Auld Lang Syne
1910
Burns said he took the song down from an old man; Stanley's 1910 disc is probably the first commercial recording.
★ 1.3
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.
Life Goes On
2011
Critics heard the Kinks' Lola in the strum, and a Dancing on Ice slot lifted it to number fourteen.
★ 2.8
Blue Skies
2009
Fink wrote the whole album around his split with Laura Marling; this became its first single, and its way out.
★ 3.1
On Top of Old Smoky
1951
Cecil Sharp collected it in Appalachia in 1916; Seeger's arrangement and Terry Gilkyson's voice sold a million.
★ 3.5
Foolish Games
1997
Ben Keith produced Pieces of You partly at Neil Young's ranch, and radio flipped this B-side into the hit.
★ 3.5
To Ohio
2009
Ten winter days in a Block Island basement, a pump organ, and a hush Emmylou Harris later covered.
★ 3.8
Leader of the Band
1981
Fogelberg wrote it for his father Lawrence, a working bandleader who lived to hear it and talk about it.
★ 3.8
Charlie Darwin
2009
Cut in a converted basement on Block Island, sung in falsetto with the drums stripped out; the Mayflower never sounded lonelier.
★ 3.9
5 Years Time
2007
Laura Marling's ukulele and Charlie Fink's deadpan flopped in 2007; a 2008 re-release carried the sunshine to number seven.
★ 4.4
The Way It Goes
2011 · From The Harrow & The Harvest
Eight years of songs Welch and Rawlings never liked enough to release, then this litany of friends gone.
★ 4.5
Naked as We CameIron & Wine
Naked as We Came
2004
Beam swapped his home four-track for Brian Deck's Chicago studio, and sang two lovers weighing which of them dies first.
★ 4.6
I Will Wait
2012
Markus Dravs produced Babel; the video was shot at Red Rocks, banjo running flat out under a vow.
★ 4.8
Goodnight Irene
1950
Lead Belly died months before Gordon Jenkins's orchestra carried his waltz to thirteen weeks atop the American charts.
★ 4.9
Day Is Done
1969 · From Five Leaves Left
Voice, guitar and strings went down together at Sound Techniques, Robert Kirby scoring the sound of coming up short.
★ 5.0
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
Gone Gone Gone
2007 · From Raising Sand
A 1964 Everly Brothers single, rebuilt by T Bone Burnett into swampy menace, won a Grammy.
★ 5.1
Emmylou
2012
Mike Mogis produced it; the Söderberg sisters name Gram and Emmylou, June and Johnny, and sing harmony like devotion.
★ 5.4
Lost Cause
2002 · From Sea Change
One week of writing after a nine-year relationship ended, and Godrich kept the arrangement to acoustic guitar and brushes.
★ 5.4
Blue Ridge MountainsFleet Foxes
Blue Ridge Mountains
2008 · From Fleet Foxes
Homesick for his brother Sean, Pecknold buried the vocals in reverb and block harmony that swells like Sacred Harp singing.
★ 5.5
Such Great Heights (Iron & Wine)Iron & Wine
Such Great Heights (Iron & Wine)
2004
Beam slowed Gibbard's synth-pop into hushed acoustic guitar for a Sub Pop B-side, then Garden State put it everywhere.
★ 5.5