What is "in your opinion" the greatest POP song ever written?

I would love to hear what some of you guys say!!

"The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats.

Why? Because whenever I hear it, it gets stuck in my head FOR FRIGGIN DAYS AFTERWARD till I wish I could scrub it out of my brain with a Brillo pad.

Also, it's one of the best examples of totally random '80s MTV video-ism. People in medieval dress dancing around a maypole? Midgets? Vacant-eyed blonde with no dance skills in a video for a song called "Safety Dance??" Sure, why not?

Freddy you are absolutely correct. Thread over!

mikeinfla wrote:

Freddy you are absolutely correct. Thread over!

High five!

Can't mention Safety Dance without the Men Without Hats conversation channel from Conan O'Brien

Along those same lines....


and youtube reminded me of these two





Damn do I still love both those songs.

Since we are talking Pop songs, one of the best of the time that seemed to please rock fans, pop fans and fans of urban music. Such a weird fella but definitely had the talent and perfectly mixed rock and pop.

If we go by the numbers, this would be the winner:



That song spent 16 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 which is the longest run for any song, ever.

In my opinion it's Soft Cell's cover of Tainted Love:



Manson did a cool cover too:



My favorite version is by Shades Apart:



Here's the original version by Gloria Jones:

You forgot one!

There are a crazy number of covers of Tainted Love.  Also, the Soft Cell version has been re-released a couple of times and charted each time.

Here's a partial(?!) list of all the covers:

1964: Gloria Jones, northern soul
1975: Ruth Swann (aka Diana Foster), northern soul UK cover version on Spark label[1]
1976: Gloria Jones with Marc Bolan, glam rock
1980: Blue Öyster Cult, hard rock
1981-82: Soft Cell, synthpop
1985: Coil, industrial
1986: Boppin' Kids on the album Go Wild!, Rockabilly
1990s: Tainted Cash, rave music
1991: Marc Almond (with Soft Cell)
1992: Flying Pickets, a cappella version
1992: Inspiral Carpets
1994: Spaceheads, on the album Spaceheads, rock
1995: Shades Apart, on the album Save It (punk rock)
1997: Deathline International, on the compilation Industrial War, industrial (often mistakenly attributed to Skinny Puppy)
1997: Atrocity on their cover album titled Werk 80 and on their "Tainted love" single (two different versions) and on their greatest hits double album None plus ultra (1999), gothic metal
1997: Hi-Fives, on their album ...And A Whole Lotta You!
1998: Country Teasers, on their album Back to the Future, or Brideshead Revisited Revisited
1998: The Living End, as a B-side to their single "All Torn Down" and on Triple J Hottest 100, 1998 (#17 on the Hottest 100 list.)
1999: My Ruin, on the album Speak and Destroy
1999: [Me First And The Gimmie Gimmies], on the album "Are A Drag"
2000: La Unión, on the album Grandes Éxitos and called "Falso amor"
2001: Marilyn Manson, shock rock, on album Not Another Teen Movie Soundtrack and Lest We Forget: The Best of Marilyn Manson. Also as a bonus track on The Golden Age of Grotesque
2002: Prozac+, on the album Miodio
2003: The Hormonauts, on the album Mini-Skirt
2003: Static X, metal
2004: Thomas Schumacher, on the EP Tainted Schall
2005: The P*ssycat Dolls, on album PCD
2006: Soft Cell version sampled on "SOS", a song by Rihanna
2006: Milk Inc. cover (dance music)
2006: John B. feat. Marcy Meow beta recordings (electro)
2006: Mahjong Connection Mahjong Music
2006: Les Sabotages-jam & spoon rmx Music Worx records
2007: Richard Grey recorded a dance cover entitled "Warped Bass". It has reached #52 on the UK Singles Chart.
2007: Killwhitneydead. recorded a metalcore cover entitled "Funny Enough It Sounds Just Like Tainted Love"
2007: Grandmagneto acoustic reggae version 7" vinyl on Favourite recordings
2007: The Vending Tree - A favourite in their live sets
2008: Danny Noriega performed the song on American Idol, which was recorded and sold on iTunes.
2008: Roland Ross and Josh Whitaker covered the song by layering up all previous versions on top of each other in synchronization. This was then pressed to a one-off vinyl, accompanied by a gold presentation frame listing all the artists that had recorded the song

Easy!!   

I'd probably go with Freddy's "Safety Dance" nomination but for the sake of discussion I'd also nominate this notorious earworm. I think this one sticks in my brain more than most people's because I'm such an avid fan of anything Celtic-sounding.

Honorable runner up to ABBA is this, I tried but I can't not mention it

Boris2008 wrote:

Honorable runner up to ABBA is this, I tried but I can't not mention it

Man I love the Specials that one is great.

In the same vein as that one I've never been able to get enough of this:

tohostudios wrote:

I'd probably go with Freddy's "Safety Dance" nomination but for the sake of discussion I'd also nominate this notorious earworm.  I think this one sticks in my brain more than most people's because I'm such an avid fan of anything Celtic-sounding.

I should probably feel some sort of shame, but I don't.

Spandau Ballet-True
Kajagoogoo-Too Shy
Shandi-KISS

I like 1970s pop as much as 1980s

Tony Orlando & Dawn - Knock Three Times

The Ghostbusters theme song.

'nuff said.

There are a LOT of ear worms in this thread. "Come On Eileen?" Arrrrgh make it stop!!!

I can be hot/cold on a lot of Madonna but this one has always done it for me.  Actually that whole album is one of my favorite pop records.

Two more ear worms to plague you for the rest of the day.   

Purple Rain.

I'm really bad with music categories. Is this considered "pop" or is it "rock" or does it matter? This is my favorite:



I've also proclaimed this song to be the greatest ever written (when asked by a co-worker):