Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
1977 · From Rumours
Nicks wrote it in a black velvet studio room at Sausalito's Record Plant; it remains the band's only US number one.
★ 8.9
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.
Rocket Man
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin borrowed the title from a Pearls Before Swine song, and Hentschel's ARP put the loneliness in orbit.
★ 7.9
In The Air Tonight
1981
Padgham's talkback-microphone accident on Peter Gabriel's third album, a Roland CR-78 pattern, and pop's most anticipated drum entrance.
★ 7.7
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Sessions collapsed in Kingston, so the band regrouped at a French chateau and Taupin traded Oz for a Lincolnshire farm.
★ 7.7
Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)Fleetwood Mac
Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)
1975 · From Fleetwood Mac
A novel called Triad set Nicks going; years later she learned she had described a Welsh goddess exactly.
★ 7.6
The Winner Takes All
1980 · From Gold: Greatest Hits
Ulvaeus wrote it in an hour over whisky; the video came ten days after his divorce from Fältskog was final.
★ 7.5
Careless Whisper
George Michael and Wham!
1984
Written at seventeen on a bus, scrapped at Muscle Shoals, saved by Steve Gregory's saxophone in one breath.
★ 7.5
Tiny Dancer
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Taupin wrote it about Maxine Feibelman, the seamstress who toured with the band, and Almost Famous made it a singalong.
★ 7.3
More Than a FeelingBoston
More Than a Feeling
1976 · From Boston
Five years in Scholz's basement, a hundred-dollar Yamaha twelve-string on the intro, and Delp stacking harmonies over the top.
★ 7.3
The Boys of SummerDon Henley
The Boys of Summer
1984
Campbell built the track on a LinnDrum, Petty passed, and Henley wrote middle age onto somebody else's demo.
★ 7.3
Total Eclipse of the Heart
1982
Nearly seven minutes, Rory Dodd's voice answering Tyler on the refrain, and Steinman's vampire love song became number one.
★ 7.2
Bennie and the Jets
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Gus Dudgeon overdubbed crowd noise from old concerts, and the fake live track topped the Hot 100.
★ 7.1
Candle in the Wind
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Taupin lifted the phrase from a Janis Joplin tribute and pointed it at Marilyn Monroe; the chorus does the mourning.
★ 6.8
Sweet Caroline
1969
Cut at American Sound in Memphis with Charles Calello's horns, and every Fenway eighth inning has belonged to it since 2002.
★ 6.7
Human Nature
1982 · From Thriller
Steve Porcaro's demo reached Quincy Jones only because a cassette auto-reversed, and it took Carousel's place on Thriller.
★ 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
I Can't Go For That
1981
Hall started with a Roland preset and a Korg bass line, the one Jackson borrowed for Billie Jean.
★ 6.7
Nothing Else Matters
1991 · From Metallica (The Black Album)
By Hetfield's account the open-string intro came one-handed during a phone call, and Kamen's strings did the rest.
★ 6.6
Bette Davis Eyes
1981
A DeShannon album track from 1975 until Bill Cuomo's Prophet-5 riff arrived; nine non-consecutive weeks at number one followed.
★ 6.5
Linger
1993
Stephen Street produced it, the Duke Quartet supplied the strings, and O'Riordan wrote the melody at her audition.
★ 6.5
More Than This
1982 · From Avalon
Ferry's voice drops out almost two minutes before the end, leaving a synthesizer to finish the thought.
★ 6.4
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 Way It Is
1986
Hornsby wrote the words first in a Van Nuys garage; that piano figure later became the spine of Tupac's Changes.
★ 6.2
DesperadoThe Eagles
Desperado
1973 · From Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
Never released as a single; Henley's piano sketch dated to 1968, and Jim Ed Norman's strings turned it monumental.
★ 6.1
(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
Rich Girl
1977
Hall wrote it about a fast-food heir, changed Rich Boy to Rich Girl, and took the duo to number one.
★ 6.0
Tears in Heaven
1991
Will Jennings helped finish a lyric Clapton wrote after his four-year-old son died; three Grammys followed in 1993.
★ 5.9
Dust in the Wind
1977
A fingerpicking exercise Livgren's wife overheard and told him to finish, now Kansas's only American top ten.
★ 5.9
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King)Carole King
Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Carole King)
1971 · From Tapestry
A decade after the Shirelles made it the first girl-group number one, King slowed it down with Taylor and Mitchell.
★ 5.9
Hello
1984
Richie thought the opening line corny until Carmichael told him to finish it; six weeks at UK number one followed.
★ 5.9
West Coast
2014
Verses at 123 beats a minute collapsing to 65 in the chorus, cut live with Auerbach's band in Nashville.
★ 5.9
Wonderful Tonight
1977
Clapton wrote it on a Martin D-28 while Pattie Boyd got ready for a Buddy Holly party, by his account.
★ 5.7
Sail AwayRandy Newman
Sail Away
1972
A slave trader's sales pitch set to strings and Newman's warmest melody; Bobby Darin later sang it straight.
★ 5.6
I Want to Know What Love Is
1984
Jones wrote it alone at three in the morning, and the New Jersey Mass Choir carries the final chorus skyward.
★ 5.6
Candle in the Wind 1997Elton John
Candle in the Wind 1997
1997
Taupin rewrote his Marilyn Monroe lyric for Diana, George Martin added strings hours after the funeral, and 33 million sold.
★ 5.5
So Far AwayCarole King
So Far Away
1971 · From Tapestry
Acoustic guitar from James Taylor, a flute solo from Curtis Amy, and King mourning a world where nobody stays put.
★ 5.4
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
1994 · From The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Written as a comedy number for a meerkat and a warthog until John objected, and it took the Oscar.
★ 5.4
Peaceful Easy Feeling
1972 · From Eagles
Tempchin wrote it on a poster back while sleeping on a club floor; Leadon's B-bender guitar does the rest.
★ 5.4
Crash Into Me
1996
Desire watched from a distance, an acoustic figure circling, and Steve Lillywhite catching all of it at Bearsville.
★ 5.4
Brooklyn Baby
2014
Del Rey wrote it with Lou Reed in mind, then sang the Brooklyn hipster caricature straight, deadpan and unbothered.
★ 5.3
Trouble (Cat Stevens)
1970
Stevens wrote it flat on his back recovering from tuberculosis; Hal Ashby later gave it to Maude's death scene.
★ 5.1
Ode to My Family
1994
A homesick lullaby from No Need to Argue, with a string arrangement O'Riordan scored herself over Noel Hogan's chords.
★ 5.1
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
1975 · From Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Baldry talked Elton out of a wedding in 1968, and Taupin wrote him into the chorus as Sugar Bear.
★ 5.0
Honesty
1979 · From 52nd Street
Number twenty-four on the Hot 100, and still a Song of the Year nominee; Ramone cut it at A&R.
★ 5.0
Fields of Gold
1993
Barley fields outside Sting's Wiltshire house, Kathryn Tickell's Northumbrian smallpipes, and a promise meant to last a lifetime.
★ 4.9
You Wear It Well
1972 · From Never a Dull Moment
A letter to an ex, sung over acoustic guitar, fiddle and McLagan's Hammond, and another UK number one.
★ 4.9
Sirius, Eye in the Sky
1982
Woolfson took the title from casino surveillance slang; Sirius became the music that introduced Michael Jordan's Bulls.
★ 4.8
Madman Across the Water
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Buckmaster spilled ink across his orchestral score and rewrote all of it in a day; Spedding's electric guitar prowls underneath.
★ 4.8
Love is All AroundThe Troggs
Love is All Around
1967
A Salvation Army band on television gave Presley the idea; he later spent the royalties on crop-circle research.
★ 4.8
Falling (Haim)
2013
Danielle, Este and Alana wrote it with Morgan Nagler as a stay-strong pep talk, and it moves like one.
★ 4.8
It's All Coming Back to Me NowCeline Dion
It's All Coming Back to Me Now
1996
Steinman wrote it out of Wuthering Heights for Pandora's Box in 1989, and Dion made it enormous.
★ 4.8
Summer Breeze
1972
Larry Knechtel on piano, Jim Gordon on drums, and a chorus that arrives like the evening it describes.
★ 4.8
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
1998 · From Armageddon: The Album
Written for Armageddon by Diane Warren after a Barbara Walters interview, it gave Aerosmith their only American number one.
★ 4.7
Baby I Love Your Way
1975
Stalled at 43 as a studio single until the live version on Frampton Comes Alive! reached the top twelve.
★ 4.7
She Will Be Loved
2002
Levine says he and Valentine wrote it in about an hour, drawing on a troubled couple he knew.
★ 4.6
Crush
1998
Eight minutes on the album, four on the radio, and Tinsley learned his violin solo the day before.
★ 4.6
If You Leave Me NowChicago
If You Leave Me Now
1976
Parazaider heard it on the radio while cleaning his pool and assumed McCartney, not his own band.
★ 4.5
Change the World
1996
Wynonna Judd cut it first as country; Babyface gave Clapton a soul groove and the Grammys gave back three.
★ 4.5