Perfect Pop Songs

Great one @cd318! I have "Johnny Angel" on a 7" 45 (one of my first), and again fall in love with Shelley every time I hear it.

From roughly the same time---and also performed on the TV show he was appearing in at the time of it’s release---is "Young World" by Ricky Nelson. This perfect Pop song also contains a perfect guitar solo by the great James Burton, the obvious model for George Harrison’s solo in "Nowhere Man". Compare the two.

Also from the early-60’s are the amazing run of hits from Roy Orbison, including his biggest, "Oh, Pretty Woman". Best use of an Orbison song in a movie: the scene in Blue Velvet in which Frank (played to creepy perfection by Dean Stockwell) lipsynchs to "In Dreams". VERY disturbing.

The Everly Brothers also had an incredible string of perfect Pop song hits, most written by the husband-and-wife team of Felice & Boudleaux Bryant. "Bye Bye Love", "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have To Do Is Dream", "When Will I Be Loved" (already mentioned above), "Let It Be Me" (done by Dylan for his Self Portrait album), "Cathy's Clown", and "Love Hurts" (recorded by Gram Parson and Emmylou Harris for Gram's Grievous Angel. Good, but the Brothers' version is great). 

@dredison 

Great suggestions.

All except the Del Amitri were new to me.

Nice standout lyric in the XTC track -

"But he made too many enemies

Of the people who would keep us on our knees."

The Rheostatics was probably my favourite upon first listen.

That's the thing about classic pop, it's immediate.

@bdp24 

Yes, another timeless classic from that period. I'd never heard it before but you can instantly tell that everything that matters is there.

Eleanor Rigby, the Beatles.

Amazing arrangement featuring a double string quartet. Great pacing. Poignant lyrics. 

since we're doing sub-genres, here are my goth-pop picks:

inbetween days - the cure

dear prudence - siouxsie and the banshees

butterfly on a wheel - the mission UK

the choke - skinny puppy

80s - killing joke

lagartija nick - bauhaus

@shtinkydog 

"since we're doing sub-genres, here are my goth-pop picks:

inbetween days - the cure"

That's the great thing about Pop, it's a genre all by itself that doesn't care about sub-genres.

I remember hearing Love Cats earlier today in the car on Union Jack.

Anyway, surely everyone would agree that this is a great pop song?

https://youtu.be/scif2vfg1ug