Pulp’s “Common People” is a pop masterpiece from 1995 that combines brilliant lyrics with music that is positively thrilling.  Produced by the legendary Chris Thomas (Roxy Music, The Pretenders, Sex Pistols), “People” is a brilliant slam against “slumming” that’s even better than prior rock classics on the subject (The Rolling Stones’ “Salt of the Earth” and The Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia”).  The song never charted in the US, but was a big hit in Britain and had a tremendous cultural impact there, being cited in April 2014 by listeners of BBC Radio 6 Music as their favorite ‘Britpop’ song in an online poll conducted by the station to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the start of the Britpop era.  It also inspired a very good BBC documentary about the song which can be seen below in 6 different parts, courtesy of YouTube.

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Part 2:

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Part 6: