Got into a pub conversation with Shaun and Kevin about perfect pop songs the other evening - before Kasey Chambers, actually, which I'll get round to writing about at some point in the course of working through the increasingly massive blog backlog that I've developed - and was then inspired to come up with a list. Twenty-five, because that's where Shaun drew his line (ie, 'the 25 most perfect pop songs'); I think that there are a few different notions of 'perfect pop song' working their way through here, but it's an honest to goodness attempt at it in which I stuck to my guns and valiantly resisted all thoughts of the 'but surely there must be at least one Beatles/Beach Boys/Kinks/Supremes/Elton John/Talking Heads/etc song' variety...the flip side being that some of my preoccupations come through fairly clearly (jangly songs, and anthems-masquerading-as-ballads and vice versa, in particular). Anyway, in more or less chronological order:
I Fall To Pieces - Patsy Cline
Be My Baby – The Ronettes
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
Mr Tambourine Man – The Byrds
California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and the Papas
A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
Breakfast In Bed – Dusty Springfield
Perfect Day – Lou Reed
Killing Me Softly With His Song – Roberta Flack
September Gurls – Big Star
Life On Mars? – David Bowie
Alison – Elvis Costello
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths
Close To Me – The Cure
When Doves Cry – Prince
Don’t Dream It’s Over – Crowded House
Just Like Heaven – The Cure
Debaser – Pixies
Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
You’re In A Bad Way – Saint Etienne
The State I Am In – Belle and Sebastian
Save Me – Aimee Mann
The Way We Get By – Spoon
