Best Power Pop Songs of All Time?

see also: "September Gurls," "In The Street," and "Back Of A Car."

why not some current: The Exploding Hearts - 'I'm a Pretender', The Star Spangles - "Which One of the Two Of Us Is Going To Burn This House Down"

Second (or third) the Big Star suggestions

"Can't Hardly Wait" by The Replacements.

Sounds a lot like it to me.

Like all Posies albums, it falls about after the first five songs.

1. The Who: I Can See For Miles
2. Nazz: Open My Eyes
3. Badfinger: No Matter What
4. The Raspberries: Go All The Way
5. Todd Rundgren: Couldn't I Just Tell You
6. Blue Ash: Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her)
7. Big Star: September Gurls
8. Dwight Twilley: I'm On Fire
9. The Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action
10.Pezband: Baby It's Cold Outside
11.Cheap Trick: I Want You To Want Me
12.Fotomaker: Where Have You Been All My Life
13.The Rubinoos: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
14.The Records: Starry Eyes
15.The Knack: My Sharona
16.Shoes: Too Late
17.20/20: Yellow Pills
18.The Romantics: What I Like About You
19.Phil Seymour: Precious To Me
20.Rick Springfield: Jessie's Girl
21.Marshall Crenshaw: Someday Someway
22.The Plimsouls: A Million Miles Away
23.The Spongetones: She Goes Out With Everybody
24.The dBs: Love Is For Lovers

Of course Big Star--Back of a Car and the inevitable September Gurls are essential; also In the Street and When My Baby's Beside Me

The Move have to be in there somewhere too:
Flowers in the Rain; Wild Tiger Woman; Wave Your Flag and Stop the Train; Omnibus; Hello Susie; Fire Brigade

Easybeats are pretty proto-powerpop too:

Sorry; Remember Sam; Bring a Little Lovin'; Friday on My Mind; Heaven and Hell; Wait a Minute.

Cheap Trick--If You Want My Love

Diesel Park West--All the Myths on Sunday, the greatest Big Star rip ever

Records--Teenarama

Pursuit of Happiness - "Shes So Young"

Jellyfish - "The King Is Half Undressed"

Big Star - "Daisy Glaze"

Elliott Smith - "Son Of Sam"

Sparks - "Amateur Hour", "Tips for Teens"
Cheap Trick - "Surrender"

I'm quite sure you guys know this band. But I thnik we don't speak a lot about it. "Only Forever" is a wonderful album, one of my favorite of the 90s.

That's all I wanted to say :)

Liquor Giants...just from the s/t album:
Chocolate Clown
Fake Love
100 Dollar Car
Awful Good
Hideous Pleasure
Here
Jerked Around
All I Get

Gawd, how did Ward Dotson go so ignored?!?

A non-complete list of some of the best from the Yellow Pills comps...

The Rock Club - Time Will Tell on You
The Flashcubes - It's You Tonight
Chris von Sneidern - Call Out My Name
Kyle Vincent - Just a Matter of Time
Shoes - A Thing of the Past
Black and Blonde - Just in Time
John McMullan - Taking Me Somewhere
The Beat - I've Always Got You on My Mind
DM3 - Show You
Jason Falkner - My Home Is Not a House

Anyone like Adam Schmitt?

Another Girl Another Planet - Only Ones
Marie Provost - Nick Lowe
Peace Love & Understanding - Elvis Costello
Remember the Lightning- 20/20
September Girl - Big Star
No Matter What - Badfinger
I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James
Let It Be Me - Dum Dum Girls
Take the Cash - Wreckless Eric

Dum Dum Girls???

Cotton Mather - the entire Kontiki album

Aww man, "Whippings and Apologies" by Sparks as well, totally righteous.

putting this here for future generations:

this video by THE COLORS never fails to make me happy (1980 power pop stuff if you ain't never heard them)

the stiv bators album is terrible/great.

need more 80s power pop:

Scruffy the Cat - My Baby, She's Alright
Let's Active - Every Word Means No
The Bongos - Bulrushes

The fucking Toms record is rocking my shit right now.

There was a cool book that came out a couple of years ago, "The Ultimate Power Pop Guide" which selected the 200 best power pop albums of all-time. If you google that name you'll find some industrious fellow took one song from each album and put together a series of compilations. Quite nifty! 200 power pop songs in a row is a bit much for me, though.

The Modernettes -- Little Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi0uz8JD9Aw

Elastica - Blue is one of my current obsessions.

Two drunk dudes were walking round the pub singing "Airport" by the Motors the other day.

Brendan Benson's "Tiny Spark" is a nugget-sized wrecking ball. Don't like anything else I've heard by him, but must have played "Tiny Spark" 1000 times in the past 3-4 years. That'd be on my alltime PP comp.

90s power pop I like (not in any order): Spongetones, Sneetches, Perspex Whiteout, Teenage Fanclub, Posies, Velvet Crush, Fountains of Wayne

didn't really like Buffalo Tom. Gigolo Aunts were OK

Velvet Crush's first two albums are essential
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqD6Z8KYUGw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHSMg0oGsII

I've never really been able to get into Matthew Sweet or Redd Kross bar a few songs here and there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKsxO9FfxLg

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

Velvet Crush's first two albums are essential
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Gentle Breeze ended up recorded again on the fourth album though

Could never get into Heavy Changes. Found them sometimes good but not so great after Teen Symphonies

Not mentioned and underrated: Chainsaw Kittens

Gentle Breeze ended up recorded again on the fourth album though

Could never get into Heavy Changes. Found them sometimes good but not so great after Teen Symphonies

It's a bit better than I remember it. Listening to Heavy Changes again today and it's just so bland, dunno what happened

I always post Mayflies USA on power pop threads becz their first two albums are some of my favorites from the '90s/'00s and they never got a lot of attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dZhmS0zWwM

Frisbie! I remember buying that record based on a breathless review on salon.com

For me their bid for power pop immortality is Vertigogo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7v0y0o0kVc

"Might Be Right" by White Reaper might be in my all time top ten. Has any power pop song in recent years come close, or eclipsed it? I'd love to know.

powerbump

it's really, really good.

i'm gonna go looking for some recent tunes that i think are in the same ballpark. i'll be back!

that whole album (all 29 mins of it) kills imo, as does the previous one

In the meantime, this recently compiled mix by one of my favorite music websites is an absolute treasure trove of garage-y power-pop:

http://www.ravensingstheblues.com/mixtape-young-hearts-unite/

for recent stuff, I absolutely love the Number Ones (from Dublin), this is the lead track from their last single, they haven't released that much recently but are still active afaik:

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

this is my fave song off their album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeJdW9-urUk

they are a lot of fun live

I'm not sure if powerpop is exclusively a boys club, but this song by The Beths seems to fit the genre pretty well:

https://thebethsnz.bandcamp.com/track/lying-in-the-sun