Come On Eileen // Dexys Midnight Runners
Without a doubt the best four-and-a-half-minutes of a song in the entire world. And galaxy. And universe. Of all time.
From the unorthodox folky fiddle intro, to the infectiously catchy dance beat, and each truly singable (shoutable) verse, I say with as much confidence as I can that this is the greatest song to have ever been written. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t throw a crazy dance battle whenever this song comes on, and every time I hear this being played – whether it be on a night out or in the dressing room of a shop – I begin dancing so hard I very nearly break my hip bone. It’s probably some of the earliest memories I’ve ever had of music being played to me. It is total happiness and total joy contained in the space of one song, with a sort of inescapable infectiousness that seems to melt all your sorrows away. True, it may be lyrically centred on the objectification of a girl, but melodically it is a song that radiates pure sunshine and ecstasy. An ode to the boundary between love and lust, pop has never gotten better than this.