skopiaBarry, Greenwich and Spector wrote it for Darlene Love in 1963; this 2004 cover stayed off streaming for seventeen years.
Built on SWV's Right Here and Michael Jackson's Human Nature, Brown sighing over an ex from inside a new relationship.
Written in 2007 about a girl who moved away for college, and every synth in it aches accordingly.
Number one in Australia, top ten in Britain, and Neon Hitch trading verses with McCoy over Benny Blanco's beat.
Written for Gwen Stefani, who passed, then offered to Nicole Scherzinger before Snow Patrol reclaimed it with Jacknife Lee.
Written in 1982, handed to Branigan after Bolton refused Clive Davis's rewrite, and reclaimed for a number one.
Frank Rogers built it on mandolin, and Billboard named it 2012's top country song despite it never reaching number one.
Heavy D and Poke and Tone looped the Gap Band's "Outstanding," and the eldest brother took the lead vocal.
Decker's rap began as syncopated nonsense syllables, and she overdubbed herself into a duet nobody could play live.
Florrie Palmer wrote it, Britain sent it to number three, and America renamed it to dodge Dolly Parton's hit.
Karin Kasar sang the hook, Patsy Petersen mimed it in the video, and the Hot 100 held it 45 weeks.
Pop and Oak's glossy production, an Ester Dean co-write, and Nas cast as the love interest in Benny Boom's video.
A glimpse of an ex on the London Underground, her new man beside her, and a transatlantic number one.
Turned down for Whitney Houston and passed over by Belinda Carlisle, so the writers cut it themselves and reached number five.
Buble wrote it with Chang and Foster-Gillies while dating Luisana Lopilato, who plays his love interest in the supermarket video.
Rick Parashar cut it across three studios, and Arnold's ballad about missing someone became an unofficial anthem in Iraq.
Kravitz wrote, arranged and produced it alone, cut it from an album, then won a third straight Grammy.
A debut-album cut that Branch wrote alone, produced by John Shanks, and her first trip into the top ten.
All six members, Bobby Brown included, on one album, with Tresvant and Bell trading a Jam and Lewis ballad.
Rejected by her label for the first album, it resurfaced on Whaler and spent six weeks atop adult contemporary.
A deliberate Euro-club record from Akon and Giorgio Tuinfort, with a video now past a billion views.
A DX7 electric piano, a drum machine, and Don Myrick's saxophone taking a number one out quietly.
Sparks became the first American Idol alum past three million US sales, and the duet earned a Grammy nomination.
Donna Lewis lifted the chorus from an H.E. Bates novel and spent nine weeks at number two behind Macarena.
Wade wrote it in about five minutes, and it never hit number one yet finished 2001 as America's biggest single.
Thomas wrote it after meeting his future wife, then it spent thirteen weeks atop the Adult Top 40.
Cahn and Brodszky wrote it for The Toast of New Orleans; Lanza's tenor turned it into two million records.
Five Mount Vernon high schoolers, a Billy Myles song, and Bob Scholl's lead floating over the sweetest doo-wop changes.
Credited to all four members, it climbed to fifteen; Phillips says it is about how quickly epiphanies vanish.
Written first as a breakup ballad until director Mick Jackson asked for a love song, keeping only the title.
Cronin sat on the verses for years before finishing them in Hawaii, and three weeks at number one followed.
An all-night session at Stockholm's Cheiron Studios, Chasez on the last vocal at six a.m., the hook already immovable.
Graydon, Lukather and Champlin wrote it for a greatest hits album, Porcaro programmed the Linn drum, and it won a Grammy.
Casey and Finch's first ballad after a run of dance hits, and the first American number one of the 1980s.
Ten winter days in a Block Island basement, a pump organ, and a hush Emmylou Harris later covered.
Clarence White on acoustic guitar, and the demo that led David Geffen to found Asylum Records and sign Browne.
An Arabic descant improvised by Cheb Mami without hearing Sting's lyric, and both halves came out about longing.
Three sisters gave this away as a free download in February 2012; NME named it the year's fourth best track.
Two producers, one vocal barely above a whisper, and new jack swing's smoothest debut single went top ten.
