I love Dire Straits, I love Mark Knopfler and I think that song is a masterpiece, buuuuutttt… it is way too long for everyone to like it. It just is. Pick the uber safe option of ‘Sultans of Swing’ 
I’ll nominate ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ by Candi Staton, such a joyful tune but such sad lyrics. Who doesn’t sing along to that one?
I don’t like “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Agreed. And the whole song feels kinda jingoistic, with a simplistic melody.
If we’re going to nominate a patriotic song, I’m all for Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”
???
Meaning?
You don’t know the song, you don’t understand why anyone would like the song, or you know the song is by Arlo’s dad (a typo I corrected) but don’t want to say so?
Woody Guthrie, a Dust Bowl troubadour wrote the song and played it throughout the US during the Depression and the troubling years for working people preceding it.
Arlo Guthrie expanded on that legacy from his father and also became a famous folksinger serenading the country with his and his father’s songs. It’s easier to find recordings of Arlo singing it. He often appeared with Pete Seeger. Bruce Springsteen sang it with Seeger on the steps of the Lincoln memorial at Obama’s Inaugural Celebration.
I was going to suggest the Beatles would be a good place to start when trying to come up with ecumenical choices. I was going to suggest ‘Yesterday’ as this song does a great job of conveying that sense of bittersweet regret that we universally associate with failed relationships….but then I see this suggestion for ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and think, yeah, this is way more upbeat and therefore probably more universally liked.
Thank you for that interesting explanation!
I think it is still correct to ID the song as “Woody” Guthrie’s, since he wrote it. But I do hear Arlo in my head when I think about the song.
I’ve mellowed on this as I’ve gotten older. But when this song came out, I (and all of my friends who considered ourselves fans of real metal, as defined of course by us) absolutely loathed this song and this band as the fakest of fake metal bands at the time. Still know plenty of people who don’t like it.
That’s putting it mildy. From an American Songwriter article:
“The 1969 Abbey Road classic Here Comes The Sun has been streamed a whopping 1.4 billion times on Spotify as of 2024. It’s not just one of the most-streamed Beatles songs of all time; it’s the most-streamed Beatles song ever.”
Interesting. I picture John and Paul running well ahead in a mile-long footrace, but then George makes a push toward the end, and just beats them at the finish line tape.
Beth?
Layla?
I’m wondering if the answer is something as simple as the songs we all learned as children. “Happy Birthday” was mentioned above, and I’ll add “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and perhaps “Soft Kitty” too.
They’re well-known by all, certainly inoffensive, and they’ve proven that they’ve got staying power across many years.
Beth is in my top 40 songs of all time.
Layla is “change the station as soon as it comes on”. WAY too long.
Correct.
By no means do i dislike it, but it wouldnt go on my top 100 list.
Same with Child in Time.
Nope. pretty much I nix anything by them. Okay, I really dislike the carpenters, mostly because of that really creepy “Close to You”.
But it it hard to tell where Newton decided slavery was wrong- as opposed to becoming an active abolitionist.
I wont say NO to any of those.
The common denominator is a common multiple. 1 is the least, but it’s not a common denominator.
For instance, to add 1/2 + 2/3, you need a common denominator, and the least common denominator in that case is 6: 3/6 + 4/6 = 7/6 .
Back to the topic, has nobody seriously nominated John Denver’s “Country Roads”? Everyone loves that. And I mean everyone, in the world. Go to Third World countries in the back end of nowhere where nobody even speaks English, and they’ll still sing Country Roads.
Beethoven’s Ode to Joy — the finale of his Ninth Symphony.
It’s timeless, cross-cultural, instantly recognizable, and its core message resonates around the world: joy, unity, and shared humanity.
I’m not going to go through them all, but I wonder when the newest song listed so far is from (other than the joking Macerana). 1980s?
My favorite ‘Summertime’ is Bill Wither’s version.
A drum marching band (all the usual plus the ‘55 gallon’ tuned Caribbean version) and a dance group did DANCING GIRL in a street parade. EVERYONE SANG AND MARCHED along in trail.
My nominee is NEW YORK, NEW YORK by who else, Sinatra in younger days
Into the Mystic by Van Morrison.
Funky Kingston by Toots and the Maytals.