Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Power Pop Poll

Okay losers, name your ten - no, 15 - favorite power pop tunes of all time. Daunting, no? Here's my list, off the top o' my head.

01) What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding - Elvis Costello
02) Surrender - Cheap Trick
03) Turning Japanese - The Vapors
04) Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
05) No Matter What - Badfinger
06) She's Tight - Cheap Trick
07) Glad Girls - Guided by Voices
08) Miss Teen Wordpower - The New Pornographers
09) September Gurls - Big Star
10) Pump It Up - Elvis Costello
11) Just Broke Up - Smoking Popes
12) Is That Love - Squeeze
13) Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
14) Another Girl, Another Planet - The Only Ones
15) My Sharona - The Knack

I'll be very suprised if Dave's list doesn't heavily feature Mr. Costello, and I'll be downright disappointed if Joe's list doesn't feature an early Who song or three ...

4 comments:

Dave said...

My list would look suspiciously like your list on any given Sunday, Mr. Hines. Glad to see 'She's Tight' and the Popes on there. Here's mine for today, with the right to change it at any time, for any reason.

1) Oliver's Army - EC and the A's
2) Good Girls Don't - the Knack
3) Baby Blue - Badfinger
4) Shake Some Action - Flamin' Groovies
5) Sister Anne - Flop
6) Hillbilly Drummer Girl - Young Fresh Fellows
7) I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Kinks
8) High Fidelity - EC and the A's
9) Wednesday Week - Undertones
10) Ever Fallen in Love? - Buzzcocks
11) One on One - Cheap Trick
12) We're the Same - Matthew Sweet
13) Author Unknown - Jason Falkner
14) The Concept - Teenage Fanclub
15) Give Me Back Yesterday - the Makers

Sure, we can quibble about definitions of 'power pop', but all of these tunes have 'power' and are undeniably catchy and 'pop'py, so I'll stand by them.

Joe said...

Okay, here goes. Hate to be uncool, but I have to duplicate some of yours. I thought "Teenage Kicks" was the Resillos...:

1) Another Girl, Another Planet - the Only Ones
2) I Can't Explain / Pictures of Lilly / I'm A Boy - The Who
3) In The City - The Jam
4) Bottle of Fur - UO
5) Good Girls Don't - The Knack
6) She's Tight - Cheap Trick
7) Alex Chilton - The Replacements
8) Long Distance - All
9) I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea - EC
10) American Ruse - MC5
11) Girl You Want - Devo
12) It's Too Late - Jim Carroll Band
13) Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
14) And So It Goes - Nick Lowe
15) Million Miles Away - The Plimsouls

Jay said...

Man, good lists! Many, many great tunes. I had forgotten about Flop, Dave. Good call. Same for Bottle of Fur, Yoseph. I may have to go listen to some UO now ...

Dave said...

Bottle of Fur is a great call. Man, those guys caught lightning in a bottle. I went to see them a year or two ago in New Orleans at the Howlin' Wolf and they just sucked. I was really sad and wished they had stayed broken up. Nice call on the All song too ... I might have to add Clean Sheets or Sour Grapes by the Descendents to my list.....