Bad Day
2005
Powter sketched it on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver; American Idol adopted it and Billboard called it 2006's biggest.
★ 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.
To Be With YouMr. Big
To Be With You
1991
Gilbert traded shred for acoustic guitar behind Martin's teenage lyric, and hand claps carried it to number one.
★ 2.5
All You Wanted
2002
A debut-album cut that Branch wrote alone, produced by John Shanks, and her first trip into the top ten.
★ 2.9
Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
1995 · From Waiting to Exhale (soundtrack)
Babyface hummed a placeholder where the words should go, kept it, and watched the record debut at number one.
★ 3.0
Everybody Plays the Fool (Aaron Neville)
1991
Linda Ronstadt produced it, and Neville's falsetto turns the Main Ingredient's 1972 consolation into something even gentler.
★ 3.2
Obedear
2012
Roddick emailed tracks from Montreal to James in Halifax, and the album took its title from this song's lyric.
★ 3.3
Hold My Hand
1994
Written by all four members in 1989, David Crosby added backing vocals, and the debut album sold twenty million.
★ 3.8
Angel (Sarah McLachlan)
1998
Piano, upright bass, a drum machine, and McLachlan writing about a Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist's overdose with startling tenderness.
★ 3.9
Something in the Way She Moves
1968 · From James Taylor
Taylor played this at his Apple audition to land the deal, and Harrison lifted its title for "Something".
★ 3.9
That's What Friends Are For
1985
Bacharach and Bayer Sager wrote it for Rod Stewart; four voices later it raised over three million for AIDS research.
★ 4.1
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
Hero
1993
Written for Gloria Estefan until Mottola heard the demo; Carey thought it schmaltzy and took it to number one.
★ 4.5
Everybody Plays the Fool (The Main Ingredient)The Main Ingredient
Everybody Plays the Fool (The Main Ingredient)
1972
Cuba Gooding Sr. stepped up after Donald McPherson's death and turned heartbreak into the warmest consolation soul ever offered.
★ 4.9
Mama Said
1961
Number four in 1961, with Luther Dixon and Willie Denson turning a mother's shrug into pure reassurance.
★ 4.9
Don't You Worry Child
2012
Michel Zitron lifted the chorus line straight from his father, John Martin sang it, and the trio had its farewell.
★ 5.0
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
Beautiful
2002
Perry wrote it for herself, then refused Aguilera a retake; the demo vocal is what reached number two.
★ 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
The Middle
2001
Capitol dropped the band, Trombino produced on credit, and the drum pattern came straight off Tom Petty's You Wreck Me.
★ 6.2
You've Got a Friend
1971 · From Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
King wrote it during the Tapestry sessions; Taylor cut it with Joni Mitchell behind him for his only number one.
★ 6.5
True Colors
1986
Anne Murray turned it down, so Lauper took Steinberg and Kelly's gospel ballad and stripped it to almost nothing.
★ 6.7
Ripple
1970 · From American Beauty
David Grisman's mandolin threading Hunter's London lyrics, a benediction the Dead tucked onto the B-side of "Truckin'".
★ 6.7
Carry On Wayward Son
1976
Kerry Livgren's last-minute addition to Leftoverture opens a cappella, then hands Kansas their first top forty hit.
★ 6.7
Do You Realize?
2002 · From Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Coyne wrote it during Drozd's recovery, a plain statement about mortality that Oklahoma voted its official state rock song.
★ 6.8
Everybody HurtsR.E.M.
Everybody Hurts
1992 · From Automatic for the People
Berry wrote most of it over a drum machine, John Paul Jones scored the strings, and the words target teenagers.
★ 6.9
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
Jesus, Etc.
2002 · From Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Reprise rejected the album, Wilco streamed it free, and a sister Warner label put out these swooning strings instead.
★ 7.2
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
Don't Worry Baby
1964 · From Shut Down Volume 2
Wilson heard Be My Baby, resolved to answer it, and took the title phrase from his girlfriend Marilyn Rovell.
★ 7.3
Hold On, I'm Comin'
1966
A shout through a Stax restroom door became the title, and Booker T.'s band made it an R&B number one.
★ 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
Three Little BirdsBob Marley and the Wailers
Three Little Birds
1977 · From Exodus
Reportedly inspired by canaries at his Hope Road windowsill, cut in London, and the gentlest reassurance in reggae.
★ 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
Little Wing
1967
A glockenspiel, a Leslie speaker meant for organs, and Hendrix fading out after two minutes and twenty-five seconds.
★ 7.6
I'll Be There
1970
Hal Davis cut it at Hitsville West in June 1970, and Michael, eleven years old, made the ballad sound lived-in.
★ 7.7
Reach Out, I'll Be There
1965
Holland-Dozier-Holland pitched Stubbs at the very top of his range, and Paul Riser opened it with piccolo and flute.
★ 7.8
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