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