Awesome Pop Songs, Part Five

[Gravity Jim]

Okay, maybe it's four or six, but we've done a few of these.

Paul Young's "Everytime You Go Away," is awesome. Just a perfectly freakin' incredible pop record, with a production that you can hardly believe. I'm listening to it right now, and it completely kills.

"And We Danced" by The Hooters. Jebus! That tiny Melodica and mandolin intro, and then this huge, skull-splitting full-band whoosh-roar-snarl... damn! Yeah, baby!

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers. Obviously, no explanation required.

Please name a killer song that's in your head today.

[hudpucker]

"There She Goes" - The La's
"Whenever You're On My Mind" - Marshall Crenshaw
"Buddy Holly" - Weezer


iPod shuffle does it to me everytime.

[NeoFauve]

"Life On Other Planets" - Bill Malonee is one I'm hitting repeat on a lot lately.

I faintly recall seeing Hall & Oates do "Everytime You Go Away" on stage w/Billy Joel on B3, maybe Live Aid or Farm Aid?
Didn't DH write that? Great tune. He really had quite a roll in the 80's.

Speaking of him, I really dig "I Can't Go For That." Great use of mechanized groove, skeletal soul. Those early digital sounds that later got so sickening.

[Fripperton]

Wild Weekend ...... NRBQ

[Gravity Jim]

Yep, Daryl Hall DID write "Everytime You Go Away." Really sounds like him, too, but that Paul Young version is so far off the hook.

My fave H&O hit is "You Make My Dreams." Like Mr. White sez, "I don't want any of this lover's lament crap. I want something peppy, something happy, something up-tempo. I want something snappy."

Man, that Bill M. track sounds like he's channeling George Harrison. I'll have to hear some of that.

NRBQ rules. Also, nice choice on the Weezer hit. Ooo-wee-ooo.

[moonpie]

Don't Worry....Be Happy

[NeoFauve]

I remember there being this great, sorta gooey smooth bass sound on the Paul Young version.
That live version took it in a more retro soul direction.
That'd be something to dig up on Youtube.


Right now I'm listening to Joe Jackson, the A&M Millenium Collection.
Three quick pick off this would be
"Is She Really Going Out With Him"
"It's Different For Girls"
"Breaking Us In Two"
Great stuff.

[Gravity Jim]

"The Ballad of Robin Winter-Smith" by RIchard Dobson. The only version I know is by Nanci Griffith on "Once In A Very Blue Moon," (another awesome song and record), and the guitar playing is so sweet and chunky, it knocks you out.

That Nik Kershaw isn't on iTunes! I'll have to track it down.

[JTV]

Timbuk3 "Future's so bright (gotta ware shades)"

No Parlez by Paul Young is a great album. Steve Bolton the guitarist on the record also played with The Who in '89 when Pete Townsend had tinnitus and earlier in Atomic Rooster. The Bassist, Pino Palladino, has played with just about everyone including The Who at Live8!

[NTBluesGuitar]

Toad the Wet Sprocket - the FEAR album...it's all good.
Duran Duran - RIO (whole album is good, too)
The Police - Ms. Gradenko

[cooltone]

"Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane has been swimming in my brain for a week. What a hook that guitar riff is.

I took my little girl to see "Cars" in the theater, and the Rascal Flatts (eeww) cover of this song is surprisingly good..sounded huge in the theater.

[tdurik]

Coldplay - Clocks
10,000 Maniacs - These are the days
R.E.M. - Orange Crush

[Mesotech]

Jesus is just alright - Doobie Bros. - Been hearing that song in my head all day. Love the killer guitar sound. Anyone know what gear they used back then?

[clayville]

I've been on a Paul Weller kick this week, so "You're the Best Thing".

And a Bill Withers kick (Use Me, Ain't No Sunshine)

And a Billy Bragg kick (The Saturday Boy, St. Swithin's Day)

And a Cake kick (Satan is My Motor, Guitar)

neo: Different for Girls just kills

[Offshore Angler]

Ahhhh, The Kinks - Tired of Waiting For You.


Badfinger No Matter What

and lest we forget


I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick.

[Gris]

"Hello, It's Me..." - T. Rundgren

Uh oh, wait a minute, yup, "Black Maria" is now stuck in there, arrrgh!

[Bluestar]

"Pop" is obviously a broadly interpreted term based on the previous posts - it makes me think of a song like Sausalito Summer Night by Diesel - catchy, nothing serious, and something you might find yourself taping your foot to while goofing around on a nice day.

[Don]

"Black Coffee In Bed" by The Squeeze

[hudpucker]

Some more:


'I've Been Waiting' - Matthew Sweet
'Sunshine' - Jonathan Edwards
'No Myth' - Michael Penn
'Cruel To Be Kind' - Nick Lowe

[Gtrplyr]

Dang Hudpucker- you already picked 3 songs that would have been on my list!

Well here's a couple more I came up with though they weren't chart toppers.

Stay in Time- Off Broadway
Someone Who's Cool - The Odds
She will have her way - Neil Finn
That's the way a woman is - The Messengers

AND

I hear you knockin - Dave Edmunds

[Offshore Angler]

Yep Fezz, whenever I hear "How Deep Is Your Love" I'm amazed that it never made that jump to being an american classic. That song is perfect in every way.

[tommyj66]

Hungry like the wolf-Duran Duran
The crys in the backing always seem to catch my ear..
Sunday bloody sunday is another that always sticks with me also
by U2...

[tommyj66]

Oh and how could I forget RICH GIRL by
Hall and Oats......

[Kap'n]

Sunday bloody sunday is another that always sticks with me also



by U2...

Glad you cleared that one up. I was thinking about Yoko on the chorus.

[Fripperton]

Along Comes Mary...The Association.

What a great sound. I got to hear them do it live a few years ago and it was spineshivering.

[boobtube21]

"Alex Chilton"--Replacements. I'm surprised this one wasn't/isn't stilll a hit.

and "Life like Weeds" by Modest Mouse. That feedback note he holds and bends is just awesome. The Moon and Antarctica is a killer album. Buy it.

EDIT: The M.M. song isn't actually a pop song at all, I just mention it 'cause it was in my head. Buy the album anyway.

[Gris]

Any pop song when sung by Aaron Neville... :-)

[Kap'n]

"Alex Chilton"--Replacements. I'm surprised this one wasn't/isn't stilll a hit.

Wasn't it? I remember it on the radio. Great tune!

[Mr Fuzzy]

Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson

[tommyj66]

What about,,,
Mr Bojangles...

[clayville]

Listen to Her Heart: TP & the Heartbreakers

[Kap'n]

Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson

Love that tune, especially the ska version...English Beat, maybe?

[Gravity Jim]

"Nights On Broadway!" Leave it to you, fezz, to pull out a killer like that.

Oh, man, I'm getting reminded of so many in my collection I haven't heard in so long. "Listen to her Heart," "Along Comes Mary" (have you heard the Manhattan Transfer version? Awesome!), "Black Coffee In Bed" (and "Pulling Mussels From A Shell" is SO fine)... man, I love it all.

[tommyj66]

One of my favorites is,
Blowing in the wind-Bob Dylan..
I remember as a child listen to my father play it on a old
Kay flattop,he also liked a song named Hard Rain..
My father came home in 70 from viet nam.I was 4 years old.
He always played a flattop and he would play blowing in the wind,
he came home in a wheelchair in dearborn mich,I still remember it
even though I was only 4 years old then,He was my first inspiration
to play guitar,he passed in 1999 and I dearly miss him...

[NeoFauve]

David Mead's albums Luxury of Time and Mine And Yours are full of great popcraft.

The title track off Mine And Your is insanely catchy and the guitar break is a great nod to Rundgren's "I Saw The Light."

Another Bee Gees nugget- "Run To Me"
Mathew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs do it on Under The Covers Vol I.
Man, oh man.

"Tears Of a Clown" is a masterpiece.

[Hookerman]

"Mendocino" - Sir Douglas Quintet
"Long Cool Woman" - the Hollies
"Blue Sky" - Allman Brothers
"Whammer Jammer" - J Geils Band (Obscure but a harmonica song I don't hate)

[Mikey]

How about
"That Thing You Do"?, The Oneders
and "More, More More", Andrea True Connection

"Spirit In The Sky", Norman Greenbaum

"Werewolfs of London"

[Ayns]

Some absolutely Cracking songs here.

We cover "No Matter What" and have been thinking about "IWYTWM" ("Surrender"'s another great Cheap Trick song)

The Todd and Squeeze tracks are inspired choices, but what about "I Saw the Light" and "Up the Junction"?

Howzabout "Don't Dream it's Over" by Crowded House or "Mary's Prayer" by Danny Wilson or "Do Anything You Wanna Do" by Eddie and the Hot Rods or "Little Does She Know" by the Kursaal Flyers or "My Sharona" ?aaaaaaarghhh.

[Ayns]

or, of course ANYTHING by The Beatles

[Kap'n]

Some absolutely Cracking songs here.

We cover "No Matter What" and have been thinking about "IWYTWM" ("Surrender"'s another great Cheap Trick song)

The Todd and Squeeze tracks are inspired choices, but what about "I Saw the Light" and "Up the Junction"?

Howzabout "Don't Dream it's Over" by Crowded House or "Mary's Prayer" by Danny Wilson or "Do Anything You Wanna Do" by Eddie and the Hot Rods or "Little Does She Know" by the Kursaal Flyers or "My Sharona" ?aaaaaaarghhh.

WE do NMW, IWYTWM, and PMFTS, and have done DDIO.

I'd like to do Another Nail for My Heart. Those harmony bass runs are cool, as is the solo.