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Obviously opinions on what "sonically perfect" is will vary from person to person.. but I'm curious, what song do you think is absolute perfection from an engineering standpoint?

I'm gonna nominate "Don't Forget The Sun" by The Explorers Club.. the recording is just so crystal clear. It doesn't hurt that the composition is great as well.. but sheesh, the sound quality is outstanding.

PLMW :o

Surf's Up 1971 version

I Wish That I Could See You Soon, by Herman Dune.

Don't Do It from the remastered Live At The Academy tapes. Most of those songs sound amazing, but that one in particular is fantastic.

Great topic!

Don't Worry Baby (2009 Stereo Mix) - The Beach Boys
      The vocals in this mix are perfectly balanced - sounds unearthly to my ears.

Dancing Queen - Abba
      Every instrument and vocal can be heard distinctly - it's like a wall of sound from the future.

More Than A Feeling - Boston
      Same as Dancing Queen - every element of the song is played to perfection and perfectly mixed.

Welcome To The Jungle - Guns n Roses
      Distorted guitars, heavy percussion, and Axl's vocals - you wouldn't think these were the makings of a sonically perfect song, but that mix is crystal clear.

This Whole World - The Beach Boys

I'm Old Fashioned - John Coltrane

I was thinking about this one too...and really any other Desper engineered song.

"Big White Cloud" by John Cale

Miami, My Amy - Keith Whitley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCLNMAax5mM


perfectly recorded country song


The Supremes - Back in my Arms Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSkHFc240nY

perfectly recorded Motown song


Bread - Baby I'm a Want You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHHHAeSBvY

perfectly recorded rock song

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y

perfectly recorded Pop song

To me it's not so much about clarity but more about they couldn't have touched anything up and made it any better. 

A couple other things came to mind earlier today. (Both cases are more than the requested song. Sorry.)

Queen's entire catalog from Sheer Heart Attack through The Game, with only the odd off-track here and there, sounds about as good as pop music can sound to my ears. Everything from songwriting arrangement to performance to engineering to production is just right on.

Then for a left field choice, Cotton Mather's '90s gem album Kontiki, reissued a year or so ago. It wasn't even recorded in a proper studio, but it sounds fantastic, a great example of good ears (as opposed to gear and endless hours of tweaking this or that knob) being the most important part of making good-sounding music.

Great thread!

Not a song but all of Big Star's first Album #1 Record is sonic bliss.  So well recorded, mixed and mastered.  Clear as a "bell".  Most kudos for this belong to Chris Bell and John Fry.  The songs are great but the production just elevates the material for me.  I love Radio City and Third but #1 Record IS sonic perfection.

Black Cow, by Steely Dan, lead-off track on the Aja album. That's in the analog realm, of course. I have used that song to test every set of speakers, headphones, amps, whatever other audio...because it's probably the best recording I've ever heard, and that includes the effects too. That's a great test for Black Cow - if you can't hear some of the effects trailing off and fading out at just the right moment, the system has some problems... ;D

Digital...eh, tough call. Mastering has gotten to be so spotty in the past 15 years or so, it's just too damn loud and you lose so much. Having said that, and I surprise myself by saying this, it's hard to beat the song "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" by Tears For Fears. That song just sounds terrific on CD, synths, beats, guitar, vocals...right on the money.

Man, I could list a lot of these!

For 60's radio hits, two go immediately to the top. I Get Around, and Age Of Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In. I Get Around has the full range of dynamics, from full band and vocals to a single solo vocal, yet everything is balanced and delivered just right. They weren't mixing that kind of record for heavy bass, given the AM format, but even that record can rumble speakers - in a good way. It's one of the most vibrant and alive sounding records of the 60's, yet all the parts are still clear as a bell with no distortion. Brilliant.

Aquarius - what else can be said. Similar reasons, but that is a monster of a record, and even though it's not sometimes thought of as an audiophile type recording due to its popularity as a hit single, take a close listen to it. Every instrument, every effect, every vocal sounds exactly right. That deserved every single award it received, simply terrific recording, performance, editing job, and production.

Freddy Mercury was well-known as being a perfectionist.

I have plenty, but for now it's Four Seasons' "Save It for Me" in stereo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc1bVR5I_zM). Sounds very bright, crisp, & the echo in both channels is supreme!

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Pink Floyd's "Matilda Mother" (the mono version, please). And on the BB front: "Don't Worry Baby" (ditto).

For a song to be sonically perfect in my book, the song has to be perfect in and of itself...

Thanks for the heads up on this amazing album, cap'n. :=)

For me, it's Friends. Whenever I work on my own music and my ears need a break from all the repetitive playbacks and the tedious equalizing, this is the song I put on.

Lately I've been listening to lots of 70s Stevie Wonder and a couple of songs off Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale are just brilliant, sonically.

Also, some of the tracks off the Grace Jones album, Slave to the Rhythm come to mind, the title track in particular. Probably Trevor Horn's finest work.

He's also known for being impatient: if he felt he was on the right track, he'd chase it, but if not, move on.

A lot of the credit needs to go to the rest of the band, Roy Thomas Baker, and their studio staff too.

Pretty much all of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Even the less inspired songs from a song-writing point of view do sound great.

I just bought #1 Record this weekend, I'm really looking forward to listening for the first time!

I envy you, Amanda!  Such a great record and it just gets better with age.  You will love it!

"White Light White Heat" the LP by the Velvet Underground.  "Tyranny and Nutation" by Blue Oyster Cult.  Daniel Johnston cassettes.  You get the idea -- analog chaos soup but just right.

*Edit:

See the title says "song" so

Sister Ray
The Red and the Black
Casper the Friendly Ghost

"Lady Grinning Soul" from Bowie's Aladdin Sane. Just listen to that sh*t. :o

(http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqphbzwqR31qdl0yho5_400.gif)

Slow Nerve Action by the Flaming Lips

1st one that comes to mind is most of "Nilsson sings Newman" also thinking the "The World Won't End" album by the Pernice Brothers.

Here, There, and Everywhere is VERY high up there. Stereo version kicks the mono version's butt big time.

Basically everything by Steely Dan... save Gaucho and everything post-Gaucho I guess. Someone here mentioned Black Cow-- totally agree on that one. Everything on Aja is flawlessly done, as is nearly everything on The Royal Scam, especially Kid Charlemagne. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were notorious perfectionists, to the point they'd end up infuriating their musicians, I've heard. But it was totally worth it.

Beach Boys - Hushabye
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi battles the pink robots pt. 1

I love how these songs sound.

I'll skip classic Brian Wilson productions and songs recorded by Stephen Desper, or my list would consist mainly of those... So here goes!

Robert Johnson: Kind Hearted Woman Blues

Just microphone in a corner and a guy with a guitar facing it. No mixing afterwards. And hey, you got the perfect balance, vocal tone and guitar tone. Sometimes it doesn't take much.

Led Zeppelin: When The Levee Breaks

Grandeur of English country manor blended with desperation of blues and captured on tape. "Epic" is an overused word, but it's the only one doing that does this record justice.

Marvin Gaye: What's Going On (whole album)

The sound is so thick and dense, it has just the right amount of murk! By the way, I think Come Together is The Beatles' best-engineered song for the same reason.

Sex Pistols: Anarchy in the UK

Sounds huge, exciting, unstoppable. That flanging on guitar(s) is the icing on the cake, adds to that almost cosmic swirl of noise.

The Stone Roses: Second Coming -LP

One of the best drum sounds ever. And this one's got the murk too!

Never got the hype for this iconic (:quote) record; it's like every next track is inferior to the last one. So by default, it's not sonically perfect for me. I agree with john k (reply #16).

however, I agree with you on Robert Johnson. Not just that song, overall.

Well, What's Going On is definitely a grower, it takes quite a few listens to really sink in. It's not really about individual songs but overall vibe and Groove... And sonically, that wall of dark funk IS quite mesmerizing. Like a jungle you have to wade through.

Believe me, Jukka, I heard it enough times, it's simply not my music. And that's okay by me, thank goodness there are tons of stuff to choose from.

Of what is mentioned here, Aja and What's Goin On.  some one mentioned some ABBA, that's up there too.

Apache - The Shadows...

RickB

Many great choices here; of bands previously mentioned I want to ditto Steely Dan, Big Star (1st 2), and the Beatles as "Classic" rock bands that put sonics at the fore (along with great songs and playing!).  Oddly the Beach Boys, who are so musically advanced, had earlier AM-oriented monaural mixes as their high point, excepting the sublime "Sunflower."  "Pet Sounds" and the "Smile" stuff, arguably their (Brian's) artistic peak,  all brilliantly written, played, arranged, sung, still sound like they were channeled through a refrigerator full of food or something.

Of course I still dig 'em!

Yeah, compared to his contemporaries, from the engineering point of view Brian was of the old guard. Could have been the one-ear thing, though.