I’d say Superstar by the Carpenters would have mass appeal. You can’t help but sing along with as evidenced in the movie Tommy Boy.
It features one of my favorite lyrics: “Baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby.”
I think this is as close to a winner as you can get. It covers all age groups, young and old. It’s uptempo. catchy, familiar, and inoffensive.
@Alessan 's suggestion of “Lean on me” also seems ubiquitous.
My first thought was Amazing Grace, then later thought Billie Jean.
As I said in the other thread, my participation in various polls in the other forum in question (PM me if you want to know, forum and threads can be provided) revealed that, even for people who are ostensibly big fans of a given artist, there will be a small minority which will downvote or ignore the all-time classic cuts which made the top 5.
I’ve seen this with respect to Nights In White Satin, Stairway to Heaven, Echoes, Losing My Religion, Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, A Day In the Life, Heart of Gold, etc. etc. When I’ve been bold enough to call them on it (something which is frowned on over there), I typically gotten a short dismissive reply which sheds zero light on their decision.
My hunch is that some are doing so just to stand out and look cool for daring to be different.
I would be if he sang.
:flees:
Bohemian Rhapsody?
Hey Jude?
Highway to Hell?
Amazing Grace
In my Uber days, the one song that everyone, no matter age, race, religion, or whatever, reacted positively to when it came on was Dancing Queen.
Bolding is mine.
I’m not going to suggest a song, but this is an opportunity to point out that neither this thread nor the movie thread are going to identify a list of good/great songs, just the most inoffensive ones.
Gradient descent search for The Lowest Common Denominator
And yet, I and other hate all things Abba, so no, not agreed.
I’ll nix that one. I think your other nominees are at least good songs for what they are (“Blowin’” might be a candidate for great), but this one is too “overblown” for my taste. It seems to me that the guys are trying just a little bit too hard to be meaningful. I hate to call something “pretentious” because a lot of my favorite stuff is prog rock, which often gets that label hung on it. I wouldn’t argue, though, if someone else wanted to call it that.
“Cherry Pie” by Warrant
I would veto it just for being a Christian hymn.
One thought here: it’s hard for me to agree that a song is good if I’ve never heard it before. And there’s only so many click-throughs I’m gonna do.
Songs so far that I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard before:
Deep Purple, “Child In Time”
Frankie Valli, “Beggin’”
Bob Marley, “Three Little Birds”
Louis Prima, “Sing Sing Sing”
The Carpenters, “Superstar”
?, “Echoes”
?, “Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding”
Warrant, “Cherry Pie”
I listened to the first minute and a half of the Deep Purple song, went “meh” and killed the tab. Decided I couldn’t do that for all of them. So they all get my “don’t agree it’s good” vote.
On a similar note, I wouldn’t bother nominating “Ship to Wreck” by Florence + the Machine, or “Harmony Hall” by Vampire Weekend or “Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan, because they’re all songs that were hits within the past dozen years, so many if not most Dopers wouldn’t be aware of them.
It’s also an anti-slavery protest song.
I’m Not In Love- I can’t stand it, mainly because it was so overplayed back when it was on the charts. The ‘‘big boys don’t cry” part was beyond sappy.
Amazing Grace may have been adopted by abolitionists, but when he wrote the song, John Newton was not yet anti-slavery himself. Fred “Slacktivist” Clark gives a good timeline at the bottom of this post :
1748: Newton begins his career in the slave trade, has a conversion experience during a fierce storm at sea.
1748-1754: Devout Christian Newton works in the slave trade, advancing to become captain of his own slave ship.
1754: Devout Christian Newton gives up sailing for work as a customs officer/tax collector, continues investing in the slave trade.
1764: Newton is ordained an Anglican priest.
1772: Newton writes the words to “Amazing Grace.”
1788: At the age of 63 — 40 years after he became a born-again Christian and 16 years after writing his most famous hymn — Newton becomes an abolitionist.
Interesting. I didn’t know that.
These threads amuse me because it should be apparent to anybody who has spent more than two seconds on this forum that we can’t ALL agree on ANYTHING.
But…if such a song exists, it’s probably one of those guilty pleasures none of will admit to liking.
Ok, I’ll do it, and nominate: MACARENA!