David Bowie in general hard carries

As I wrote in an earlier post, there are so many different angles in how "best song" can be determined. Is it the best ear worm? Most re-listenable? Or is it purely based on taste and mood at the time? That's why the "best song" has changed so frequently in my head, and usually it's more like a tier from a wide variety of influences.

To try and narrow it down, and look past biases. I'm looking at my most played songs from each decade over the last 10+ years (since 2015)... although, none of them are my favourite song from the artist that decade (at least at this time) - but they obviously caught my ear more than others over the past 10 years, and they're generally highly regarded. So maybe one of these is the best of the timeframe?

1960s:

(note, the Beatles song I'd consider the best is A Day in the Life from Sgt Pepper, but this one is also very good. This one is probably my favourite on Abbey Road.) 

1970s:

(Note, my favourite 70s song from this album is probably Heaven... hard to say, I change my mind all the time on this band and while it's not considered their best album, it's definitely the one I've listened to the most and Cities was on a bunch of my playlists in the 2010s because of its energy... surprised I don't have any Elvis Costello ranking higher, because I listened to him a lot back then too. CBGB overall was a great scene and the Mecca of NYC New Wave - Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones, Misfits, B-52s, Elvis Costello  - one of the best in the US along with Compton (West Coast Hip Hop Mecca) and Olympia (the Grunge Mecca).

1980s: Most played song from 1960 to 1989

(Not my favourite NIN song from the 80s, but definitely the most ear-wormy. My favourite NIN from the 80s, and on the same album, Pretty Hate Machine 1989, is "Something I can Never Have"... but I can understand why I play that one less considering it might be the most depressing song of the 1980s...)

Runner Up (it was right under in my overall rankings, so I figure it's close enough to put on here):

(My favourite Phil Collins & Genesis song... not really sure, Invisible Touch is in the top tier with In the Air Tonight, Easy Lover, Sussudio and a few others... really vapid music that I like to listen to. Perhaps this is his best one of that bunch? I'd say most people probably consider In the Air Tonight, and I remember at the time Another Day in Paradise was overplayed a sickening amount on the radio).

This is an excelent thread to start a new playlist ♥
Cannot quite say which are my faves but i am so very much into 80's (GTA Vice City had influenced me a lot, specially Emotion, Flash and Wave radio stations)

Music is all about melodies and harmonies to me. Probably the best Pop songs were written between the 60s and 80s. So here's my personal opinion:

1961 - Ben E. King - Stand By Me
1965 - Wanda Jackson - Santa Domingo
1966 - Beach Boys - Sloop John B.
1966 - Chris Farlowe - Out of Time
1967 - Bee Gees - Massachusetts
1967 - Engelbert Humperdinck - Release Me
1968 - The Beatles - Hey Jude

1970 - Deep Purple - Child in Time
1972 - Neil Diamond - Song Sung Blue
1972 - Cats - One Way Wind
1973 - Demis Roussos - My Friend the Wind
1974 - Them - It's All Over Now Baby Blue
1974 - The Rubettes - Sugar Baby Love
1975 - The Carpenters - Please Mr. Postman
1976 - John Miles - Music
1977 - Bellamy Brothers - Crossfire
1977 - Boston - More Than a Feeling
1978 - Bonnie Tyler - It's a Heartache

1980 - REO Speedwagon - Take It On the Run [haven't known this awesome track for a long time!]
1980 - ABBA - I Have a Dream
1981 - Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
1982 - James Last - Biscaya
1984 - Alan Parson's Project - Don't Answer Me
1984 - Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven
1984 - Nino De Angelo - Jenseits von Eden
1984 - Alphaville - Forever Young
1985 - Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
1985 - Sandra - Maria Magdalena
1985 - Elton John - Nikita
1985 - Foreigner - I Want To Know What Love Is
1985 - Jennifer Rush - Power of Love
1985 - Peter Maffay - Sonne in der Nacht
1986 - Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart
1986 - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - (Forever) Live And Die
1986 - Münchner Freiheit - Ohne Dich
1987 - Kitaro - The Light of the Spirit [rather New Age than Pop]
1987 - Mental As Anything - Live It Up
1987 - Jefferson Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
1987 - Dominoe - Here I Am
1988 - Roxette - The Look
1988 - A-ha - Stay On These Roads
1988 - Whitney Houston - One Moment in Time
1989 - Tina Turner - Simply the Best

I don't know how open minded you are, but I put some german songs as well on this list.

Overall I'd say that the 60's were the most innocent but suffered from bad equipment, the 70's had many great melodies and better sound and the 80's had the best production value ever (peak of analog technique and arrangement). With digital engineering and CDs the music started to focus on beats rather than good song writing. Nevertheless you had a very large band width of music in the 90's charts. Starting with this century, Pop music sounds more or less the same without setting new trends and the look of a performer is probably more important than the music itself.

Actually I thought that "Music" by John Miles is considered as the best Pop song ever written (which I could understand), but according to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time it's "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan (which I can't understand). In the end it's always a personal opinion, I guess. As always with art, there's no right or wrong.