Name a perfect pop/rock song

By pop/rock, I mean popular rock, the type of thing you'd hear on MTV or the radio. "I'll Melt With You" by Modern English, "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, and "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran are damn near perfect: great hook, memorable chorus, great fun no matter how many times you hear them.

Name some others... Any era, any country.

 

This is the first one that comes to mind for me:

 

Hawks-The Admirals Mutiny(any song off the debut Hawks S\T album actually)

 

Three O'Clock - Hand in Hand....perfect 80 catchy 80's pop

 

The Lemonheads - The Great Big No

 

"Senses Working Overtime" - XTC

 

The Boys Of Summer - Don Henley
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

 

King Harvest "Dancing in the Moonlight"

 

Surrender - Cheap Trick

 

I got a little carried away, but I put a lot of thought into this, and I've enjoyed thinking about the question. I personally love all of these songs, but I also tried to think somewhat objectively about examples of perfect pop/rock songs that were or remain popular and received significant airplay.

Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air (listening to this now, man, I didn't remember the recording being this rough. Really don't like Pete's production on this, but the song still deserves inclusion on this list)
Journey - Don't Stop Believing
Aerosmith - Cryin'
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good
Astrud Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema
The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
The Beatles - Penny Lane
The Bee Gees - To Love Somebody
Ben E. King - Stand By Me
Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun
The Jayhawks - Blue (this one probably isn't popular enough to fit the criteria, but what the hell)
Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes
New Order - Regret
Pretenders - Back On the Chain Gang
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Ringo Starr - Photograph
Steve Winwood - While You See a Chance
The Strokes - Under Cover of Darkness
Supertramp - The Logical Song
The Temptations - Just My Imagination
U2 - One

 

This song always struck me as the "perfect" pop radio hit:

 

Pretty damn perfect pop, I think.

 

I'm not sure if I'm understanding the OPs question (if I'm not, sorry about that), but here goes.

The Ronettes - Be My Baby
Split Enz - I Got You
Petula Clark - Downtown
Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
Smoky Robinson - The Tears Of A Clown
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
New Order - Ceremony
Bruce Springsteen - It's Hard To Be a Saint In The City
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
ABC - The Look Of Love

Just a few

 

Heart from the 80's!

 

This is just about as perfect as a pop song gets...

It's also my favorite James Bond theme, and opening sequence. Maybe for any film. Beautiful stuff!

Nobody Does It Better: Carly Simon 1977 (Marvin Hamlisch / Carole Bayer Sager)

 

"Walk Away Renee" - The Left Banke
..........as perfect as great pop songs get.

 

And probably the most perfect pop song ever written. And I never use that term. My favorite song of the entire 70's...

How Deep Is Your Love: Bee Gees (1977)

 

Pop/rock:

 

Foreigner - Urgent

 

As far as the 80's go, this is near perfect. And smooth as silk! I just love the productions on these songs I'm listing...

You're The Only Woman - Ambrosia

 

The Cure-Pictures of You is one of my favorite songs

...and for pure pop I like some of those Tony Burrows tunes like:
edison lighthouse - Love grows where my rosemary goes

 

I Saw Her Standing There.

Edit: I don't know if this is played on the radio, certainly nowhere on MTV.

It just came to my mind as a perfect pop/rock song, this and I Want To Hold Your Hand were the first things I thought of.

Ironically (as opposed as I am to how sometimes most threads seem to be about the Beatles), I guess these two classics don't count...

 

D'Yer M'aker by Led Zeppelin

 

And this one...

There are maybe 3-5 pop songs from the 80's I'd call perfect, and this is one of them.

I feel so damn good listening to a song like this that I could burst. An example of why music is life (and everything good about life)...

Waiting For A Star To Fall - Boy Meets Girl (1988)

 

Rebel Rebel - David Bowie