Crowded House -Don't Dream It's Over: Best chart song of the 80's?

i find this thread interesting because i was thinking about crowded house and neil finn tonight. i was crazy about nf's first solo album when i first got it, and i still think it's terrific. actually, mike's description of "don't dream it's over" applies to many other songs by neil finn. i was thinking something like that earlier tonight. my actual thought was something like "perfect pop song", but any song that can do that is perfect (or close to perfect) in my book.

that is why I think Ford Timelord is the best pop star of the 1980's!
Ford a was car who made a hit record that went straight to #1! A car made a hit record, how fantastic is that!

They did even better stuff later though.

Revive.

"Kokomo" is the best SOMETHING of the '80s. Best monolithic jingle?

The last few times I saw him, Finn closed with an acoustic version of "DDIO," and its somewhat ambiguous, if undoubtedly melancholy, subject matter fit right in with current events.

The best chart song of the 80s would be 'Come On Eileen', but it falls down on the 'handsome singer' thing.

In England, you mean.

Country specifications were not listed in the title of this thread. In any case, "Don't Dream It's Over" correctly performed poorly in Britain, climbing no higher than #27.

The first Crowded House song i remember for its own sake is "You Better Be Home Soon" which struck me as really angry and confrontational. My older sister really liked it.

When I was 11 I used to listen to a station that played "classic rock" which in Australia means "Jack & Diane" and "Harley & Rose" and "To Her Door" and Billy Joel stuff like "You May Be Right". Anyway, this station used to play "Private Universe" a lot and I found it immensely powerful. I would wake up in the middle of the night all disoriented and it would be drifting from the speakers, it seemed to have some quality of epic doomed romance about it, which would then inspire me to have dreams about a mythic love triangle which I imagined writing about in a three part trilogy.

This, for me, is their definitive choon.

Of course, "Fall at your feet" was not an 80s chart hit, so I'm off-topic.

Someone mentioned Mitchell Froom upthread, that probably explains why I hate something so innocuous, his producing style is easily in my bottom 5 of all time. Sonically empty fussiness, no thanks Mitch.

(and I really dislike Split Enz, with the exception of "One Step Ahead").

And Crowded House went on to write at least 5-6 songs that were better later on.

The s/t debut would rank second, for the aforementioned singles and "Can't Carry On" and "I Walk Away."

What makes a classic ? Uniqueness, and songcrafting
skill manifested by distinguishing lyrical/melodic/harmonic/rhythmic
elements.Instrumental skill augments implementation
of the songcrafting skill.

Imagination and respect for music (melody, harmony & rhythm
intertwined) and a sense of lyrical phrasing of the concept.

Now we all know that some very hi-energy, rhythmically intricate,
image cool, shocking and aggressive music is favored by
some musically ignorant ones nowadays, and it definitely
satisfies their short-term desire for instant sonic
gratification.

But for a piece of music to have *longevity*, and transcend
the fandom of superficial fads, it MUST incorporate some
requirements of the songcrafting process, augmented by
instrumental skill.

(another joke song by a joke band.Whimsical, Satirical Songcrafting Parodies are fun, but there's nothin' like the real thing, ratty...)

ugh. i can't even listen to that album all through. i almost don't know why but it's ruined a lot of the rest for me. first time i heard it - in "everyone is here" where the song suddenly becomes 'true to format' at the change with the "come on now"s... just arghh, argggh, argggghh.

Finn's been writing great, great songs since he was barely out of his teens. I hardly think "DDIO" is an exception. Search also "Message to My Girl," "One Step Ahead," "I Got You," and many, many more from Crowded House, the Finn Brothers and his solo discs. "Driving Me Mad" from the last one was amazing. "Golden Hum" from the last Finn Brothers disc is gorgeous.

No.

This is great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v012NTMVcbA

one of those songs whose apparently deep and broad appeal eludes me somewhat

I think I prefer "Message to My Girl". (As raised many years ago.) Though that one may not have actually charted beyond the antipodes. Several such Finn tracks are amongst the very earliest music I can remember making me feel things, such that my judgement is possibly not to be trusted.

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a good suggestion upthread. I'm never displeased when I hear it in a supermarket.

Incidentally I like how ILM is old enough that a post about a song from 16 years previously is now itself deeper into the past from the present day.

I like this song a lot but I've always thought there's something wrong in the arrangements, specifically the way the organ outro part comes in feels a bit cut/paste.
And the production is a bit too dry to my taste.

Weird. If anything, the production is too wet! But there's nothing wrong with this song, imo. I'm not a huge fan of the guitar solo, I guess, but it builds just enough for the next (flanged?) part to sound particularly satisfying. There was some song Alfred recently likened to "Don't Dream Its Over" in its intriguing vagueness. "Live to Tell," maybe?

eheh yeah I suppose it's very subjective !
But the seemingly tacked on outro is my main issue with this song.

Anyway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ua3O_fdCY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e93rj-SQreE

(Not vouching for the above at all, btw, but it's nice to see the song sifting down through the years.)

I love Froom's organ (first draft on Elvis Costello's "I'll Wear It Proudly") and Finn's solo, so there!

Fun fact: it's not an organ, it's a Chamberlin, sort of a cousin to the Mellotron.

Believe those are made in California, somewhere in the Inland Empire.

Perhaps by (or bought by?) Mattel. I used to own an Optigan, made by same toy folks iirc.

ooh an Optigon? always wanted to play one of those, was it cool?

Yes and no. Yes, it was cool and sounded cool, but it was also big and prone to breaking down or otherwise not working that well, and tracking down the discs was challenging/expensive. What's funny is I had always talked about them to my wife, about how I always wanted one, and years later when we moved to our first house she found one being sold at an estate sale down the street! But yeah, it didn't work that well, so I eventually sold it to a guy who I think cannibalized them for parts for better working Optigans.

Gorgeous (augmented) use of an Optigan here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVg5WZHoPos

Funny Optigan aside: I once read an interview with Tchad Blake, and he said Tom Waits was really into Optigans circa "Bone Machine" ... but only the shitty sounding built in organ that no one uses!

I've always liked this song, but Jesus, it's been hitting hard for the past few months, moreso than ever before. Since it's more or less the only huge hit they had in the U.S., it may have the same obstacles as any song that grows that familiar, where you think you've heard it enough to know all there is to it, and as a result, it may feel like it's been completely drained - but circumstances change and the world changes, in this case for the worst, and words like the chorus can become extremely moving.