Perfect Pop Songs

There She Goes - The La's
All I Want - Toad The Wet Sprocket

Man, some great Pop listed just above! I’ve been a "song pusher" my entire adult life. That’s the thing about Pop music: It’s all about the song. I have a nice little 7" 45 RPM collection, about 800 singles. I had a lot of 45’s before getting my first album, as did all my contemporaries. This was before the album format for "teenage" music was commonplace.

My first albums were those by The Ventures and the instrumental Surf Bands (I had all by The Astronauts, out of Denver Colorado), Chuck Berry (his greatest hits album on Chess Records), early Paul Revere & The Raiders and The Beach Boys. As everyone knows, the British Invasion changed everything. The album became THE format, the single just a tool to sell an album.

Along with the change to the album format, what sold the records of Rock Bands was not necessarily their songs, but the "sound" the Band/Group made. That is of course too broad a generalization to be literally true, but it was the direction Rock music took as the decade progressed. Eventually, having a Pop "sound" was considered uncool. Okay, Herman’s Hermits weren’t cool, but their recording of "I’m Into Something Good" (written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin) is GREAT! (produced by Mickie Most, who believe it or not also did Jeff Beck’s first album, Truth). So is "Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat". Great, that is, if you like Pop.

Marshall Crenshaw obviously knows a good song when he hears (or writes) one, and his recording of "I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)"---written by Ben Vaughn---is glorious beyond words.

I’ve loved Freedy Johnson from the moment I first heard him. How ’bout Don Dixon? Great Pop songwriter and producer (including the records of his woman, Marti Jones).

You Pop lovers, keep a lookout for the second album by Julianna Raye (Something Peculiar), produced by Jeff Lynne. An utter delight!

Dave Edmunds recorded a lot of great Pop on his second album---Subtle As A Flying Mallet, and produced it in the Phil Spector Wall-Of-Sound style. His recording of "Maybe" (a hit for The Chantels in the 50’s) is Pop to the max! He does some Spector material on the album, and a great version of The Everly Brothers’ "Let It Be Me" (Dylan included his version on the Self Portrait album), and "Born To be With You" (a hit for Dion before anyone had heard of The Beatles). Each album side ends with a Chuck Berry song recorded live in an English pub, Dave backed by the UK band Brinsley Schwartz, whose bassist was a very young Nick Lowe. Dave and Nick later formed the great, great band Rockpile (also the title of Dave’s first album).

I had the pleasure of working with two masters of the Pop song---Emitt Rhodes and John Wicks of The Records (a great Pop Group). They’re both dead now, so perhaps you shouldn’t hire me for your next project. ;-)

"I always found it a little odd that my audiophile friends would tend to look down on pop."

• Gary Puckett and the Union Gap - 'Woman, Woman'
  
• Marshall Crenshaw - 'Whenever You're On My Mind'
  
• Richard Thompson or Marshall Crenshaw - 'Valerie'
  
• Rita & the Tiaras - Gone With The Wind is My Love
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEI72g-cgjA
  

Pop is imo any song with a good melody and "hooky" (sing-along) chorus refrain. Pop songs have traditionally also followed a classic structure (though they don’t necessarily have to): Intro/1st verse/chorus/2nd verse/chorus/bridge (called middle 8 in England)/verse/last chorus/outro. The bridge/middle 8 is employed less frequently now, often ignored by Rock Bands that don’t have a superior songwriter (most ;-). During the Psychedelic period (starting in 1966), Lennon & McCartney started "messing" with the Pop song structure. They---being more-talented songwriters than most in Rock Bands---could pull it off; most didn’t, leading to some of the worst "songs" I’ve ever heard.

A sterling example of a Pop song is "When You Walk In The Room", written by Jackie DeShannon and released by her as a single in 1963. The Searchers covered it in ’64, and was the first time I heard this majestic masterpiece. Springsteen has included the song in his live show, though he as always bludgeons the song to death. Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA (now THERE’S a fantastic Pop Group!) does a great version, found on her My Coloring Book album.

Then there is "What becomes Of The Brokenhearted", originally done by Jimmy Ruffin (Joan Osborne stole the show with her version at the tribute concert for the Motown house band). Written by William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser, and James Dean (not the actor, of course), it is a breathtakingly great Pop song.

Another at the very top of the form is "God Only Knows", written by Brian Wilson (music) and Tony Asher (lyrics), and first recorded by The Beach Boys and included on their Pet Sounds album. Paul McCartney, a pretty fair songwriter himself, has said he considers it the best song he has ever heard. Another stunner by Wilson (music and lyrics) is "Til I Die"---melancholy beauty rarely heard (found on the 1971 album Surf’s Up).

Is Tom Petty Pop? Well, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are a Rock Band, not a Pop Group. The Mamas & Papas were a Pop Group, as were ABBA, The Carpenters, and most other Vocal Groups. But a Rock Group can make a Pop record, and many of the best do. Cheap Trick are very Poppy ("Surrender"), but are obviously a Rock Group. The Ramones were also very Poppy (and proud of it. They were thrilled to be produced by Phil Spector---that is, until he locked them in his castle and wouldn’t let them leave), but no one’s going to mistake them for The Association.

A Rock Band performing Poppy material is commonly referred to as Pop-Rock in music criticism, a category that includes a lot of people. Guys like Emitt Rhodes (easily McCartney’s equal in songwriting and singing, and a better drummer ;-), Squeeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Nick Lowe, hundreds of others. Pop songs performed in the Rock style. Though they were about as far from being a Pop Group as is possible, "The Weight" by The Band is a perfect Pop song.