My hmphs

So I’ve analyzed my iTunes catalog, crossed off and readded songs and hemmed and hawed for days before coming up with a list of 10 perfect pop songs. These songs are destined to make your foot tap, put a smile on your face and infect you with earworms that hopefully will never go away.

1. “Just Like Heaven ” - The Cure. This song totally changed the Cure’s image as a dark, shoegazing Goth band. Bright and energetic, the song starts with simple bass and drums, and then slowly adds guitars, synthesizers and Robert Smith’s trademark yelp.
2. “I Don’t Mind At All” - Bourgeois Tagg. Mentioned previously on this blog, this song is reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” complete with a string quartet. Just beautiful.
3. “California Girl” - Candy Butchers. Not to be confused with the Beach Boys’ song, this tune addresses only one girl from California. Sunny and cheerful, Mike Viola and Todd Foulsham do wonders with two-part harmony.
4. “Someday, Someway” - Marshall Crenshaw. It’s a pity this song only made it to #36. Marshall Crenshaw sounds and looks like John Lennon, and the 1950s style production hearkens back to Buddy Holly.
5. “I Would Never” - The Nines. See previous post. If I were ranking the songs, this would be #1.
6. “The King is Half-Undressed” - Jellyfish. If pop music were more - er, popular, this group would have been the next Beatles. Instead, lead singer Andy Sturmer is writing theme songs for children’s shows.
7. “The Things We Do For Love” - 10cc. So many chord changes, you forget what key the song is in. Oh, yeah - tight harmonies, too.
8. “They Don’t Know” - Tracey Ullman. From the opening chords, chimes and Wall of Sound production, you think this is either a song from one of Phil Spector’s girl groups in the early 1960s or a remake of a 1960s girl group song. An achingly sweet song.
9. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” - Wham! All George Michael jokes aside, it’s another instantly recognizable and catchy song with a timeless, retro sound. It’s more bubblegum than pure pop,
10. “That Thing You Do!” - The Wonders. Tom Hanks wanted a perfect, catchy pop song for his film of the same name. Adam Schlesinger answered the call and won the audition, meeting Hanks’ requirements perfectly. NOTE: The voice on this song is none other than Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers (See #3 above).

Muxtape (containing 9 of the 10 songs - for some reason, “California Girl” just won’t upload). Instead, here’s a song from the same album that’s just as good.

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Judging from the title, you must be thinking that at one time, I didn’t like the Beach Boys.

Yep. Hated ‘em.

Growing up in the 80s, I was witness to only one Top 10 hit by the group, the horrendous “Kokomo” from the even worse movie, “Cocktail.” I found their sound formulaic, their lyrics inane and Mike Love’s voice like chewing aluminum foil.

Then I heard “God Only Knows.”

My first exposure to that song was a really bad cover by David Bowie from his 1985 album Tonight. But when I heard the Beach Boys’ version and started discovering chord progressions I never knew and hearing multiple harmonies intertwined, echoing each other and sometimes meeting in heavenly overtones, I knew I had to reassess this group.

I read Brian Wilson’s autobiography, Wouldn’t it be Nice, and saw how infatuated he was with creating harmonies as lush and intricate as his heroes, 50s doo-wop group The Four Freshmen. (It was his brother Dennis who was the surfer and suggested the subject matter for their early hits.) I read quotes from his ex-wife, Marilyn, recounting how “the difference was that Brian heard the music, the different instruments, the harmonies of the voices, and the production at the same time. He wrote, arranged, and produced it all! It was all there in his mind, and people would just look at him in amazement” (Charles L. Granata, Tony Asher: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds“).

This sounded like a modern-day Mozart, in which all he had to do was write down what was playing in his head. With this new information, I dug deeper. I found that Pet Sounds was a major motivator for the Beatles to record Sergeant Pepper, and when Brian tried to top the Beatles with the revolutionary concept Smile, the music in his head began to betray him, and he began to crack up. He has since finished the album some 30 years later, but he is a shadow of his former self, shattered by years of mental illness and medication.

The Beach Boys’ catalogue finally began to take on a new light. I gained a new respect for the harmonies in “Surfer Girl,” listened more closely to the instrumentation in “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” and forgot David Lee Roth’s version of “California Girls,” opting instead to examine the non-conventional song structure and chord changes.

Some songs are still silly (”409,” “Surfin”), the lyrics about cars and surfing are still lame, and Mike Love’s voice still grates on my ears. But Brian Wilson is still affecting music lovers almost 50 years after he began his foray into rock and roll.

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Courtesy of powerpopaholic: New York City’s Flying Machines have been dubbed “The Official Band of the USA Network “Psych” Campaign,” according to their MySpace page. That’s a good thing, BTW. They’re getting some publicity from USA’s show, which is hilarious, if you haven’t caught any episodes. Now you have two reasons to watch it.

Playing catchy, upbeat pop that sounds like a toned-down version of Queen, Flying Machines is a breath of fresh air. Let’’s hope we see and hear more from them.

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