Run Away With Me

There can be no other answer

Logged in just to say that.

I’d add Talking To Yourself, Favorite Color, Cut To The Feeling and Want You In My Room to!

unironically stacy’s mom, could probably put any fow song though

Fountains of Wayne were so underrated.

A couple answers I haven’t seen mentioned yet that I think qualify- Frank Sinatra- “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” The Rolling Stones- “Paint it Black” Cyndi Lauper- “Time After Time” Prince- “Raspberry Beret” INXS- “Never Tear Us Apart” Genesis- “No Son of Mine” Kylie Minogue- “Love at First Sight” Demi Lovato- “Cool for the Summer” Billie Eilish- “bad guy”

*Dancing Queen*, by ABBA. The second those opening strings hit, the entire vibe of the room changes, it's just practically perfect as a dance pop anthem

Started a playlist based exactly on this question. The inclusion criteria is no more than one song per artist, must be pop or pop-something, and must be at least 10 years old. Current entries are: * Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) - ABBA * Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears * Style - Taylor Swift * Shut Up and Dance - Walk The Moon * Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush * Don’t You Want Me - The Human League * Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division * Heroes - David Bowie

Shut Up And Dance is truly one of the best songs of the 2010s and I hate people who dismiss it as “cheesy” or “lame”. It’s a bop.

I like other Walk the Moon songs, and don't hate hate "Shut Up and Dance," but the rhyme scheme of Back/Me/Back/Me/Destiny/Me in the chorus gets on my nerves terribly. If they had just found any words to rhyme with anything other than themselves I would've been fine

Bad Romance by Lady Gaga

The DEFINITIVE pop song, or at least one of them, but I think it’s not perfect, which is to say that it’s imperfections lend it to being a good representation of it’s respective genre.

Heaven Is A Place On Earth by Belinda Carlisle. Just a perfect song in all ways but especially in pop ways.

Oh god it has to be this one

Move Your Feet by Junior Senior

A Thousand Miles is the first that comes to mind. I made a list a while back, maybe I need to recreate it

This song is not only catchy and interesting in terms of music theory, but it's chuck full of instrumental layers that are mixed and produced beautifully. I seen an interview with the co-songwriter/producer on this song who discussed how Vanessa hated his idea on trying to hit the high note on the last chorus ("do you think time would pass me by?") but I have to agree with him here. It sells the song for me. It's a perfect pop song.

100%

Be My Baby (The Ronettes), Like a Prayer (Madonna), Teenage Dream (Katy Perry), Fantasy (Mariah Carey)

Wow, you named 4 of my top 5-ish favorite songs.

Nick Lowe - Cruel to be Kind There’s no better possible rhyme than “bonafide” and “coincide”. I’ve run the numbers on this.

In terms of catchy tune and lyrics, you can’t get much better then New Radicals ‘You Only Get What You Give’. Pretty much what Todd says in the OHW episode

This is good but imo gets points off for the verse basically being the same tune as the chorus

So so so many great songs, but good 4 u by Olivia Rodrigo is such an efficient use of pop structure in 3 minutes.

Green Light - Lorde

THIS

Great pick! This is the song that made me stop and realize, "Holy shit, do I *like* Lorde?!" and then start dancing in my car.

I think I know exactly what you mean, the basic pop formula executed flawlessly without any extra fat. Something I think about a lot. Not a lot of songs fit the criteria for me, for instance Heart of Glass could be there but the 7/4 bridge steps too far out of the formula for it to be "perfect" I think the best answer is Beat It. A more fun answer would be What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club; it's quirky, but at it's core it's got all the chords, drum hits, and structuring of a textbook pop hit

Somebody That I Used to Know -- Gotye Daytripper and Old Brown Shoe -- The Beatles

Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen Mirrors by Justin Timberlake Lost In Japan by Shawn Mendes Bad Romance by Lady Gaga Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

Levitating by Dua Lipa

“Buddy Holly” by Weezer

Not necessarily pop but I would add my favorite Weezer track: " The Good Life ".

My short list of pop perfection: * Erasure - "Chains of Love" * Genesis - "That's All" * Daryl Hall and John Oates - "Kiss on My List" * Level 42 - "Something About You" * Mary Jane Girls - "In My House" * Roxette - "The Look" * Scritti Politti - "Perfect Way" * Spice Girls - "Wannabe" * Spoons - "Romantic Traffic" * Steely Dan - "Peg" * Third Eye Blind - "Never Let You Go" * Walk the Moon - "Shut Up and Dance"

Yep, checks out just on the song openings alone. I still get that opening synth hook from "In My House" stuck in my head unbidden on a semi-regular basis.

Great list. Never Let You Go, That's All and In My House are all under appreciated.

Sweet Dreams by Eurhythmics, Like a Prayer by Madonna, Bad Romance and Paprazzi by Lady Gaga, Billie Jean by Michael Jackson…and A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton because if there is a song that summons millennial sing alongs like a dogwhistle. I don’t know if Hey Ya by OutKast counts as pop or rap/hip hop (I think it’s more of a pop song but they might not appreciate that) but if so, that one too.

Excellent selections.

“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys and “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon come to mind.

Still Into You by Paramore Everybody Talks by Neon Trees Three by Britney Spears

I'm gonna keep it to one song per artist, otherwise I'd just be listing Carly Rae Jepsen's entire catalog. "Run Away With Me" by Carly Rae Jepsen "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit "You Make My Dreams" by Hall and Oates "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield "Good Luck Babe" by Chappell Roan "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson "Into the Groove" by Madonna "Into You" by Arianna Grande "Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift "Purple Rain" by Prince "Umbrella" by Rihanna and Jay-Z "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals "Dancing Queen" by ABBA "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order "Dancing On My Own" by Robyn "Feel Good Inc." by Gorillaz "Hey Ya!" by Outkast "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars "ABC" by The Jackson 5 "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys "Don't Start Now" by Dua Lipa "I Feel It Coming" by The Weeknd and Daft Punk "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel

Teenage Dream

I wanna dance with somebody - Whitney Houston.

since u been gone by kelly clarkson will never not be scorching fire

In terms of "scientifically engineeried in a mad laboratory to be Platonic Ideal of the pop song": - Run Away With Me - Euphoria - You Belong With Me

Higher by Carly Rae Jepsen, Levitating by Dua Lipa, Just Dance by Lady Gaga

Honestly Do You Believe In Magic - Lovin’ Spoonful It’s short and gets right to the point. Music is magic.

Easy Lover by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man by Prince My Love by Justin Timberlake & T.I. Animal by Neon Trees Shut Up and Dance by Walk The Moon

What A Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers. Probably a basic take but i think it fits.

"Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair To be more specific, this is the perfect 2000s mom pop rock song. It fills me with joy & nostalgia. I genuinely think the guitars sound gorgeous.

Most anything by Roxette. Per Gessle is one of the best ever power pop songwritings and Marie's voice was beautiful.

Invisible Touch by Genesis

Wannabe by the spice girls. It’s not my favorite song or anything, but for a debut single for a pop group, it’s **the** standard with amazing production, an impossibly catchy hook, and it’s an instant introduction to the girls. The Spice Girls legacy (in America at least) has faded over time but that song is still huge. That being said my answer is: baby one more time by Britney & I don’t think it really needs further elaboration.

There She Goes - The La’s Learning to Fly - Tom Petty Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks

I don't even like the song, but there is something about "I Want It That Way" (Backstreet Boys) that feels like math. Like a perfectly-tuned pop music engine that can never die.

Blinding Lights it’s pretty damn close

Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears

Can't Get You Out Of My Head, Europapa & Bohemian Rhapsody

Call Me Maybe /thread

I Wanna Dance With Somebody by Whitney Houston is *flawless*.

I've always thought Interstate Love Song by the Stone Temple Pilots was a pretty perfect 3-minute song.

I know this is a Latin song that few people outside of Argentina & Latin America know, and also, it's more of a rock song, but De Musica Ligera by Soda Stereo.

Steal my Sunshine -Len

So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings is almost perfect, but the final chorus just feels too quiet

In my opinion Ocean Of Tears deserves to be here

Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson. One of my favorite openings to a song ever, just all of the instruments coming in one after the other, so good.

I sometimes listen to the song before it on the album just so I can hear the outro perfectly fade into the intro.

Hung Up by Madonna - still so iconic

My vote will always be for Gloria by Laura Branigan and i will die on that hill

Wouldn’t it be nice

There's a few - Uptown Funk - Dancing On My Own - Dancing with a stranger - Teenage Dream

Kiss From a Rose

For me, I define a perfect pop song to be something that executes everything that it aims to do faultlessly. Some examples I can think of off the top of my head are: - ‘Viva La Vida’ by Coldplay - ‘Bad Romance’ by Lady Gaga - ‘Run Away With Me’ by Carly Rae Jepsen - ‘Style’ by Taylor Swift - ‘In The Night’ by The Weeknd - ‘Into You’ by Ariana Grande - ‘Green Light’ by Lorde

Baby I’m Yours- Breakbot    Wasn’t my first thought but once I thought it I had to add it

Also one more time by daft punk, happy together by the turtles, and good vibrations by the beach boys

Senses Working Overtime by XTC

Tommy James - Draggin’ the Line

Don't Turn Around

A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, unironically

"Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"

I’m not an Ariana Grande stan but No Tears Left To Cry and Into You Also, Carly Rae Jepsen’s entire discography.

You Get What You Give by New Radicals. It’s basically perfect, it’s like if you designed a pop song in a laboratory.

Peter Gabriel-Sledgehammer, a rare pop song that gets better every time you hear it. And when you get to the end it just gets better and better every single time

Into The Groove, Baby Give It Up, and Call Me Maybe

Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)

Take On Me

Taaaaaake meeeeee ONNNNNNNN

Girls Like You by The Naked and Famous

Since some of my other picks have already been mentioned, I'd like to nominate "You're The One For Me" by Great Good Fine Ok. It actually works for a lot of the same reasons why Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen works, except it came out a year before Run Away With Me. Edit - some more recent examples of songs I would consider perfect pop songs (more from the indie scene) are "Be Sweet" by Japanese Breakfast and "Lights On" by Hatchie.

I said it when he passed and I'll say it again: Little Red Corvette is the perfect pop song.

New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle

no matter what by badfinger

Senses Working Overtime by XTC

Surprise no one said I Touch Myself by Divinyals Also Spotlight and Save A Kiss by Jessie Ware

Pure by The Lightning Seeds.

Dreams by The Cranberries. It’s also a song that’s impossible to ruin.

Shall we include Sean Kigston's "Fire Burning"?

Oops I Did It Again by Queen Britney

In the Meantime by Space hog

Material Girl by Madonna

" The Bad Touch " by the Bloodhound Gang. The epitome of understanding the assignment and giving more effort than was necessary.