My Top 1000 Songs #450: What I Like About You

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Gonna violate one of my primary rules for this list, i.e., stick to songs I actually listen to. Because, frankly, I can't see myself walking over to the stereo and cueing up the Romantics' "What I Like About You" (from 1980's eponymous debut). Like, ever. It was so overplayed in my youth that, nope, not gonna do it. It's like the 80s version of "Stairway to Heaven" in that respect. On the other hand, if it just happens to show up on the radio, or shuffle play, I'm in.

I can't minimize how omnipresent this song was back in high school and college. It was on every mixtape that got pulled out for every high school gathering. And while I didn't arrive at college until four years after it's release, the song had already become a standard for every cover band that played at every party. It was our generation's "Twist & Shout"--sensibly so, since it based basically the same song, sped up and given a skinny-tied power-pop make-over.

But strip away the over-saturation, and you're still left with the ultimate new wave/power pop cross-over, and I'm never gonna not love it, even if I don't wanna play it.