I like Jimmy Naill's song of the Tyne, Big River, which some of my friends in the North loathe (there is a tribal, football reason for that hatred but I still think it's a decent song).

I also, and this is deeply embarrassing to admit, quite like some of Abba, Living Next Door to Alice (if I've been forced on to the dance floor) and lots of cheesy French pop standards (usually filed under variétés françaises in record shops here in France) including Sous Les Sunlight Des Tropiques and Les Lacs du Connemara.