Perfect Pop Songs

Best Chuck Berry song that Chuck never wrote.

 

I know we're talking sacriledge here - but scroll through the Partridge Family archives. A big early part was the Wrecking Crew and the singing group (Ron Hinklin Singers) that did a ton of work (Wonder Woman, Happy Days etc).

 

First song that popped to mind for me was Marshall Crenshaw's "Someday, Someway". A few more:

With all due respect to Sir Coco, I think the Association's representative would be "Windy":

And if we have "Windy", it leads to "Brandy:

A couple cover versions that elevated the originals:

Ronstadt with an Everly Brothers tune:

REM running through a number by The Clique:

For the 90s, we'll pick out a Matthew Sweet number:

And for the 00s, let's ride with Weezer to Beverly Hills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL_WvOly7mY

Will stop there for now to figure out what makes my second cut.

 

Three chord rock songs make sense since Western music is based on the I-IV-V chord progression. Add in the relative minor and you've got the 4 chords that make up a ton of 50's pop songs.

 

And if we want to take the extremely literal route, it offers up another chance for me to get in another shameless REM plug:

 

Two more of similar linkage. Spiral Staircase and the Monkees.

Written by Neil Diamond no less.

Daydream Believer deserves a shout as well.

 

Some pop masterpieces from Down Under:

 

That's about 20% of the Stones and 40% of the Beach Boys catalog. *Edit* On further consideration, both of those numbers should probably be higher than that.

 

So the TV producers looked at the success of "A Hard Day's Night" and decided to do a series about a rock band trying to get big. It worked, the Monkees sold millions of records. Music producer for the show Don Kirshner looked at the formula and thought that he could do it again without the complications if he did it without dealing with the contract demands of the pain in the ass musicians and actors, simply paying studio musicians by the sessions, and thus was born The Archies, an entirely imaginary and animated band. It made him a lot of money.

Hollywood went back to the well with the Partridge Family, which was based on The Cowsills, a similar family band. Same formula, except back to actual actors. I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it was to live in David Cassidy's shoes then, when he was plastered all over every teeniebopper fan magazine.