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
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.
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us NowStarship
Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
1987
Diane Warren's first number one, written with Albert Hammond for Mannequin and sung like the odds were nothing.
★ 3.0
Roar
2013
Perry left therapy sick of staying quiet, and Bonnie McKee turned that into pop's loudest dust-yourself-off chorus.
★ 4.3
Worst Behavior
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Director X shot the video in Memphis with Drake's father, over a DJ Dahi beat that snarls.
★ 4.3
Love Song
2007
Epic wanted a radio-friendly love song; Bareilles wrote a refusal instead, and that piano riff climbed to number four.
★ 4.4
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
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
I Love It
Icona Pop and Charli XCX
2012
Charli XCX passed on her own demo; Icona Pop roughed it up, and HBO's Girls did the rest.
★ 5.0
Rape Me
1993 · From In Utero
Written on acoustic guitar in 1991, recorded by Albini at Pachyderm, and stocked by Walmart under a changed title.
★ 5.2
Ridin'
2006
3.2 million ringtones sold, a Grammy won, and Play-N-Skillz's beat under a hook about racial profiling.
★ 5.3
We're Not Gonna Take It
1984
Snider hung the melody on "O Come, All Ye Faithful," and the PMRC filed it under filth anyway.
★ 5.5
Queen
2014
Adrian Utley of Portishead helped build the noise, and Hadreas answers a lifetime of stares with pure swagger.
★ 5.7
Hollaback Girl
2005
Courtney Love called her a cheerleader, so Stefani and the Neptunes built the taunt into pop's first million-selling download.
★ 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
Bye Bye Bye
2000
Andreas Carlsson reportedly wrote the lyric during a Stockholm driving test; Cheiron's producers built pop's most decisive exit.
★ 5.8
The Underdog
2007 · From Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Jon Brion produced this track and no other on the album, adding mariachi-style horns and handclaps to Britt Daniel's warning.
★ 5.9
My Prerogative
1988
Brown flew to New York with Gene Griffin for the aggressive song his album lacked, and new jack swing arrived.
★ 6.0
Titanium
David Guetta and Sia
2011
Sia cut the vocal as a guide for another singer; Guetta released it anyway, and she got a number one.
★ 6.0
You Get What You Give
1998
Alexander buried a celebrity taunt in the last verse to prove the press would ignore the politics; it worked.
★ 6.0
Survivor
2001
A radio host's joke about the lineup changes, flipped into a Grammy winner Beyonce largely wrote on a flight.
★ 6.0
Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)
2014 · From Run the Jewels 2
El-P's beat, de la Rocha recruited a day after a chance encounter, and the fiercest track on the album.
★ 6.0
Shake it Off
2014 · From 1989
Martin and Shellback stomped the drum pattern on a wooden floor, and Swift turned tabloid noise into fifty weeks charting.
★ 6.2
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
1980
Schwartz took the title from a pillow-punching therapy session, and Benatar made it her first American top ten.
★ 6.2
It's Your ThingThe Isley Brothers
It's Your Thing
1969
Sixteen-year-old Ernie Isley's bass on his first session, cut for the brothers' own T-Neck label, funk built on a shrug.
★ 6.2
Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
1966 · From Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Lynn and her sister Peggy Sue wrote it, and the album became country music's first gold record by a woman.
★ 6.3
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
Blank GenerationRichard Hell and the Voidoids
Blank Generation
1977
A rewrite of a 1959 novelty called "The Beat Generation", with Quine and Julian's guitars turning parody into manifesto.
★ 6.4
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
I Can't Go For That
1981
Hall started with a Roland preset and a Korg bass line, the one Jackson borrowed for Billie Jean.
★ 6.7
I Won't Back Down
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Harrison on acoustic guitar and harmonies, Lynne producing, and Petty answering the arsonist who burned his house down.
★ 6.9
Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
1956 · From Elvis Presley
Scotty Moore and Bill Black behind him in New York, and Presley made RCA hold the single for Perkins.
★ 6.9
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
Can't Tell Me Nothing
2007 · From Graduation
DJ Toomp built the beat and bassline, West layered the strings, and Zach Galifianakis lip-synced it on a tractor.
★ 6.9
Ruff Ryders' Anthem
1997
DMX turned the beat down for sounding too rock; his uncles talked him into it, and Swizz Beatz arrived.
★ 6.9
Don't Dream It's Over
1986
Froom's Hammond solo does the heavy lifting, and Finn wrote the rest as an exhortation to himself.
★ 7.0
Nasty
1986
Jackson answered street harassers by demanding respect over a factory preset Jimmy Jam found on an Ensoniq Mirage.
★ 7.0
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
2004 · From The Black Album
Timbaland's beat is all snap and space, and in 2008 a presidential candidate borrowed the shoulder-brush on a Raleigh stage.
★ 7.0