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