Your Top Ten Power Pop songs

Too late at night to make a Top 10 list, but one of my ultimate favorites is:

The Who: Substitute

 

Good one.

 

Bruce Springsteen - Bring On The Night
Bruce Springsteen - Rendez-Vous (live version)
Bruce Springsteen - I Wanna Be Where The Bands Are
Bruce Springsteen - Mary Lou
Ronnie Dio & The Prophets - Where You Gonna Run To Girl

 

Badfinger, "No Matter What"
Biff Bang Pow!, "A Girl Called Destruction"
Big Star, "You Get What You Deserve"
The Fletcher Pratt, "Sugar Won't Let You Sleep"
The Names, "Why Can't It Be"
The New Pornographers, "Letter from an Occupant"
The Plimsouls, "Now"
The Soft Boys, "Kingdom of Love"
'Til Tuesday, "Rip in Heaven"
Velvet Crush, "Speedway Baby"

 

I remember seeing "The Fletcher Pratt" billed and thinking how obscure can you get??(proud reader of both Pratt novels plus his cookbook). Is Lena Lovich on any of these lists? I tried to put Florapop in here but there's not even any Youtube of that 90s band.

 

I've only read a couple of his short stories, though I hear The Well of the Unicorn is good.

The band are even more obscure than the writer; they put out an album called Nine by Nine on Rainbow Quartz (same label as Cotton Mather) and then broke up. "Sugar Won't Let You Sleep" isn't on YouTube, but here's another of theirs:

 

Teenage Fanclub - Ain't That Enough
Big Star - September Gurls
The Beatles - And You Bird Can Sing
R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
Wings - Getting Closer
The Who - I Can't Explain
James McCartney - Too Hard
Dwight Yoakam - Take Hold of My Hand
Blondie - Dreaming
Dave Edmunds - Girls Talk
Badfinger - No Matter What

 

Off the top of my head:

"Whisper Softly" - The Myracle Brah
"I've Been Waiting" - Matthew Sweet
"This Beat Goes On/Switchin' to Glide" - The Kings
"Jenny Won't Play Fair" - The Semantics
"I Live" - Jason Falkner
"Tidal Wave" - Apples in Stereo
"September Gurls" - Big Star
"I Want You to Want Me" - Cheap Trick
"All I Want Is Everything" - Jellyfish
"Folk Singer" - Brandon Benson

 

Here's another CD of Power Pop* that I compiled for the car:

"I Can Hear The Grass Grow" -- The Move
"Hey Julie" -- Fountains Of Wayne
"In The Street" -- Big Star
"The Moment" -- The Procession
"Day After Day" -- Badfinger
"Watching The Detectives" -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Mellow Doubt" -- Teenage Fanclub
"Troublemaker" -- Weezer
"Same Old Drag" -- The Apples In Stereo
"Painkillers" -- Candy Butchers
"Flyswatter" -- Eels
"Tempted" -- Squeeze
"A Girl Like You" -- The Smithereens
"I See Red" -- Split Enz
"If I Could Talk I'd Tell You" -- The Lemonheads
"Starry Eyes" -- The Records
"Love's Sick" -- HotSocky
"Diane" -- Material Issue
"Collideascope" -- The Dukes Of Stratosphear
"I've Been Waiting" -- Matthew Sweet
"Too Late For Us Now" -- Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
"Dear God" -- XTC

* What I consider Power Pop, anyway...

 

Great pick

Another great pick.

 

ZONE are my favorite band because Power Pop. Here is their first single, made when they were 12 or 13 or something. They had 16 more.



PS. They did get pretty good at playing their own instruments during the first couple of years that they were together. Here, they were just starting out and learning. Please be kind. They deserve it.

 

Ai Otsuka was no slouch in this department either:

 

EU PHORIA:

 

MARIA - Kanashimi Rensa:

 

Lim Jeong Hee - Golden Lady. I'll stop posting now. Flooded this thread enough.

 

These have stood the test of time for me:

Jellyfish – That Is Why
Dwight Twilley Band – I’m On Fire
Badfinger – No Matter What
Crabby Appleton – Go Back
Hole – Heaven Tonight
Brendan Benson – Tiny Spark
Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You
Fastball – Fire Escape
The Kings – This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide
The New Pornographers – The Laws Have Changed

 

Here's ten more:
"Oh No the Radio" - Owsley
"Stephanie Says" - Jason Falkner
"I Predict" - Sparks
"Back to You" - Richard X. Heyman
"Hillary" - The Quick
"Maid in Heaven" - Be Bop Deluxe
"Make No Sense At All" - Hüsker Dü
"Age of the Sun" - The Sunshine Fix
"Living in End Times" - Rodger Manning Jr.
"She Satisfies" - Shoes

 

My vote would go to The Greg Kihn Band's version of this. Much more power pop!

 

I'll see if I can name ten:

Quick - Pretty Please Me
Groovies - Shake Some Action
Big Star - Back of a Car
Candy - Whatever Happened to Fun?
Slickee Boys - Gotta Tell Me Why
Teenage Fanclub - The Concept
Enuff Z'Nuff - Fly High Michelle
Van Halen - Jamie's Cryin'
Ramones - Do You Wanna Dance?
Millennium - It's You

 

I tried to come up with 10. I could probably come up with 100 off the top of my head. Try these:

I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better - Byrds
I Can See For Miles - The Who
And Your Bird Can Sing - Beatles
Let's Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones
Let Her Dance - Bobby Fuller Four
No Matter What/ Baby Blue/ Day After Day - Badfinger
Lovin' You Ain't Easy - Pagliaro
What Is Life - George Harrison
Go All the Way/ I Wanna Be With You - Raspberries
Jet - Paul McCartney
September Gurls - Big Star
Shake Some Action - Flamin' Groovies
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Girl of My Dreams - Bram Tchaikovsky
Starry Eyes - The Records
Million Miles Away - The Plimsouls
Cynical Girl/ Someday Someway - Marshall Crenshaw
Pretty Persuasion - R.E.M.
Places That Are Gone - Tommy Keene
Take the Long Way Around - Teenage Fanclub
Behind the Wall of Sleep - Smithereens
I've Been Waiting - Matthew Sweet
Alison Road - Gin Blossoms
Wonder What You Are Tonight - The Gravelberrys
Stay- Grapes of Wrath
There She Goes - The La's
Fire Escape - Fastball
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Jayhawks
Cruel Girl - The Red Button
Come Tomorrow - Luke Jackson
Shades of Green - Chris Stamey

 

I'll leave out the Who, Badfinger, Big Star and the Raspberries. They'd all make the list but they're all well represented already

Cheap Trick - He's a Whore
Blue Ash - Abracadabra
NRBQ - It Comes To Me Naturally
Kinks- Til The End Of The Day
Others - I Can't Stand This Love, Goodbye
Todd Rundgren - Couldn't I Just Tell You
Sweet - Action
Plimsouls - Million Miles Away
Boys - No Money
Redd Kross - Switchblade Sister

 

It's been great reading this thread. Here are some of my favorites. I'm trying to go with stuff that hasn't been mentioned, although a couple of these may have.

Searchers - She Made A Fool of You
Dwight Twilley - Chance To Get Away
Elvis Brothers - It's So Hard
The Beat - Walking Out On Love
Plimsouls - How Long Will It Take (1980 EP version)
Secrets* - It's Your Heart Tonight (1979 single version)
Marshall Crenshaw - Not For Me
Barracudas - Don't Let Go
Taxi Boys - What She Don't Know
The Pop - Ad Man

 

"The Death of Pop" The Rub
"Tayter Country" Cavedogs
"Ice Age" Good Shoes
"Kicks in the Schoolyard" the Rosebuds
"Insistor" Tapes 'n' Tapes
"For When You Cannot Fly" Small Factory
"When She Was Happy" Pluto

 

Without just listing almost any 10 Kiss songs, which I'd love to do, for today I will go with...

1. No Matter What: Badfinger
2. Laughing: The Guess Who
3. Pleasant Valley Sunday: The Monkees
4. Tighter, Tighter: Alive & Kicking
5. On The Beach: Raspberries
6. Good Lovin': The Young Rascals
7. Sailing Down The Tears: Hanoi Rocks
8. Tomorrow: Kiss
9. Tomorrow And Tonight: Kiss
10. Temptation Eyes: The Grass Roots

Sorry, I still couldn't help but include two Kiss tracks. Both with "tomorrows" interestingly.

 

My very first thread here! Nice to see it resurrected. Eleven years ago, wow. I was so much older then.