Well the nominations are all in, and we have our Thanksgiving Day worst song ever winner! Hats off to alert reader Gary DiStefano for bringing this song to light. A bubble gum confection you want to scrape off of the sole of your shoe. Imagine if you will, two guys who together wrote three of the most unlistenable songs ever. "Bonnie and Clyde"(1968), "Billy Don't Be a Hero"(1974) and our winner "The Night Chicago Died". A troika of tripe!
Mitch Murray (who appears to have written some good things as well) and Peter Callander are bestowed that honor. They got Paper Lace, the pride of Nottingham, England (They are the best band to ever hail from that town) to record "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and it was a big hit in England. Before they could release it in the U.S., Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods covered it and made it a hit for themselves. The Paper Lace version only hit #96. Bo and the boys were not nominated this year but will surely winn worst song somewhere down the line.
Murray and Callander were not going to get beaten again so they rushed the Paper lace version of "The Night Chicago Died" to U.S. release, peaking at #1 in August 1974. No wonder I was following the blues by then! The other four top five songs were "Feel Like Makin' Love" by Roberta Flack, "(You're) Having My Baby" (already a worst song winner on this blog), "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus, and "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins...wow. CNN pointed out that 1974 may have been the worst year for songs in history.
Paper Lace came to America but other than playing at a few radio stations, they were unable to perform the song live in the U.S. at the height of its popularity because of contractual issues.
Oh, and the name of their lead guitarist was Carlo Santanna...most unfortunate.
This song made quite a few worst songs of the '70s lists and CNN named it to their worst songs list as well. It is cited in TV writer Ken Levine's blog also.
Lyrics? Here you go:
And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died
There was shouting in the street
And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said
"'Bout a hundred cops are dead!"
I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!
The band would try to sign with another label to make more money but it all collapsed in lawsuits. Some of the members press on as Paper Lace today. Glory be!
So enjoy this song and try to get it out of your head as you dig into your stuffing today!
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