Agree With This? Worst Song of All Time

netscape.com

The worst song of all time, the one that no one can stand to hear for even a few seconds is the 1968 megahit "Honey," by Bobby Goldsboro. (It was No. 1 for five agonizing weeks in the spring of that year.) You know, it's the nauseating tearjerker about the wife dying and the tree she planted before her untimely demise. "See the tree, how big it's grown / But friend, it hasn't been too long, it wasn't big..." At least, that's what CNN music critic Todd Leopold thinks is the worst song ever.

In the interest of fairness--and because, as he says, it's foolish to single out "Honey" when there are so many other awful songs--Leopold conducted an informal poll among his colleagues at CNN. There were two rules:

1. The song had to have been a hit, the kind you hear on the radio so often you can't change the station fast enough.
2. It can't have been a song that wore out its welcome through repetition. A really bad song is one you hate from the beginning.

These are the songs CNN employees nominated as the worst song ever:
--Starship's "We Built This City," a No. 1 hit from 1985, which was also named Blender magazine's worst song ever.
--The Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight"
--Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart"
--Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings"
--Don Johnson's "Heartbeat"
--C.W. McCall's "Convoy"
--Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy"
--Rick Dees' "Disco Duck"
--Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps"
--Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park"

Leopold wasn't swayed. He says, "I'll stick with 'Honey.' Or, at least, it'll stick with me...like decomposing, stepped-in garbage on a hot day."