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Perfect Pop Songs

Those with the kind of music, lyrics, performance, arrangement and production that you could easily repeat all day.

How about starting with this one? Somewhat outside of her usual cannon and none the worse for it. Perhaps also a contender for the sexiest vocals ever?

Louie Louie  by Julie London
cd318
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,483 posts
 
pop is short for popular last time I checked.

We all know what popular means, right?
It’s not very complicated.

Popular means a lot of people like it. The most popular are the ones the most people like to listen to the most.

According to popularity ratings for songs in my Plex music library the most popular song there with 15 million + votes is “Smells Like Teen Spirit’” followed closely by Viva La Vida, Wonderwall, Karma Police, and Creep.  Not too shabby!

Disclaimer: no Taylor Swift in my music library though Adele and Lady Gaga make an appearance or two and rank high.
glupson
7,842 posts
 
What happenned to Margaritaville?
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,976 posts
 

ABBA made music considered to be Pop. Their records sold a lot, so were indeed popular. If they DIDN'T sell well, would they therefore not be considered Pop? Of course not. Yes, Pop is short for popular, but the use of the term Pop for a genre of music uses that term in a less-than-literal sense.

The 3 Tenors album sold more copies than most non-Classical albums. Are we to consider well-selling Classical albums Pop music?

mitchagain
464 posts
 
Under the "popular" banner, I'll add:

"The Look of Love" - ABC. A brilliant synthesis of new wave, Motown and Bacharach styled orchestral ballad. The Bowie & Ferry styled crooning is the icing on the cake.

"Walk On By" - DIONNE WARWICK. Speaking of Burt Bacharach.....

 
mitchagain
464 posts
 
Under the "Pop" genre, I'll add:

I'll Be the One - Badfinger
You Got Me Anyway - Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
Idiot - Robin Lane & The Chartbusters
Tiger Nights - The Bongos
Torn in Two - Shoes
That is Why - Jellyfish

Just because a song doesn't become popular, many of the songs people have mentioned in this thread should've been popular. In the case of the Beach Boys, listed below are the highest chart positions of some of their best songs:

God Only Knows - # 39
Don't Worry Baby - # 24
In My Room - # 23
Surfer Girl - # 7

If you want to know about the taste of an average American popular music fan, I'll rest my case on those numbers cited above.


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