Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
1965 · From Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
The record where the beat moved to the one and funk quietly began. James Brown never looked back.
★ 9.1
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.
My WayFrank Sinatra
My Way
1969 · From My Way
Anka typed the lyric overnight in New York asking what Sinatra would say, then handed him a life's summing-up.
★ 8.3
We Will Rock You
1977 · From Greatest Hits
May came home from a Stafford gig where the crowd sang back, and built a chorus from stomps and claps.
★ 8.1
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Landslide (Fleetwood Mac)
1975 · From Fleetwood Mac
Aspen in 1974, Nicks weighing whether to quit music, and Buckingham Travis-picking a Martin D-18 underneath.
★ 7.8
Heart of Gold
1972 · From Harvest
A back injury kept Young seated with an acoustic guitar; Taylor and Ronstadt were in Nashville and sang behind him.
★ 7.7
Time (Pink Floyd)
1974 · From The Dark Side of the Moon
Alan Parsons taped antique-shop clocks as a quadraphonic test; Mason's rototoms follow, and the alarms still land like panic.
★ 7.5
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
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
Dream On
1973 · From Aerosmith
Tyler had the tune on his family's New Hampshire lodge piano years before Aerosmith; a reissue reached number six.
★ 7.2
Old Man
1972 · From Harvest
James Taylor picked up a six-string banjo he had never played, Ronstadt harmonised, and Young's ranch caretaker got a song.
★ 6.9
Night MovesBob Seger
Night Moves
1976 · From Night Moves
Seger walked out of American Graffiti with a story of his own, and took six months finding the words.
★ 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
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
Step
2014 · From Modern Vampires of the City
Rostam's harpsichord reharmonizes a melody that traveled from Bread through Grover Washington Jr. to Souls of Mischief, then here.
★ 6.2
It Was A Very Good YearFrank Sinatra
It Was A Very Good Year
1966 · From September of My Years
Ervin Drake's vintage-wine conceit reached Sinatra via the Kingston Trio, and Gordon Jenkins's arrangement won its own Grammy.
★ 6.2
Thinking Out Loud
2014
Wadge was playing chords while Sheeran showered; twenty minutes later they had a Song of the Year.
★ 6.0
Young and Beautiful
2013
Six-times platinum for a soundtrack ballad: Rick Nowels producing, Craig Armstrong's strings, Del Rey singing Daisy Buchanan's doubt.
★ 6.0
Hey Nineteen
1980 · From Gaucho
Nineteen weeks on the Hot 100, fittingly, and a middle-aged narrator undone by a girlfriend who doesn't know Aretha Franklin.
★ 5.8
Touch of GreyGrateful Dead
Touch of Grey
1987 · From In the Dark
Cut live on a darkened Marin auditorium stage with no audience, and somehow the Dead's only Top 10 hit.
★ 5.3
Remember When
2003
Jackson wrote it alone, a whole marriage from courtship to old age, and country radio held it at number one.
★ 5.2
Flightless Bird, American Mouth
2007
Brian Deck built a loop for Beam to layer guitar over; Stewart reportedly chose it for Twilight's prom.
★ 5.0
Landslide (Dixie Chicks)
2002 · From Home
Nicks wrote it in Aspen weighing whether to quit music; the Chicks add three-part harmony and take it top ten.
★ 4.7
A Pirate Looks at 40
1975
Buffett was twenty-seven when he wrote it, about a Chart Room regular in Key West and a life at sea.
★ 4.2
The WayFastball
The Way
1998
Scalzo read about an elderly Texas couple who drove off and never came back, then wrote them a happier ending.
★ 4.0