You know, I was listening to
Cheap Trick - "I Want You to Want Me"
yesterday and it occurred to me that there is really nothing to that song. One verse and one chorus repeated several times and a breakdown and that's pretty much it.
Granted, it's a helluva verse and a helluva chorus.
But it is possible to do something like that and have a classic.

That got me thinking of other songs that were similarly structured/(un)composed. And I came up with most of the Toots & The Maytals catalog, including "Pressure Drop".

Anyone else you can think of that made one or more classic songs with similarly thin content?

What is it that makes these songs endure so, when they have so little to offer in the way of content?
Is it the melody?
Is it the performance?
Is it the arrangement?
The production?
Or a combination of all of these?

First song that comes to mind for me is "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," and that one is all about the riff.

Yeah, but the lyrics at least go somewhere. Those other ones even have the same lyrics repeating every single time.

I think of that Cheap Trick song as two choruses. Surrender is probably another good example. There's lots of them out there, most of them are crappy pop tunes.

As far as what makes a simple song a classic, I think all of the aforementioned qualities help but if it doesn't have some kind of lyric that people can universally sing along with and identify with, it's much harder for that song to become a classic.

Lyrics to "Pressure Drop":

Pressure drop, oh pressure
Yeah, pressure gonna drop on you
It is you!
Oh yeah!
When it drops
Oh you gotta feel it
(something I can't understand)
It is you!
Oh yeah!

And that's it.
(And this is one of my favorite 100 or so songs of all time.)

Da Da Da

I don't love you you don't love me.

Good call.
Love that song, too.

"Oomalama" by Eugenius...

MOTO - I Wanna Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance To The Radio

The Booze and The Drugs by The Broken Family Band.

Roadrunner

Three chords and the truth.

surfin bird