Writers like to think their songs are timeless, but is there such a thing? I went to Neil Sedaka's site. "Laughter In The Rain" was referred to as timeless. The song reminds me of driving through Chicago in November, 1974, when Neil broke out after a decade of the British dominating radio. Nothing timeless about that! Positive thinking is the theme which, in a human context, can be called timeless. Shakespearean themes are thought of as timeless although his language is obviously not. Dinosaurs ruled 160 million years and passed away. The sun will expend its energy, and the universe will die. Can 3 minute songs be eternal? The ones most closely approaching timelessness are Christmas songs because Christmas returns annually and because no new, good Christmas songs have appeared in the last 50 years. "Silent Night" and "White Christmas" become relevant each December.

Dinosaurs took themselves way too seriously. They had it coming.

Good songs can be timeless. I think the key to making timeless music is to avoid trends and stick to the basics.

I think the Beach Boys are a good example. Pet Sounds still sounds fresh. It doesn't sound old fashioned or dated because in 1966, Brian did his own thing and didn't try to sound like other artists that were succesful at the time. But in the 80s and 90s, The Beach Boys were considered has-beens, so they tried to get back on top by making modern music. They started using electronic drums and lots of keyboards and they worked with Steve Levine, who was probably the hippest producer at the time. With as a result that their 80s and 90s music sounds much more dated now than the music they made 20 years earlier. It's unimagineable that Kokomo would've been released now. But songs like God Only Knows or Caroline No are, at least in my opinion, timeless.

Fender rhodes, fender twin, ampeg, telecaster, Precision, recording techniques, non-contemporary lyrics are a good step towards timeless for me. No synthesisers please!

Some are, I think.

Some songs are too long, yep   ...

Yeah good songs are. Definately.