We Built This City

Last updated

"We Built This City"
WeBuiltThisCity.jpg
Single by Starship
from the album Knee Deep in the Hoopla
B-side "Private Room" (Instrumental)
ReleasedAugust 26, 1985 [1]
Recorded1984−1985
Genre
Length4:53 (album version)
4:49 (single version)
Label Grunt, RCA
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Starship singles chronology
"We Built This City"
(1985)
"Sara"
(1985)
Audio sample
"We Built This City"

Certifications

Certifications for "We Built This City"
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada) [45] Gold50,000^
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [46] Gold45,000
United Kingdom (BPI) [47] Platinum600,000
United States (RIAA) [48] Gold500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.
Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Covers and samples

LadBaby version

"We Built This City"
LadBaby We Built This City.jpg
Single by LadBaby
ReleasedDecember 14, 2018 (2018-12-14)
Recorded2018
Genre Comedy rock
Length4:20
Label Frtyfve
Songwriter(s)
  • Mark Hoyle
  • Bernie Taupin
  • Martin Page
  • Dennis Lambert
  • Peter Wolf
LadBaby singles chronology
"We Built This City"
(2018)
"I Love Sausage Rolls"
(2019)
Music video
"We Built This City" on YouTube

In December 2018, British blogger LadBaby released a comedy version of the song with a sausage roll theme (the refrain being "We Built This City on Sausage Rolls") as a charity single whose profits went to The Trussell Trust. It debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart, beating Ava Max's "Sweet but Psycho" and Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" to the 2018 Christmas number one. [49]

Weekly chart performance for "We Built This City" by LadBaby
Chart (2018)Peak
position
Australia Digital Track Chart (ARIA) [50] 31
Scotland (OCC) [51] 1
UK Singles (OCC) [52] 1
US Hot Rock Songs ( Billboard ) [53] 47

Other versions

American indie rock band Cursive covered the song in 2010 for the first season of The A.V. Club 's A.V. Undercover web series. [54]

Portions of the song – with altered lyrics such as "we quilt this city on a comfy roll" – were used in 2024 advertisements for Quilted Northern toilet paper. [55]

See also

References

  1. "FMQB" (PDF). p. 30.
  2. Breihan, Tom (November 9, 2020). "The Number Ones: Starship's "We Built This City". Stereogum . Retrieved August 6, 2023. ...they turned "We Built This City" into a big, blaring synth-rock song with an ultra-bouncy beat...
  3. "We Built This City On Rock and Roll". Oddculture.com. Archived from the original on May 7, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Tannenbaum, Rob (August 21, 2016). "An Oral History of "We Built This City," the Worst Song of All Time". GQ. Archived from the original on October 5, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Greene, Andy (September 26, 2013). "Bernie Taupin on Elton John's New LP: 'It's Kudos All Around'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 23, 2024. Anyway, there's an interesting anecdote about that song. I wrote it with Martin Page. The original song was a very dark kind of mid-tempo song, and it didn't have all this "We built this city!" It had none of that. It was a very dark song about how club life in L.A. was being killed off and live acts had no place to go. It was a very specific thing. A guy called Peter Wolf – not J. Geils Peter Wolf, but a big-time pop guy and German record producer – got ahold of the demo and totally changed it. He jerry-rigged it into the pop hit it was. If you heard the original demo, you wouldn't even recognize the song.
  6. 1 2 Wiser, Carl (March 21, 2014). "Martin Page". Songfacts. Retrieved September 23, 2024. The demo was quite high-energy techno, because that was the sound of the band I was in. It was just very fortunate that I enjoyed writing to Bernie's lyrics straightaway. It was a magical experience ... I saw the words as almost like a rebellion lyric: it was like live music has been taken away from the city. So my demo, it was a little more edgy. And I'm very pleased with what Starship did with it, because they made it a universally appealing song.
  7. "We Built This S**tty : The worst song of all time? Les Garland begs to differ" (PDF). Reelradio.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  8. "'We Built This City': 30 years ago, the day the music (almost) died". wtop.com. July 31, 2015. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  9. "Reviews". Billboard. August 31, 1985. p. 83. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  10. "Single Releases" (PDF). Cash Box. September 7, 1985. p. 9. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  11. De Atley, Richard (January 10, 1985). "Dire Straits, Tina Turner, Sting lead performer nominations". The Times-News. Associated Press. p. 23.
  12. "Half Man Half Biscuit : Achtung Bono". Spikemagazine.
  13. 1 2 "Run for Your Life! It's the 50 Worst Songs Ever!". Blender. May 2004. Archived from the original on January 24, 2005.
  14. 1 2 "We built this city on detestable lyrics". The Sydney Morning Herald . April 27, 2004. Archived from the original on May 4, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  15. "10 Really, Really Bad Songs". CBS News. April 20, 2004. Archived from the original on October 12, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  16. Recker, Rachael (May 2, 2010). "It's not Jefferson, but it is 'Starship starring Mickey Thomas' at 2010 Tulip Time". The Grand Rapids Press. Archived from the original on October 13, 2012. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  17. "1. Starship – 'We Built This City' Photo – Readers' Poll: The 10 Worst Songs of the 1980s". Rolling Stone. October 6, 2011. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  18. Ruggieri, Melissa (April 29, 2004). "Are you kidding me? Many tunes are obviously inferior to Blender's 50 Worst Songs of All Time". Richmond Times-Dispatch . Archived from the original on May 14, 2004. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  19. 1 2 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN   0-646-11917-6.
  20. "Starship – We Built This City" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
  21. "Starship – We Built This City" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  22. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 0608." RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  23. "European Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Eurotipsheet . Vol. 3, no. 1. January 6, 1986. p. 14. OCLC   29800226 via World Radio History.
  24. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – We Built This City". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  25. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Starship" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
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  27. "Starship – We Built This City". Top 40 Singles.
  28. "Las canciones más populares en Latinoamérica". La Opinión (Los Angeles) (in Spanish). April 20, 1986. p. 20. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  29. "SA Charts 1965–1989 (As presented on Springbok Radio/Radio Orion) – Acts S". The South African Rock Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
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  31. "Starship – We Built This City". Swiss Singles Chart.
  32. "Starship: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  33. "Starship Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  34. "Starship Chart History (Mainstream Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  35. "Starship Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  36. "Starship Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  37. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles – Week ending November 23, 1985". Cash Box . Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  38. "Offiziellecharts.de – Starship – We Built This City" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  39. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  40. "RPM's Top 100 Singles of 1985". RPM. Vol. 43, no. 16. December 28, 1985. p. 11. ISSN   0315-5994 via Library and Archives Canada.
  41. "Top Pop Singles of 1985". Billboard. December 31, 1985. Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  42. "The Cash Box Year-End Charts: 1985 – Top 100 Pop Singles". Cash Box. December 28, 1985. Archived from the original on October 1, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
  43. "National Top 100 Singles for 1986". Kent Music Report . No. 650. December 1986. Retrieved January 24, 2023 via Imgur.
  44. "Top 20 Hit Singles of 1986". South African Rock Lists. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  45. "Canadian single certifications – Starship – We Built This City". Music Canada . Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  46. "Danish single certifications – Starship – We Built This City". IFPI Danmark . Retrieved March 2, 2022.
  47. "British single certifications – Starship – We Built This City". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  48. "American single certifications – Starship – We Built This City". Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  49. Alibhai, Zaina (December 18, 2018). "Who is LadBaby – the dad behind We Built This City poised to beat Ariana Grande in Christmas number one race?". Metro.
  50. "ARIA Australian Top 40 Digital Tracks" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. December 24, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  51. "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  52. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  53. "Top Rock Songs Chart: December 29, 2018". Billboard. Retrieved December 25, 2018.
  54. "Cursive covers Starship's "We Built This City"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  55. "Quilted Northern Parodies 'We Built this City' in New Campaign". www.designrush.com. Retrieved April 23, 2025.