White Christmas
1942
Berlin's snowless Christmas song, the best-selling physical single ever pressed, and the sound of every soldier's homesickness.
★ 9.3
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.
Georgia on My Mind
1960 · From The Genius Hits the Road
Hoagy Carmichael's 1930 tune, remade as Charles's first Billboard number one and adopted as Georgia's state song in 1979.
★ 8.2
Sweet Home Alabama
1974 · From Second Helping
An answer record to Neil Young's "Southern Man," riding Ed King's riff and a name-check for the Muscle Shoals Swampers.
★ 7.8
Paradise City
1987 · From Appetite for Destruction
Written in a rental van home from San Francisco, and the final two minutes simply double the tempo.
★ 7.8
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
Midnight Train to Georgia
1973
Cissy Houston's version turned Weatherly's midnight plane to Houston into a train to Georgia.
★ 7.6
Into the Mystic
1970 · From Moondance
Written first as 'Into the Misty', recorded at A&R in New York, and the warmest thing Morrison ever sang.
★ 7.5
Take Me Home, Country Roads
1971
Danoff and Nivert finished it with Denver one December night, and they premiered it hours later at the Cellar Door.
★ 7.3
Sloop John B
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Al Jardine sold Wilson a Bahamian folk tune, and Billy Strange's twelve-string solo went down in a single take.
★ 6.9
My Girls
2009 · From Merriweather Post Pavilion
An arpeggio out of Chicago house, a sample from the Cassini Saturn probe, Lennox wanting only a home.
★ 6.9
Wide Open Spaces
1998 · From Wide Open Spaces
Gibson wrote it on her first trip home from forestry school, and Lloyd Maines knew it belonged to his daughter.
★ 6.6
Homeward Bound
1965
Simon wrote it on an English railway platform missing Kathy Chitty; a plaque at Widnes station now claims the spot.
★ 6.5
Bloodbuzz Ohio
2010 · From High Violet
Cut in Aaron Dessner's Brooklyn garage, a horn part stripped out late, leaving that rolling drum pattern and Berninger's baritone.
★ 6.4
Helpless
1970 · From Deja Vu
One of three Deja Vu tracks the four cut together, Young keening about the Ontario town of his childhood.
★ 6.4
Return of the Grievous Angel
1974 · From Grievous Angel
A Boston fan's poem, reworked by Parsons, Emmylou Harris on harmony, and an album out four months after his death.
★ 6.1
Chattanooga Choo Choo
1941
Cut in Hollywood in May 1941; nine months later RCA handed Miller the first gold record ever presented.
★ 6.0
Welcome to ParadiseGreen Day
Welcome to Paradise
1994 · From Dookie
Armstrong wrote it about squatting in a West Oakland warehouse, and the Dookie re-recording is the one everyone knows.
★ 5.7
On My Block
2002 · From The Fix
Five mics from The Source for The Fix, a Mike Dean beat, and Scarface drawing his Houston block affectionately.
★ 5.6
Carolina In My Mind
1968 · From James Taylor
McCartney played bass and Harrison sang uncredited backing on the Apple debut, while Taylor sat in London missing North Carolina.
★ 5.3
California
2002
Jason Schwartzman still drummed for the band when they cut it; The O.C. later made it a UK top ten.
★ 5.0
Carry Me Ohio
2003 · From Ghosts of the Great Highway
Kozelek grew up in Massillon, Ohio, and this is what he sends back: an apology set to ringing acoustic guitars.
★ 4.9
Summer Breeze
1972
Larry Knechtel on piano, Jim Gordon on drums, and a chorus that arrives like the evening it describes.
★ 4.8
Small Town
1985 · From Scarecrow
Written in the laundry room of Mellencamp's old house, it makes Indiana sound like enough for one life.
★ 4.7
Lights
2011
Goulding wrote it about a childhood fear of the dark, and the Hot 100 kept it fifty-two weeks.
★ 4.7
My Blue HeavenGene Austin
My Blue Heaven
1928
Donaldson wrote the tune waiting his turn at a Friars Club billiard table; Austin's soft croon sold millions.
★ 4.5
Landed
2005
Folds went back to a trio for Songs for Silverman, and made its lead single a phone call home.
★ 3.7
You Are a Tourist
2011 · From Codes and Keys
Death Cab's first number one on alternative radio, and its video was performed live in one unbroken take.
★ 3.0
Back Where I Come From
2000
Mac McAnally's 1990 original about his Mississippi hometown reached number fourteen; Chesney's cover went gold without ever being a single.
★ 2.4
Generator (First Floor)
2010
Queens kids who met on Craigslist and busked subway platforms, then made banjo and glockenspiel sound euphoric.
★ 2.0
Dirt
2014
Clawson and Tompkins built a whole life around one word; the duo nearly cut the closing lines about mortality.
★ 1.8