Best Power Pop Songs of All Time?

How about some Japanese power pop? Puffy AmiYumi - "Planet Tokyo". The whole album "Nice" is worth a listen for anyone into '70s/'80s rock pastiche (all of us). http://open.spotify.com/track/3c8QlMUMpzNjMOZnfoImjx

Having said Radio City is mostly not even remotely power pop, leading to a small chorus of hoots, I feel compelled to say what exactly power pop would be if not that! And yes, September Gurls strikes me as fitting. But songs with a lot of chugging weird rhythmic moves, screwy extra sounds, and audible pain - this describes the bulk of Radio City - don't seem to show up much in the later canon of songs people refer to as power pop.

If power pop means anything other than just a catchy form of "rock" then it should indicate super catchiness, uptempo excitement, a kind of smiling thing going on (that could be messed over by the actual lyrical content: BETTER!), not too many different parts in the same song (i.e. no, seriously, people listing Big Star's far-superior-trippy-bummer-to-roger-waters-era-pink-floyd "Daisy Glaze" as power pop: you wouldn't even call this masterpiece power pop if it were done by any other band).

People start power pop off with Beatles & Kinks & Who & Troggs which is almost cheating! Isn't that just "rock"? Nevertheless, "So Sad About Us" & "With a Girl Like You" do cross over into that super-catchy but still rocking-zone which I'm figuring is the hallmark. personally, I'd say some serious 60s/early 70s power pop examples are:

Beach Boys - Darlin
Grass Roots - Temptation Eyes
Boyce & Hart - I wonder what she's doing tonight
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought the Law & The Law Won
Nazz - Open My Eyes (this one allegedly an example of 60s punk via nuggets inclusion)
Crabby Appleton - Go Back
Badfinger - No Matter What (if this ain't power pop the genre doesn't exist)

An obvious question --- well, obvious as soon as I ask it --- is the relationship between power pop and bubblegum. I'd say you can't stick a pubic hair between them in some cases: Yummy Yummy by the Ohio Express isn't just pop, and it isn't just powerful, it's the most obvious template for "Holidays in the Sun"

Another obvious question --- why isn't any black music called power pop? (was everything Christgau said about Trouser Press true?) If there is any black power pop then let me nominate "Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie" by Jay & The Techniques (any excuse to praise that record!!) and "Fun" by Sly & The Family Stone (road-tested with a battalion of power pop fans who loved it). Just for starters, mind you.

There's plenty more lame genre arguments I can troll here but let me get into safer territory now: some examples of great power pop from the 'recognized power pop era' that I shouldn't get many arguments about, at least if you go and listen to them:

Sniff'n the Tears - Driver's Seat
Undertones - Hypnotized
Undertones - His Good Looking Girlfriend (2 undertones songs out of many candidates)
Buzzcocks - Everybody's Happy Nowadays
Monochrome Set - Martians Go Home
Altered Images - Funny Funny Me
The Adverts - Safety in Numbers (allegedly punk I know but Adverts is pretty pop & good for them)
The Vibrators - Baby Baby (ditto)
Shonen Knife - Bear Up Bison (Pretty Little Baka Guy version is more pop & less punk)

This is the best power pop song of all time:

DWIGHT TWILLEY - LOOKING FOR DA MAGICZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq0ykm_SrM

And this the second best:

CIRRUS EDDY - GET DA MSG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-Dtg295wVk

This is a storming piece of power pop imo, but might have flown under lots of people's radars through being on a metal album (warning: most pop thing on the record, which is 'only' a great sludge album elsewhere).

http://youtu.be/s7uokNi7qEw

The entire Adam Schmitt - World So Bright album is amazing. His second record is worth checking out too although it's a little darker/more disjointed.

weird why did it take me so long to hear about Emitt Rhodes?

reminds me a lot of the s/t Flame album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_YWc0RszxU

I don't care for them, but when I think of power pop I think of FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE

And why have XTC not been mentioned yet. This is one of the highlights for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P1o3YRYBmY

No Game Theory or Loud Family? Ok then: "Nine Lives to Rigel Five," "24," "Erica's Word," "We Love You Carol and Alison," "Inverness," "Motion of Ariel."

LOVE the first Loud Family album. I'll add Take Me Down To Haloo to your list.

We're also missing some of the most popular songs that flirt with the genre:

PILOT - MAGIC

THE ROMANTICS - WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU

THE RUBINOOS - I WANNA BE YOUR BOYFRIEND

THE CARS - JUST WHAT I NEEDED

and I'm not if it qualifies but I see it dumped in several 'power pop' lists:

THE OUTFIELD - YOUR LOVE

Pilot "Magic" might have been the first power pop song I fell in love with, unless "Little Willy" by Sweet and/or "Jet" by Paul McCartney count.

The Romantics one I go for is "Talking in Your Sleep"

The Sun Sawed in 1/2 were almost as good as Jellyfish (and very similar in style) for a couple albums. too bad they never really took off. one of my favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35-Na1Athas

Chumped's "Something About Geography"--I count it, most wouldn't.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Something+About+Geography/7aJL92?src=5

Last weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la-ll0dttXM

Who else has been playing Power Pop lately?
The Toms album is amazing.

"Tonight" by the Raspberries
The whole Singles Going Steady disc
"At Night" by Buffalo Tom

"And Your Bird Can Sing" -- The Beatles
"Dirty Water" -- The Standells
"When My Baby's Beside Me" -- Big Star
"Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" -- The Wedding Present
"Echos Myron" -- Guided by Voices
"I'm Always in Love" -- Wilco
"The Bleeding Heart Show" -- The New Pornographers

crazy that only 3 tracks by Cheap Trick are listed here! i mostly know the first two albums so these are all just from those records:

"ELO Kiddies"
"Taxman, Mr. Thief"
"He's a Whore"
"Big Eyes"
"Downed"
"I Want You To Want Me"
"Oh Caroline"
"Southern Girls"

"Downed" is probably my favorite

I want to live on a mountain
way down in Australia
It's either that or suicide
It's such a strange strain on you

hearing this the first time unlocked some hidden level in my mind completing the gap between The Beatles and Nirvana

Wait a second, there's a list of great Cheap Trick songs from the first two records that omits Oh Candy? What the hell is going on?

help me list tropes of the genre. I'll start:

Jesus
superstition

This is the best power pop song of all time:

DWIGHT TWILLEY - LOOKING FOR DA MAGICZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq0ykm_SrM

― Moka, viernes 12 de diciembre de 2014 0:25 (three years ago)

This is still my answer.

Link has died so new link

https://youtu.be/Voa_7sLL7dQ

Ron Howard directed this made-for-TV film called Cotton Candy in 1978. That thing is the ultimate power pop movie!

This is the best power pop song of all time:

DWIGHT TWILLEY - LOOKING FOR DA MAGICZ

📹

― Moka, viernes 12 de diciembre de 2014 0:25 (three years ago)

This is still my answer.

Looking for the Magic is perfect. Adam the next two CT records are great too

On the Cheap Trick front, I saw Over the Edge for the first time tonight (in a theatre).

the next two CT records are great too

i've ordered Heaven Tonight and Dream Police both VG+ used vinyl for under $10

weird al does a surprisingly good cover of Hello There.
What's the best power pop song from a decidedly non-powerpop band?

Power Pop is probably not the first thing you think when you think NRBQ, but they had a number of great moments in that vein ("I Want You Bad", "Green Lights", "Me and The Boys" etc.).

Paperback Writer

A number of songs on the Ron Goedert solo album!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQDhavk4oh4

Is Hey Ya power pop or bubblegum?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF9DBXoBrNk

What's the best power pop song from a decidedly non-powerpop band?

Either 'Drill Sergeant' by N*E*R*D or 'Here Come July' by Scritti Politti

"My Sharona" for song structure alone.

Simon Turner - (Baby) I Gotta Go

Peace Love & Understanding - Elvis Costello

― ImprovSpirit, Friday, April 23, 2010 1:10 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the jam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssd3U_zicAI

the beat - rock n roll girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cEvEUKN4Fw

pure bliss

https://youtu.be/gkSy-6ij76k

help me list tropes of the genre. I'll start:

Jesus
superstition

pedophilia

Some later era cheese

DM3 - Road to Rome album

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlt545QqLBKV4GK9CjjTfZX2YzEpIsqoi

Lolas - Something You Oughta Know album

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOYnBR8tMVojkgcIMG53yG4S4-Hw9U0SE

The Candyskins - Never Will Forget You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT1jh97FsXI

Flashing Lights - Where Do the Days Go? Heard this one in between sets at a Sloan show but doesn't appear to be available streaming anywhere.

What's the best power pop song from a decidedly non-powerpop band?

California Boy by Lil B came to mind, but then I remembered that song was terrible.

controversial opinion: almost all of the 90s power-pop revival stuff is trash

not controversial, just rong

controversial opinion: some of the aor/power pop crossover stuff from the early '80s (balance, martin briley) is fucking good