Falco - "Rock Me Amadeus". A most ignoble effort.

I nominate Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life". I don't care what Patti Smith thinks about it...a truly wretched song.




Morris Albert's "Feelings" is a close second.

Oh, can we do runners-up?

Boney M - Rasputin
Chris De Burgh - The Lady in Red
Europe - The Final Countdown

"Ignoble"? Hmm...

ig·no·ble [ig nṓb’l]
adj
1. dishonorable: dishonorable, ungenerous, and contrary to the high standards of conduct expected of somebody
2. not of the nobility: not belonging to the nobility (formal)


[15th century. Directly or via French from Latin ignobilis , literally “not noble,” from (g)nobilis “noble” (see noble).]

The English translation of the verses are:

1. "He was a Punker
And he lived in the big city
It was Vienna, was Vienna
Where he did everything
He had debts, for he drank
But all the women loved him
And each one shouted:
Come on and rock me Amadeus".

2. "He was Superstar
He was popular
He was so exalted
Because he had flair
He was a virtuose
Was a rock idol
And everyone shouted:
Come on and rock me Amadeus".

3. "It was around 1780
And it was in Vienna
No plastic money anymore
The banks against him
From which his debts came
It was common knowledge
He was a women's man
Women loved his punk".

Personally, I don't mind the song at all. Ignoble? Perhaps. But the song at least has a fairly decent hook.

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You.

Just f***ing brutal.

My Random House dictionary defines "ignoble" as "of low character, aims, etc.". You can't really say that the song's aims are high. Falco was capitalizing on Mozart's genius and fame and the success of the movie. Saying Mozart was just a "rocker" (womaniser) by nature doesn't really honor his achievements. Personally, I prefer rock to classical, but if you must send up classical music and classical purists, I think Chuck Berry does it much better with "Roll Over Beethoven". Chuck Berry is not equating rock with classical, he's just saying, here's a new sound which will have the old composers turning in their graves. In that respect, he's just as much sending up his own sound as he's poking fun at the classical purists.

Afternoon Delight.

I nominate these candidates (songs are also on the "Worst Lyrics" thread....)

The Hanky Panky (Tommy James & the Shondells)
Short Shorts (The Royal Teens)
Rapids (T.Rex)
The Crunge (Led Zeppelin)

Anyone remember..."Rappin' Duke"?

Da haa, da haaaa....da haa haa haa haa haaaaaaaa

There are songs with lyrics that bug the hell out of me like AMERICA's "Horse With No Name".



It loses me with "the heat was hot" line.

But there are a few songs that always have me diving for the radio button.

"Mister Roboto" by STYX
"Abracadabra" by STEVE MILLER BAND
"Electric Avenue" by EDDIE GRANT

If I die in a car accident that is my fault it will be because of one of these songs.

"Let me rock ya 'Retha Franklin, that's all I wanna do..."

Wouldja believe I've got a CD right here on my desk at work with that song on it?

Dave Barry had a column about the "worst song ever" many years ago and "MacArthur Park" was #1 on his list. It seems to be the kind of song which you either love or hate. Personally, I think the song itself and the original version are both great (although I'm not a huge fan of Richard Harris's voice.) I've heard Glen Campbell sing it (with a similar orchestral arrangement) and enjoyed that immensely. The Four Tops did a nice recording of parts of it. My favorite version of all was done by Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) on some TV special 20 years ago.

"My Humps" by The Black-Eyed Peas

F%^&in' GREAT tune.



Another badass tune. Love it.

Dumb words, good tune. My family lived between Pittsburgh and Detroit that summer, and those were the breakout cities. I got sick of hearing it every 15 minutes. It was really popular with the little girls who would play it at recess and dance (yucky cooties!). I preferred "Wild Thing"!

Disco Duck - Rick Dees

or

Strokin' - Clarence Carter

I don't want to waste too much keyboard time defending Falco, for crying out loud, but I just remember that song emerging at a time when popular music took itself extremely seriously--the music video was still considered to be an art form, the Police had teenagers studying up on Carl Jung, nobody had seen Madonna's tits yet, and Bob Geldolf actually managed to convince people for about ten minutes that rock stars actually cared. At the time "Rock Me Amadeus" first emerged in the US, however, what was subversively wonderful about it was the fact that most people (including me) were unable to figure out what the message of the song was supposed to be. As such, it could be considered throwaway pop, but as with all throwaway pop, new people keep discovering it over the years, and, in the case of "Rock Me Amadeus", these people probably find themselves wondering what in the hell they are listening to.

If Falco was aiming for a much loftier goal, he failed (in non-German-speaking countries, anyway). Yes, it's a stupid song. But to me it still stands out as one of the more tolerable examples of mid-80's pop music.

Don't Worry Be zhappy.

Unskinny Bop - Poison
We Didn't Start The Fire & Uptown Girl - Billy Joel
Say You Say Me - Lionel Ritchie ("Last Night I had a dream, I had an awsome dream") What great lyrics
Loverboy - Hot Girls in Love

AMW,

Were there two different versions released of "Rock Me Amadeus", one in German and one in English? I only remember it as having been released in English, but I could be wrong here. I don't think Falco was aiming for a lofty goal, it was strictly to cash in on the movie's success. Which is fair enough, money is the motivation behind a lot of great music, but I also think that as a novelty song, "Rock Me Amadeus" fails as a composition, it grates a bit. You're right about music taking itself too seriously in the mid-eighties, I don't listen to that period very much.

Wikipedia says "Rock Me Amadeus" was recorded in German. Falco must have done something right, for it made number one in the US and the UK!