A Day in the Life
1967 · From Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Two unfinished songs bolted together, an orchestra climbing to nothing, and the last piano chord in pop.
★ 9.9
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.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
1991 · From Nevermind
Four chords, a mumble nobody could decipher, and the riff that ended one decade of rock and started another.
★ 9.9
The Sound of Silence
1965
A folk flop until a producer secretly overdubbed electric guitars, and the duo heard their number one on the radio.
★ 9.4
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
Comfortably Numb
1979 · From The Wall
A tranquilizer shot before a 1977 Philadelphia show gave Waters the lyric; Gilmour brought the chords and the solo.
★ 8.9
Iron ManBlack Sabbath
Iron Man
1970 · From Paranoid
Osbourne heard Iommi's riff and called it a big iron bloke walking; Butler built the science fiction around that.
★ 8.0
Paranoid AndroidRadiohead
Paranoid Android
1997 · From OK Computer
Four sections in six minutes, named for Douglas Adams's depressed robot, cut in a sixteenth-century manor near Bath.
★ 7.8
Creep (Radiohead)
1992 · From Pablo Honey
Greenwood meant those three dead notes before the chorus to wreck the song, and they are what makes it work.
★ 7.7
Where Is My Mind?
1988 · From Surfer Rosa
Francis traced the lyric to a fish that followed him diving; Albini taped Deal's vocal in a bathroom.
★ 7.7
Search and DestroyThe Stooges
Search and Destroy
1973 · From Raw Power
Pop lifted the title from a Time column on Vietnam, and Bowie's mix made Williamson's guitar a threat.
★ 7.6
Loser
1994 · From Mellow Gold
Six and a half hours in Stephenson's house, a slide guitar loop, and a hook mocking Beck's own rapping.
★ 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
Everything In Its Right Place
2000 · From Kid A
Radiohead opened Kid A with no guitars at all, just a Prophet-5 and Yorke's voice diced in Pro Tools.
★ 7.6
The PassengerIggy Pop
The Passenger
1977
Gardiner found the riff wandering under apple blossom, and Bowie sings behind Iggy at Hansa by the Wall.
★ 7.5
Fake Plastic Trees
1995 · From The Bends
Yorke came straight from a Jeff Buckley gig, sang three takes at RAK, then burst into tears.
★ 7.5
Desolation Row
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
Eleven minutes, one acoustic guitar, and Charlie McCoy improvising fills after Bob Johnston found him passing through New York.
★ 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
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
Everybody's Talkin'Harry Nilsson
Everybody's Talkin'
1968
A Fred Neil song that flopped in 1968, until Schlesinger put it under Midnight Cowboy and Nilsson won a Grammy.
★ 6.9
Jeremy
1992 · From Ten
A twelve-string bass figure from Ament, a Texas newspaper item in Vedder's hands, and four VMAs in 1993.
★ 6.8
The Man Who Sold the World
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Fourteen songs, one take, November 1993; Cobain plays Bowie through an amp and makes the song permanently his.
★ 6.8
ATLiens
1996 · From ATLiens
OutKast were booed at the 1995 Source Awards and answered with a title splicing Atlanta and aliens over echo-heavy dub.
★ 6.6
Numb
2003
Twelve weeks atop the modern rock chart, and Bennington turning somebody else's expectations into a chorus millions shouted back.
★ 6.4
Undone (The Sweater Song)
1994 · From Weezer (The Blue Album)
Ocasek produced it, Cuomo aimed for the Velvet Underground, and the party-chatter intro made a sad song sound hilarious.
★ 6.1
I Turn My Camera On
2005 · From Gimme Fiction
Daniel wrote it late for Gimme Fiction, cut it first, and sang in a Prince falsetto over Eno's hi-hat.
★ 6.0
Needle in the Hay
1995 · From Elliott Smith
Cut in September 1994 at bandmate Tony Lash's house, trumpet and harmonica stripped away until only guitar and dread remain.
★ 5.8
Holidays in the Sun
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Marching boots open the record, and a collapsed Jersey holiday sent the band to Berlin for their subject.
★ 5.8
Pumped Up Kicks
2011
Five hours in a Los Angeles jingle studio, the demo kept as the master, its subject hidden in plain sight.
★ 5.8
Teenage Dirtbag
2000
Number one in Australia, number two in Britain, built from Brown's memory of Long Island parents fearing metal records.
★ 5.5
Mama Told Me Not to ComeThree Dog Night
Mama Told Me Not to Come
1970
Newman wrote it for Eric Burdon in 1966, and Cory Wells sings the bewildered party guest straight to number one.
★ 5.4
Rose Parade
1997 · From Either/Or
Smith recorded Either/Or in Portland friends' houses and mixed this one himself, a parade watched through sour eyes.
★ 5.2
Reflektor
2013 · From Reflektor
Seven and a half minutes, James Murphy at the desk, Haitian percussion, and Bowie volunteering his voice.
★ 5.2
Bleed American
2001
Capitol dropped them, so they paid for it themselves; that opening riff bought the whole gamble back.
★ 4.9
Bongo Bong
1998 · From Clandestino
A Mano Negra tune remade over a Black Uhuru groove, and the same melody resurfaces twice more on Clandestino.
★ 4.8
Creep (Stone Temple Pilots)Stone Temple Pilots
Creep (Stone Temple Pilots)
1992
Weiland called it the gap between kid and young man, and Brendan O'Brien's production leaves the voice bare.
★ 4.4
Daysleeper
1998
Stipe found the word on a New York apartment door and gave the night shift its lullaby, post-Berry R.E.M.
★ 4.0
Unwell
2003
Rob Thomas called it a song for people who feel alone; eighteen weeks at Adult Top 40 number one.
★ 2.6
Outside
2001
Lewis finished the words onstage in Biloxi with Fred Durst singing along, and that live take became the hit.
★ 2.4