Catch My Breath
2012
Clarkson wrote it for the ten-year mark since Idol, and the chorus lands like someone taking stock mid-sprint.
★ 2.7
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.
Tubthumping
1997
An anarchist collective from Leeds, a sample from Brassed Off, and a chorus about ordinary people refusing to stay down.
★ 3.0
Holding On For Life
2013
Mercer tried a falsetto in the booth, doubled the take, and Broken Bells arrived sounding like the Bee Gees.
★ 3.2
The Show Goes On
2010
Kane Beatz interpolated Modest Mouse's Float On, Atlantic made it the price of releasing Lasers, and Fiasco got his biggest hit.
★ 3.5
Hold On (Wilson Phillips)
1990
Chynna Phillips drew the words from AA's one-day-at-a-time, Glen Ballard produced, and it topped Billboard's 1990 year-end chart.
★ 3.8
Safe and Sound
2011
Trumpet hook lifted from the Yiddish standard Dona Dona, and two and a half years later, number eight.
★ 3.8
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
Spike Driver Blues (1928)Mississippi John Hurt
Spike Driver Blues (1928)
1928 · From 1928 Sessions
Okeh sent an Avalon sharecropper home after modest sales, leaving behind a fingerpicked John Henry that refuses the hammer.
★ 4.3
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)
2012
Nietzsche by way of a co-writer's mother, Greg Kurstin's production, and Clarkson's third number one.
★ 4.6
Alive and Kicking
1985 · From Once Upon a Time
Robin Clark, credited as additional lead singer, answers Kerr line for line while Iovine pushes everything skyward.
★ 4.7
Falling (Haim)
2013
Danielle, Este and Alana wrote it with Morgan Nagler as a stay-strong pep talk, and it moves like one.
★ 4.8
Maria Maria
1999 · From Supernatural
Wyclef built it on a Headhunters drum break, Santana's guitar answering the Product G&B, ten weeks at number one.
★ 4.8
Everything's Gonna Be AlrightNaughty by Nature
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
1991
Treach turned a fatherless East Orange childhood into verse, with Marley's chorus supplying the only comfort on offer.
★ 5.3
Touch of GreyGrateful Dead
Touch of Grey
1987 · From In the Dark
Cut live on a darkened Marin auditorium stage with no audience, and somehow the Dead's only Top 10 hit.
★ 5.3
Moment of TruthGang Starr
Moment of Truth
1998 · From Moment of Truth
Premier's beat under Guru facing a gun charge, cut at D&D Studios and delivered as a sermon on perseverance.
★ 5.3
Hold On (Alabama Shakes)
2012
Four Alabama day-jobbers paid for their own sessions at a Nashville home studio, and Rolling Stone named it 2012's best.
★ 5.7
Live to Tell
1986 · From True Blue
Leonard wrote it as a film instrumental that Paramount passed on; Madonna added the words and kept her demo vocal.
★ 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
Survivor
2001
A radio host's joke about the lineup changes, flipped into a Grammy winner Beyonce largely wrote on a flight.
★ 6.0
Rooster
1992 · From Dirt
Cantrell's song for his father, a Vietnam veteran nicknamed Rooster who appears in Pellington's video; number seven on Mainstream Rock.
★ 6.1