Puttin' On the Ritz
1983
Berlin wrote it in 1927; Taco's synth version made him, at ninety-five, the oldest living songwriter in the top ten.
★ 1.2
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.
Rock Me Amadeus
1985
Falco rapped Mozart's debts over a Bolland and Bolland production, and gave the Hot 100 its only German-language number one.
★ 2.6
The Promise
1988
Written in a garden shed at Farrington's father's house, stalled at fifty-eight in Britain, then Napoleon Dynamite happened.
★ 2.9
Too ShyKajagoogoo
Too Shy
1983
Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran co-produced it, and Limahl rode the hook to two weeks at UK number one.
★ 3.0
King of Wishful ThinkingGo West
King of Wishful Thinking
1990
Three writers, a Pretty Woman soundtrack slot, and the most cheerful denial ever to reach the American top ten.
★ 3.1
Broken Wings
1985
Reversed cymbal into synth bass, John Lang's lyric drawn from Kahlil Gibran, and Page's voice soaring over it.
★ 3.6
One Thing Leads to Another
1983
Curnin called it an indictment of dishonest politicians, Rupert Hine produced it, and America took it to number four.
★ 3.8
MickeyToni Basil
Mickey
1982
A Racey album track called "Kitty" until Basil switched the gender, added the cheer chant, and directed the video herself.
★ 4.0
Safety DanceMen Without Hats
Safety Dance
1983
Doroschuk wrote it after a bouncer threw him out for pogo dancing, and Tim Pope filmed maypoles in Wiltshire.
★ 4.1
We Didn't Start the Fire
1989 · From Storm Front
Joel wrote it at forty, after a twenty-one-year-old told him the fifties were dull; he has called the melody terrible.
★ 4.1
We Own The Sky
2008
Gonzalez wrote it with his brother Yann, and Ken Thomas produced an album that worships John Hughes and eighties synths.
★ 4.1
I Want CandyBow Wow Wow
I Want Candy
1982
Criteria Studios in Miami, Kenny Laguna producing, the Strangeloves' 1965 hook over Barbarossa's Bo Diddley drums.
★ 4.2
Always Something There to Remind MeNaked Eyes
Always Something There to Remind Me
1983
Bacharach and David's 1964 ballad rebuilt in synthesizers at Abbey Road, and by Byrne's account the vocal took one take.
★ 4.2
(I Just) Died In Your ArmsCutting Crew
(I Just) Died In Your Arms
1986
Van Eede scribbled the title down the night it occurred to him; Terry Brown drummed it on Neil Peart's snare.
★ 4.2
Steve McQueen
2011
Justin Meldal-Johnsen co-produced at Sunset Sound, and Gonzalez turns unembarrassed optimism into a wall of synthesizers.
★ 4.3
Hold Me NowThompson Twins
Hold Me Now
1983
Three days at RAK Studios in London, a row patched up, and marimbas in place of the usual dance-floor sheen.
★ 4.5
She Blinded Me With ScienceThomas Dolby
She Blinded Me With Science
1982
Dolby storyboarded the video before writing a note, then had TV scientist Magnus Pyke shout the title's last word.
★ 4.5
It's My Life (No Doubt)
2003
Hollis and Friese-Greene wrote it for Talk Talk in 1984, and Nellee Hooper's production hands Stefani a stadium chorus.
★ 4.5
Notorious
1986 · From Notorious
Nile Rodgers brought the riff and the Borneo Horns; the band, down to three, answered its own bad press.
★ 4.7
I Touch Myself
1990
Steinberg brought a verse and chorus, the four writers finished it the next day, Australia sent it to number one.
★ 4.7
Alive and Kicking
1985 · From Once Upon a Time
Robin Clark, credited as additional lead singer, answers Kerr line for line while Iovine pushes everything skyward.
★ 4.7
Fascination
1983 · From Fascination!
Martin Rushent's last Human League production for seven years, with four band members trading lines over a restless synth hook.
★ 4.7
Roam
1989
A rare B-52's lyric from an outsider, Robert Waldrop, and Pierson and Wilson make wanderlust sound weightless.
★ 4.8
Jump (For My Love)
1983
Marti Sharron said the writers jumped around at the playback and named it for that; June Pointer does the rest.
★ 4.8
Human
1986 · From Crash
Jam and Lewis wrote it in Minneapolis, and Oakey called that vocal the best he ever gave.
★ 4.8
Falling (Haim)
2013
Danielle, Este and Alana wrote it with Morgan Nagler as a stay-strong pep talk, and it moves like one.
★ 4.8
No More "I Love You's"
1995
Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse fed the 1986 original; Lennox and Lipson rebuilt it into a Grammy winner.
★ 4.9
Centerfold
1980
Justman, the band's keyboardist, wrote it, and his synth hook took a Worcester blues band to six weeks at number one.
★ 5.0
Who Can It Be Now?
1981
Hay wrote the music in a Bermagui treehouse, and Greg Ham's saxophone hook does the rest.
★ 5.1
Out of Touch
1984
A chorus Oates stumbled into on a synthesizer he could barely operate, and the duo's sixth and last number one.
★ 5.1
Karma Chameleon
1983
Judd Lander's harmonica, six weeks at number one in Britain, and Boy George singing about pleasing everybody.
★ 5.1
If You Leave
1986
John Hughes reshot Pretty in Pink's ending and asked for 120 BPM; OMD turned it around in a day or two.
★ 5.2
L.E.S. Artistes
2008
Billed as Santogold then, White aimed it at Lower East Side poseurs; Rolling Stone called it 2008's second best single.
★ 5.3
I Melt With You
1982
Producer Hugh Jones talked Grey out of shouting, and the nuclear-apocalypse lyric arrives as the warmest chorus of 1982.
★ 5.6
Help I'm Alive
2008
Haines wrote it on piano in Buenos Aires as a ballad; the tempo went up and panic became a hook.
★ 5.6
12:51
2003 · From Room on Fire
Guitars pushed to sound like synthesizers, and a Roman Coppola video that borrows its neon from Tron.
★ 5.7
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
1982
A soft reggae beat from Mikey Craig's Caribbean instincts, Steve Levine's polish, and Boy George on Top of the Pops.
★ 5.7
Cruel SummerBananarama
Cruel Summer
1983
Jolley and Swain built it around oppressive heat, and The Karate Kid carried it into the American top ten.
★ 5.7
Love is a Battlefield
1983
Holly Knight and Mike Chapman wrote it as a ballad; Neil Giraldo's drum machines turned it into dance-rock.
★ 5.7
Forever Young (Alphaville)Alphaville
Forever Young (Alphaville)
1984
Two days on a dance version, scrapped for synth pads and a Cold War fear of growing old.
★ 5.7
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
1984
Seventeen weeks climbing to a UK number one, the first for Stock Aitken Waterman, and Burns devours it.
★ 5.8
99 LuftballonsNena
99 Luftballons
1983
Karges saw balloons released at a 1982 Rolling Stones show in Berlin and imagined them crossing the Wall.
★ 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
Down Under
1981
Greg Ham played the flute hook as a joke; it carried Hay's tale to number one in seven countries.
★ 5.9
I Ran (So Far Away)
1982
Battery Studios, London: the echoing riffs were written for a guitarist who had just joined, and they still sound airborne.
★ 6.1
Don't Come Around Here No More
1985 · From Southern Accents
Stewart's electric sitar, a title Stevie Nicks said out loud one night, and Petty at his strangest.
★ 6.2
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
Somebody Told Me
2004 · From Hot Fuss
Flowers called it the story of trying to meet someone in a club; Keuning's hook does the flirting.
★ 6.3
Don't Stand So Close to Me
1980 · From Zenyatta Mondatta
Sting drew on his years teaching and on Nabokov, then watched it become Britain's best-selling single of 1980.
★ 6.3
It's My Life (Talk Talk)
1984
A Tim Pope video with no lip-syncing, BBC wildlife footage, and Talk Talk's only American top forty.
★ 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
Head Over HeelsTears for Fears
Head Over Heels
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Ian Stanley wrote the motif, Orzabal added melody and words, and the chorus arrives like a door kicked open.
★ 6.3
The Look of Love
1981
Trevor Horn's desk, Anne Dudley's strings, and Fry making his own jilting sound like the most glamorous thing available.
★ 6.3
More Than This
1982 · From Avalon
Ferry's voice drops out almost two minutes before the end, leaving a synthesizer to finish the thought.
★ 6.4
Just a Girl
1995
A late drive home from Tony Kanal's house, a father's lecture, and Stefani's first song without brother Eric.
★ 6.4
Come On Eileen
1982
Fiddle, banjo and a tempo shifting gears, then one week at number one between Billie Jean and Beat It.
★ 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