Livin' on a Prayer
1986 · From Slippery When Wet
The band laughed at Sambora's talk box until it opened the record. The last chorus climbs a minor third.
★ 7.1
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.
You Give Love a Bad Name
1986 · From Slippery When Wet
A Bonnie Tyler chorus that went nowhere, rewritten by Desmond Child, and suddenly Bon Jovi's first number one.
★ 6.5
Pour Some Sugar On Me
1987
Written last, on a tea break, from a riff Elliott had been jamming; it later pushed Hysteria to number one.
★ 6.4
The Final Countdown
1986
One synth riff, written years earlier on a Korg Polysix borrowed from Michaeli, went to number one in twenty-five countries.
★ 6.2
Janie's Got a Gun
1989 · From Pump
Tyler spent nine months on the lyric, Fincher directed the video, and the Grammy went to Aerosmith's bleakest hit.
★ 5.9
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
1988
By Michaels' account a bad phone call from a Dallas laundromat wrote itself into Poison's only number one.
★ 5.2
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
2003
Justin Hawkins in full falsetto, cut at Chapel Studios, on a riff Q placed among its 101 greatest guitar tracks.
★ 5.1
Round and Round
1984
Three writers bouncing riffs between cassettes in a Hollywood apartment, and Milton Berle in the video that broke them.
★ 4.0
Cherry Pie
1989
A pizza box in a Florida Hard Rock Cafe holds the lyric Lane dashed off at the label's insistence.
★ 2.0