VOTED the WORST Song EVER…But This 80s #1 HIT Just Gets BIGGER Every Year! | Professor of Rock

THE WORST SONG OF ALL TIME… it’s a question that’s been asked and answered a million times It’s been voted on. it’s been the subject of intense debate. Well, today’s song has been part of most of the polls out there… We Built This City by Starship. In many of these lists, it’s always #1. yet this song continues to drive our culture decades later…we still can’t resist its charm.” Written by Elton John’s Lyricist Bernie Taupin and up-and-comer Martin Page and given to Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick who kill on it. Most critics hated it because it came from Starship who was once Jefferson Starship who was once Jefferson Airplane and they felt the new band had sold out with a middle-of-the-road pop hit… This history of it is very interesting. The story of a #1 smash from the 80s from both the co-writer and lead singer and why this song still moves the needle is coming up next on Professor of Rock.
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I’ve said it many times, I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. We like what we like. Music is and will always be completely subjective. To me, music is either great, good or just bad. So when magazines like Rolling Stone do their lists like the worst songs of all time I always take it with a grain of salt. Especially for a magazine that’s critics regularly panned some of my favorite artists growing up.
But I digress. Rolling Stone named We Built This City by Starship, the #1 hit from 1985 as one of the worst songs ever. Let’s be clear the worst song of all time is being written pretty much 15 times a week, just turn on Top 40 radio. Don’t try to tell me that We Built This City is anywhere near that. The song isn’t trying to solve all of the world’s problems. It’s just a catchy little ditty with all of the elements of 80s production that if released by any of the other top mainstream bands of that year, would never have finished in any of these worst songs lists.
But because it was released by Starship, who used to be Jefferson Starship, who used to be Jefferson Airplane, the 60s band that not only played Woodstock but were part of the social conscience ness of that time. Many couldn’t fathom the flower children playing so-called corporate pop rock and they were judged much more harshly than other bands of the era for that reason. Truth is, Ioved the song as a kid, I had the album and it reminds me of the last few months t of 1985. I was obsessed with Miami Vice, and trying to see Back to the Future for the 14th time in theaters, and saving all my quarters to play Gantlet at the local pizza place.
Every time I hear it, I”m transported right to those memories. It was written by Elton John's co-writing partner Bernie Taupin and Martin Page who wrote another number one for Heart that year in These Dreams. Martin Page would later chart an AC solo #1 with the House Of Stone in Light in the 90s.