Daily Dirt: Worst song of the 1980s? ‘We Built This City’ or ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’?

Daily Dirt for Friday, Feb. 14, 2025

I actually don’t mind the Starship song, but that Bobby McFerrin entry still makes my skin crawl … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,202 of The Daily Dirt.

1. We often pay tribute to the best songs of a particular year or era, or from a specific artist or group.

Not today.

This time around, we’re showcasing the worst songs from a decade, in this case the 1980s. The following top 10 (or bottom 10, depending on your point of view) is compliments of Rolling Stone magazine.

I’m also including my own worst songs list of the 1980s:

Rolling Stone’s Worst Songs of the 1980s

• 1. “We Built This City,” by Starship. An interesting note about this much-despised song: Bernie Taupin, the former lyricist for Elton John, was one of the co-writers.
• 2. “The Final Countdown,” by Europe.
• 3. “Lady In Red,” by Chris de Burgh.
• 4. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” by Wham!
• 5. “The Safety Dance,” by Men Without Hats.
• 6. “Rock Me Amadeus,” by Falco.
• 7. “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” by Bobby McFerrin.
• 8. “Mickey,” by Toni Basil.
• 9. “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” by Taco.
• 10. “Never Gonna Give You Up,” by Rick Astley.

My Personal Rankings 

• 1. “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” by Bobby McFerrin. I cannot tell you how much I hate this song. From day one, I hated this song. Even McFerrin admitted years after its release that he hated it, too. Whoever bought this record should be ashamed.
• 2. Anything by New Kids on the Block.
• 3. “Kokomo,” by the Beach Boys.
• 3. “Rock Me Amadeus,” by Falco.
• 4. “Him,” by Rupert Holmes.
• 5. “That’s What Friends Are For,” by Dionne (Warwick) and Friends.
• 6. “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay,” by Michael Bolton.
• 7. “Two Less Lonely People In The World,” by Air Supply.
• 8. “Say You Say Me” by Lionel Richie.
• 9. “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” by Taco.
• 10. “The Girl Is Mine,” by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney.

2. Did you know (Part 276):

• If the Eagles had lost the Super Bowl, the team’s all-time record would have been 666 wins, 666 losses.
• A man named Christopher Thomas Knight ran out of gas in rural Maine in 1986 and then spent the next 27 years living isolated in the woods.
• At this time of the year in 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomed its first class of inductees: Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis. 
• The Undertaker’s former manager in pro wrestling, Paul E. Bearer, was an actual mortician in real life. His real name is William Moody. 
• This week marks the anniversary of the deaths of two of the famed Von Erich brothers, David and Kerry. David was 25 when he died of enteritis (inflammation of the small intestine) in 1984. Kerry was 33 when committed suicide in 1993. The Von Erichs’ real last name was Adkisson.

3. No changes this week in Great Plate Debate IV. My gut feeling, however, is things are about to get interesting after a bit of a lull seeking the most creative license plates in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri. Both XQQQME and XCUSEUS are quality finds, but how long can they hold those top two medal positions? Will the coming week be when they are knocked off those pedestals?

The current leaders:

• Gold medal: XQQQME
• Silver medal: XCUSEUS 
• Bronze medal: SOLD

This week’s best of the rest:

• MIDAS
• 1 TORQ
• DOU-IT
• SHEGON 7
• 1 ND AD
• 7 AIR SP
• LASTOY 1
• MEME 10

Steve Thought O’ The Day

Got something for baseball fans reading this today to think about. Do you think Shoehei Ohtani can win both the MVP and Cy Young awards in the same season? I firmly believe he can, but we’ll likely have to wait for 2026 to see if that can materialize because he probably won’t be ready to return to the mound this year until sometime in May. 

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. The rest of the Muddy River News staff puts its vote for worst song of the 1980s on “Rock Me Amadeus.”