I disagree actually - Common People is very very well known. I'm not doing down Wonderwall as a classic mind, as it is as well.

 

It is hugely well known, but if you stopped 100 people in the street I still think less would recognise it.

I would say Wonderwall's lyrics and theme can relate to many and pretty much everyone would recognise it, Common People is a classic too and is far better written imo, but out of the two, the former would be more year defining

Common People is definitely more year defining than Wonderwall, it's debatable however as to which more people would recognise.

I don't think it's debatable at all - Wonderwall by a mile.

I think I'd regognise Common People better than Wonderwall... I definitely hear it more anyway!

Lets just say Take That - Back For Good for 1995 instead, I'm sure the 100 people in the street would ALL recognise that :D

Lets just say Take That - Back For Good for 1995 instead, I'm sure the 100 people in the street would ALL recognise that :D

Actually, I'd forgotten this was released in '95. I think we have a new winner. :D

"Wonderwall" and "Back For Good" crossed one million at a similar time didn't they? I'd be interested to see which has sold more on downloads.

"Wonderwall" and "Back For Good" crossed one million at a similar time didn't they? I'd be interested to see which has sold more on downloads.

 

Surely Wonderwall probably has easily. I always see it so high on iTunes.

1990: MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

Surely Wonderwall probably has easily. I always see it so high on iTunes.

I'd imagine so but I don't really pay as much attention to Take That so "Back For Good" could have sold loads as well.

 

1990: MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

"Nothing Compares 2 U" crushes it.

'moves like jagger' which is nearly the most played song ever to grace the radio and its barely 8 months old and is the most defining song of the last few years!! also a mention for 'bleeding love' 2007. maybe a shout out for 'don't look back in anger'.

For the last decade it reads like a list of the overplayed.

1989: Fools Gold is a classic but I think more people would know Like A Prayer.

1990: Ice Ice Baby?

 

1995: The Wonderwall/Common People/Back For Good debate - I think Wonderwall has to win hands down! If you asked 100 people to name an Oasis song, I'd bet the majority would say Wonderwall, but if you asked 100 people to name a Take That song, the results would be far more varied, I don't even think Back For Good would be the top answer.

 

I think you need to do an updated list following some of these suggestions!

Edited April 30, 201213 yr by mango7

I'd consider Poker Face for 2009. It is very close between that and I Gotta Feeling, but i guess IGF sells more now, and has greater airplay still!

Only saying Poker Face because i think it's a classic song that really pushed Gaga into the limelight, whereas BEP have had much better/more iconic songs.

 

It's difficult to say what would be remembered more in 25 years...

 

Also 100% think Wonderwall for 1995

This reminds me that it will soon be 25 years since I fell in love with music and that I should do some sort of retrospective.

I think Poker Face has been largely forgotten in favour of Bad Romance by now surely?

I think Poker Face has been largely forgotten in favour of Bad Romance by now surely?

 

 

If I play Just Dance, Pokerface and Bad Romance - PF always comes out the worst. Just Dance is still great for me and BR is monumental 10/10 track - and I dont say that very often about a pop song.

1995 for me was all about McAlmont and Butler/Yes and Blur's Universal. I understand that neither will be in the public's consciousness as much as Wonderwall or Common People.

1995 was a classic year with a lot of well-remembered songs released. On one hand you have the Britpop "anthems" of the time like Common People and Wonderwall, then you have the airplay giants like Back For Good and Kiss From A Rose. It seems ridiculous that we have to narrow it down to just one when they'd probably be easy winners in some of the other years.

 

And if the criteria is simply what is known by more people, it will be the one with the widest appeal (and therefore the more poppier or "MoR" (for lack of a better word) as that's almost the very definition of them). I think some people are being a bit biased to their own experiences re:Common People - it obviously meant a lot to teenagers and young adults at the time but I'm not sure you can ever say it's had WIDE appeal. You only have to look at the chart run from 1995 in comparison to Wonderwall, Back For Good, etc. to see that.