Like a Rolling Stone
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
A snare crack, a sneer, and Kooper's uninvited organ swirling through the song that split rock open.
★ 10.0
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.
Hound Dog
1956
Leiber and Stoller wrote it for Big Mama Thornton; Elvis took it, sped it up, and set it on fire.
★ 9.5
Go Your Own Way
1977 · From Rumours
Buckingham aimed Mick Fleetwood at the Street Fighting Man groove, then sang a breakup line Nicks demanded he cut.
★ 8.5
Paranoid AndroidRadiohead
Paranoid Android
1997 · From OK Computer
Four sections in six minutes, named for Douglas Adams's depressed robot, cut in a sixteenth-century manor near Bath.
★ 7.8
Rolling in the Deep
2010 · From 21
Written with Paul Epworth in one afternoon after a breakup, and the credits list stiletto heels as percussion.
★ 7.5
EtherNas
Ether
2001 · From Stillmatic
Ron Browz's beat, handed over before he knew its target, and a release date set on Jay-Z's birthday.
★ 7.5
Heartless
2008 · From 808s & Heartbreak
Auto-Tune, a TR-808, No I.D. co-producing, and Kid Cudi writing the hook: rap learned to sing from this.
★ 7.5
You Oughta Know
1995
Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on guitar, recorded in Glen Ballard's home studio, behind the nineties' fiercest kiss-off.
★ 7.4
In Bloom
1991 · From Nevermind
Cobain aimed it at fans who missed the point, and Kerslake's video staged them on a mock Ed Sullivan Show.
★ 7.4
Sweet Emotion
1975 · From Toys in the Attic
Three sounds in that intro: Hamilton's bass riff, Perry's talk box, a bass marimba. Aerosmith's first Top 40 single.
★ 7.1
Forgot About Dre
1999 · From 2001
Eminem wrote the verses as a reference for Snoop Dogg, by Dre's account, and Dre kept the guide vocal.
★ 6.9
Jackson
1967 · From At Folsom Prison
Wheeler got the idea from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Cash and Carter trade the taunts like they mean them.
★ 6.8
Reptilia
2004 · From Room on Fire
Nigel Godrich's sessions got scrapped, Gordon Raphael came back, and the descending twin-guitar riff turned everything into a sprint.
★ 6.8
White Wedding
1982
Steve Stevens' guitar cutting through Keith Forsey's production, and Idol sneering his way through somebody else's wedding.
★ 6.6
You're Gonna Miss Me
1966
Erickson wrote this kiss-off at fifteen, and Tommy Hall's electric jug gave Texas garage rock its strangest sound.
★ 6.4
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
2012 · From Red
Twenty-five minutes with Max Martin and Shellback, by Swift's account, and her first Hot 100 number one followed.
★ 6.3
Heartbreaker
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Page cut the unaccompanied solo at Atlantic while the rest of the track was taped across town at A&R.
★ 6.2
Don't Come Around Here No More
1985 · From Southern Accents
Stewart's electric sitar, a title Stevie Nicks said out loud one night, and Petty at his strangest.
★ 6.2
Fuck You
2010
Twinkling piano, bumping bass, the Smeezingtons doing sixties Motown, and a typography video that went viral on release day.
★ 6.1
Rich Girl
1977
Hall wrote it about a fast-food heir, changed Rich Boy to Rich Girl, and took the duo to number one.
★ 6.0