God Only KnowsThe Beach Boys
God Only Knows
1966 · From Pet Sounds
It opens by admitting doubt and spends the next two minutes refuting it; McCartney still calls it the greatest.
★ 9.7
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.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
1970
Garfunkel's voice climbing a gospel staircase, the last verse arriving like the cavalry.
★ 9.5
Stand By Me
1960
That four-note bassline, a gospel hymn turned into a promise, and one of the warmest vocals ever recorded.
★ 9.4
In My Life
1965 · From Rubber Soul
Lennon's first draft listed bus stops in Liverpool; Martin's piano solo, taped at half speed, sounds baroque.
★ 9.0
My GirlThe Temptations
My Girl
1964
Smokey Robinson wrote it for his wife Claudette, then handed David Ruffin his first Temptations lead vocal.
★ 9.0
I Walk the Line
1956 · From Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
Cash slipped paper under his guitar strings for that snare tick, and hums to find each new key.
★ 8.8
Sweet Child O' Mine
1987 · From Appetite for Destruction
Slash was goofing through a warm-up he called a circus melody; an hour later the band had this.
★ 8.7
Try a Little Tenderness
1966 · From Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul
A 1932 Tin Pan Alley ballad, rearranged by Isaac Hayes, until Redding and Al Jackson tear the roof off.
★ 8.6
A Love Supreme, Part 1: Acknowledgement
1965 · From A Love Supreme
Garrison's four notes, then Coltrane overdubbing the chant nineteen times, one December day at Van Gelder's.
★ 8.6
Let's Stay TogetherAl Green
Let's Stay Together
1971 · From Greatest Hits
Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson handed Green a track; he reportedly had the lyric in five minutes.
★ 8.6
I Got a Woman
1954 · From Ray Charles
Charles took a gospel record he heard on tour, swapped the subject, and cut soul music's blueprint in Atlanta.
★ 8.4
He Stopped Loving Her Today
1980
Jones thought nobody would play something so morbid; Sherrill spent eighteen months coaxing the vocal onto tape.
★ 8.3
SomethingThe Beatles
Something
1969 · From Abbey Road
Harrison lifted the opening line from James Taylor and wrote the first Beatles A-side that wasn't Lennon or McCartney.
★ 8.2
I Will Always Love You
1992 · From The Bodyguard (soundtrack)
Parton wrote it to leave Porter Wagoner; Houston opened a cappella and held the Hot 100 for fourteen weeks.
★ 8.1
A Hard Day's Night
1964 · From A Hard Day's Night
Starr's slip of the tongue supplied the title, and the opening chord is still argued over by musicologists.
★ 7.9
Wichita Lineman
1968
Webb sent it over unfinished, one verse short, and Campbell cut the loneliest three minutes in country music.
★ 7.9
When a Man Loves a WomanPercy Sledge
When a Man Loves a Woman
1966
Sledge gave the writing credits away to two bandmates, and Atlantic pressed the take with the out-of-tune horns.
★ 7.9
Reach Out, I'll Be There
1965
Holland-Dozier-Holland pitched Stubbs at the very top of his range, and Paul Riser opened it with piccolo and flute.
★ 7.8
Your SongElton John
Your Song
1970 · From Elton John
Taupin scribbled the lyric over breakfast at a kitchen table, and Buckmaster's strings turned it into John's first Top 10.
★ 7.8
You Send MeSam Cooke
You Send Me
1957 · From Sam Cooke
Cooke credited it to his brother L.C. to dodge his publisher, then carried it to number one on both charts.
★ 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
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
1965
Dozier lifted the title from his grandfather flirting in a beauty shop, and Stubbs sings it like a plea.
★ 7.7
Everlong
1997
Drums by Grohl, Hawkins not yet in the band, and Louise Post's backing vocals sung down a phone from Chicago.
★ 7.7
Fly Me to the MoonFrank Sinatra
Fly Me to the Moon
1964 · From It Might as Well Be Swing
Howard wrote a waltz; Quincy Jones swung it into four for Basie, and Apollo crews played it in orbit.
★ 7.7
Unchained Melody
1965
Written for a 1955 prison film, buried on a B-side, and Hatfield sang the whole thing alone.
★ 7.7
I'll Be There
1970
Hal Davis cut it at Hitsville West in June 1970, and Michael, eleven years old, made the ballad sound lived-in.
★ 7.7
Can't Help Falling in LoveElvis Presley
Can't Help Falling in Love
1961 · From Blue Hawaii
A 1784 French melody rewritten for Blue Hawaii, and the song Presley chose to close his shows for a decade.
★ 7.7
International Player's Anthem (I Choose You)
2006 · From Underground Kingz
A Willie Hutch loop left alone at the top, and Andre 3000's verse reportedly returned with the drums stripped off.
★ 7.6
Piece of My Heart
1968 · From Cheap Thrills
Erma Franklin had it first in 1967, then Joplin tore the same Ragovoy and Berns song wide open.
★ 7.6
Personal Jesus
1989 · From Violator
Priscilla Presley's memoir gave Gore the idea, Flood cut it in Milan, and Cash later called it evangelical.
★ 7.6
I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)
1967 · From I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
Muscle Shoals, January 1967, Oldham on Wurlitzer, and a session that fell apart in an argument right after it.
★ 7.6
Enjoy the SilenceDepeche Mode
Enjoy the Silence
1990 · From Violator
Gore wrote it as a harmonium ballad; Wilder and Flood put a dance beat under it over his objections.
★ 7.6
Little Wing
1967
A glockenspiel, a Leslie speaker meant for organs, and Hendrix fading out after two minutes and twenty-five seconds.
★ 7.6
Midnight Train to Georgia
1973
Cissy Houston's version turned Weatherly's midnight plane to Houston into a train to Georgia.
★ 7.6
River Deep, Mountain High
1966 · From River Deep - Mountain High
Twenty-one musicians at Gold Star, Turner singing until she was drenched, and a US peak of eighty-eight that broke Spector.
★ 7.6
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
I've Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)
1965 · From Otis Blue
Butler handed Redding a fragment in a Buffalo motel room; two weeks later Stax had the ultimate slow dance.
★ 7.6
In the Still of the Night
1956
February 1956, a New Haven church basement, and a song Parris had written on Army guard duty.
★ 7.5
Shout (The Isley Brothers)
1959
Ronald Isley improvised the call and response onstage extending Lonely Teardrops, and RCA packed the room with friends answering.
★ 7.5
Ain't Misbehavin'
1929
Waller sold every song in Hot Chocolates for five hundred dollars, then cut this one alone for Victor.
★ 7.5
Earth Angel
1954
Cut as a demo in Ted Brinson's garage, pillows on the drums, then three weeks atop the R&B chart.
★ 7.5
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
Hold On, I'm Comin'
1966
A shout through a Stax restroom door became the title, and Booker T.'s band made it an R&B number one.
★ 7.4
Maybe I'm AmazedPaul McCartney
Maybe I'm Amazed
1970
Booked into Abbey Road as Billy Martin, McCartney played every instrument in a day and declined to release a single.
★ 7.4
Yellow
2000 · From Parachutes
Ken Nelson pointed at the stars outside Rockfield, and Martin sang the melody in his worst Neil Young impression.
★ 7.4
Teardrop
1998 · From Mezzanine
Mushroom sent the demo to Madonna, got outvoted, and Elizabeth Fraser sang it over harpsichord and a Les McCann loop.
★ 7.3
SuzanneLeonard Cohen
Suzanne
1967 · From Songs of Leonard Cohen
Cohen thought Simon's orchestration overblown, but the four-track master wouldn't let him strip it; Judy Collins recorded it first.
★ 7.3
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
Wonderwall
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Owen Morris showed Bonehead the root notes for a Mellotron cello, and the track was largely done in a day.
★ 7.3
Maps
2004 · From Fever to Tell
Zinner's looped riff, twenty minutes of writing from Karen O, and a video where the tears are real.
★ 7.3
I Only Have Eyes for You
1959
Terry Johnson dreamed the arrangement, called the group to rehearse at 4 a.m., and Goldner drowned it in reverb.
★ 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
I Want it That Way
1999
Cut at Cheiron in Stockholm with a chorus that contradicts its verses; the coherent version got shelved.
★ 7.2
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
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
1967
James Jamerson's bass, cut in Chicago with Funk Brothers moonlighting for cash, and Wilson sounding weightless above it.
★ 7.1
You Got Me
The Roots and Erykah Badu
1999 · From Things Fall Apart
Jill Scott's hook, re-sung by Badu at the label's request, and Questlove driving the outro into drum and bass.
★ 7.1
Not Fade AwayBuddy Holly and the Crickets
Not Fade Away
1957
Jerry Allison pounded the beat out on a cardboard box, and a B-side that never charted outlived nearly everything.
★ 7.1
Hold On, We're Going Home
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Drake wanted a record that weddings would still play in ten years, and Majid Jordan's synths delivered exactly that.
★ 7.1
Because the Night
1978 · From Easter
Springsteen abandoned the demo, Iovine passed Smith the cassette, and she wrote the verses waiting on a phone call.
★ 7.0
Lovely Day
1977
Withers holds the last note for eighteen seconds, Ray Parker Jr. plays guitar, and morning suddenly looks survivable.
★ 7.0
Save the Last Dance for Me
1960
Pomus, who had polio, wrote the lyric on the back of his own wedding invitation, remembering his bride dancing.
★ 6.9
How Deep Is Your Love
1977 · From Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack
Seventeen weeks in the American top ten, and a ballad Stigwood refused to let them hand to Yvonne Elliman.
★ 6.9
I Say a Little Prayer
1967
Hal David wrote it about a woman whose man is in Vietnam; Bacharach thought the finished take too rushed.
★ 6.9
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
If I Didn't CareThe Ink Spots
If I Didn't Care
1939
Kenny's tenor floats, Jones talks the lyric back in bass, and doo-wop inherited that top-and-bottom trick wholesale.
★ 6.8
Latch
Disclosure and Sam Smith
2012
Too weird for radio, not clubby enough for clubs, by the duo's own reckoning; Sam Smith's falsetto settled it.
★ 6.8
Ain't NobodyChaka Khan
Ain't Nobody
1983
Wolinski's synth loop, his threat to hand the song to Quincy Jones instead, and Khan sailing clean over it.
★ 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 Year's Day
1983 · From War
A bass line Clayton stumbled on while decoding Visage's Fade to Grey, then Bono aimed the words at Poland's Solidarity.
★ 6.8
If I Ain't Got You
2004
Aaliyah's death in 2001 clarified what mattered, and Keys answered with piano, gospel restraint and a Grammy-winning vocal.
★ 6.8
Just the Two of UsGrover Washington Jr.
Just the Two of Us
1981
MacDonald's track came first, Withers added the words, and Washington's saxophone carried it to number two in 1981.
★ 6.7
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
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service)
2003
Tamborello sent instrumental DATs to Gibbard, who added vocals and shipped them back; his first happy love song.
★ 6.7
Beyond the Sea
1959
Charles Trenet wrote it about the sea; Jack Lawrence's English lyric made it a love song, and Darin swung it.
★ 6.7
Ain't Too Proud to BegThe Temptations
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
1966
"Get Ready" stalled at 29, so Gordy handed the Temptations to Whitfield, and Ruffin tore into the result.
★ 6.6
Please, Please, Please
1956 · From Please Please Please
Syd Nathan hated it and fired Ralph Bass for cutting it, then rehired him when it reached R&B's top five.
★ 6.6
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
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
1973 · From Talking Book
Wonder hands the first four lines to Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves, then walks in over his own Fender Rhodes.
★ 6.5
All The Small Things
1999
Palm-muted C major at 150 beats a minute, Roger Manning's synth on top, and a boy-band parody video.
★ 6.4
BernadetteThe Four Tops
Bernadette
1967
Dozier had three Bernadettes in mind, and Levi Stubbs shouts the name at the false ending like a man drowning.
★ 6.4
My Guy
1964
Three days after Wells turned twenty-one, Smokey Robinson's tune gave the Motown label its first number one.
★ 6.4
Retrograde
2013
A wordless hum to open, then distortion flooding the chorus; lead single from the Mercury-winning Overgrown.
★ 6.4
La Vie en Rose (Louis Armstrong)
1950
Cut in New York with Sy Oliver's orchestra in 1950, Piaf's song rebuilt around a trumpet and a rasp.
★ 6.4
Is This Love (Bob Marley)Bob Marley and the Wailers
Is This Love (Bob Marley)
1978 · From Kaya
Kaya's warmest track went top ten in Britain, and its London video gave a young Naomi Campbell her debut.
★ 6.4
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
1966
Two people who had never written a lyric rewrote a Sanremo ballad, and Springfield cut her vocal in a stairwell.
★ 6.3
End of the Road
1992
Thirteen weeks at number one, a record until Whitney broke it in early 1993, on Babyface's Boomerang ballad.
★ 6.3
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
2006 · From Plans
One microphone, mono, caught during a studio break when the headphones failed, and Gibbard's breath before the first chord.
★ 6.3
The Way You Look Tonight
1964 · From Sinatra Sings Days of Wine and Roses, Moon River, and Other Academy Award Winners
Kern's melody took the 1936 Academy Award; Nelson Riddle's 1964 arrangement made Sinatra's the most imitated reading.
★ 6.3
My Heart Will Go OnCeline Dion
My Heart Will Go On
1997
Cameron resisted a pop song entirely, then kept Dion's demo vocal, one take, in the finished film.
★ 6.3
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
Father Figure
1988
Michael muted the snare while mixing a mid-tempo dance track and, by his account, suddenly had a gospel record.
★ 6.1
I Was Made To Love Her
1967 · From I Was Made to Love Her
Jamerson's bass line runs like a lead melody, and Wonder co-wrote it with his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway.
★ 6.1
Bound 2
2013 · From Yeezus
A Ponderosa Twins Plus One loop, Charlie Wilson singing the bridge, and Yeezus ending on chipmunk soul.
★ 6.1
Iris
1998
Rzeznik tuned every string but one to D, wrote it for City of Angels, and owned airplay for eighteen weeks.
★ 6.1
Thinking Out Loud
2014
Wadge was playing chords while Sheeran showered; twenty minutes later they had a Song of the Year.
★ 6.0
Whenever, Wherever
2001
Panpipes, a charango, and Gloria Estefan rewriting Shakira's Spanish lyric in English; it hit number one in twenty-two countries.
★ 6.0
Best of My Love
1977
Maurice White and Al McKay wrote it, Earth Wind and Fire's rhythm section played it, and the Hutchinson sisters soared.
★ 6.0
Hymne a l'amour
1950
Piaf wrote these words for boxer Marcel Cerdan months before his plane went down, and recorded them the following May.
★ 6.0
Tupelo Honey
1971 · From Tupelo Honey
Written in Woodstock, cut in San Francisco with Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay behind Morrison's warmest melody.
★ 6.0
I'll Make Love to You
1994
Babyface wrote it and the group nearly turned it down; fourteen weeks at number one settled that argument.
★ 6.0
Impossible Germany
2007 · From Sky Blue Sky
Nels Cline's lead guitar turns a quiet Tweedy song into the twin-guitar epic Rolling Stone compared to Television.
★ 6.0
This Will Be Our Year
1968 · From Odessey and Oracle
Take four, June 1967 at EMI, with a trumpet added later onto the mono mix and nowhere else.
★ 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
Praise You
1999
Camille Yarbrough's 1975 vocal over a lo-fi piano loop, and a Spike Jonze video reportedly shot for eight hundred dollars.
★ 6.0
I Got You BabeSonny & Cher
I Got You Babe
1965
That hook is an oboe, not an ocarina, and Cher disliked the song Bono wrote for them in their basement.
★ 5.9
Northern Sky
1970 · From Bryter Layter
Boyd handed Cale the demo and he improvised celeste, piano and organ around Drake's most openly loving song.
★ 5.9
Always Be My Baby
1996
Carey stacked her own harmonies with Kelly Price behind them, and Jermaine Dupri's shuffle carried her eleventh number one.
★ 5.9
Love Me Tender
1956
A Civil War ballad from 1861, reworked by Ken Darby and sung on Ed Sullivan weeks before the single arrived.
★ 5.9
Baby I Love You
1963 · From Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
Ronnie sang it alone at Gold Star while the group toured, so Spector stacked Cher and the Blossoms behind her.
★ 5.8
I'll Be Around
1972
Norman Harris's octave guitar riff, a B-side that DJs flipped, and five weeks atop the R&B chart.
★ 5.8
Never My Love
1967
Written by the Addrisi brothers, cut by the Wrecking Crew, and named by BMI the twentieth century's second most-played song.
★ 5.7
For Your Precious LoveJerry Butler
For Your Precious Love
1958
Butler's baritone over a doo-wop crawl; the billing change to his name split the group and handed Mayfield the lead.
★ 5.7
Just the Way You Are (Bruno Mars)
2010
Every instrument played by Mars and Ari Levine at Levcon Studios, and a Grammy for male pop vocal followed.
★ 5.7
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
Come Go With Me
1956
Airmen stationed in Pittsburgh, a demo cut in a DJ's basement, and bass singer Clarence Quick's nonsense-syllable hook.
★ 5.6
I Melt With You
1982
Producer Hugh Jones talked Grey out of shouting, and the nuclear-apocalypse lyric arrives as the warmest chorus of 1982.
★ 5.6
I Hear a SymphonyThe Supremes
I Hear a Symphony
1965
Gordy demanded better after "Nothing but Heartaches" stalled, and Holland-Dozier-Holland came back with modulations and Mike Terry's baritone sax.
★ 5.6
Build Me Up ButtercupThe Foundations
Build Me Up Buttercup
1968
Mike d'Abo co-wrote it and played piano, and new lead singer Colin Young sang it into the American top three.
★ 5.6
Blue Jeans
2012
Del Rey wrote it with Emile Haynie and Dan Heath, then sings a doomed vow over surf guitar and strings.
★ 5.6
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
1959 · From Nina Simone at Town Hall
Sharp and Karpeles collected this Scottish ballad in the Appalachians in 1916; Simone slows it to near-stillness at Town Hall.
★ 5.6
Dedicated to the One I Love
1961
Doris Coley's lead flopped on Scepter in 1959; the label reissued it in 1961 and the tenderness finally landed.
★ 5.6
Sea of Love (Phil Phillips)
1959
A Lake Charles bellhop wrote it for a woman, and Khoury's tiny label carried the swooning triplets to number two.
★ 5.6
All I NeedAir
All I Need
1998
Two Frenchmen, an American singer they shared Montmartre with, and the softest thing on Moon Safari.
★ 5.5
Can You Stand the Rain
1988
Jam and Lewis wrote and produced it for Johnny Gill's first New Edition album, and it topped the R&B chart.
★ 5.5
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
1988
Craig and Charlie Reid wrote it in an Edinburgh flat, sang it in undisguised Scottish accents, America followed in 1993.
★ 5.5
I Have Nothing
1992 · From The Bodyguard (soundtrack)
Cut at Encore Studios in 1991, a year before the film, Houston riding a modulation most singers would refuse.
★ 5.5
It Had to Be You
1924
Gus Kahn's lyric prefers the flaws to the virtues, and Jones's 1924 record held number one for five weeks.
★ 5.5
3005
2013
Ludwig Goransson's synths under a hook everyone reads as romance; Glover insists it is really about fearing solitude.
★ 5.5
Tide is High (Blondie)
1980
A Paragons rocksteady tune from 1967, Jimmie Haskell's horns and strings on top, and Harry strolling to number one.
★ 5.5
Such Great Heights (Iron & Wine)Iron & Wine
Such Great Heights (Iron & Wine)
2004
Beam slowed Gibbard's synth-pop into hushed acoustic guitar for a Sub Pop B-side, then Garden State put it everywhere.
★ 5.5
For Your Love
1965
Brian Auger's harpsichord and Denny Piercy's bongos on a pop single, with Clapton confined to the middle break before quitting.
★ 5.4
Do You
2014 · From They Want My Soul
Spoon's eighth album brought in Dave Fridmann and Alex Fischel, and Daniel spends the chorus asking to be understood.
★ 5.4
You're Still the One
1998
Written as a reply to everyone who doubted her marriage to Mutt Lange, and it won two country Grammys.
★ 5.4
Chasing Cars
2006
Lightbody's father compared him to a dog chasing a car; a Grey's Anatomy finale sent it worldwide.
★ 5.4
Right Here
1992
Brian Alexander Morgan wrote it; the remix laid it over Michael Jackson's Human Nature, and the group initially disliked it.
★ 5.4