What would you consider over the years as the perfect pop song?

M83 - Midnight City

 

Todd Rundgren's "We Got to Get You a Woman" (styled "We Gotta Get You a Woman" as a single and on Bearsville pressings).

A perfect pop song with a punchline finis? It doesn't get better than that.

 

Sheryl Crow / All I Wanna Do



Franz Ferdinand / Take Me Out

Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out (Official Video)

 

Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama Out
The Sundays - Here’s Where The Story End
Jellyfish - Baby’s Coming Back
Jellyfish - Ghost At Number One

Basically all of Jellyfish’s stuff is incredible pop.

 

This.

 

"Stranded Outside Tater Knob" by Nine Pound Hammer is two minutes and 37 seconds of cowpunk pop perfection. Catchy tune, great riff, entertaining story, funny lyrics.



Lyrics:

WellW I was raised on a diet of No-Doz, donuts, an' diesel emissions
Listenin' to wrinkled old men dronin' on about the weather and road conditions.
Stayin five miles ahead of whatever's behind, wonderin' where I went wrong.
And the strange city signs start to sound like rhymes in a never-ending song.

Just a one-horse town---no motel or bar.
Just a wax museum, full of dead HEE-HAW stars.
You don't look in a mirror, when you're cold and mean.
Stranded outside Tater Knob, with just a JUGGS magazine.

Well I was sittin' at a table in a topless bar at the end of Music Row.
Watchin' fat girls strip to Molly Hatchett songs, hopin' their stretch marks won't show.
I spent my last dime on a watered-down drink, and I'm headed out for the door.
Before I could kick myself for comin' here, I was already back for more.

Just a one-horse town---no motel or bar.
Just a wax museum, full of dead HEE-HAW stars.
You don't look in a mirror, when you're cold and mean.
Stranded outside Tater Knob, with just a JUGGS magazine.

My ex-wife ran a whorehouse on the highway out of town,
they used to give special truckers' rates before the Baptists burned it down.
She had a tattoo on her inner thigh, said "if you can read this, yer too close."
We used to drive five miles for the nearest cold beer and bitch about the lives we chose.

Just a one-horse town---no motel or bar.
Just a wax museum, full of dead HEE-HAW stars.
You don't look in a mirror, when you're cold and mean.
Stranded outside Tater Knob, with just a JUGGS magazine.

 

"I'll Stop the World and Melt With You" is perfect. Could not be improved.

 

Satisfaction by the Stones.
Richards' creates that unforgettable three note opening guitar riff. Perfect.

I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You...
pretty much created instant hits from the get go. Still do with their opening lyrics ... they pull you in and keep you, start to finish.
Ringo's opening two count fill start "She Loves You" and those fills remain an important part throughout.

The opening riffs and lyrics by Al Kooper, Bob Brass and Irwin Levine. Pretty perfect songwriting tailored for a big hit:
This Diamond Ring

 

I'll echo what others have said earlier, and say Nick Lowe, Andy Partridge and Marshall Crenshaw certainly have an ear for Pop Music without succumbing to Dreck.
Nick's "Cruel To Be Kind" is a lovely bit of subversive Pop, Andy can do whatever he wants, he's that good, and Marshall ... ? Among all the great pop songs he's pushed out, I think I remember a Robert Gordon song (written by MC), "But, But."

"There's a woman walking down the street, the kinda woman I've been dying to meet.
I'm in Heaven, she's just what I've been needin'
I'm gonna walk right over and say --
... but -- but !"

HAHAHA, my life story.