oldviolin wrote:
 

 sirdroseph wrote:
 
Yeah, it's one thing if you like the song or think it's a good song, but another if you still like listening to it after hearing it so many times - which seems to be the point of this thread.  If you don't really care for a song, it doesn't really make much difference whether it's overplayed or not.

 Proclivities wrote: 
I am good with Space Oddity but not Heroes, but then again I have never liked Heroes so really it is all subjective anyway as is everything.  I suppose the more accurate line would be Songs that we never tire of regardless of ubiquity emphasis being on the "we" cause we are all different as we are the same.

For unknown reasons I rarely tire of hearing "Space Oddity" or "Heroes" by Bowie; some of his other ubiquitous tunes I could do without, but those two always work.

 rgio wrote:

 
Completely agree about Michael.  Because of his poppiness and genre and possibly other personal problems he gets short shriff in his talent and songwriting ability.   Along those lines, this is such a beautiful if not ubiquitous underrated Michael tune:

 

 RabbitEars wrote:
 
In Your Eyes ubiquity is due in a large part to that scene, yet the song is (to me) just so good that holds up in spite of its association to the movie.

I don't listen to the Beatles much, but you have to acknowledge that they are the Ubiquity Champs!   It's crazy to think they are almost 50 years from working together.   It will be interesting to see if they are still everywhere in 20 more years, but their run to date is amazing.  Sinatra and Elvis seem to be fading away.....so maybe the Beatles will as well. 

Agree with Aretha and Stevie.  I'll go out on a limb in this discussion, and suggest the following.....

When this came out, I hated it.  Then I was literally forced to listen to the album (Faith) and begrudgingly appreciated that the dude could sing and that some of the songs were pretty good.   This song (and video) are a literal time capsule to the period.  As for the song, the piano and bassline make it really hard to dismiss. The layers of this song make it incredibly catchy.   I never much liked his songs when released, but in retrospect, he is one of the great male voices in my lifetime.  

 rgio wrote:
 

I'd agree with you about PG if it weren't for this. To this day, I hear jokes or cultural references about it. I never mention the song to anyone without them knowing it. But I'll give it to you that whatever gets played on RP a lot that was at some point played on mainstream radio seems ubiquitous to me. 

As for the Beatles, Let it Be and All You Need is Love are the only songs on that list that would qualify for me - there are at least a dozen other songs by them I think are way better... ie, for me, most of them have not overcome their ubiquity. 

Respect by Aretha and Superstition by Stevie are two others I'd throw in the pile. When I think about overcoming ubiquity, I think about the power a song can have to catch you up in it no matter how sick you may have been of it at some point. And I must say Bill seems to be pretty good at cherry picking the well-worn. 

 rgio wrote:
 
  Most of those particular Beatles songs I could do without hearing very much, especially the first six.  I generally don't like much of their ubiquitous songs from pre-1966 (well, except for "If I Fell").  "A Day in the Life" fits this thread description for me as does "Hello, Goodbye", but the latter doesn't seem like an especially overplayed song, (though Lennon didn't care for that song).  I don't hear "Paperback Writer" or "Penny Lane" very often, but I guess they are played somewhere frequently.  I didn't even really like "Yellow Submarine" since I was a kid.
  I think a lot of this depends on what mood one is in at a particular time, but still, as pointed out in the first post: such songs are very, very rare.

 rgio wrote:  And that is the perfect illustration on what makes Beatles so special.  If I were to think of my favorite which of course are all ubiquitous, it would be at least 7 or 8 different tunes.  Simply amazing.

 RabbitEars wrote:
 
By definition, I don't believe Genesis (arguably my favorite band growing up) ever had a ubiquitous moment, and if they did, it came after PG left the band.  The only song that I might consider for "so good" would be Follow You, Follow Me, but so good.... I'm not sure.

PG had a few potentials, but I think Sledgehammer and Shock the Monkey aren't "so good", and Solsbury Hill and Games Without Frontiers fail the ubiquitous hurdle.  Solsbury I could argue....but it's not In Your Eyes....and I struggle to think any act could have more than one of these unless you are the Beatles.  That said....

I found a list of the most played Beatles songs....and I would argue they all could fit this category.

1. Hey Jude 
2. I Want to Hold Your Hand 
3. All You Need Is Love 
4. Eleanor Rigby 
5. Get Back
6. Let It Be 
7. Paperback Writer 
8. Penny Lane 
9. Ticket to Ride 
10. We Can Work It Out
11. Can’t Buy Me Love

A day in the life, Yellow Submarine, Hello, Goodbye.....c'mon, it's a just silly when you think about it in these terms.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
Yea you can't go wrong with virtually any Paul Simon hit and I am not a particularly huge fan of his music (or him as a person for that matter) however you cannot ignore his prodigious songwriting talent.  One of the best.

 rgio wrote:
 
I was thinking of that one, too. Bill definitely plays it quite a lot and I never tire of it. I also thought about Mercy Street, Solsbury Hill and Genesis' Carpet Crawlers. Though I don't think Crawlers really qualifies for ubiquity - I've never heard it anywhere but on my CD player and RP. 

I saw both PG tours... I'm a huge Youssou N'Dour fan. Gonna see him soon for the umpteenth time. 

 sirdroseph wrote:
 

Funny you should mention that. On my drive in this morning, that song, "Life in a Northern Town" by 1-hit wonders the Dream Academy came on. I keep waiting for it to come up on Trivia Night, but I A) Know the lead singer's name, which is only a thing because whenever I read it I think it says Nick Lowe. Nick Laird-Clowes. and 2), Nick attended a songwriting class led by Paul Simon, and so the story goes, Life in... is what came out of that.

I'll put that song here for reference, but I think it owes a lot to Sound of Silence, which is my entry for this thread.

Especially fond of the Secret World Live tour with Paula Cole, but the Youssou N'Dour original is tough to beat. 

Hey just saw this on the playlist, this fits the bill for me. I'm not skert!  If you are giving a songwriting class, pretty good exhibit on how to do it. 

 

Some might choose Like a Rolling Stone, but I'm fully sick of that one. 

I've got a few in mind. There are a few tracks on Joshua Tree that would qualify IMO. 

 RabbitEars wrote: 
Synchronicity! (not the song)

 sirdroseph wrote:
 

Agree on the very, very rare.

And on your first choice.