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
Maggie MayRod Stewart
Maggie May
1971 · From Every Picture Tells a Story
Released as a B-side until DJs flipped it, with a mandolin credited only to a name Stewart said slipped his mind.
★ 7.6
Knocking on Heaven's Door
1973 · From Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Two short verses written for a dying sheriff in Pat Garrett, with Roger McGuinn on guitar and Jim Keltner drumming.
★ 7.5
Into the Mystic
1970 · From Moondance
Written first as 'Into the Misty', recorded at A&R in New York, and the warmest thing Morrison ever sang.
★ 7.5
Street Fighting ManThe Rolling Stones
Street Fighting Man
1968 · From Beggars Banquet
Richards cut the acoustic into a Philips cassette recorder until it distorted, Watts drumming on a 1930s toy kit.
★ 7.4
My Sweet LordGeorge Harrison
My Sweet Lord
1970
Harrison started it backstage in Copenhagen, gave it to Billy Preston first, then took the first ex-Beatle number one.
★ 7.4
Desolation Row
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
Eleven minutes, one acoustic guitar, and Charlie McCoy improvising fills after Bob Johnston found him passing through New York.
★ 7.3
America
1968
No rhyme scheme anywhere, just Simon reworking a 1964 road trip with Kathy Chitty until the emptiness lands mid-verse.
★ 7.3
Dazed and ConfusedLed Zeppelin
Dazed and Confused
1969 · From Led Zeppelin
Jake Holmes wrote it in 1967, the Yardbirds absorbed it, Page cut it at Olympic with a violin bow.
★ 7.3
Fire and RainJames Taylor
Fire and Rain
1970 · From Sweet Baby James
Kunkel's brushes, Carole King's piano, and three verses that hold a death, an addiction and a band's collapse.
★ 7.3
Down By The RiverNeil Young
Down By The River
1969 · From Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Young wrote it in bed with a 103-degree fever, and Crazy Horse stretched it to nine ragged minutes.
★ 7.2
Suite: Judy Blue EyesCrosby Stills and Nash
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
1969
Stills nailed the seven-minute basic track in one take, then all three sang into a single microphone.
★ 7.2
Big Yellow Taxi
1970 · From Ladies of the Canyon
Mitchell threw back a Hawaii hotel curtain, saw mountains above a parking lot, and wrote pop's sunniest protest song.
★ 7.1
Cinnamon GirlNeil Young
Cinnamon Girl
1969 · From Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Written in Topanga during a 103-degree fever, double drop D tuning, and a solo that stays on one note.
★ 7.0
After the Gold RushNeil Young
After the Gold Rush
1970 · From After the Gold Rush
Piano and Bill Peterson's flugelhorn, cut at Young's Topanga home studio, written for a Dean Stockwell screenplay.
★ 7.0
Scarborough Fair
1966
Simon learned it from Martin Carthy in London; Garfunkel wound an anti-war lyric through the ballad as counterpoint.
★ 7.0
Turn! Turn! Turn!
1965 · From Turn! Turn! Turn!
Seeger set Ecclesiastes to a tune in 1959; McGuinn's twelve-string turned it into the number one with the oldest lyrics.
★ 7.0
Sloop John B
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Al Jardine sold Wilson a Bahamian folk tune, and Billy Strange's twelve-string solo went down in a single take.
★ 6.9
In the Aeroplace Over the Sea
1998 · From In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Julian Koster's singing saw over double-tracked acoustics, cut in Denver with Robert Schneider, and a chorus that faces death smiling.
★ 6.9
Old Man
1972 · From Harvest
James Taylor picked up a six-string banjo he had never played, Ronstadt harmonised, and Young's ranch caretaker got a song.
★ 6.9
Everybody's Talkin'Harry Nilsson
Everybody's Talkin'
1968
A Fred Neil song that flopped in 1968, until Schlesinger put it under Midnight Cowboy and Nilsson won a Grammy.
★ 6.9
Solsbury Hill
1977 · From Peter Gabriel
Seven-four time, Steve Hunter's Martin triple-tracked at three tape speeds, and Gabriel's first record after walking out of Genesis.
★ 6.8
Harvest Moon
1992 · From Harvest Moon
Tinnitus from the Ragged Glory tour pushed Young back to acoustic guitars, and Ronstadt shadows him line for line.
★ 6.8
New Slang
2001 · From Oh, Inverted World
Sub Pop pressed it as a one-off single in 2001; three years later Garden State made it a generational password.
★ 6.8
Cecilia
1970
Friends banged on a piano bench at a party; Simon and Halee looped the thumping into a rhythm track.
★ 6.7
The Needle and the Damage DoneNeil Young
The Needle and the Damage Done
1972 · From Harvest
Two minutes on addiction, taped live at UCLA's Royce Hall in January 1971 and placed unchanged on Harvest.
★ 6.7
Ripple
1970 · From American Beauty
David Grisman's mandolin threading Hunter's London lyrics, a benediction the Dead tucked onto the B-side of "Truckin'".
★ 6.7
Alone Again OrLove
Alone Again Or
1968 · From Forever Changes
MacLean wrote it about waiting for a girlfriend, David Angel scored the horns, and Lee added himself in the mix.
★ 6.6
Sweet Thing
1968 · From Astral Weeks
Jazz players Richard Davis and Connie Kay taped it at the last Astral Weeks session, and Morrison floats free.
★ 6.6
Sweet Baby James
1970 · From Sweet Baby James
Taylor wrote it driving through the Carolinas to meet his newborn nephew, a cowboy lullaby in waltz time.
★ 6.6
Help Me
1974 · From Court and Spark
Her only American top ten hit, cut with Tom Scott's L.A. Express as she swung folk toward jazz.
★ 6.6
Ramble OnLed Zeppelin
Ramble On
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Cut in two New York studios in June 1969, with Mordor and Gollum folded into a restless road song.
★ 6.6
Who'll Stop the Rain
1970 · From Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
A B-side to "Travelin' Band" that outgrew it, Fogerty's unhurried strum and a question about Vietnam still hanging.
★ 6.6
Homeward Bound
1965
Simon wrote it on an English railway platform missing Kathy Chitty; a plaque at Widnes station now claims the spot.
★ 6.5
You've Got a Friend
1971 · From Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon
King wrote it during the Tapestry sessions; Taylor cut it with Joni Mitchell behind him for his only number one.
★ 6.5
Free Man in Paris
1974 · From Court and Spark
Mitchell wrote it for David Geffen after a Paris trip, then set his escape to Jose Feliciano's guitar.
★ 6.5
Helpless
1970 · From Deja Vu
One of three Deja Vu tracks the four cut together, Young keening about the Ontario town of his childhood.
★ 6.4
I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
A few minutes' work by Clark about a girlfriend from the Ciro's residency, and a refrain hinging on "probably".
★ 6.3
The JokerSteve Miller Band
The Joker
1973
A lyric lifted from "Lovey Dovey", a misheard doo-wop coinage, and a Levi's ad that made it Britain's number one.
★ 6.3
Do You Believe in Magic
1965
Sebastian's autoharp opens it, written after he watched a teenager dance at the Night Owl in Greenwich Village.
★ 6.1