Simple Minds — Don't You (Forget About Me) (1985)
That opening progression — Em, D, C, G — does something quietly brilliant before a single lyric lands. Starting on the minor sixth degree and stepping down through D and C before resolving onto G major, it generates an immediate sense of yearning held in check by forward momentum, melancholic but never defeated. The motion feels inevitable, each chord releasing naturally into the next, which is a large part of why those opening bars are so instantly recognisable and satisfying to play. The minor beginning softens into major resolution without quite losing its emotional ache, perfectly framing what follows. A defining artefact of mid-eighties new wave and pop rock, the song carries that era's gift for wedding anthemic uplift to genuine feeling.