Rather Be
2014
Chatto's cello and a chiptune blip riding house four-four, with Jess Glynne's first number one on top.
★ 4.6
The Songs canon
Sourced and sung.
Every song chosen by hand, with the recording to play it.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Browse all 2,393 songs or filter by genre, subject, artist, and year.
Walking On Broken Glass
1992
Spiccato strings, a skipping piano, and a breakup lyric; Malkovich and Hugh Laurie costar in the period video.
★ 4.6
Fly
1970 · From Bryter Layter
John Cale's viola and harpsichord circle Drake's plea for a second chance, and Wes Anderson later borrowed it.
★ 5.1
Different DrumThe Stone Poneys
Different Drum
1967
Strings, harpsichord, a second take cut live, and Ronstadt the only Stone Poney anywhere on the record.
★ 5.7
Never My Love
1967
Written by the Addrisi brothers, cut by the Wrecking Crew, and named by BMI the twentieth century's second most-played song.
★ 5.7
The Suburbs
2010 · From The Suburbs
A rolling piano, Butler's boyhood in The Woodlands outside Houston, and an album he called a letter from the suburbs.
★ 5.8
I Got You BabeSonny & Cher
I Got You Babe
1965
That hook is an oboe, not an ocarina, and Cher disliked the song Bono wrote for them in their basement.
★ 5.9
This Will Be Our Year
1968 · From Odessey and Oracle
Take four, June 1967 at EMI, with a trumpet added later onto the mono mix and nowhere else.
★ 6.0
Young and Beautiful
2013
Six-times platinum for a soundtrack ballad: Rick Nowels producing, Craig Armstrong's strings, Del Rey singing Daisy Buchanan's doubt.
★ 6.0
Mykonos
2008 · From Sun Giant
Pecknold rebuilt a piano soul demo with Phil Ek at Bear Creek, and the harmonies own the second half.
★ 6.2
Alone Again OrLove
Alone Again Or
1968 · From Forever Changes
MacLean wrote it about waiting for a girlfriend, David Angel scored the horns, and Lee added himself in the mix.
★ 6.6
Chicago
2005 · From Illinois
Sleigh bells, trumpets and a choir stacked into one crescendo, and Stevens cut five different versions of it.
★ 6.7
Holocene
2011 · From Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Horns and clarinets swell over guitar in a converted Wisconsin veterinary clinic; Grammy voters nominated it for record and song.
★ 6.7
Walk Away Renee
1966
Sixteen-year-old Michael Brown's hands shook when Renee walked into the control room, so he cut the harpsichord part later, alone.
★ 6.8
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Darlene Love)
1963 · From A Christmas Gift for You
Cut at Gold Star in 1963, a commercial flop, then Love sang it for Letterman nearly every December until 2014.
★ 6.8
Ruby TuesdayThe Rolling Stones
Ruby Tuesday
1967 · From Between the Buttons
Brian Jones on recorder, Wyman fingering a double bass while Richards bowed it, and the Stones' most delicate number one.
★ 6.8
Caroline, No
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Twelve players at Western, an empty water jug for percussion, and Murry Wilson speeding the tape a semitone.
★ 6.9
Scarborough Fair
1966
Simon learned it from Martin Carthy in London; Garfunkel wound an anti-war lyric through the ballad as counterpoint.
★ 7.0
Viva La Vida
2008 · From Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Eno producing, Davide Rossi's looping strings, a deposed king narrating, and Coldplay's first number one in Britain and America.
★ 7.1
Wake UpArcade Fire
Wake Up
2005 · From Funeral
A wordless chorus half of indie rock then copied, and Bowie sang it onstage with the band in 2005.
★ 7.4