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.
Here Comes the Sun
1969 · From Abbey Road
Harrison wrote it in Clapton's garden while skipping a business meeting, and it sounds exactly like that relief.
★ 9.6
Bridge Over Troubled Water
1970
Garfunkel's voice climbing a gospel staircase, the last verse arriving like the cavalry.
★ 9.5
The Sound of Silence
1965
A folk flop until a producer secretly overdubbed electric guitars, and the duo heard their number one on the radio.
★ 9.4
Stairway to HeavenLed Zeppelin
Stairway to Heaven
1971 · From Led Zeppelin IV
Eight minutes that climb from recorders to Page's solo, never released as a single and never needing to be.
★ 9.3
The Weight
1968 · From Music From Big Pink
Robertson saw Nazareth stamped inside his 1951 Martin, and Helm sang the burden every verse hands over.
★ 8.8
Redemption SongBob Marley and the Wailers
Redemption Song
1980 · From Uprising
A single voice and acoustic guitar close Uprising, with a line lifted from Marcus Garvey and Marley already ill.
★ 8.5
House of the Rising SunThe Animals
House of the Rising Sun
1964
Hilton Valentine's arpeggio, one take at De Lane Lea, and four and a half minutes when singles ran two.
★ 8.4
Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds)
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
Session men cut the track and McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker rang over one Dylan verse; folk rock started there.
★ 8.3
Thunder Road
1975 · From Born to Run
Bittan's piano, a harmonica, and a screen door slamming; Springsteen lifted the title from a Robert Mitchum film poster.
★ 8.3
Tangled Up in Blue
1975 · From Blood on the Tracks
Dylan recut it in Minneapolis with his brother producing, then spent decades rewriting a story already told out of order.
★ 8.2
Mrs. Robinson
1968
Simon had it as Mrs. Roosevelt with nonsense syllables for a verse, and it won Record of the Year.
★ 7.9
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
1965 · From Rubber Soul
Harrison's sitar, widely reckoned the first on a rock record, and Lennon smuggling an affair past everyone.
★ 7.9
For What It's Worth
1967 · From Buffalo Springfield
Stills wrote it about the Sunset Strip curfew riots, not Vietnam, and Young's harmonics ring like a warning bell.
★ 7.8
California Dreamin'
1965 · From If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
The Phillipses wrote it homesick in a New York winter, and Doherty sang over Barry McGuire's existing backing track.
★ 7.8
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
1975 · From Fleetwood Mac
Aspen in 1974, Nicks weighing whether to quit music, and Buckingham Travis-picking a Martin D-18 underneath.
★ 7.8
Wild HorsesThe Rolling Stones
Wild Horses
1971 · From Sticky Fingers
Cut at Muscle Shoals in December 1969, with Jim Dickinson on tack piano after Ian Stewart refused the minor chords.
★ 7.7
Heart of Gold
1972 · From Harvest
A back injury kept Young seated with an acoustic guitar; Taylor and Ronstadt were in Nashville and sang behind him.
★ 7.7
Help!
1965 · From Help!
Twelve takes in April 1965, McCartney's counter-melody chasing the lead, and Lennon insisting years later the plea was real.
★ 7.7
The Boxer
1969
Over a hundred hours of work, and that cannon-shot snare is Hal Blaine playing beside a Columbia elevator shaft.
★ 7.7