Good Vibrations

Consciously or not, we all analyze previous productions and try to apply the innovations of past masters in our own way. Dark Side of the Moon, American Idiot, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Thriller - all analyzed to death, and all have inspired and informed subsequent productions. Sometimes, though, a truly groundbreaking masterpiece is overlooked simply because it succeeded so well as just another radio-friendly earworm. 
 

 
What are your favorite examples of real genius disguised as a pop tune? Either a recognized hit, or something more obscure that maybe the public wasn't ready for at the time. In the non-hit category I'd offer "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" by Klaatu, and unexpectedly covered by The Carpenters. As well as the entire concept album "Hope" by the largely ignored but musically-inventive and Beatle-esque Toronto band Klaatu. Under the "hit" category, maybe "Africa" by Toto - a song with such a great sing-along hook that you don't notice how great the overall production is.

ABC's 'Lexicon of Love' album was a benchmark in pop production by Trevor Horn. I loved the single 'All of My Heart', such a '3-D' sound.
 

Pet Sounds

Great examples mentioned.
Oldfields "Moonlight Shadow" and Bostons "More than a feeling" are brilliant works as well, even though worn to the bone already. The sheer ease of perfection is stunning. To me Steve Harleys "Make me smile" is, in its plain simplicity a masterpiece as well as his "Sebastian".
Pocos "Keep on trying" was something that made me shiver.
Then there's some Italian stuff that belong to the royalty of pop in my books, like "I treni di Tozeur "
(Alice & Franco Battiato... if only Franco was a bit more charismatic singer :o/) or "Per Elisa" (Alice). Those are from the 80's. There's quite many excellent Italian ones, even though the names escape me now (well, Mia as an obvious one). They have a magic touch of their own, even though you can't call their front line pioneers or innovators per se.
 

Rundgren's "Sweeter Memories"
 

I might listen to an enormous amount of jam bands.

Wow, great stuff.
 
Thanks to everyone, especially Bit for starting this thread.
 
Jesse Q. Screed

I have to agree with the previous mention of Boston, in particular "More than a Feeling" but also most of that sadly limited discography (just 4 albums, IIRC). It's even more inspiring given that Mr. Scholtz was a kindred spirit of ours, a real DIY kind of guy. To this day, I get a great big grin if it comes on the radio while I'm cruising in the car; I just crank it up and sing along, yet again oblivious to the finer subtleties of the production. And that's exactly what I'm talking about - tunes so catchy that you don't even realize you're listening to a rare genius at work.
 
Here's another nominee for underestimated genius: the first King Crimson album.
 
We forget now just how ground-breaking that collection of songs was. Although it comfortably conformed to classical norms centuries old, it was also fundamentally different from anything that had come before. Sure, it capitalized on new technology (the Mellotron), but the other 95% was old-school instrumentation re-purposed. It wasn't jazz, it wasn't classical, it wasn't rock 'n roll, but an inventive blend of all of them, long before the word "fusion" had been coined to describe the combination of disparate musical traditions. And produced by Greg Lake in such a way as to be simultaneously accessible and novel (e.g. distortion on vocals, a common practice today but not in 1969, or mixed time signatures, previously unknown in rock). A watershed work of creativity that spawned an entire anti-genre that explicitly rejected the concept of genres.

Another +1 for Court Of The Crimson King!
 
If only for how I first heard it.
 
I was the designated driver for a bunch of us from UW-Madison. We'd gone up to Devil's Head to do some "skiing" (in Wisconsin, that means sliding down a sheet of ice on the north face of some pimple of a hill) and it was time to head back to Madison. The college car I was driving was an old Dodge with a pushbutton automatic and built-in a/c (the holes rusted in the floor) and an AM-only radio. Luckily, it was after midnight and the clear channel stations were bouncing nicely. My favorite was a C/W station from Little Rock that featured C/W from 5am to midnight, and then bizarrely the best, most progressive DJ I ever heard from midnight to 5am (bounce time!). After a couple of songs, the DJ announced that he'd just received a fantastic new album and would play it straight through.
 
Court Of The Crimson King
 
On AM radio. Broadcast from the middle of nowhere. Listened to in the middle of nowhere.
 
And I couldn't wake anyone else in car. Their loss. It was a transformational experience.

I'm also loving all of the Todd Rundgren love! What a talent! Fabulous live with Utopia! An even better producer.

That could be a whole 'nother thread: bands that sound like the Beatles. Klaatu's brilliant album "Hope". Everything by Badfinger. The perfect pop song that is "Lies" by the Knickerbockers. The Raspberries. 
 

How'd we get from Good Vibrations to Mississippi Queen? 
 
It's a good tune, though, I'd have to agree. Essential for any cowbell enthusiast's playlist.
 

Ah yes, Godley & Crème were pop writers par excellence. Loved that track 'Under My Thumb' and 'Cry' also, beautiful production on that one.

"That could be a whole 'nother thread: bands that sound like the Beatles. Klaatu's brilliant album "Hope". Everything by Badfinger. The perfect pop song that is "Lies" by the Knickerbockers. The Raspberries."
Mississippi Queen is the perfect "Rock" single, I know, I know, off topic and you were talking "pop".
And while Lies is "pop", I'd like to think of it is a "pop rocker"?
(probably because I like the tune and for guitarists of a certain age and genre; you know what I mean...)
But this is all off topic.
T