What's Going On
1971 · From What's Going On
Party chatter, a sax that sighs, and Gaye asking the question Motown begged him not to ask.
★ 9.9
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1970s
1970 – 1979
Showing 312 songs from the 1970s
Bridge Over Troubled Water
1970
Garfunkel's voice climbing a gospel staircase, the last verse arriving like the cavalry.
★ 9.5
Stayin' Alive
1977 · From Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Barry Gibb's falsetto over a drum loop so metronomic that paramedics still use it to time chest compressions.
★ 9.4
Born to Run
1975 · From Born to Run
Months of wall-of-sound overdubs poured into one getaway car, and every word still sounds like escape.
★ 9.4
Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin
Stairway to Heaven
1971 · From Led Zeppelin IV
Eight minutes that climb from recorders to Page's solo, never released as a single and never needing to be.
★ 9.3
I Feel LoveDonna Summer
I Feel Love
1977
Moroder's pulsing synth track, Summer floating above it, and the record Eno reportedly called the sound of the future.
★ 9.3
JoleneDolly Parton
Jolene
1973 · From Jolene
Dolly pleading with her rival rather than fighting her, written the same day as "I Will Always Love You."
★ 9.3
London Calling
1979 · From London Calling
Strummer borrowing the BBC's wartime call sign to announce the end of the world, and sounding thrilled about it.
★ 9.2
Bohemian Rhapsody
1975 · From A Night at the Opera
Six minutes with no chorus and so many vocal overdubs the tape wore transparent. Still nothing else like it.
★ 9.1
Superstition
1972 · From Talking Book
Wonder wrote that clavinet riff for Jeff Beck, heard it back, and sensibly kept it for himself.
★ 9.1
Dancing Queen
1976 · From Gold: Greatest Hits
Seventeen and gliding across the floor, the rare disco record that sounds like joy and ache at once.
★ 9.1
HeroesDavid Bowie
Heroes
1977 · From "Heroes"
Recorded beside the Berlin Wall, Fripp's feedback howling while Bowie sings himself hoarse over a single defiant day.
★ 9.1
Rapper's Delight
1979
Big Bank Hank auditioned outside the pizzeria where he worked, rapping lines borrowed from Grandmaster Caz's notebook.
★ 9.0
Baba O'Riley
1971 · From Who's Next
That opening arpeggio is a Lowrey organ's marimba repeat function; Dave Arbus's violin sends the ending careening.
★ 9.0
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
1977 · From Rumours
Nicks wrote it in a black velvet studio room at Sausalito's Record Plant; it remains the band's only US number one.
★ 8.9
Let it Be
1970 · From Let It Be
McCartney dreamed of his mother Mary telling him it would be all right; Harrison cut two different solos.
★ 8.9
Comfortably Numb
1979 · From The Wall
A tranquilizer shot before a 1977 Philadelphia show gave Waters the lyric; Gilmour brought the chords and the solo.
★ 8.9
No Woman, No Cry
1974 · From Natty Dread
Marley credited it to Tata Ford, whose Trenchtown soup kitchen the royalties kept running; the title means woman, don't cry.
★ 8.9
Hotel CaliforniaThe Eagles
Hotel California
1977 · From Hotel California
Felder demoed it on a four-track in Malibu, and his Les Paul duels Walsh's Telecaster through the outro.
★ 8.8
Layla
1971 · From Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Clapton wanted his friend's wife; Duane Allman's slide answers every line, then Jim Gordon's piano coda changes everything.
★ 8.7
Blitzkrieg Bop
1976 · From Ramones
Tommy wanted a Bay City Rollers chant; the album around it cost $6,400 and took seven days.
★ 8.7
Kashmir
1975 · From Physical Graffiti
Page tuned to DADGAD, Plant wrote it driving through southern Morocco, and none of them had seen Kashmir.
★ 8.6
Let's Stay TogetherAl Green
Let's Stay Together
1971 · From Greatest Hits
Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson handed Green a track; he reportedly had the lyric in five minutes.
★ 8.6
ParanoidBlack Sabbath
Paranoid
1970 · From Paranoid
Iommi's riff arrived as three-minute filler for the album, Butler wrote the words fast, and Sabbath had their biggest UK hit.
★ 8.5
Imagine
1971 · From Imagine
Grapefruit, Ono's book of poems, supplied the idea; Lennon supplied the piano; in 2017 she finally got the credit.
★ 8.5
Go Your Own Way
1977 · From Rumours
Buckingham aimed Mick Fleetwood at the Street Fighting Man groove, then sang a breakup line Nicks demanded he cut.
★ 8.5
Let's Get It On
1973 · From Let's Get It On
Ed Townsend conceived it as a spiritual; Gaye kept the backing track, rewrote the lyric, and Billboard number one followed.
★ 8.4
Changes (David Bowie)
1971 · From Hunky Dory
Rick Wakeman's piano, Bowie's own saxophone, and a stutter on the title that flopped before it defined him.
★ 8.3
God Save the QueenThe Sex Pistols
God Save the Queen
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Written as "No Future," banned by the BBC, and stuck at number two amid loud suspicion of chart rigging.
★ 8.3
Lean On Me
1972
Withers bought a small piano, ran his fingers up the keys, and found the coal-town kinship he missed.
★ 8.3
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
1972
Nearly four minutes of bass, hi-hat and lone trumpet before anyone sings, and the groove never sags.
★ 8.3
September
1978
Willis wanted real words instead of ba-dee-ya; White refused, and the groove outlived any lyric she could have written.
★ 8.3
Thunder Road
1975 · From Born to Run
Bittan's piano, a harmonica, and a screen door slamming; Springsteen lifted the title from a Robert Mitchum film poster.
★ 8.3
One LoveBob Marley and the Wailers
One Love
1977 · From Exodus
A 1965 Studio One ska tune rebuilt for Exodus, with Mayfield credited to keep the borrowing legal.
★ 8.3
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
1979 · From Off the Wall
Jackson wrote it himself and steered the session; a whisper, a water-bottle rattle, then Louis Johnson's bass takes over.
★ 8.3
Anarchy in the UK
1976 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Lydon picked anarchist because it rhymed with antichrist; EMI dropped the band six weeks later and punk was loose.
★ 8.2
Tangled Up in Blue
1975 · From Blood on the Tracks
Dylan recut it in Minneapolis with his brother producing, then spent decades rewriting a story already told out of order.
★ 8.2
War PigsBlack Sabbath
War Pigs
1970 · From Paranoid
Called Walpurgis until the label balked at the witchcraft, and Butler aimed the lyric at politicians who start wars.
★ 8.1
Walk on the Wild Side
1972 · From Transformer
Herbie Flowers doubled upright and electric bass for a session fee, and Bowie's old sax teacher played the closing solo.
★ 8.1
We Will Rock You
1977 · From Greatest Hits
May came home from a Stafford gig where the crowd sang back, and built a chorus from stomps and claps.
★ 8.1
Trans Europa Express
1977
Kraftwerk's rhythm rode a train across Europe, name-checked Bowie and Iggy Pop, then turned up inside Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock.
★ 8.1
I Will SurviveGloria Gaynor
I Will Survive
1978
Buried as a B-side until DJs flipped it, and Gaynor cut the vocal in a back brace after spinal surgery.
★ 8.1
Good Times
1979
Edwards' bassline turned up on Rapper's Delight within months; the settlement put Chic's names on rap's first pop hit.
★ 8.1
Iron ManBlack Sabbath
Iron Man
1970 · From Paranoid
Osbourne heard Iommi's riff and called it a big iron bloke walking; Butler built the science fiction around that.
★ 8.0
Won't Get Fooled Again
1971 · From Who's Next
Eight and a half minutes, a Lowrey organ run through a VCS3, and Daltrey's scream tearing into the final verse.
★ 8.0
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
1975 · From Wish You Were Here
Gilmour's twelve-string comes through a recorded car radio, and Grappelli's violin sits buried near the very end.
★ 8.0
Highway to Hell
1979 · From Highway to Hell
Mutt Lange took over production, the band cut it in London in 1979, and America finally caught on.
★ 8.0
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex MachineJames Brown
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine
1970 · From Sex Machine
One of Brown's first dates with the new J.B.s, Bootsy Collins on bass at eighteen, Bobby Byrd answering every line.
★ 7.9
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
1979 · From The Wall
Ezrin sent Gilmour to the discos, and twenty-three Islington schoolchildren got forty minutes to sing themselves onto a number one.
★ 7.9
Rocket Man
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin borrowed the title from a Pearls Before Swine song, and Hentschel's ARP put the loneliness in orbit.
★ 7.9
Heart of Glass
1978
A demo kicked around since the mid-seventies, rebuilt on a Roland drum machine that appalled their punk friends.
★ 7.9
Theme from ShaftIsaac Hayes
Theme from Shaft
1971
Skip Pitts on wah-wah, Willie Hall riding sixteenths on hi-hat, and the first Academy Award won by a Black composer.
★ 7.8
Higher Ground
1973 · From Innervisions
Written and taped in a three-hour burst, Wonder on clavinet and drums, the keyboard snarling through a Mu-Tron filter.
★ 7.8
Living for the CItyStevie Wonder
Living for the CIty
1973 · From Innervisions
Wonder played most of it himself, then broke it open with a spoken street scene running past seven minutes.
★ 7.8
Smoke on the WaterDeep Purple
Smoke on the Water
1972 · From Machine Head
Blackmore's four notes in parallel fourths, written after a flare gun burned the Montreux Casino down during a Zappa show.
★ 7.8
Ain't No SunshineBill Withers
Ain't No Sunshine
1971
Withers was building airplane toilets when he cut this, and he left the unfinished bridge as twenty-six repeats.
★ 7.8
Killing Me Softly With His Song (Roberta Flack)
1973
Flack heard Lori Lieberman's version on a plane's in-flight audio, rewrote the chords, and took Record of the Year.
★ 7.8
Immigrant Song
1970 · From Led Zeppelin III
Zeppelin played Reykjavik in 1970, and Plant came back with Vikings, Valhalla, and that double-tracked wail.
★ 7.8
Your SongElton John
Your Song
1970 · From Elton John
Taupin scribbled the lyric over breakfast at a kitchen table, and Buckmaster's strings turned it into John's first Top 10.
★ 7.8
Family Affair (Sly and the Family Stone)
1971 · From There's a Riot Goin' On
A rhythm box edited into a heartbeat, Billy Preston on Pianet, and three weeks at number one.
★ 7.8
Sweet Home Alabama
1974 · From Second Helping
An answer record to Neil Young's "Southern Man," riding Ed King's riff and a name-check for the Muscle Shoals Swampers.
★ 7.8
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
1975 · From Fleetwood Mac
Aspen in 1974, Nicks weighing whether to quit music, and Buckingham Travis-picking a Martin D-18 underneath.
★ 7.8
Wild HorsesThe Rolling Stones
Wild Horses
1971 · From Sticky Fingers
Cut at Muscle Shoals in December 1969, with Jim Dickinson on tack piano after Ian Stewart refused the minor chords.
★ 7.7
Ziggy Stardust
1971 · From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Cut at Trident in November 1971, never a single, and Ronson's riff draws the character as sharply as the words.
★ 7.7
Heart of Gold
1972 · From Harvest
A back injury kept Young seated with an acoustic guitar; Taylor and Ronstadt were in Nashville and sang behind him.
★ 7.7
We are the Champions
1977 · From Greatest Hits
Mercury wrote it with audience participation in mind, and a 2011 study named it the catchiest song in pop.
★ 7.7
Free Bird
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Collins's chords sat unused for two years until Van Zant found the melody; the long outro was his onstage rest.
★ 7.7
Give Up the FunkParliament
Give Up the Funk
1975
Bootsy Collins on bass, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker newly arrived from James Brown, and Parliament's first gold single.
★ 7.7
The ChainFleetwood Mac
The Chain
1977 · From Rumours
Razor-blade tape splices turned rejected scraps into the one Rumours song credited to all five, McVie's bass ending it.
★ 7.7
Ohio
1970
Seventeen days between the Life photographs from Kent State and four voices cutting it live in a Los Angeles room.
★ 7.7
Get Up, Stand Up
1973 · From Burnin'
Written with Tosh after Marley toured Haiti, and the last song he ever sang onstage, Pittsburgh, September 1980.
★ 7.7
Take it EasyThe Eagles
Take it Easy
1972 · From Eagles
Browne could not finish the second verse, Frey did, and Leadon's double-time banjo drives the Eagles' debut single.
★ 7.7
Money
1973 · From The Dark Side of the Moon
Seven beats to the bar, a tape loop of coins and cash registers, and Pink Floyd's first American hit.
★ 7.7
I'll Be There
1970
Hal Davis cut it at Hitsville West in June 1970, and Michael, eleven years old, made the ballad sound lived-in.
★ 7.7
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Sessions collapsed in Kingston, so the band regrouped at a French chateau and Taupin traded Oz for a Lincolnshire farm.
★ 7.7
Sir Duke
1977 · From Songs in the Key of Life
Wonder built it for Ellington after his death in 1974, then handed the melody to horns playing in unison.
★ 7.7
Walk This Way (Aerosmith)
1975 · From Toys in the Attic
Perry built the riff at a Honolulu soundcheck; Tyler wrote the words on a Record Plant stairwell wall.
★ 7.7
Lust for Life
1977
Bowie found the beat in an Armed Forces Network call sign; Hunt Sales hammered it out in Berlin.
★ 7.7
Search and DestroyThe Stooges
Search and Destroy
1973 · From Raw Power
Pop lifted the title from a Time column on Vietnam, and Bowie's mix made Williamson's guitar a threat.
★ 7.6
Rock With You
1979 · From Off the Wall
Rod Temperton offered it to Karen Carpenter first; Quincy Jones and Jackson took it to number one.
★ 7.6
Black Dog
1971 · From Led Zeppelin IV
Jones wrote the riff, Page took the stop-start idea from Fleetwood Mac, and a stray labrador supplied the title.
★ 7.6
Me and Bobby McGee
1971 · From Pearl
Joplin taped the vocal days before her death; Kristofferson did not hear it until the day after.
★ 7.6
Shine on You Crazy DiamondPink Floyd
Shine on You Crazy Diamond
1975 · From Wish You Were Here
Four notes known as Syd's theme, and Barrett himself turning up at Abbey Road mid-session, unrecognized by the band.
★ 7.6
I Wanna Be Sedated
1978 · From Road to Ruin
Joey wrote it stranded in a shut-down London at Christmas, and Johnny's solo is one note, repeated.
★ 7.6
Roxanne
1978 · From Outlandos d'Amour
Copeland turned Sting's bossa nova into a tango, and the piano clang at the top was an accident they kept.
★ 7.6
Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones)
1971 · From Sticky Fingers
Cut at Muscle Shoals days before Altamont, Bobby Keys on tenor, and a lyric Jagger later said he would censor.
★ 7.6
New York, New York
1979 · From Trilogy: Past Present Future
De Niro called the first theme too weak, so Kander and Ebb wrote this one in anger.
★ 7.6
Midnight Train to Georgia
1973
Cissy Houston's version turned Weatherly's midnight plane to Houston into a train to Georgia.
★ 7.6
Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)Fleetwood Mac
Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)
1975 · From Fleetwood Mac
A novel called Triad set Nicks going; years later she learned she had described a Welsh goddess exactly.
★ 7.6
Maggie MayRod Stewart
Maggie May
1971 · From Every Picture Tells a Story
Released as a B-side until DJs flipped it, with a mandolin credited only to a name Stewart said slipped his mind.
★ 7.6
American Girl
1977 · From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Petty cut it on the Fourth of July, 1976, and Roger McGuinn heard the Byrds so clearly he covered it.
★ 7.6
Psycho Killer
1977 · From Talking Heads: 77
A ballad first, written at art school, until Weymouth's French bridge and bassline turned it feral.
★ 7.6
Sweet Jane
1970 · From Loaded
Tucker was pregnant, so Yule played bass and drums, and the bridge stayed missing from the mix for twenty-five years.
★ 7.5
All the Young DudesMott the Hoople
All the Young Dudes
1972
Mott were splitting up when Bowie offered them this, written within hours of hearing the band was finished.
★ 7.5
Knocking on Heaven's Door
1973 · From Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Two short verses written for a dying sheriff in Pat Garrett, with Roger McGuinn on guitar and Jim Keltner drumming.
★ 7.5
Marquee Moon
1977 · From Marquee Moon
Ten minutes captured in one take; Ficca thought it was a rehearsal and Verlaine refused Andy Johns another go.
★ 7.5
Time (Pink Floyd)
1974 · From The Dark Side of the Moon
Alan Parsons taped antique-shop clocks as a quadraphonic test; Mason's rototoms follow, and the alarms still land like panic.
★ 7.5
The PassengerIggy Pop
The Passenger
1977
Gardiner found the riff wandering under apple blossom, and Bowie sings behind Iggy at Hansa by the Wall.
★ 7.5
Into the Mystic
1970 · From Moondance
Written first as 'Into the Misty', recorded at A&R in New York, and the warmest thing Morrison ever sang.
★ 7.5
I'll Take You ThereThe Staple Singers
I'll Take You There
1972
Al Bell lifted the bassline from a Jamaican instrumental, and Mavis Staples turned Muscle Shoals into a pulpit.
★ 7.5
The Harder They Come
1972 · From Original Soundtrack (The Harder They Come)
Cliff coined the phrase on set, Henzell made it the film's title, and the Dynamic Sounds session was filmed.
★ 7.5
Flash LightParliament
Flash Light
1977
Bootsy passed on the bass part, so Worrell chained three Minimoogs together and gave Parliament its first R&B number one.
★ 7.5
Love and Happiness
1972 · From Greatest Hits
The tap opening it is Teenie Hodges counting time on a crate by his foot, and Green takes over.
★ 7.5
Tumbling Dice
1972 · From Exile on Main St.
Taylor on bass, Jimmy Miller drumming the coda, and a lyric Jagger got from a housekeeper who played dice.
★ 7.5
Piano ManBilly Joel
Piano Man
1973 · From Piano Man
A lounge gig, a fake name, Bill Martin, and every regular at the Executive Room written into a verse.
★ 7.5
My Sweet LordGeorge Harrison
My Sweet Lord
1970
Harrison started it backstage in Copenhagen, gave it to Billy Preston first, then took the first ex-Beatle number one.
★ 7.4
My My, Hey Hey
1979 · From Rust Never Sleeps
Recorded live at San Francisco's Boarding House in 1978, and Devo's Mothersbaugh handed Young the phrase that titled the album.
★ 7.4
Somebody to Love (Queen)
1976 · From Greatest Hits
Mercury wrote it at the piano, then three voices were multitracked into something the size of a gospel choir.
★ 7.4
Three Little BirdsBob Marley and the Wailers
Three Little Birds
1977 · From Exodus
Reportedly inspired by canaries at his Hope Road windowsill, cut in London, and the gentlest reassurance in reggae.
★ 7.4
Maybe I'm AmazedPaul McCartney
Maybe I'm Amazed
1970
Booked into Abbey Road as Billy Martin, McCartney played every instrument in a day and declined to release a single.
★ 7.4
Just My Imagination
1971
By Otis Williams's account Kendricks stayed for hours of takes; his final Temptations single spent two weeks at number one.
★ 7.4
One Nation Under a Groove
1978 · From One Nation Under a Groove
Clinton, Shider and Junie Morrison cut it at United Sound; six weeks at R&B number one, 1978's longest run.
★ 7.4
I Shot the SheriffBob Marley and the Wailers
I Shot the Sheriff
1973 · From Burnin'
Marley swapped police for sheriff to avoid a government fuss, and Clapton's 1974 cover became his only American number one.
★ 7.3
Isn't She Lovely
1976 · From Songs in the Key of Life
Wonder cut it for his newborn daughter Aisha, harmonica and all, and refused to shorten it for a single.
★ 7.3
Tiny Dancer
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Taupin wrote it about Maxine Feibelman, the seamstress who toured with the band, and Almost Famous made it a singalong.
★ 7.3
Superfly
1972 · From The Anthology 1961-1977
The soundtrack took three days at RCA Chicago; Johnny Pate arranged, Henry Gibson's rototoms set the strut.
★ 7.3
Take Me Home, Country Roads
1971
Danoff and Nivert finished it with Denver one December night, and they premiered it hours later at the Cellar Door.
★ 7.3
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
1975 · From Red Headed Stranger
Fred Rose wrote it in the forties; Nelson's Texas version had Columbia's boss asking why he'd sent a demo.
★ 7.3
Message in a Bottle
1979 · From Reggatta de Blanc
Summers' arpeggiated riff, Sting's castaway pleading over it, and the first of the Police's five UK number ones.
★ 7.3
More Than a FeelingBoston
More Than a Feeling
1976 · From Boston
Five years in Scholz's basement, a hundred-dollar Yamaha twelve-string on the intro, and Delp stacking harmonies over the top.
★ 7.3
Mr. Blue Sky
1977
Two weeks of Alpine fog broke, and Lynne wrote this and thirteen more songs, closing it with a vocoder.
★ 7.3
Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
1970 · From Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
Fogerty said the rain falling on a sunny day was Creedence breaking up around him; the record aches accordingly.
★ 7.3
Behind Blue EyesThe Who
Behind Blue Eyes
1971 · From Who's Next
Townshend's theme for the villain of his abandoned Lifehouse, and Daltrey sings the self-pity straight before Moon wrecks it.
★ 7.3
(Don't Fear) the Reaper
1976
An irregular heartbeat diagnosis sent Dharma writing about mortality and lasting love, and the cowbell did the rest.
★ 7.3
Fire and RainJames Taylor
Fire and Rain
1970 · From Sweet Baby James
Kunkel's brushes, Carole King's piano, and three verses that hold a death, an addiction and a band's collapse.
★ 7.3
Pressure DropToots and the Maytals
Pressure Drop
1970
Leslie Kong cut it in 1969, Hibbert called the subject karma, and The Harder They Come carried it worldwide.
★ 7.3
Lady Marmalade (Labelle)
1974
The Meters on rhythm at Sea-Saint, Toussaint producing, and Patti LaBelle singing a French hook she did not understand.
★ 7.3
Band on the RunPaul McCartney
Band on the Run
1973
Wings lost two members on the eve of Lagos, so McCartney played the drums and built a three-part escape.
★ 7.2
Dream On
1973 · From Aerosmith
Tyler had the tune on his family's New Hampshire lodge piano years before Aerosmith; a reissue reached number six.
★ 7.2
Alison
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello glimpsed a supermarket checkout girl, Clover backed him before the Attractions existed, and one line titled his debut.
★ 7.2
It's Too Late
1971 · From Tapestry
Toni Stern wrote the words in a day after her romance with James Taylor ended, and Curtis Amy's sax answers.
★ 7.2
Cars
1979
By Numan's account a road-rage scare in London started it; a bass riff, a Polymoog, and a UK number one.
★ 7.2
Move On Up
1970 · From Curtis
Master Henry Gibson's congas drive it, the horns arrive like good news, and Britain sent it top twelve.
★ 7.2
White Man in Hammersmith Palais
1978
Strummer expected roots rebellion at an all-night Palais reggae bill, got showbiz, and slipped reggae bass into punk.
★ 7.2
Cortez the Killer
1975 · From Zuma
Young's tone in double drop D, a blown console that erased the last verse, and a Franco-era Spanish ban.
★ 7.2
Oye Como Va
1970
Tito Puente wrote it as a 1962 cha-cha-cha; Gregg Rolie's Hammond organ replaced the horn section.
★ 7.2
Hot Stuff
1979
Moroder's four-on-the-floor, Jeff Baxter's rock guitar solo bolted on, and the first female rock vocal Grammy.
★ 7.2
School's Out
1972
Buxton's riff, a children's chorus, a school bell fade; Cooper wanted the last three minutes of term on tape.
★ 7.1
RoadrunnerThe Modern Lovers
Roadrunner
1976
Richman borrowed two chords from Sister Ray and turned Route 128 after midnight into the happiest song about driving.
★ 7.1
Bennie and the Jets
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Gus Dudgeon overdubbed crowd noise from old concerts, and the fake live track topped the Hot 100.
★ 7.1
MoondanceVan Morrison
Moondance
1970 · From Moondance
A melody Morrison worked out on soprano sax first, then Jack Schroer's alto solo swinging over Jef Labes' piano.
★ 7.1
Big Yellow Taxi
1970 · From Ladies of the Canyon
Mitchell threw back a Hawaii hotel curtain, saw mountains above a parking lot, and wrote pop's sunniest protest song.
★ 7.1
Miss You (The Rolling Stones)
1978 · From Some Girls
Four-on-the-floor from a Billy Preston jam, harmonica by Sugar Blue, found busking in Paris, and their last American number one.
★ 7.1
Sweet Emotion
1975 · From Toys in the Attic
Three sounds in that intro: Hamilton's bass riff, Perry's talk box, a bass marimba. Aerosmith's first Top 40 single.
★ 7.1
Because the Night
1978 · From Easter
Springsteen abandoned the demo, Iovine passed Smith the cassette, and she wrote the verses waiting on a phone call.
★ 7.0
Lovely Day
1977
Withers holds the last note for eighteen seconds, Ray Parker Jr. plays guitar, and morning suddenly looks survivable.
★ 7.0
The Boys are Back in Town
1976
Gorham and Robertson's twin leads on a track the band nearly left off Jailbreak; Kentucky radio saved it.
★ 7.0
Like a HurricaneNeil Young
Like a Hurricane
1977 · From American Stars 'n Bars
Young wrote it on doctor-ordered voice rest, whistling the melody, then chased Sampedro's Stringman chords for eight electric minutes.
★ 7.0
After the Gold RushNeil Young
After the Gold Rush
1970 · From After the Gold Rush
Piano and Bill Peterson's flugelhorn, cut at Young's Topanga home studio, written for a Dean Stockwell screenplay.
★ 7.0
Moonage Daydream
1972 · From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Bowie first threw it away on a fake band called Arnold Corns, then rebuilt it at Trident around Ronson.
★ 7.0
Disco Inferno
1976
Jimmy Ellis over eleven minutes of Philadelphia rhythm, a flop in 1976 until Saturday Night Fever made it a hit.
★ 7.0
Live and Let DiePaul McCartney
Live and Let Die
1973
McCartney read the Fleming novel in a day and wrote it that afternoon; Martin's orchestra did the rest at AIR.
★ 7.0
(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding?
1978 · From Armed Forces
Nick Lowe wrote it for a pub-rock flop, produced Costello's B-side version, then got rich when The Bodyguard covered it.
★ 7.0
How Deep Is Your Love
1977 · From Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Seventeen weeks in the American top ten, and a ballad Stigwood refused to let them hand to Yvonne Elliman.
★ 6.9
White Riot
1977 · From The Clash
Strummer and Simonon were in the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival riot; the single ran under two minutes and reached thirty-eight.
★ 6.9
Truckin'
1970 · From American Beauty
Hunter's lyric folds in a 1970 New Orleans bust, and the Library of Congress declared the record a national treasure.
★ 6.9
Old Man
1972 · From Harvest
James Taylor picked up a six-string banjo he had never played, Ronstadt harmonised, and Young's ranch caretaker got a song.
★ 6.9
Candle in the Wind
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Taupin lifted the phrase from a Janis Joplin tribute and pointed it at Marilyn Monroe; the chorus does the mourning.
★ 6.8
Sound and Vision
1977 · From Low
The BBC ran its long instrumental intro under programme trailers, and Bowie's ultimate retreat song went to number three.
★ 6.8
Night MovesBob Seger
Night Moves
1976 · From Night Moves
Seger walked out of American Graffiti with a story of his own, and took six months finding the words.
★ 6.8
Solsbury Hill
1977 · From Peter Gabriel
Seven-four time, Steve Hunter's Martin triple-tracked at three tape speeds, and Gabriel's first record after walking out of Genesis.
★ 6.8
Shining Star (Earth, Wind and Fire)
1975
A night walk at Caribou Ranch gave White the title, and the band their only Hot 100 number one.
★ 6.8
Tired of Being AloneAl Green
Tired of Being Alone
1971 · From Greatest Hits
Green wrote it inside an hour by his account, then spent days getting Willie Mitchell to listen.
★ 6.8
Rock Lobster
1978 · From The B-52s
A baritone Mosrite missing its two middle strings, and a party record that talked Lennon out of retirement.
★ 6.7
Train in VainThe Clash
Train in Vain
1979 · From London Calling
Mick Jones wrote it overnight for an NME flexi-disc that fell through, and the printed sleeves never listed it.
★ 6.7
Cecilia
1970
Friends banged on a piano bench at a party; Simon and Halee looped the thumping into a rhythm track.
★ 6.7
Who Are YouThe Who
Who Are You
1978 · From Who Are You
Townshend woke in a Soho doorway after drinking with two Sex Pistols, and Keith Moon's last album took the title.
★ 6.7
Pink Moon
1972 · From Pink Moon
Voice, guitar, and a single overdubbed piano line, taped after eleven at night with only an engineer present.
★ 6.7
The Needle and the Damage DoneNeil Young
The Needle and the Damage Done
1972 · From Harvest
Two minutes on addiction, taped live at UCLA's Royce Hall in January 1971 and placed unchanged on Harvest.
★ 6.7
Carry On Wayward Son
1976
Kerry Livgren's last-minute addition to Leftoverture opens a cappella, then hands Kansas their first top forty hit.
★ 6.7
Ripple
1970 · From American Beauty
David Grisman's mandolin threading Hunter's London lyrics, a benediction the Dead tucked onto the B-side of "Truckin'".
★ 6.7
That Lady
1973
Recorded at the Record Plant in LA, with Ernie Isley's Hendrix-drenched guitar rebuilding a song the brothers cut in 1964.
★ 6.7
Pretty Vacant
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Matlock's riff, lifted off ABBA's "SOS", and the sound of a generation deciding not to care.
★ 6.7
Brass in Pocket
1979 · From Pretenders
Honeyman-Scott's guitar lick came first, and Hynde told her producer he could release the thing over her dead body.
★ 6.7
Sweet Baby James
1970 · From Sweet Baby James
Taylor wrote it driving through the Carolinas to meet his newborn nephew, a cowboy lullaby in waltz time.
★ 6.6
Take Me to the River
1974 · From Al Green Explores Your Mind
Baptism imagery over Willie Mitchell's Memphis groove, and Hi Records never bothered to release Green's version as a single.
★ 6.6
SurrenderCheap Trick
Surrender
1978
Two deliberate key changes raise the temperature under a teenager discovering his parents are cooler than he is.
★ 6.6
Help Me
1974 · From Court and Spark
Her only American top ten hit, cut with Tom Scott's L.A. Express as she swung folk toward jazz.
★ 6.6
Video Killed the Radio StarThe Buggles
Video Killed the Radio Star
1979
Sixteen national number ones, then a second life at 12:01 a.m. on 1 August 1981 as MTV's first video.
★ 6.6
Who'll Stop the Rain
1970 · From Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
A B-side to "Travelin' Band" that outgrew it, Fogerty's unhurried strum and a question about Vietnam still hanging.
★ 6.6
Watching the Detectives
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello wrote it after a night with the first Clash album; Nieve's piano stalks it like Bernard Herrmann.
★ 6.6
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
1973 · From Talking Book
Wonder hands the first four lines to Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves, then walks in over his own Fender Rhodes.
★ 6.5
Apache
1973
Michael Viner cut Jerry Lordan's tune in Vancouver, and Kool Herc turned its long percussion break into hip hop's foundation.
★ 6.5
One Way or AnotherBlondie
One Way or Another
1979
Harry turned a 1973 stalker into a chase song, and Nigel Harrison's riff supplies the relentless forward motion.
★ 6.5
Simple Man
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Van Zant and Rossington wrote it in an hour, putting his grandmother's and Rossington's mother's advice into song.
★ 6.5
Beast of Burden
1978 · From Some Girls
A thank-you note to Jagger for shouldering the band, by Richards' account, with Wood taking the solo.
★ 6.5
You've Got a Friend
1971 · From Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
King wrote it during the Tapestry sessions; Taylor cut it with Joni Mitchell behind him for his only number one.
★ 6.5
Use Me
1972
Ray Jackson's clavinet vamp and James Gadson's drums; it stopped at number two, blocked by Michael Jackson's "Ben".
★ 6.5
Free Man in Paris
1974 · From Court and Spark
Mitchell wrote it for David Geffen after a Paris trip, then set his escape to Jose Feliciano's guitar.
★ 6.5
Respect Yourself
1971
Mack Rice built it from a line Luther Ingram tossed off, and Pops and Mavis trade the sermon.
★ 6.5
Personality Crisis
1973 · From New York Dolls
Eight days at the Record Plant with Rundgren, and Johansen's strut arrived years before punk had a name.
★ 6.5
Pusherman
1972 · From The Anthology 1961-1977
Master Henry Gibson's percussion over Lucky Scott's bass, Mayfield indicting the drug trade where the film saw only glamour.
★ 6.5
Jungle Boogie
1973
Don Boyce, the band's roadie, shouted the vocal and got a writing credit; Pulp Fiction did the rest.
★ 6.5
Blank GenerationRichard Hell and the Voidoids
Blank Generation
1977
A rewrite of a 1959 novelty called "The Beat Generation", with Quine and Julian's guitars turning parody into manifesto.
★ 6.4
Last Dance
1978
Jabara reportedly locked Summer in a hotel bathroom with a cassette until she agreed; it won the Academy Award.
★ 6.4
Rock and Roll All Nite
1975 · From Dressed to Kill
Casablanca's Neil Bogart asked for a party song; Stanley wrote the chorus, and the live take beat the studio single.
★ 6.4
Complete Control
1977
Lee Perry produced it after CBS released a single without the band's consent; Topper Headon's first Clash session.
★ 6.4
Helpless
1970 · From Deja Vu
One of three Deja Vu tracks the four cut together, Young keening about the Ontario town of his childhood.
★ 6.4
I Want You to Want Me
1977
Nielsen's studio take on In Color went nowhere; the live Japanese version, crowd and all, hit number seven.
★ 6.4
Is This Love (Bob Marley)Bob Marley and the Wailers
Is This Love (Bob Marley)
1978 · From Kaya
Kaya's warmest track went top ten in Britain, and its London video gave a young Naomi Campbell her debut.
★ 6.4
I'm Eighteen
1970
Ezrin cut an eight-minute jam down to three, and John Lydon mimed along to it to join the Sex Pistols.
★ 6.4
Brick House
1977
Drummer Walter Orange stepped out front, LaPread's bass line did the rest, and funk got a permanent floor-filler.
★ 6.4
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
1971
Two years after Lennon and Ono's billboards declared the war over, Spector cut it with a Harlem children's choir.
★ 6.3
Easy
1977
Richie traced that Sunday-morning ease to the small Alabama town he grew up in; the singer is walking away relieved.
★ 6.3
Ramblin' ManThe Allman Brothers Band
Ramblin' Man
1973 · From Brothers and Sisters
Betts wrote and sang it, borrowing Hank Williams' title; Oakley's bass line was among his last recordings.
★ 6.3
The JokerSteve Miller Band
The Joker
1973
A lyric lifted from "Lovey Dovey", a misheard doo-wop coinage, and a Levi's ad that made it Britain's number one.
★ 6.3
If You Want Me to Stay
1973 · From Fresh
Number twelve on the Hot 100, the band's last pop top twenty, and a bass line hip hop still raids.
★ 6.3
Radio RadioElvis Costello
Radio Radio
1978 · From This Year's Model
Booked after the Sex Pistols' visas fell through, Costello halted his SNL performance mid-song to play this unreleased attack instead.
★ 6.3
Funeral For a Friend Love Lies Bleeding
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John wrote the instrumental half imagining music for his own funeral; Hentschel's ARP 2500 overdubs did the rest.
★ 6.3
Virginia Plain
1972
Ferry lifted the title from his own art-school painting of a giant cigarette packet, Eno's VCS3 shrieking behind him.
★ 6.3
JessicaThe Allman Brothers Band
Jessica
1973 · From Brothers and Sisters
A Django Reinhardt tribute written to be playable with two fingers, named for the infant daughter bouncing to it.
★ 6.3
Sheena is a Punk RockerThe Ramones
Sheena is a Punk Rocker
1977 · From Rocket to Russia
Joey Ramone spliced a jungle-comics heroine with punk's primal charge, and Britain sent it to number twenty-two.
★ 6.3
Oliver's ArmyElvis Costello
Oliver's Army
1979 · From Armed Forces
Steve Nieve's piano lifts its shimmer from "Dancing Queen," and Costello's biggest UK hit smuggles Belfast into a singalong.
★ 6.2
Take a Chance on Me
1978 · From Gold: Greatest Hits
Ulvaeus chanted "tck-a-ch" to pace his jogging; it became the a cappella hook on ABBA's seventh UK number one.
★ 6.2
Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel)
1977 · From The Stranger
Bebop alto player Phil Woods takes the solo, and the melody Joel dreamed won Record and Song of the Year.
★ 6.2
Cruisin'
1979
Tarplin handed over the guitar melody, and Robinson spent years finding words sensual enough to deserve it.
★ 6.2
25 or 6 to 4
1970
Lamm looked at his watch at 3:35 a.m. and had a title; Cetera sang it with his jaw wired together.
★ 6.2
December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)
1975
Gaudio first wrote it about Prohibition's repeal, then Judy Parker rewrote the lyric and drummer Gerry Polci sang lead.
★ 6.2
Birdland
1977
Zawinul named it for the club where he heard Basie, Ellington and Miles, then made an instrumental a hit.
★ 6.1
Ooh Child
1970
Stan Vincent's song sat on a B-side until it broke out in Philadelphia and Detroit and climbed to number eight.
★ 6.1
Wild World
1970
Stevens called it his parting song for Patti D'Arbanville, and Jimmy Cliff took it into the UK top ten.
★ 6.1
DesperadoThe Eagles
Desperado
1973 · From Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Never released as a single; Henley's piano sketch dated to 1968, and Jim Ed Norman's strings turned it monumental.
★ 6.1
Express Yourself (Charles Wright)
1970
Wright wrote and produced it, took it to number three R&B, and nineteen years later N.W.A sampled the groove.
★ 6.1
It Makes No DifferenceThe Band
It Makes No Difference
1975 · From Northern Lights - Southern Cross
Robertson wrote it expressly for Danko's voice, and at their own Shangri-La studio the Band gave loss room to breathe.
★ 6.1
Return of the Grievous Angel
1974 · From Grievous Angel
A Boston fan's poem, reworked by Parsons, Emmylou Harris on harmony, and an album out four months after his death.
★ 6.1
Rich Girl
1977
Hall wrote it about a fast-food heir, changed Rich Boy to Rich Girl, and took the duo to number one.
★ 6.0
That's The Way (I Like It)
1975
Casey and Finch's call-and-response chant for TK in Hialeah topped the Hot 100 in two separate runs.
★ 6.0
Rock and RollThe Velvet Underground
Rock and Roll
1970 · From Loaded
Tucker was pregnant, so Doug Yule played drums, bass and the solo; Reed's Jenny finds her life on the radio.
★ 6.0
Best of My Love
1977
Maurice White and Al McKay wrote it, Earth Wind and Fire's rhythm section played it, and the Hutchinson sisters soared.
★ 6.0
Tupelo Honey
1971 · From Tupelo Honey
Written in Woodstock, cut in San Francisco with Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay behind Morrison's warmest melody.
★ 6.0
Fly Like an Eagle (Steve Miller Band)
1976
Miller ran a Stratocaster through an Echoplex for that staggered triplet echo, and the synthesizer drifts like weather.
★ 5.9
Northern Sky
1970 · From Bryter Layter
Boyd handed Cale the demo and he improvised celeste, piano and organ around Drake's most openly loving song.
★ 5.9
Dust in the Wind
1977
A fingerpicking exercise Livgren's wife overheard and told him to finish, now Kansas's only American top ten.
★ 5.9
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King)Carole King
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King)
1971 · From Tapestry
A decade after the Shirelles made it the first girl-group number one, King slowed it down with Taylor and Mitchell.
★ 5.9
You're No Good
1974 · From Heart Like a Wheel
Ronstadt rejected the first take as the wrong groove; four days later Andrew Gold's solo sealed her only number one.
★ 5.9
Dancing BarefootPatti Smith
Dancing Barefoot
1979 · From Wave
Written with Ivan Kral and dedicated to women like Jeanne Hebuterne, Modigliani's mistress; Rundgren produced and played the bass.
★ 5.9
Running on EmptyJackson Browne
Running on Empty
1978
Cut live at Merriweather Post Pavilion, 1977, David Lindley's lap steel riding a song Browne wrote on his commute.
★ 5.9
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
1972 · From Let's Stay Together
Willie Mitchell let a Bee Gees ballad run past six minutes at Royal Studios, and Green sings the whole ache.
★ 5.9
Scarlet Begonias
1974 · From From the Mars Hotel
Hunter set his lyric in Grosvenor Square, and from 1977 the Dead ran it straight into Fire on the Mountain.
★ 5.9
I'll Be Around
1972
Norman Harris's octave guitar riff, a B-side that DJs flipped, and five weeks atop the R&B chart.
★ 5.8
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
1978
Graham Maby's bass carries the whole thing, a 1978 flop until reissue, and Jackson insisted it was a funny song.
★ 5.8
Holidays in the Sun
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Marching boots open the record, and a collapsed Jersey holiday sent the band to Berlin for their subject.
★ 5.8
Rainy Night in Georgia
1970
Toots Thielemans on harmonica, Cornell Dupree on guitar, Arif Mardin producing, and Benton sounding like the rain itself.
★ 5.8
Get Down Tonight
1975
A guitar solo recorded slow and played back at double speed opens KC's first American number one.
★ 5.8
Margaritaville
1977
Norbert Putnam moved the sessions to Miami for the beachfront air, and Buffett turned one ruined afternoon into the chorus.
★ 5.7
Levon
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Cut in February 1971 with Paul Buckmaster conducting, a character sketch about a balloon seller and the son who leaves.
★ 5.7
Could it Be I'm Falling in Love
1972
Thom Bell's arrangement at Sigma Sound, MFSB behind him, and Bobby Smith singing soft where anyone else would push.
★ 5.7
Only the Good Die Young
1977 · From The Stranger
Liberty DeVitto hated reggae, so the demo's lilt became a shuffle; the radio bans only sold more copies.
★ 5.7
See No Evil
1977 · From Marquee Moon
Verlaine hired Andy Johns off Goats Head Soup, cut the two guitars to separate channels, and punk got counterpoint.
★ 5.7
Trenchtown RockBob Marley and the Wailers
Trenchtown Rock
1977
Self-produced by the Wailers, and the track that opened the Lyceum nights Island taped in July 1975.
★ 5.7
P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)Parliament
P-Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)
1975
Mothership Connection opens as a pirate broadcast from space, with Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley newly defected from James Brown.
★ 5.7
We've Only Just Begun
1970 · From Close to You
Richard Carpenter recognized Paul Williams singing a bank commercial and asked whether a whole song existed underneath.
★ 5.7
Wonderful Tonight
1977
Clapton wrote it on a Martin D-28 while Pattie Boyd got ready for a Buddy Holly party, by his account.
★ 5.7
Whole Lotta RosieAC/DC
Whole Lotta Rosie
1977 · From Let There Be Rock
Vanda and Young cut it at the Let There Be Rock sessions, reworking a 1976 outtake called Dirty Eyes.
★ 5.7
Sail AwayRandy Newman
Sail Away
1972
A slave trader's sales pitch set to strings and Newman's warmest melody; Bobby Darin later sang it straight.
★ 5.6
Love RollercoasterOhio Players
Love Rollercoaster
1975
Number one in January 1976, and the murder rumor attached to that shriek was only Billy Beck reaching high.
★ 5.6