I'm Too SexyRight Said Fred
I'm Too Sexy
1991
A gym joke about mirror preening, built on a riff lifted from Hendrix's Third Stone from the Sun.
★ 0.9
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.
Thank God It's Christmas
1984
May and Taylor wrote it, Mercury sang it, and Queen waited until 2019 to give it a video.
★ 1.0
Oh Girl (Paul Young)
1990
Eugene Record's Chi-Lites ballad, harmonica and all, remade by Young in 1990 for a number eight American hit.
★ 1.2
We Be The CrewThe Wiseguys
We Be The Crew
1999
Track three on The Antidote, cut-and-paste funk from the album Theo Keating built alone after his partner left.
★ 1.6
Wonderful Christmastime
1979
Recorded alone in Sussex in the summer of 1979, every instrument McCartney's own, and a UK number six by January.
★ 1.6
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
Heart and Soul
1987
Decker's rap began as syncopated nonsense syllables, and she overdubbed herself into a duet nobody could play live.
★ 2.1
Double Bubble Trouble
2013 · From Matangi
Dub reggae bass and Indian strings under a nod to Shampoo's 1994 hit "Trouble", produced by The Partysquad.
★ 2.2
Throw It in the Bag
2009
Loso's Way yielded exactly one charting single, produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, peaking at number fourteen.
★ 2.5
Some Guys Have All the Luck
1985 · From Camouflage
Jeff Fortgang wrote it fresh out of Yale; the Persuaders cut it first, and Stewart took it to number ten.
★ 2.6
Too Close
2011
Diplo and Switch wrapped a breakup song in dubstep, and a Microsoft browser ad made it a worldwide hit.
★ 2.6
Do You Remember
1990
A slow burn, Hugh Padgham at the desk, Stephen Bishop harmonising behind, and Collins's fourteenth and final American top ten.
★ 2.6
You're Beautiful
2005
A glimpse of an ex on the London Underground, her new man beside her, and a transatlantic number one.
★ 2.6
Start the Commotion
1999
A 1966 Ventures instrumental on loop, twice a minor British hit, then a Mitsubishi advert made it inescapable.
★ 2.7
Can't Help Falling in Love (UB40)
1993
Peretti, Creatore and Weiss built the melody on a 1784 French air, and UB40 held number one for seven weeks.
★ 2.8
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
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
The Living Years
1988
Rutherford and B.A. Robertson had both just lost their fathers; Carrack, who lost his young, sang it.
★ 2.9
Tubthumping
1997
An anarchist collective from Leeds, a sample from Brassed Off, and a chorus about ordinary people refusing to stay down.
★ 3.0
A Groovy Kind of Love (The Mindbenders)The Mindbenders
A Groovy Kind of Love (The Mindbenders)
1965
Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager set lyrics to a Clementi sonatina rondo; Eric Stewart sang it to number two.
★ 3.0
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
One More Night (Phil Collins)
1984
A DX7 electric piano, a drum machine, and Don Myrick's saxophone taking a number one out quietly.
★ 3.1
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
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
I Wish it Would Rain Down
1990
Clapton plays the lead over Padgham's production, the closest Collins had then come to writing a blues song.
★ 3.5
Have I Told You Lately
1991 · From Vagabond Heart
Morrison wrote it as a prayer for Avalon Sunset; Stewart's reading turned it into a wedding standard.
★ 3.5
Something Happened on the Way to Heaven
1990
Phenix Horns brass over Nathan East's bass, on a song Collins first wrote for The War of the Roses.
★ 3.6
Perfect Strangers
1984 · From Perfect Strangers
Stowe, Vermont, a mobile studio, the Mark II lineup back after eleven years, and Lord's organ doing the heavy lifting.
★ 3.7
Shiver
2000 · From Parachutes
Martin called it a blatant Jeff Buckley attempt, cut at Rockfield with Ken Nelson, and the chorus soars anyway.
★ 3.7
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
Right Here, Right NowJesus Jones
Right Here, Right Now
1990
Romania in February 1990, weeks of upheaval still fresh, and Edwards came home to write pop's happiest history lesson.
★ 3.9
White Flag
2003
Her brother Rollo co-produced it, and the chorus flatly refuses to concede a relationship everyone knows is over.
★ 3.9
Forever Young (Rod Stewart)Rod Stewart
Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
1988 · From Out of Order
A father's blessing written for the kids Stewart missed while touring, and similar enough to Dylan's song that they share royalties.
★ 4.0
Another Day in Paradise
1989
The last number one of the eighties and the first of the nineties, with David Crosby singing behind Collins.
★ 4.0
Unbelievable
1990
A riff written on a bike ride, a sample Rick Rubin cleared free, and a surprise American number one.
★ 4.0
Is This Love (Whitesnake)Whitesnake
Is This Love (Whitesnake)
1987
Coverdale began it as a Tina Turner idea, Geffen told him to keep it, and it climbed to number two.
★ 4.0
Desert Rose
1999
An Arabic descant improvised by Cheb Mami without hearing Sting's lyric, and both halves came out about longing.
★ 4.1
You Gotta Be
1994
Written out of a breakup and a Shakti Gawain self-help book, then re-released in Britain three times until it stuck.
★ 4.2
Simply Irresistible
1988
Number two in America, three weeks atop the rock chart, and the video that closed Palmer's mannequin trilogy.
★ 4.2
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
Father ChristmasThe Kinks
Father Christmas
1977
Ray Davies cut it at Konk in 1977, a department store Santa mugged by kids who want jobs, not toys.
★ 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
Valerie
1982
Every instrument on it is Winwood alone; the 1982 single stalled, and Tom Lord-Alge's 1987 remix reached the top ten.
★ 4.3
Holding Back the Years
1985
Hucknall wrote the words at seventeen, his punk band cut it first, and the chorus made it an American number one.
★ 4.3
Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin's first New York, gunfire outside the hotel window, a rose borrowed from Spanish Harlem, all cut in France.
★ 4.3
Missing You
1984
Waite heard a guitar melody on cassette and improvised the first verse on the spot; its chorus is pure denial.
★ 4.3
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
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
1991
Elton John joined Michael onstage near Chicago in October 1991, and the live duet topped both charts.
★ 4.3
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
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
1982 · From Too Low for Zero
Cut at AIR Montserrat with the classic band reunited, and Stevie Wonder's harmonica lifting it clean off the ground.
★ 4.5
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
Change the World
1996
Wynonna Judd cut it first as country; Babyface gave Clapton a soul groove and the Grammys gave back three.
★ 4.5
Warning SignColdplay
Warning Sign
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
Buckland gave up on a guitar part and played maracas instead, and Martin's slow crawl back still aches.
★ 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
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
1978 · From Blondes Have More Fun
Stewart heard Jorge Ben's Taj Mahal at Rio Carnival, absorbed the melody unwittingly, and signed the royalties over to UNICEF.
★ 4.5
I Want Your Sex
1987
A MIDI malfunction at Sarm West handed Michael that squelching bassline; the BBC then confined it to after the watershed.
★ 4.5
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
Tough Love
2014
Recorded low at first until BenZel pushed her up an octave, and the falsetto turned touring loneliness into something weightless.
★ 4.6
Love Hurts
1975
A 1960 Boudleaux Bryant song the Everly Brothers cut first, remade by McCafferty's rasp into the version everyone knows.
★ 4.6
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
Don't Go Breaking My HeartElton John
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Elton John and Kiki Dee
1976
Ann Orson and Carte Blanche on the credits, a Motown duet pastiche that held British number one for six weeks.
★ 4.7
Bleeding Love
2007
Hollywood Records turned it down for McCartney; Tedder recut it in a new key and Cowell called it the 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
Baby I Love Your Way
1975
Stalled at 43 as a studio single until the live version on Frampton Comes Alive! reached the top twelve.
★ 4.7
Come UndoneDuran Duran
Come Undone
1993 · From Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)
One drum loop, a phone call that brought Nick Rhodes over, and Tessa Niles unleashing the diva on the chorus.
★ 4.7
Lights
2011
Goulding wrote it about a childhood fear of the dark, and the Hot 100 kept it fifty-two weeks.
★ 4.7
Boom Clap
2014
Charli offered it to Hilary Duff, whose team passed; a film soundtrack turned that chorus into a top-ten smash.
★ 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
Walking on Sunshine
1985
Kimberley Rew called it simple fun; the 1985 re-recording added horns and carried the band into the American top ten.
★ 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
Your Love (The Outfield)
1986
Guitarist John Spinks wrote it, Tony Lewis sang it, and producer William Wittman pushed the band past their softer demo.
★ 4.8
Madman Across the Water
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Buckmaster spilled ink across his orchestral score and rewrote all of it in a day; Spedding's electric guitar prowls underneath.
★ 4.8
Never Gonna Give You Up
1987
Waterman handed Astley the title after hearing him talk about his girlfriend; five weeks at number one followed.
★ 4.8
Unwritten
2004
Cut in Venice Beach with Danielle Brisebois, then adopted by The Hills and every graduation slideshow since.
★ 4.8
You Wear It Well
1972 · From Never a Dull Moment
A letter to an ex, sung over acoustic guitar, fiddle and McLagan's Hammond, and another UK number one.
★ 4.9
Fields of Gold
1993
Barley fields outside Sting's Wiltshire house, Kathryn Tickell's Northumbrian smallpipes, and a promise meant to last a lifetime.
★ 4.9
Goodbye Stranger
1979
Davies wrote and sang it, Hodgson answered in falsetto, and that Wurlitzer figure runs the whole drifter's farewell.
★ 4.9
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
1975 · From Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Baldry talked Elton out of a wedding in 1968, and Taupin wrote him into the chorus as Sugar Bear.
★ 5.0
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
Here I Go Again
1982
Jon Lord's Hammond organ on the 1982 original, a heartbreak song Coverdale wrote in Portugal, later a number one.
★ 5.1
The Mother We Share
2012
Cut in the trio's Glasgow basement studio, sibling estrangement wrapped in synth glitter and Mayberry's bright clean vocal.
★ 5.1
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
2003
Justin Hawkins in full falsetto, cut at Chapel Studios, on a riff Q placed among its 101 greatest guitar tracks.
★ 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
April Skies
1987
Gillespie had gone off to Primal Scream, so a drum machine drives the Reids' highest UK charting single.
★ 5.2
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
Kiss From a RoseSeal
Kiss From a Rose
1994
Written in 1987 and abandoned in a corner, it took Batman Forever to make it Record of the Year.
★ 5.3
Stay With Me
2014
One voice layered roughly twenty times into a choir, and a settlement that added Petty and Lynne.
★ 5.3
She Drives Me Crazy
1989
Cut at Paisley Park with David Z, the snare a drumhead struck with a wooden ruler under Gift's falsetto.
★ 5.3
Mony Mony
1987
Idol's 1981 studio take missed the Hot 100 entirely; the live 1987 version knocked Tiffany off number one.
★ 5.4
For Your Love
1965
Brian Auger's harpsichord and Denny Piercy's bongos on a pop single, with Clapton confined to the middle break before quitting.
★ 5.4
Trouble
2000 · From Parachutes
Recorded four times before Ken Nelson kept one, and Martin, by his account, apologizing for behaving badly toward his band.
★ 5.4
Candle in the Wind 1997Elton John
Candle in the Wind 1997
1997
Taupin rewrote his Marilyn Monroe lyric for Diana, George Martin added strings hours after the funeral, and 33 million sold.
★ 5.5
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
Your Woman
1997
Mishra cut it in his bedroom on an Atari ST, sampling a 1932 muted trumpet, and topped the UK chart.
★ 5.5
Strange BrewCream
Strange Brew
1967 · From Disraeli Gears
Pappalardi and Gail Collins wrote new words over a shelved "Lawdy Mama" take, and Clapton borrows Albert King wholesale.
★ 5.5
Back for Good
1995
Barlow says it took fifteen minutes to write; the BRIT Awards debut pushed the release forward to an instant number one.
★ 5.5
Planet Telex
1995 · From The Bends
Originally called Planet Xerox until the trademark intervened, drums spliced from other sessions, piano soaked in delay.
★ 5.5
Weapon of Choice
2001
Bootsy Collins doubled in both channels, a Sly Stone sample, and Christopher Walken dancing through a Los Angeles hotel lobby.
★ 5.5
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
1988
Craig and Charlie Reid wrote it in an Edinburgh flat, sang it in undisguised Scottish accents, America followed in 1993.
★ 5.5
What Is and What Should Never Be
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Among Plant's first songwriting credits, a CBS contract having blocked him on the debut, over guitars panning across both channels.
★ 5.6
Paradise
2011 · From Mylo Xyloto
Eno took a co-writing credit and played synthesizers; it became Coldplay's second UK number one and a stadium fixture.
★ 5.6
Care of Cell 44
1967 · From Odessey and Oracle
Argent's working title was "Prison Song", and the sunniest harmonies of 1967 are addressed to someone awaiting release.
★ 5.6
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
Dry The Rain
1997
Six minutes that drift, then lift; the track Rob plays in High Fidelity to sell five copies on the spot.
★ 5.7
Shangri-La
1969 · From Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Davies wrote it after seeing his sister's house on an Australian housing estate, turning suburban comfort into a cage.
★ 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
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
1984
Ridgeley scrawled a note to his parents, doubled a word by mistake, and George Michael built a number one on it.
★ 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
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
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
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
Set Fire to the RainAdele
Set Fire to the Rain
2011 · From 21
Rosie Danvers wrapped the strings around Adele's biggest crescendo, and 21 took its third straight American number one.
★ 5.8
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
Tears in Heaven
1991
Will Jennings helped finish a lyric Clapton wrote after his four-year-old son died; three Grammys followed in 1993.
★ 5.9
Praise You
1999
Camille Yarbrough's 1975 vocal over a lo-fi piano loop, and a Spike Jonze video reportedly shot for eight hundred dollars.
★ 6.0
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
Against All Odds
1983
A Face Value outtake with new lyrics for Taylor Hackford's film, and Collins's first American number one.
★ 6.0
Virtual Insanity
1996
Glazer put the set on wheels and never moved the floor; four VMAs followed, Video of the Year among them.
★ 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
I Want to Break Free
1984 · From Greatest Hits
Deacon's song, Fred Mandel's Jupiter-8 solo in a single take, and a video of Queen in Coronation Street drag.
★ 6.0
Thinking Out Loud
2014
Wadge was playing chords while Sheeran showered; twenty minutes later they had a Song of the Year.
★ 6.0
Ordinary World
1993 · From Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)
Three days to finish the music in Cuccurullo's home studio, and an elegy for a dead friend became their comeback.
★ 6.1
That's Entertainment
1980
Almost all acoustic guitar, one electric part running backwards, and an import single that still reached number twenty-one in Britain.
★ 6.1
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
Season of the Witch
1966
Two chords built for jamming, Mickie Most in the producer's chair, and folk-pop suddenly acquired a shiver of paranoia.
★ 6.1
Everything She Wants
1984
Michael programmed the LinnDrum in an evening, wrote the vocal next morning, and turned marital dread into a groove.
★ 6.1
The Kids Are Alright
1966 · From My Generation
Recorded at IBC in October 1965, it stalled at 41 in Britain, then became the mod movement's calling card.
★ 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
Father Figure
1988
Michael muted the snare while mixing a mid-tempo dance track and, by his account, suddenly had a gospel record.
★ 6.1
Halcyon and On and On
1992
Named for the tranquilizer the Hartnolls' mother took, with Kirsty Hawkshaw's vocal reversed and stretched across nine minutes.
★ 6.2
Return of the Mack
1996
Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love beat rebuilt as smooth British R&B, and Morrison sounding utterly unbothered about being wronged.
★ 6.2
Heartbreaker
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Page cut the unaccompanied solo at Atlantic while the rest of the track was taped across town at A&R.
★ 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
Higher Love
1986
Chaka Khan's backing vocals lift Winwood's first solo number one, and the Grammy for Record of the Year followed.
★ 6.2
Addicted to Love
1986
Chaka Khan's label blocked her from the duet, so Palmer sang it alone over Tony Thompson's drum intro.
★ 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
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
High and DryRadiohead
High and Dry
1995 · From The Bends
Rescued from a 1993 demo the band wrote off as too Rod Stewart, and adored everywhere except by Yorke.
★ 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
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
1966
Two people who had never written a lyric rewrote a Sanremo ballad, and Springfield cut her vocal in a stairwell.
★ 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
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
It's a Sin
1987
Tennant settling scores with his Newcastle Catholic school teachers, then closing the record with the Confiteor recited in Latin.
★ 6.3
Galang
2003 · From Arular
M.I.A.'s second song ever, built on a Roland MC-505 and written for Elastica; dancehall never sounded so homemade.
★ 6.3
Crazy (Seal)
1990
Trevor Horn spent about three months producing it; Seal built the chorus from a world visibly changing.
★ 6.4
Retrograde
2013
A wordless hum to open, then distortion flooding the chorus; lead single from the Mercury-winning Overgrown.
★ 6.4
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
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
1965
Written after Horace Ott quarreled with his girlfriend, and sped from Simone's ballad into Burdon's pleading.
★ 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
CrossroadsCream
Crossroads
1969 · From Wheels of Fire
Cut live at Winterland in March 1968, Robert Johnson's blues sped up under two of Clapton's most copied solos.
★ 6.4
Two Weeks (FKA Twigs)
2014
Emile Haynie and Arca build a slow cathedral of bass, and Twigs sings desire in a whisper.
★ 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
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
Rain
1966
Emerick taped the backing fast and slowed it on playback; Ringo called it the best record he ever made.
★ 6.5
You Know I'm No Good
2006 · From Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, Winehouse writing about infidelity and offering no apology.
★ 6.5
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
1980 · From Greatest Hits
Ten minutes after a Munich bath, a borrowed Fender not the Red Special, and Queen's first American number one.
★ 6.5
In Between DaysThe Cure
In Between Days
1985 · From The Head on the Door
Smith's six-string bass, acoustic guitars strummed to a blur, and the Cure's sunniest song about feeling old.
★ 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
Heartbeats (The Knife)
2002
Pitchfork's fifteenth-best song of the 2000s, the Dreijer siblings' synth pulse, later stripped to one acoustic guitar by Jose Gonzalez.
★ 6.6
Ramble OnLed Zeppelin
Ramble On
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Cut in two New York studios in June 1969, with Mordor and Gollum folded into a restless road song.
★ 6.6
Just Can't Get Enough
1981 · From Speak & Spell
Daniel Miller sequenced it on a Roland MC-4, Vince Clarke's last single for the band and still a terrace chant.
★ 6.6
I Can See for MilesThe Who
I Can See for Miles
1967 · From The Who Sell Out
Townshend called it his ace in the hole and never forgave Britain for stopping it at number ten.
★ 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
Sweet Thing
1968 · From Astral Weeks
Jazz players Richard Davis and Connie Kay taped it at the last Astral Weeks session, and Morrison floats free.
★ 6.6
I Can't Explain
1964
Straightforward Kink copying, by Townshend's own admission, with the Ivy League on harmonies and Shel Talmy at the desk.
★ 6.6
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
Avalon
1982 · From Avalon
A swan song by Ferry's own account, with a wordless vocal from Yanick Etienne, found in the next studio.
★ 6.7
Hungry Like the Wolf
1982 · From Rio
Rhodes had the backing track in mind before reaching the studio; the Sri Lanka video carried it to number three.
★ 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
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
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
Friday I'm In LoveThe Cure
Friday I'm In Love
1992 · From Wish
Smith left the vari-speed engaged at mixdown, so the released version sits a quarter-tone sharp and grins anyway.
★ 6.7
The Scientist
2002 · From A Rush of Blood to the Head
One out-of-tune Liverpool piano, an attempt at a Harrison song abandoned, and the chord run Martin kept instead.
★ 6.7
Substitute
1966
Townshend built it from a single word in "Tracks of My Tears", and American pressings rewrote the line about race.
★ 6.8
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
1981 · From Ghost in the Machine
Four years in Sting's drawer before The Police cut it, and Jean Roussel's piano overdubs are why it soars.
★ 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
There She GoesThe La's
There She Goes
1990
Bob Andrews cut it in 1988 to no interest; Lillywhite's remix made it Britpop's founding jangle.
★ 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
I Saw Her Standing There
1963 · From Please Please Me
Martin spliced McCartney's count-in from take nine onto take one, and rock and roll never had a better doorway.
★ 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
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
Shout (Tears for Fears)
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Orzabal wrote it on a small synth as an album track; Stanley heard a worldwide smash and was right.
★ 6.9
My Girls
2009 · From Merriweather Post Pavilion
An arpeggio out of Chicago house, a sample from the Cassini Saturn probe, Lennox wanting only a home.
★ 6.9
Song 2
1997
Two minutes and two seconds, track two, number two in Britain, and a whistle on the demo became that woo-hoo.
★ 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
Pictures of You
1989 · From Disintegration
A house fire left Smith with photographs of Mary salvaged from his wallet, and one became the single's sleeve.
★ 6.9
She's Not ThereThe Zombies
She's Not There
1964 · From Begin Here
A minor key, a Hohner Pianet solo, and a debut single Argent wrote to fit Blunstone's upper range.
★ 6.9
Start Me Up
1981 · From Tattoo You
Two rock takes buried under dozens of abandoned reggae versions, dug out of the vault while assembling Tattoo You.
★ 6.9
Please Please MeThe Beatles
Please Please Me
1963 · From Please Please Me
Eighteen takes in one November session, a Lennon ballad sped up, and Martin calling their first number one.
★ 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
Don't You (Forget About Me)
1985
Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol passed; Simple Minds cut it reluctantly, then kept the placeholder chant that closes it.
★ 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
White RoomCream
White Room
1968 · From Wheels of Fire
A 5/4 intro that worried the label, Pappalardi's violas, Baker's timpani, and Clapton's wah-wah doing the talking.
★ 7.0
Should I Stay or Should I Go
1982 · From Combat Rock
Spanish backing vocals translated by the tape operator's mother over the phone, and a jeans advert made it number one.
★ 7.0
With a Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker)
1968
Cocker slowed a Beatles album track to gospel tempo, with Jimmy Page on guitar and Tommy Eyre's organ intro.
★ 7.1
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
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
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
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
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
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
Total Eclipse of the Heart
1982
Nearly seven minutes, Rory Dodd's voice answering Tyler on the refrain, and Steinman's vampire love song became 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
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
1984
Marr's melody came from a New York hotel room, the title from Sandie Shaw, and misery never sounded so cheerful.
★ 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
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
Sunny AfternoonThe Kinks
Sunny Afternoon
1966 · From Face to Face
A white upright piano, a bout of illness, and Britain's supertax reimagined as a lounging aristocrat pleading poverty.
★ 7.2
Dazed and ConfusedLed Zeppelin
Dazed and Confused
1969 · From Led Zeppelin
Jake Holmes wrote it in 1967, the Yardbirds absorbed it, Page cut it at Olympic with a violin bow.
★ 7.3
Champagne SupernovaOasis
Champagne Supernova
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Seven and a half minutes, Paul Weller on lead guitar, and a lyric Noel admits he chose for the rhyme.
★ 7.3
Time of the Season
1968 · From Odessey and Oracle
Argent and Blunstone rowed over the vocal at Abbey Road, and the band had broken up before America noticed.
★ 7.3
We Gotta Get Out of This Place
1965
Chandler's bass walks in alone, Burdon arrives furious, and GIs in Vietnam claimed a Brill Building demo.
★ 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
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
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
Wonderwall
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Owen Morris showed Bonehead the root notes for a Mellotron cello, and the track was largely done in a day.
★ 7.3
In Your Eyes
1986 · From So
Youssou N'Dour improvising in Wolof, and a bassline so deep it had to move up the vinyl.
★ 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
Teardrop
1998 · From Mezzanine
Mushroom sent the demo to Madonna, got outvoted, and Elizabeth Fraser sang it over harpsichord and a Les McCann loop.
★ 7.3
Yellow
2000 · From Parachutes
Ken Nelson pointed at the stars outside Rockfield, and Martin sang the melody in his worst Neil Young impression.
★ 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
All Day and All of the NightThe Kinks
All Day and All of the Night
1964
Ray Davies's publisher wanted to sue the Doors over the riff; Davies declined, and the snarl outlived the argument.
★ 7.4
Can't Buy Me Love
1964 · From A Hard Day's Night
Two point one million American advance orders, and behind them a Paris hotel upright where McCartney wrote it.
★ 7.4
With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)
1967 · From Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Starr sang it at dawn after ten takes, having first made them cut the line about thrown tomatoes.
★ 7.4
Freedom! '90
1990
Michael refused to appear, so Fincher had five supermodels lip-sync while his Faith leather jacket burned onscreen.
★ 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
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
Rock the Casbah
1982 · From Combat Rock
Topper Headon cut the drums, piano and bass himself, and Strummer finished the lyrics in the studio bathroom.
★ 7.4
Don't Look Back in Anger
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Noel's first lead vocal on an Oasis single, a phrase lifted from a Lennon tape, Manchester's anthem ever since.
★ 7.4
FaithGeorge Michael
Faith
1987
A church organ quoting Wham!'s Freedom, then Hugh Burns's Bo Diddley rhythm, and four weeks at number one.
★ 7.4
Street Fighting ManThe Rolling Stones
Street Fighting Man
1968 · From Beggars Banquet
Richards cut the acoustic into a Philips cassette recorder until it distorted, Watts drumming on a 1930s toy kit.
★ 7.4
Money for Nothing
1985 · From Brothers in Arms
Knopfler borrowed a pen in a New York appliance store to copy down a delivery man's complaints about MTV.
★ 7.4
Tainted LoveSoft Cell
Tainted Love
1981
A Northern soul flop from 1964 rebuilt on synthesizers at Advision, Marc Almond's first vocal take kept intact.
★ 7.4
Careless Whisper
George Michael and Wham!
1984
Written at seventeen on a bus, scrapped at Muscle Shoals, saved by Steve Gregory's saxophone in one breath.
★ 7.5
Bizarre Love Triangle
1985
It missed the UK top forty, all Fairlight sequencing except Hook's bass, and now every indie disco needs it.
★ 7.5
Take Me Out
2004 · From Franz Ferdinand
Two songs welded together, the tempo dropping a minute in, and a sniper film lending Kapranos his double-edged title.
★ 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
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
Fake Plastic Trees
1995 · From The Bends
Yorke came straight from a Jeff Buckley gig, sang three takes at RAK, then burst into tears.
★ 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
Sledgehammer
1986 · From So
Gabriel wanted real brass, hired the Memphis Horns' Wayne Jackson, then knocked his old band Genesis off number one.
★ 7.5
No Surprises
1997 · From OK Computer
Radiohead cut version after version and kept the first take, glockenspiel and all, a lullaby about suburban despair.
★ 7.5
Someone Like You
2011 · From 21
Dan Wilson of Semisonic at the piano, Adele singing, nothing else added; five weeks at number one.
★ 7.5
Do I Wanna Know?
2013 · From AM
A stomping riff, a desert studio in Joshua Tree, and the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
★ 7.5
Ticket to Ride
1965 · From Help!
Cut at EMI in February 1965, with Harrison's Rickenbacker riff and a record Lennon later called the first heavy metal.
★ 7.5
All You Need is LoveThe Beatles
All You Need is Love
1967 · From Magical Mystery Tour
Beamed live to 400 million on the first global satellite link, opening on La Marseillaise, its coda quoting Bach.
★ 7.5
Rolling in the Deep
2010 · From 21
Written with Paul Epworth in one afternoon after a breakup, and the credits list stiletto heels as percussion.
★ 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
West End GirlsPet Shop Boys
West End Girls
1985
Cut twice, once for Bobby Orlando and again with Stephen Hague, Tennant half-rapping London class anxiety to number one.
★ 7.5
Everything In Its Right Place
2000 · From Kid A
Radiohead opened Kid A with no guitars at all, just a Prophet-5 and Yorke's voice diced in Pro Tools.
★ 7.6
Sunshine of Your LoveCream
Sunshine of Your Love
1967 · From Disraeli Gears
Bruce came home from a Hendrix show carrying the riff, and Baker answered it by drumming on one and three.
★ 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
Son of a Preacher Man
1968 · From Dusty in Memphis
Written with Aretha in mind, handed to Springfield by Jerry Wexler; Memphis cut the track, New York got her vocal.
★ 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
Enjoy the SilenceDepeche Mode
Enjoy the Silence
1990 · From Violator
Gore wrote it as a harmonium ballad; Wilder and Flood put a dance beat under it over his objections.
★ 7.6
Personal Jesus
1989 · From Violator
Priscilla Presley's memoir gave Gore the idea, Flood cut it in Milan, and Cash later called it evangelical.
★ 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
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
Glory Box
1995 · From Dummy
Barrow looped Isaac Hayes' Ike's Rap II, Utley added the guitar, and Gibbons sings it like a demand.
★ 7.6
Pinball WizardThe Who
Pinball Wizard
1969 · From Tommy
Townshend wrote it to flatter a pinball-obsessed critic, then called it the clumsiest thing he ever wrote.
★ 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
Don't You Want Me
1981 · From Dare
Oakey thought it the weakest thing on Dare; it became Britain's best-selling single of 1981 and Christmas number one.
★ 7.6
Twist and Shout
1964 · From Please Please Me
Last song of a twelve-hour day, Lennon's throat gone, one usable take, and the Beatles' only million-selling cover.
★ 7.7
Brown Eyed Girl
1967 · From Blowin' Your Mind!
Twenty-two takes at A&R Studios, the Sweet Inspirations behind him, and a song Morrison says never paid him royalties.
★ 7.7
I Am The Walrus
1967 · From Magical Mystery Tour
Lennon stitched three unfinished songs together, then let a live BBC King Lear broadcast wander into the mix.
★ 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
Another One Bites the Dust
1980 · From Greatest Hits
Deacon's bassline owes Chic, Michael Jackson talked them into releasing it, and Queen landed their biggest-selling single.
★ 7.7
Let's Dance
1983 · From Let's Dance
Nile Rodgers on rhythm guitar, an unknown Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead, and Bowie's biggest-selling single by a distance.
★ 7.7
Live Forever
1994 · From Definitely Maybe
Gallagher wrote it in 1991, before Oasis had a record deal, pitching plain optimism against everything grunge was selling.
★ 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
Creep (Radiohead)
1992 · From Pablo Honey
Greenwood meant those three dead notes before the chorus to wreck the song, and they are what makes it work.
★ 7.7
Help!
1965 · From Help!
Twelve takes in April 1965, McCartney's counter-melody chasing the lead, and Lennon insisting years later the plea was real.
★ 7.7
A Whiter Shade of Pale
1967
Fisher's Hammond nods at Bach for a bar before veering off, and Reid took the title from a party remark.
★ 7.7
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
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
In The Air Tonight
1981
Padgham's talkback-microphone accident on Peter Gabriel's third album, a Roland CR-78 pattern, and pop's most anticipated drum entrance.
★ 7.7
Just Like Heaven
1987 · From Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Smith traced it to a day at Beachy Head with Mary Poole; Williams sped the tempo, adding the opening fill.
★ 7.7
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
Honky Tonk WomenThe Rolling Stones
Honky Tonk Women
1969
Producer Jimmy Miller opens it on cowbell, and the single arrived in Britain the day after Brian Jones died.
★ 7.8
Paranoid AndroidRadiohead
Paranoid Android
1997 · From OK Computer
Four sections in six minutes, named for Douglas Adams's depressed robot, cut in a sixteenth-century manor near Bath.
★ 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
This Charming Man
1983
Marr stacked roughly fifteen guitar tracks and dropped a knife on the strings; Morrissey lifted a line from Sleuth.
★ 7.8
Rehab
2006 · From Back to Black
Cut live to tape at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, and it took Record and Song of the Year.
★ 7.8
Paper Planes
2008 · From Kala
Gunshots and a cash register over a Clash loop, with Brixton kids singing a hook about immigrant stereotypes.
★ 7.8
Bitter Sweet Symphony
1997
Built on an Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of a Stones song; Jagger and Richards returned the credit in 2019.
★ 7.8
Back to Black
2006 · From Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone with the Dap-Kings, sixties girl-group machinery rebuilt around a voice in ruins.
★ 7.9
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
1965 · From Rubber Soul
Harrison's sitar, widely reckoned the first on a rock record, and Lennon smuggling an affair past everyone.
★ 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
A Hard Day's Night
1964 · From A Hard Day's Night
Starr's slip of the tongue supplied the title, and the opening chord is still argued over by musicologists.
★ 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
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
1983
Recorded on a secondhand eight-track in a Chalk Farm attic, and an American number one by September.
★ 7.9
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
Karma PoliceRadiohead
Karma Police
1997 · From OK Computer
Named for a tour joke about people behaving badly, with Greenwood's piano circling and a delay unit eating the ending.
★ 8.0
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
While My Guitar Gently WeepsThe Beatles
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
1968 · From The White Album
Harrison opened a book at random, saw "gently weeps", and Clapton came in uncredited to play the solo.
★ 8.0
Penny Lane
1967 · From Magical Mystery Tour
McCartney heard a piccolo trumpet on a Bach broadcast, called David Mason in, and pop had never sounded brighter.
★ 8.1
You Can't Always Get What You Want
1969 · From Let It Bleed
A choral intro from the London Bach Choir, Al Kooper on French horn, and producer Jimmy Miller on drums.
★ 8.1
How Soon is Now?The Smiths
How Soon is Now?
1985 · From Meat Is Murder
Marr's shudder came from four Fender Twins with their tremolos fighting, and Morrissey put a lonely man in a nightclub.
★ 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
Jumpin' Jack FlashThe Rolling Stones
Jumpin' Jack Flash
1968
Named for the gardener who woke them up, and cut with an acoustic guitar recorded into a Philips cassette recorder.
★ 8.1
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
Space OddityDavid Bowie
Space Oddity
1969 · From David Bowie (Space Oddity)
Released five days before Apollo 11 launched, with a children's Stylophone buzzing under an astronaut who never comes home.
★ 8.2
SomethingThe Beatles
Something
1969 · From Abbey Road
Harrison lifted the opening line from James Taylor and wrote the first Beatles A-side that wasn't Lennon or McCartney.
★ 8.2
Paint It, BlackThe Rolling Stones
Paint It, Black
1966 · From Aftermath
Jones's sitar made it the first number one to feature the instrument, and Decca added the comma by mistake.
★ 8.2
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
Every Breath You Take
1983 · From Synchronicity
Sting woke at Fleming's Goldeneye with the melody; Summers cut that arpeggio in one take and made surveillance sound tender.
★ 8.2
Waterloo SunsetThe Kinks
Waterloo Sunset
1967 · From Something Else by The Kinks
Davies started it as "Liverpool Sunset," moved it to the Thames, and Dave's tape-delay guitar did the rest.
★ 8.3
You Really Got MeThe Kinks
You Really Got Me
1964 · From Kinks
Dave Davies took a razor blade to his little Elpico amp's speaker cone, and distortion arrived on British radio.
★ 8.3
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
There is a Light that Never Goes OutThe Smiths
There is a Light that Never Goes Out
1986 · From The Queen is Dead
Marr faked the strings on an Emulator, credited them to the Hated Salford Ensemble, and Britain waited six years.
★ 8.3
Under PressureDavid Bowie
Under Pressure
David Bowie and Queen
1981 · From Hot Space
Bowie lived near Mountain Studios, dropped in, and one evening's jam became a UK number one with a disputed bassline.
★ 8.4
House of the Rising SunThe Animals
House of the Rising Sun
1964
Hilton Valentine's arpeggio, one take at De Lane Lea, and four and a half minutes when singles ran two.
★ 8.4
Blue Monday
1983
A die-cut sleeve modelled on a floppy disk, an Oberheim drum machine, and the best-selling twelve-inch single ever pressed.
★ 8.4
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
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
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
My GenerationThe Who
My Generation
1965 · From My Generation
Entwistle's bass solo needed a Fender after his Danelectro strings snapped, and Daltrey stuttered his way into history.
★ 8.7
Come Together
1969 · From Abbey Road
Lennon started it as a campaign song for Timothy Leary, then Ringo muffled his drums with tea towels.
★ 8.7
She Loves YouThe Beatles
She Loves You
1963 · From The Beatles' Second Album
Lennon and McCartney started it on a tour bus after a Newcastle show; Martin thought the sixth-chord ending corny.
★ 8.8
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
Sympathy for the DevilThe Rolling Stones
Sympathy for the Devil
1968 · From Beggars Banquet
Faithfull handed Jagger Bulgakov, Richards turned the folk sketch into samba and played both bass and the solo.
★ 8.9
Love Will Tear Us Apart
1980
The title flips Captain and Tennille into its opposite, and the single arrived a month after Curtis's death.
★ 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