Top Power Pop Songs Of All-Time

I've scrolled up & down this 8 page thread & have seen only a slight mention of Off Broadway on here. So along with the obvious "Stay In Time" & "Full Moon Turn my Head Around",which belong on any top Power Pop songs list,i'll add "Bully,Bully" from thier debut ON, along with Automatic,US Girls & Eddie's Pals from the second LP Quick Turns. Just In Time from 97 comeback album Fallin In. Singer Cliff Johnson has a new band The Happy Jacks and will be playing a new year's day gig at the Abbey Pub in Chicago

 

Bram Tchaikovsky – Girl Of My Dreams
The Go-Betweens - Spring Rain
The La's - There She Goes
Blue Ash - Abracadabra (Have You Seen Her)
Knock Knock Ginger - Love Renee
The Shazam - Everything
The Flamin Groovies - Shake Some Action
20/20 - Yellow Pills
Jellyfish - Babys Coming Back
Cheap Trick - Southern Girls
The Rubinoos - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
Fountains Of Wayne - Stacey's Mom
Ween - Even If You Don't

 

Thought I might throw this link here...my Perfect Power Pop mix I put together last month. Read the description to put it in context.

 

Here is a list of the 100 Greatest Power Pop songs on this site. A site I don't always agree with by the way. Here is the top ten songs

1. No Matter What - (1970) Badfinger
2. September Gurls - (1974) Big Star
3. Go All The Way - (1972) Raspberries
4. Please Please Me - (1963) Beatles
5. The Kids Are Alright - (1965) Who
6. Starry Eyes - (1978) Records
7. When You Walk In The Room - (1964) Searchers
8. I Am The Cosmos - (1977) Chris Bell
9. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better - (1965) Byrds
10. Cynical Girl - (1982) Marshall Crenshaw


www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs-Power-Pop.html

 

The Merrymakers - Troubled Times

Jon Brion - Meaningless

Ross Rice - Mr. Anti-Sunshine

Neil Finn - She Will Have Her Way

Wondermints - Proto-Pretty

The Hollies - You Need Love

The Nazz - Open Your Eyes

Utopia - Feet Don't Fail Me Now

Paul McCartney - My Brave Face

XTC - The Mayor of Simpleton

Tim Finn - Underwater Mountain

 

Would any Toto song, such as 'Rosanna', be classified as 'power pop'?

 

I don't think so. Most of Toto's stuff is too sophisticated-sounding to be power pop. Songs like "Holyanna," "Til the End," and "Gift With a Golden Gun" come close, though.

 

The best song on the '90s volume of Rhino's power pop collection, for sure, and possibly the best power pop song by a group on a minor label that most people have never heard.

 

1. Live – Merry Go Round
2. Fresh As A Daisy – Emitt Rhodes
3. Ghost at Number One – Jellyfish
4. It Won’t Be Wrong – The Byrds
5. September Gurls – Big Star
6. No Matter What – Badfinger
7. Surrender – Cheap Trick
8. If She Knew What She Wants – The Bangles
9. I’m On Fire – Dwight Twilley Band
10. Start Again – Teenage Fanclub

 

Favorite Power Pop single ?

 

Matthew Sweet - I've Been Waiting

 

Is this the first power pop single ?

 

Shake some action- Flamin Groovies

 

I don't usually get involved in "What/Who was the first" type of threads, but what the heck.

I say it was "I Can't Explain" by the who.

Before this thread really takes off, would someone mind defining what "Power Pop" is exactly?

Definition of Power Pop:

 

Thanks Alex, and nice idea for a thread!

 

A Christmas Gort has morphed my thread into this one.

Did a search entered power pop as thread title nothing came up. Mines got zapped. Guess this six year old thread will suffice.

 

A power pop classic:

 

I wouldn't want to pin it down to just one record either.

But I can identify an early one: "I Wanna Meet You" by The Cryan' Shames. It has all the hallmarks:

• a bright melody, in a major as opposed to minor key
• a high-register, earnest vocal that's clear-voiced as opposed to being gruff or gritty
• lots of vocal harmonies
• a 12-string guitar (not essential, obviously, but a bonus on any power pop song)
• the harmonic device of pitting a major 7th against the root in a descending pattern ("I first SAW YOU IN A magazine"), which is something heard frequently in the genre.

See above for most of it. I would add to those ingredients guitars that ring out or chime (Rickenbackers will always be best for this!). I know there are some latter-day groups that attempt power pop with fuzzy or distorted guitars, but this tends not to work as well for me.

And generally, there needs to be at least some power supplied by up-front drums. Not to say that there can't be power pop ballads, as there are some great ones. But the genre shouldn't cross over into totally wimpy, juvenile bubblegum.

 

Golden Blunders - The Posies

 

This, end of discussion!

 

Lots of great ones already mentioned but upon glancing quickly didn't see any mention of Buzzcocks who were the quintessential power pop band. Also The Knack's Get The Knack, almost anything by Sloan. The Vapor's Turning Japanese was a great single as was this largely forgotten power pop nugget:

 

Fleetwood Mac - Think About Me
Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me

- Great Drum & Bass by Fleetwood & McVie

 

As far as I'm concerned this qualifies as power pop

 

Hearing it again right now,Long forgotten Chicago band,The Kind,Total Insanity. Listening to the very hard to find 45 mix (on green vinyl). Original single release on 360 records. They recorded their self titled debut album in the Southwest suburb of Oak Lawn. I knew the exact location of Pumpkin Studios on 95th street. It was owned by Gary Loizzo,co-founder of the American Breed. Here was their other hit. Played quite frequently by Chicago's Top 40 AM radio giant, WLS, in the late summer/early fall of 1982