Steven Drozd, Flaming Lips
“Hello It’s Me,” Nazz
While I love Todd Rundgren’s version of it on Something/Anything, the Nazz version is really kickass. Weird, mellow, Beach Boys-esque. And “Open My Eyes,” of course—I always picture a ‘60s drug film with the camera zooming in and out really fast while there’s some crazy dancing.

David Lowery, Camper Van Beethoven
“Shake Some Action,” Flamin’ Groovies
In the verses, the narrator is defensive yet somehow defiant. This complex narrative view contrasts nicely with the brash and simple pronouncements of the chorus. The chords are also fat, and that to me is the number-one defining element of power pop: a hooky chord progression. You may have guessed I would have picked this song, as Cracker covered it for the movie Clueless.

Jason Lytle, Grandaddy
“Barracuda,” Heart
That song just blew me out of my shoes. It sounded forbidden. I remember being disturbed by it as a little kid. It was almost like I was looking at a dirty magazine. It was the dance I never learned. The fact there were two women up front didn’t hurt matters, either.

Robert Schneider, Apples In Stereo
“Rock ‘N’ Roll High School,” Ramones
It rocks out with huge-sounding drums, attitude and it’s really catchy. In the equation, the power times the pop is about equal. Plus, it was produced by Phil Spector, and it has an explosion at the end, like Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” The Ramones were the new Beach Boys.

Janet Weiss, Sleater-Kinney
“September Gurls,” Big Star
One, because I am indeed a September gurl, and two, because it’s the catchiest, most melodic sing-along since the Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week.” Makes you wish for one of those “December boys”!

Chris Ballew, Presidents Of The United States Of America
“Amplifier,” dB’s
It was a real eye opener. A simple song that sounds more complicated than it is—and funny and a great hook. I also sat down with Peter Holsapple by accident when I was in college after buying that record. He was drinking in the middle of the day at CBGB and told me through the haze that I was “going to make it!”

Kurt Bloch, Fastbacks
“Go All The Way,” Raspberries
When it came out, there was nothing more kickass. It was louder than anything else and cooler. By ‘76 and ‘77, everyone started looking for scarce copies of Big Star and Badfinger, but “Go All The Way” was never really usurped as the reigning champion. Still have my 45, still sounds great at DJ night, a little worn—but it gets the job done every time.

Kevin Coral, Witch Hazel Sound
“Go All The Way,” Raspberries
Even as a kid, I knew the Raspberries were a blend of Beatles melody and Beach Boys falsetto. My parents had that 45, and I had also roughly figured out what Eric Carmen was singing about: that men and women did something in the backseat of the car.

John Flansburgh, They Might Be Giants
“Amplifier,” dB’s
Of course, it’s incredibly hook-laden with a brilliantly fractured Bo Diddley beat, but it also has an odd prosaic quality that makes it transcend the dumbed-down boy/girl clichés that hobble even the best power pop. It’s the story of a break-up where the girlfriend takes absolutely everything out of their apartment except the dude’s amplifier, which of course is a pretty useless object on its own. The detail of the lyric really pulls the song into the real world and makes the heartbreak even more tangible.

Mike Johnson, Dinosaur Jr
“Downed,” Cheap Trick
It actually transcends any genre or pseudo-genre (i.e., power pop). America’s Beatles delivered the perfect ballad/non-ballad with this ode to barbituates, and though Big Star may have been more “important” and “heavier, man” and I “may not know what I’m talking about,” for me, it all comes back to Trick.

Steve Koester, Koester
“He’s A Whore,” Cheap Trick
Pop with emphasis on the power. That whole album just rips, and the hooks are huge. “Whore” isn’t exactly perky, either—kinda dark. Too young for the first go around, I saw Cheap Trick first in about ‘90 at the Waukesha (Wis.) County Fair. Those may have been lean days for them, but they certainly blew my gourd.

Victor Krummenacher, Camper Van Beethoven
“I’m On Fire,” Dwight Twilley
Or, for that matter, pretty much anything off of Sincerely. This was the cream of the crop, the stuff that rivaled Badfinger but conjured Oklahoma at the same time. Not that there aren’t other great candidates, but whereas the Chilton/Bell stuff seemed beautifully melancholy, it also had an undercurrent of narcissism. Twilley expresses longing and desire better to me. “I’m On Fire” just sounds obsessive. And it actually made the charts, too—maybe that’s why Chilton is cooler, because Big Star never got to number 16 on the hot 100.

Eric Matthews
“Wendy,” Descendents
When I was in high school, I stumbled upon the Descendents. John McEntire and I were good friends, and he had the 1986 Enjoy LP. We would smoke cigarettes, drink stolen beers, skate the half-pipe and listen to records like this one. Of all the songs of my skateboarding era, my favorite song was “Wendy.” I knew “Wendy” as a Beach Boys song, but the Descendents played and sang the hell out of it and somehow made it new. We also listened to the Toy Dolls, Vandals, Faith No More and other melodic post-punk records that would now be called power pop. Imagine my amusement when I saw bands like Green Day get rich and famous.

Eric Melin, Ultimate Fakebook
“Oh Candy,” Cheap Trick
“September Gurls” by Big Star is widely considered the best power-pop song ever, but this is a slightly more obscure song, a perfect blend of bright, pop perfection and dark, twisted lyrics—the staple of Rick Nielsen’s best stuff. At first, it seems like a song about a girl, but it’s actually about the untimely death of a close friend of the band whose initials were M&M, hence the nickname “Candy.” In so little time, the song moves from jittery intro to catchy verse wind-up to huge pop chorus and never lets the melody falter. And it all ends with a heartbreaking cry from Robin Zander, whose amazing voice is absolutely the best in the genre.

Scott Miller, Loud Family
“Couldn’t I Just Tell You,” Todd Rundgren
It had the strongest real-life effect on me, telling the absolute truth about being a teenager in the grip of unrequited love—that feeling of, “Oh, you can’t just address this heavenly creature with mere everyday conversation.” It’s not the most inventive guitar solo ever, but it’s very possibly the most purely climactic. And power pop is about climaxes.

Travis Morrison, Dismemberment Plan
“Built In Girls,” Wrens
The Wrens are a genius pop/rock crew from New Jersey that put out the incredible Secaucus in, like, 1997, and then vanished. It has indie-rock production values and the overall rhythm staggers like garage, but all the key elements are power pop: snotty-yet-wistful resentment of pretty girls, gorgeous harmonies on the chorus and pounding drums and guitar.

Nate Albert, Kickovers
“Favorite Thing,” Replacements
It’s a supercharged, bittersweet neon blast of twentysomething desire. Granted, their music was always more “powerful” than “popular”; nonetheless, Let It Be and especially “Favorite Thing” ought to serve as the textbook for How To Power Pop 101. It’s sad, full of energy and perfect.

Anton Newcombe, Brian Jonestown Massacre
“A Million Miles Away,” Plimsouls
I didn’t think power pop really ever made that much of an impact on me, so I was going to talk about what it was like when the Cheap Trick stuff came out: “This is the first song off our new album.” But I thought that would make me look lame, so I called my partner Greg Shaw at the Committee To Keep Music Evil. We agree it’s “A Million Miles Away.” It has the great combination of Byrds-esqe Rickenbacker guitars, tight harmonies and driving energy. They were great live, too.

Rick Rizzo, Eleventh Dream Day
“I Am The Cosmos,” Chris Bell
It aches with beauty. It’s got all the greatness of a Big Star song but with that extra dollop of pathos that old, cynical Alex sometimes lacks.

Adam Schlesinger, Fountains Of Wayne
“Surrender,” Cheap Trick
It’s a pretty obvious answer, because everybody tries to rewrite it, and it’s impossible. Plus, it was an actual hit, and how often does that happen with a power-pop song?

Scott Shriner, Weezer
“Epic,” Faith No More
‘Cuz I said so, fool. No? How about Sly & The Family Stone? “I Want To Take You Higher”—how much more powerful and pop could you get?

Courtney Taylor, Dandy Warhols
“S.O.S.,” ABBA
The greatest power-pop song ever written. All the rest would-be power popsters need to look upon it and weep.

Dean Ween, Ween
“I’m In Trouble,” Replacements
This is the first single from the Replacements and pretty much the essence of American rock ‘n’ roll as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure about “power pop” as a label for the Mats, but they weren’t really your typical punk band, and this is before the wussy-ass days of “alternative rock” as an actual genre of music.

Roddy Woomble, Idlewild
“Teenage Kicks,” Undertones
My favorite love song. Two minutes and 20 seconds of pop genius. I defy you to stand still. Honorable mentions to Superchunk’s “Precision Auto” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.”

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