Once in a LifetimeTalking Heads
Once in a Lifetime
1980 · From Remain in Light
Byrne borrowed a preacher's cadence, Eno hummed the chorus melody, and the band looped its own jams like samplers.
★ 9.0
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.
There is a Light that Never Goes OutThe Smiths
There is a Light that Never Goes Out
1986 · From The Queen is Dead
Marr faked the strings on an Emulator, credited them to the Hated Salford Ensemble, and Britain waited six years.
★ 8.3
Every Breath You Take
1983 · From Synchronicity
Sting woke at Fleming's Goldeneye with the melody; Summers cut that arpeggio in one take and made surveillance sound tender.
★ 8.2
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
1983
Recorded on a secondhand eight-track in a Chalk Farm attic, and an American number one by September.
★ 7.9
Heart of Glass
1978
A demo kicked around since the mid-seventies, rebuilt on a Roland drum machine that appalled their punk friends.
★ 7.9
Just Like Heaven
1987 · From Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Smith traced it to a day at Beachy Head with Mary Poole; Williams sped the tempo, adding the opening fill.
★ 7.7
Don't You Want Me
1981 · From Dare
Oakey thought it the weakest thing on Dare; it became Britain's best-selling single of 1981 and Christmas number one.
★ 7.6
Roxanne
1978 · From Outlandos d'Amour
Copeland turned Sting's bossa nova into a tango, and the piano clang at the top was an accident they kept.
★ 7.6
Mr. Brightside
2004 · From Hot Fuss
Flowers wrote it after a bad night at a Vegas bar; Britain has kept it charting past 500 weeks.
★ 7.6
Psycho Killer
1977 · From Talking Heads: 77
A ballad first, written at art school, until Weymouth's French bridge and bassline turned it feral.
★ 7.6
Midnight City
2011
Gonzalez built that shrieking hook from his own distorted voice, then let James King's saxophone close the record.
★ 7.5
Take On Me
1985
Two releases flopped before the third one broke, Furuholmen's Juno-60 riff intact and a video rotoscoped over sixteen weeks.
★ 7.5
Bizarre Love Triangle
1985
It missed the UK top forty, all Fairlight sequencing except Hook's bass, and now every indie disco needs it.
★ 7.5
Tainted LoveSoft Cell
Tainted Love
1981
A Northern soul flop from 1964 rebuilt on synthesizers at Advision, Marc Almond's first vocal take kept intact.
★ 7.4
Money for Nothing
1985 · From Brothers in Arms
Knopfler borrowed a pen in a New York appliance store to copy down a delivery man's complaints about MTV.
★ 7.4
Rock the Casbah
1982 · From Combat Rock
Topper Headon cut the drums, piano and bass himself, and Strummer finished the lyrics in the studio bathroom.
★ 7.4
Message in a Bottle
1979 · From Reggatta de Blanc
Summers' arpeggiated riff, Sting's castaway pleading over it, and the first of the Police's five UK number ones.
★ 7.3
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Orzabal found the shuffle alien to the band, Hughes talked him into it anyway, and America made it a number one.
★ 7.3
You Can Call Me Al
1986 · From Graceland
Kumalo cut one descending bass measure, Halee reversed the tape for the break, and Chevy Chase mimed it on MTV.
★ 7.3
Burning Down the House
1983 · From Speaking in Tongues
Frantz came home from a Parliament-Funkadelic show chanting it, and Byrne built the band's only American top ten.
★ 7.3
Alison
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello glimpsed a supermarket checkout girl, Clover backed him before the Attractions existed, and one line titled his debut.
★ 7.2
Time After Time
1984
Lauper lifted the title from a TV Guide film listing, and Rob Hyman's harmony makes the chorus ache.
★ 7.2
Cars
1979
By Numan's account a road-rage scare in London started it; a bass riff, a Polymoog, and a UK number one.
★ 7.2
Don't You (Forget About Me)
1985
Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol passed; Simple Minds cut it reluctantly, then kept the placeholder chant that closes it.
★ 7.0
Call Me
1980
Moroder cut the backing track in Los Angeles, Harry wrote the words in hours, and it ruled 1980.
★ 6.9
Shout (Tears for Fears)
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Orzabal wrote it on a small synth as an album track; Stanley heard a worldwide smash and was right.
★ 6.9
Back on the Chain Gang
1982 · From Learning to Crawl
Hynde cut it weeks after Honeyman-Scott's death, with Rockpile's Bremner on guitar and a Sam Cooke chant behind her.
★ 6.9
Need You Tonight
1987
A cassette demo made while a taxi idled outside, finished in Hong Kong, and INXS's only American number one.
★ 6.8
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
1981 · From Ghost in the Machine
Four years in Sting's drawer before The Police cut it, and Jean Roussel's piano overdubs are why it soars.
★ 6.8
Rock Lobster
1978 · From The B-52s
A baritone Mosrite missing its two middle strings, and a party record that talked Lennon out of retirement.
★ 6.7
Hungry Like the Wolf
1982 · From Rio
Rhodes had the backing track in mind before reaching the studio; the Sri Lanka video carried it to number three.
★ 6.7
Avalon
1982 · From Avalon
A swan song by Ferry's own account, with a wordless vocal from Yanick Etienne, found in the next studio.
★ 6.7
Brass in Pocket
1979 · From Pretenders
Honeyman-Scott's guitar lick came first, and Hynde told her producer he could release the thing over her dead body.
★ 6.7
Video Killed the Radio StarThe Buggles
Video Killed the Radio Star
1979
Sixteen national number ones, then a second life at 12:01 a.m. on 1 August 1981 as MTV's first video.
★ 6.6
Our Lips Are Sealed
1981
Written by post after Wiedlin and Hall's 1980 tour romance, and it still sounds like a secret being kept.
★ 6.6
Just Can't Get Enough
1981 · From Speak & Spell
Daniel Miller sequenced it on a Roland MC-4, Vince Clarke's last single for the band and still a terrace chant.
★ 6.6
White Wedding
1982
Steve Stevens' guitar cutting through Keith Forsey's production, and Idol sneering his way through somebody else's wedding.
★ 6.6
Watching the Detectives
1977 · From My Aim is True
Costello wrote it after a night with the first Clash album; Nieve's piano stalks it like Bernard Herrmann.
★ 6.6
In Between DaysThe Cure
In Between Days
1985 · From The Head on the Door
Smith's six-string bass, acoustic guitars strummed to a blur, and the Cure's sunniest song about feeling old.
★ 6.6