All This Time These Songs Are Still Clinging To My Ears

10 POP SONGS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO SHAKE: 1. Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time: How I love to sip on the sweet nectar of nostalgia. In this case it was back before Britney had a meltdown, rose from the ashes, and as of right now has a totally lovely song I'll have to elbow into my listening schedule called "Work B**ch" (I'm insulted there Brit! I like to think of myself more as a practicing smartass! "...Baby" has this swagger that knocks you off your feet in no time. One of the '90s best pop nuggets for which there is no imitation. 2. Billy Joel - It's Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me: To this day the clanging guitar bounces my pleasure center down a steady life-affirming track. You really inhale the leather jacket bravado here. It's easy to sashay along to. The conversational style of this song makes it a New York state of mind winner with undeniable charisma. 3. Carly Rae Jespen - Call Me Maybe: Undeniably cute. It's a lot of fun. As for Miss Carly, her winsome personality busts out through the I-Pod. I also am sort of partial to Cookie Monster's delightfully warm parody, "Share It Maybe" but then again I too am a cookie monster so you'll have to forgive me. However, I digress. This is another example of how much fun it is to be geographically just south of Canada. They gave us Rush, Corey Hart, Robin Thicke and Carly Rae. Call that a pretty sweet deal. 4. Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca: I bet you a lot of singers male or female would be thrilled to have even one song in their catalogs that even comes close to being the champagne drinking all ages party this song is. It's one of those songs that begs you not to be in a good mood. I recommend this for anyone facing a terminal disease you needs a motivation boost of any kind. Ricky is mucho randy spouting out those lyrics. Jazzy, vibrant, full of body. 1999 was a better radio climate because of it. 5. Quad City DJ's - C'mon Ride It (The Train): Hello earwig territory. Pumping, thrashing, and of course the obligatory "woo woo" sounds. If you can get past the one million (yes, exaggeration) utterances of "C'mon ride the train...hey ride it, you can settle in for an uninhibited good time. 6. fun. - We Are Young: I can't stop bragging about it. Just screaming the chorus from the rafters makes the years just slide away. Brimming with elan. It's where we get introduced to Janelle Monae, who is blossoming into quite the show stopper in her own right. 7. ABC- Poison Arrow: Martin Fry, you handsome devil you. Yup cheesy lyrics "Who broke my heart, you did, you did...Shoot that poison arrow through to my heart". I loved the early '80s wave of Brit pop stars. "Poison Arrow" was, in a word, smashing. Everything about it was crisp. The percussion grabbed you by the balls, the pianos were classy in that dry martini manner. With each passing year I wave to the early '80s, hanky in hand, a gentle tear rolling down my cheek. 8. Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out: Off of "Night and Day" here's an example of a gorgeous pop song spit shined to within an inch of its life. You feel like a prettier person just listening to it. This is a few years after "Look Sharp" showed music listeners with the dapper Brit could do. All sparkly and new even 30 plus years later. The video is quaint, a real throwback that looks like it was ripped from a time at least a few decades earlier. 9. The Gap Band - You Dropped a Bomb On Me: If these boys don't qualify for sainthood on the basis of that once in a lifetime keyboard riff then the bar has been set way too high. It's that riff that sells the song. In most cases that kind of repetition would annoy the bejeebers out of me but in this case more is definitely better. Over and over and over until you find yourself air keyboarding. I can't argue with novel lyrics such as: "You were the first explosion, turned out to be corrosion". Who sticks the word "corrosion" into a song anymore. Has anybody done so for that matter. Good times. Incredible grove line. 10. Sonique - Feels So Good: The sound rises up from under like a quake entering the initial tremors stage. Sonique's voice is super sexy and the dance ready factor is at at least 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Best of all, this song invites you in rather that beats you over the head. The throbbing beats are gone. The steady waves pushing back and forth from the shore have replaced them. Perfect for midnight, 1 AM, 2 AM, or any other time day or night where a party ethos needs to be copped.