A Bad Dream
2007
Rice-Oxley built it from Yeats's poem about an Irish airman, a pilot too high up to hear the guns below.
★ 1.7
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.
Over My Head (Cable Car)
2005
A fight with his brother Caleb, a Denver station spinning the demo, and Slade's chorus everywhere by 2006.
★ 2.7
Landed
2005
Folds went back to a trio for Songs for Silverman, and made its lead single a phone call home.
★ 3.7
Jamaica Say You Will
1972
Clarence White on acoustic guitar, and the demo that led David Geffen to found Asylum Records and sign Browne.
★ 4.0
Amsterdam (Coldplay)
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
Martin wrote the verse in Amsterdam and the outro in Iceland; the closing track waits minutes before the guitars arrive.
★ 4.3
Everybody's Changing
2004
Rice-Oxley wrote it after the guitarist quit, which is why a rock band's biggest hook is played on piano.
★ 4.5
The Luckiest
2001
Written for the comedy Loser, which cut the scene, and now the piano ballad people play at weddings.
★ 4.6
A Thousand Miles
2002
Carlton built that piano figure in about an hour and titled it Interlude; her label insisted on something catchier.
★ 4.8
Long December
1996
Duritz wrote it before dawn while a friend lay in hospital, and the band cut it almost entirely live.
★ 4.9
Hold the Line
1978
Paich's pounding piano intro, Porcaro's triplet hi-hat, and Lukather's solo, all on a debut single that hit number five.
★ 5.2
Somewhere Only We Know
2004
Rice-Oxley hammered it out on piano after "Heroes", and Keane proved a rock band could skip guitars entirely.
★ 5.5
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
Brick
1997
Written on guitar rather than piano, cut live in a bedroom on a few microphones, and unbearably calm.
★ 5.7
The Way It Is
1986
Hornsby wrote the words first in a Van Nuys garage; that piano figure later became the spine of Tupac's Changes.
★ 6.2
Criminal
1997 · From Tidal
Apple wrote it in forty-five minutes to give the label its hit, then took a Grammy for the vocal.
★ 6.8
Clocks
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
A piano riff Martin nearly saved for the next album, rescued by their manager, then Record of the Year.
★ 7.2
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