Find out what ‘Billboard’ thinks are the top 10 Best Pop Songs of All Time
In honor of the 65th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the publication started posting a list of the 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time, based on staff picks.
The qualifications were that the song had to have hit the Hot 100 at some point and that it had to fit Billboard’s definition of what a “pop” song is: “catchy, tight, rousing, emotional, immaculately crafted, instantly memorable.”
After posting the first 400, the publication has now unveiled the top 100, including the top 10. Here they are, along with Billboard’s comments:
1. Whitney Houston, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” — “Not only understands and exemplifies” pop music’s favorite topics — love, sex, dancing and music — but “also features the greatest possible singer to deliver it.”
2. ABBA, “Dancing Queen” — “a soaring Swedish anthem that encapsulates the freedom, liberation and possibility of the dancefloor.”
3. The Temptations, “My Girl” — An “exceptionally graceful ballad,” “immediately recognizable,” “classy, but not the least bit stodgy or old-fashioned.”
4. Backstreet Boys, “I Want It That Way” — “It’s all silly, it’s all epic, and it’s all so of its time that the whole thing has become strangely timeless, understood by few but beloved by all.”
5. Kelly Clarkson, “Since U Been Gone” — “The 21st century’s greatest contribution to the pop canon so far.”
6. Madonna, “Like a Prayer” — “The Queen of Pop’s crown jewel.”
7. Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean” — “A significant cultural touchstone.”
8. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe” — “pure bubblegum pop goodness.”
9. 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre, “California Love” — A “hook-filled hip hop party-starter.”
10. The Beatles, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” — “A force the likes of which pop had never encountered before, forever changing music, culture and hairstyles on both sides of the Atlantic.”
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