St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)
1985
Foster showed Parr a news clip about Rick Hansen's wheelchair world tour, and the pair wrote it that Friday afternoon.
★ 2.2
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.
Hold Me Back
2012
G5's beat is a stomp, and the black-and-white video walks Ross through New Orleans' Calliope projects.
★ 2.4
Am I Wrong
2013
Two Oslo singers formerly billed as Envy, a video shot at Victoria Falls, and a Hot 100 number four.
★ 2.8
Live Your Life
2008
Eighty to number one in a single week, on a hook lifted from the Moldovan pop song behind Numa Numa.
★ 4.0
Maniac
1983
A slasher-film joke rewritten on Phil Ramone's orders into Flashdance's training montage, and two weeks at number one.
★ 4.0
Can't Hold Us
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
2011
Ray Dalton's hook, Ryan Lewis's piano gallop, and a sleeper single that took nearly two years to reach number one.
★ 4.0
Round and Round
1984
Three writers bouncing riffs between cassettes in a Hollywood apartment, and Milton Berle in the video that broke them.
★ 4.0
All Star
1999
Greg Camp studied the Billboard top fifty for parts, then Shrek used it as temp music and never replaced it.
★ 4.8
Swinging on a Star
1944
Van Heusen heard Crosby warn a son at dinner he might grow up a mule, and Burke built the lyric.
★ 4.8
Juke Box Hero
1982
Two unfinished songs Mutt Lange stitched together, and a kid outside the arena hearing one guitar through the wall.
★ 4.9
I Believe I Can FlyR. Kelly
I Believe I Can Fly
1996
Written for Space Jam, Paul Riser's strings taped in Detroit, the Luv Club Choir massed behind the vocal.
★ 5.1
The Distance
1996
Guitarist Greg Brown wrote it, McCrea narrates deadpan over trumpet, and the driver keeps racing long after everyone left.
★ 5.2
Forever (Drake)
2009
Boi-1da's beat was first meant for Kardinal Offishall; Kanye, by his account, rewrote his verse for two days after Eminem.
★ 5.2
Flashdance...What a Feeling
1983
Cara and Forsey wrote most of the lyric in a cab to the studio; six weeks at number one followed.
★ 5.6
Started From The Bottom
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Mike Zombie's beat samples a Bruno Sanfilippo ambient piano piece; the title came out of a Future studio session.
★ 5.7
Into the Great Wide Open
1991 · From Into the Great Wide Open
Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote Eddie's rise and fall as one unbroken story; Johnny Depp played him on screen.
★ 5.8
Eye of the Tiger
1982
Stallone had cut the fight scene to Queen, couldn't clear it, so Sullivan and Peterik timed their chords to punches.
★ 5.9
West Coast
2014
Verses at 123 beats a minute collapsing to 65 in the chorus, cut live with Auerbach's band in Nashville.
★ 5.9
Mr. Jones
1993
T-Bone Burnett replaced the band's own drummer with session man Denny Fongheiser, and Duritz got the fame he wished for.
★ 6.2
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
Runnin' Down a Dream
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Mike Campbell's fuzz riff, then a closing solo of nearly two minutes he nailed in a single take.
★ 6.7
One Mic
2002 · From Stillmatic
Chucky Thompson looped Phil Collins, and Nas rises from a murmur to a roar and back, verse after verse.
★ 6.8
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
Empire State of MindJay-Z
Empire State of Mind
2009 · From The Blueprint 3
Two songwriters homesick in London started it; Keys and a Moments piano loop made Jay-Z's first lead-artist number one.
★ 7.2
Dream On
1973 · From Aerosmith
Tyler had the tune on his family's New Hampshire lodge piano years before Aerosmith; a reissue reached number six.
★ 7.2
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Orzabal found the shuffle alien to the band, Hughes talked him into it anyway, and America made it a number one.
★ 7.3
Don't Stop Believin'
1981
Cain lifted the title from his father's advice, and the chorus stays hidden until the last fifty seconds.
★ 7.3
Paid in Full
1987 · From Paid in Full
Coldcut took 700 pounds for the remix, added Ofra Haza, and Rakim's minute-long verse reset how rappers rhymed.
★ 7.5
Harder Better Faster StrongerDaft Punk
Harder Better Faster Stronger
2001 · From Discovery
Edwin Birdsong's Cola Bottle Baby, found in a record bin, vocoded into a mantra Kanye West later borrowed wholesale.
★ 7.6
Midnight Train to Georgia
1973
Cissy Houston's version turned Weatherly's midnight plane to Houston into a train to Georgia.
★ 7.6
New York, New York
1979 · From Trilogy: Past Present Future
De Niro called the first theme too weak, so Kander and Ebb wrote this one in anger.
★ 7.6
Stronger
2007 · From Graduation
West cleared the Daft Punk sample through their manager, had Timbaland reprogram the kick drums, and hit number one.
★ 7.7
Mama Said Knock You Out
1990 · From Mama Said Knock You Out
His grandmother told him to knock them out; Marley Marl looped Funky Drummer, and the Grammy followed.
★ 7.7
The World Is Yours
1994 · From Illmatic
Ahmad Jamal's piano figure, a hook Pete Rock sang himself, and the most hopeful stretch of Illmatic.
★ 7.9
B.O.B.
2000 · From Stankonia
Bombs Over Baghdad at 155 beats per minute, drum and bass colliding with a gospel choir and a guitar solo.
★ 8.2
Juicy
1994 · From Ready to Die
Poke and Combs looped Mtume's Juicy Fruit, and Wallace told the rags to riches story that hip hop kept retelling.
★ 8.5
Lose Yourself
2002 · From 8 Mile (soundtrack)
Written between takes on a film set, delivered like a man with exactly one shot at everything.
★ 9.1
Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
1958 · From Chuck Berry Is on Top
Chuck Berry's intro lick is rock's opening statement, a country boy's origin myth now drifting past the solar system.
★ 9.8