, best known for his longtime collaboration with Elton John. The song features Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick on lead vocals, and the single version reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on November 16, 1985, and also number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number twelve in the United Kingdom. The song was engineered by Grammy-winning producer Bill Bottrell and arranged by Bottrell and Jasun Martz.
According to Slick, the song was written about early-1970s Los Angeles. The radio station in a late interlude references "The City By the Bay", "The City That Rocks" and "The City That Never Sleeps", meaning San Francisco, Cleveland and New York City, respectively.

MTV executive and former D.J. Les Garland provided the D.J. voice-over during the song's bridge.[2]
The song was also released without the traffic report and D.J. interaction during the song's bridge (the B-side of the promotional 45-rpm record). Local stations were encouraged to make local versions. New York City, for example, included a traffic report describing conditions on the George Washington Bridge.
Janice Cruz, later from the Brooklyn-based indie rock trio Dark Room NYC, appears in the first verse of the video.

In April 2004, the song was awarded "the #1 Worst Song Ever" by Blender magazine,[1] in conjunction with a VH1 Special of The 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs...Ever. In order to qualify for the distinction, the songs on the list had to be a popular hit at some point, thus disqualifying many songs that would by general consensus be considered much worse. Blender editor Craig Marks said of the song, "It purports to be anti-commercial but reeks of '80s corporate-rock commercialism. It's a real reflection of what practically killed rock music in the '80s."[3]
Blender magazine contributor Russ Heller later set a record for listening to "We Built This City" continuously for 24 hours. He was encased in a Plexiglas booth — without earplugs — beginning Friday, October 13, 2006 at 8:00 a.m. at a Best Buy store in New York City.[4]
Paul Kantner who had left the group just prior to the single being recorded called the song "garbage" at the time it was released.
During a January 30, 2008, interview with DC101's Elliot in the Morning, Grace Slick called this song "one of the stupidest songs ever written". [info courtesy: wikipedia.org]

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Starship
• We
• Built
• This
• City
• (1985)

[mystikiel79]

"police have got us in a chokehold" - damn straight. Its a good job we had 80s synth pop acts like this to protect us from the Man. Fight the power.

[0nannette]

GREAT SONG

GREAT CLOTHES

GREAT HAIR

[TheREALforeverone]

What is Blender Mag? What does a magazine about blenders know about music? Stick with blending food.

[Heartboy1031]

I'm so tired of people bashing this song! It was a #1 hit and very catchy, still is to this day. The band should be thankful for it's sucess.

[eydie57]

i love it too. who cares what anyone thinks?

[marktheclip27]

This is my worst song ever, its terrible!

[dobbins2550]

I truely love the 80s. I was there.

[nigelguliver22]

I always wonder what caused such a dramatic change in fahion and music styles in the 80´s. Eighties rock anyway!

[RoryNights]

The fabulous 80's ! Great old tune !

[Noromongrel]

What the heck does Blender know? I LIKE this song!

[kittyocleo]

this song is epic-ly great :D