"Monkey With Arthritis": Top 10 Cattiest Musician Insults

​Think of Tony Bennett and you'll probably picture the kindly older gentleman crooning "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and any number of other pop standards, or perhaps the guy who upstaged Alec Baldwin as "Anthony Benedetto" (his birth name) on a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, turning in a snappy duet with Christina Aguilera on "Steppin' Out (With My Baby)" while he was at it. (We hear he likes things that are great.)

You might not expect Bennett to be the type to make catty comments about other musicians, but that's exactly what he did earlier this week when he told the BBC that he thinks Rod Stewart sings like a girl on the Bod's series of best-selling "Great American Songbook" albums that began with 2002's It Had To Be You. Mr. Benedetto's actual words were "he has kind of a female voice," but tomato, to-mah-to, as the George & Ira Gershwin song goes.

Meow. Bennett's remarks were not received very well by Stewart's fans (surprise), and inspired Rocks Off to hunt around on the Internet for other examples of musicians taking snide verbal shots at one another. It was a tough call, but we decided not to include any hip-hop because, well, that would be like picking out a few of our favorite grains of sand on a beach. But if you'd like to see Nas compare his fans' waiting on his choices for best rappers ever (hint: Not Jay-Z) to waiting on HIV test results, we cannot recommend this Web site highly enough.

​1. "This is middle-of-the-road rock music for plumbers. Or people who drive round in Citroens - the sort of corporate hippies who ruined rock music." - Billy Childish (Thee Headcoats, the Milkshakes) on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Guardian)

2. "I just think she's a vile, hideous human being with no redeeming qualities." - Boy George on Madonna in 2005 autobiography Straight

3. "Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song." - Elvis Costello (prince.org)

4. "No composer makes such shameless use of patriotic feelings to advertise his product." - composer and Leonard Bernstein mentor Virgil Thomson on "American Creed" by Roy Harris (npr.org)