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
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.
Like a Prayer
1989 · From Like a Prayer
Patrick Leonard co-wrote it, Prince played the intro guitar, and Pepsi pulled its five million dollar ad but paid anyway.
★ 8.5
Nothing Compares 2 USinead O'Connor
Nothing Compares 2 U
1990
Prince wrote it for a side project that went nowhere; O'Connor's tears in the video were real, and unplanned.
★ 7.9
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You
1967
Two quiet verses, then Artie Schroeck's brass kicks the door in, and Valli's solo single stalled one place from number one.
★ 7.6
Since U Been Gone
2004
Pink passed on it and Duff couldn't hit the notes, so Clarkson asked for heavier guitars and won a Grammy.
★ 7.5
California GirlsThe Beach Boys
California Girls
1965 · From Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
Forty-four takes for the backing track, Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye on it, and an intro built like a fanfare.
★ 7.4
FaithGeorge Michael
Faith
1987
A church organ quoting Wham!'s Freedom, then Hugh Burns's Bo Diddley rhythm, and four weeks at number one.
★ 7.4
Can't Buy Me Love
1964 · From A Hard Day's Night
Two point one million American advance orders, and behind them a Paris hotel upright where McCartney wrote it.
★ 7.4
With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)
1967 · From Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Starr sang it at dawn after ten takes, having first made them cut the line about thrown tomatoes.
★ 7.4
In Your Eyes
1986 · From So
Youssou N'Dour improvising in Wolof, and a bassline so deep it had to move up the vinyl.
★ 7.3
Mr. Blue Sky
1977
Two weeks of Alpine fog broke, and Lynne wrote this and thirteen more songs, closing it with a vocoder.
★ 7.3
Style
2015 · From 1989
Ali Payami and guitarist Niklas Ljungfelt built the track; Swift turned an on-off romance into a fashion metaphor.
★ 7.1
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
Love Shack
1989
Don Was suggested welding a fifteen-minute jam to a shouted chorus, and Cindy Wilson's tin-roof ad-lib stayed in.
★ 7.0
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (Marvin Gaye)Marvin Gaye
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (Marvin Gaye)
1964 · From How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You
Holland-Dozier-Holland gave Gaye a rare uncomplicated love song, and that rolling piano and the Andantes carried it to number six.
★ 6.9
Substitute
1966
Townshend built it from a single word in "Tracks of My Tears", and American pressings rewrote the line about race.
★ 6.8
Walk Away Renee
1966
Sixteen-year-old Michael Brown's hands shook when Renee walked into the control room, so he cut the harpsichord part later, alone.
★ 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
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
Black or White
1991 · From Dangerous
Bill Bottrell played the riff everyone credits to Slash, then rapped the verse himself after eight months of searching.
★ 6.5
You Make My Dreams Come True
1981
A rare Yamaha CP-30 supplies the riff, and Oates traced the song to Delta blues jammed against Texas swing.
★ 6.5
Runaway
1961
Crook hit the A minor to G change onstage in Battle Creek; his homemade Musitron took the solo.
★ 6.4
Addicted to Love
1986
Chaka Khan's label blocked her from the duet, so Palmer sang it alone over Tony Thompson's drum intro.
★ 6.3
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
I'm a BelieverThe Monkees
I'm a Believer
1966
Seven weeks at number one for Neil Diamond's song, with Diamond himself on acoustic guitar behind Dolenz's lead.
★ 6.2
Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel)
1977 · From The Stranger
Bebop alto player Phil Woods takes the solo, and the melody Joel dreamed won Record and Song of the Year.
★ 6.2
The Letter
1967
One minute fifty-eight seconds, Dan Penn's jet engine borrowed from a library sound-effects record, and Chilton growling at sixteen.
★ 6.2
Smooth
Santana and Rob Thomas
1999 · From Supernatural
Itaal Shur wrote it as "Room 17"; Rob Thomas rewrote the melody and Santana's guitar answers him line for line.
★ 6.2
(I've Had) The Time Of My Life
1987
Medley said no repeatedly until Warnes signed on, and the two finished the vocal in about an hour.
★ 6.1
Ordinary World
1993 · From Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)
Three days to finish the music in Cuccurullo's home studio, and an elegy for a dead friend became their comeback.
★ 6.1
Daydream Believer
1967
John Stewart wrote it after a day of pure daydreaming; Tork's piano and Jones's lead did the rest.
★ 6.0
You Get What You Give
1998
Alexander buried a celebrity taunt in the last verse to prove the press would ignore the politics; it worked.
★ 6.0
The Best
1989 · From Foreign Affair
Bonnie Tyler recorded it first; Turner asked Holly Knight for the bridge and key change it lacked.
★ 6.0
Down Under
1981
Greg Ham played the flute hook as a joke; it carried Hay's tale to number one in seven countries.
★ 5.9
Maneater
1982
Oates started it as reggae; Hall swapped in a Motown bassline, and it sat four weeks at number one.
★ 5.9
Ironic
1995
Ballard produced it, number four on the Hot 100 stands as her highest, and everyone still debates the title.
★ 5.8
How to Save a Life
2004
Slade wrote it after mentoring a troubled teenager at a Denver camp, and Grey's Anatomy did the rest.
★ 5.8