U2 make 'worst-ever pop lyric' list

The competition was fierce, but a song by Nineties star Des’ree has been voted the worst ever pop lyric.

“I don’t want to see a ghost/It’s the sight that I fear most/I’d rather have a piece of toast/Watch the evening news,” she sings on Life.

It was the runaway winner in a listener poll for BBC6 Music’s Marc Riley show.

U2 also made the top 10 with this lyric from 'Elevation':

"I’ve got no self control/Been living like a mole now/Going down, excavation/High and high in the sky/You make me feel like I can flySo high/Elevation."

Second was the astonishingly awful lyric from Snap’s Rhythm Is A Dancer: “I’m as serious as cancer/When I say rhythm is a dancer.”

Current chart darlings Razorlight were third.

On their 2005 hit Somewhere Else, Johnny Borrell sings: “And I met a girl/She asked me my name/I told her what it was.”

Riley counted down the top 10 on his radio show tonight. Listeners had voted for the past three weeks.

Other entries included Champagne Supernova by Oasis: “Slowly walking down the hall/Faster than a canonball/Where were you when we were getting high?”

Duran Duran and Black Sabbath also earned a mention.

“Bad lyrics can come in all forms – some acceptable, some less so,” Riley said.

“For instance, in the right hands, defiantly dumb lyrics such as Manfred Mann’s Do wah Diddy Diddy can be more than acceptable as part of the pop idiom. In fact, we embrace them – let’s not forget it was a number one smash.

“But imagine the same words streaming from the crown prince of gloom, Leonard Cohen, accompanied only by a forlorn expression and a battered banjo. It would, quite rightly, be mocked and held up for much ridicule.

“In short, dumb is sometimes ok, whereas pious and pretentious and pompous are obviously never to be encouraged nor tolerated.”

Top 10 Worst Pop Lyrics:

1 Des’ree: 'Life':

I don’t want to see a ghost

It’s the sight that I fear most

I’d rather have a piece of toast

Watch the evening news

2 Snap: 'Rhythm Is a Dancer'

I’m as serious as cancer

When I say rhythm is a dancer

3 Razorlight: 'Somewhere Else'

And I met a girl

She asked me my name

I told her what it was

4 ABC: 'That Was then but this Is Now'

More sacrifices than an Aztec priest

Standing here straining at that leash

All fall down

Can’t complain, mustn’t grumble

Help yourself to another piece of apple crumble

5 U2: 'Elevation'

I’ve got no self control

Been living like a mole now

Going down, excavation

High and high in the sky

You make me feel like I can fly

So high

Elevation

6 Toto: 'Africa'

The wild dogs cry out in the night

As they grow restless longing for some solitary company

I know that I must do what’s right

Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

7 Oasis: 'Champagne Supernova'

Slowly walking down the hall

Faster than a cannonball

Where were you when we were getting high?

8 Duran Duran: 'Is There Something I Should Know?'

And fiery demons all dance when you walk through that door

Don’t say you’re easy on me you’re about as easy as a nuclear war

9 Himan League: 'The Lebanon'

Before he leaves the camp he stops

He scans the world outside

And where there used to be some shops

Is where the snipers sometimes hide

10 Black Sabbath: 'War Pigs'

Generals gathered in their masses

Just like witches at black masses