Be My Baby
1963 · From Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica
Hal Blaine's four-beat drum intro is the most imitated in pop, and Ronnie Spector owns everything after it.
★ 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.
Over the Rainbow
1939
MGM cut it from the film twice until Arthur Freed threatened to quit; Garland was sixteen.
★ 9.0
Crazy (Patsy Cline)Patsy Cline
Crazy (Patsy Cline)
1962 · From Patsy Cline Showcase
Willie Nelson wrote it; Cline, back after a car wreck bruised her ribs, nailed the vocal in one take.
★ 8.8
You've Lost That Lovin' FeelinThe Righteous Brothers
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin
1964
Spector printed 3:05 on the label of a 3:45 record, and it became the century's most-played song on American radio.
★ 8.8
Smoke Stack Lightning
1956 · From Moanin' in the Moonlight
One chord, no changes, Sumlin's guitar circling, and Wolf's howl answering the trains whose sparks named the song.
★ 8.5
Where the Streets Have No Name
1987 · From The Joshua Tree
Eno reckoned half the album's sessions went into it and nearly wiped the tape; the Edge's delay does the rest.
★ 8.4
There is a Light that Never Goes OutThe Smiths
There is a Light that Never Goes Out
1986 · From The Queen is Dead
Marr faked the strings on an Emulator, credited them to the Hated Salford Ensemble, and Britain waited six years.
★ 8.3
Stardust (1927)
1927
Carmichael whistled the tune to his band at Gennett and cut it fast; Parish added the lyric two years later.
★ 8.3
Don't Be Cruel
1956
Blackwell gave Presley half the writing credit; the Jordanaires hum behind a vocal so relaxed it barely seems to try.
★ 8.2
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
Wouldn't It Be NiceThe Beach Boys
Wouldn't It Be Nice
1966 · From Pet Sounds
Two accordions, a key change eight beats in, and 21 takes at Gold Star before Wilson sang about growing up.
★ 8.2
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
1975 · From Wish You Were Here
Gilmour's twelve-string comes through a recorded car radio, and Grappelli's violin sits buried near the very end.
★ 8.0
Wichita Lineman
1968
Webb sent it over unfinished, one verse short, and Campbell cut the loneliest three minutes in country music.
★ 7.9
At Last
1960 · From At Last!
Riley Hampton's strings behind a 1941 film tune James took over, and the Library of Congress preserved it.
★ 7.8
The Girl From IpanemaAstrud Gilberto
The Girl From Ipanema
1964
Never a professional singer, Gilberto sang at the 1963 session because she spoke English; Record of the Year followed.
★ 7.8
Louie Louie
1963
Ely shouted on tiptoe at a mic hung overhead, and the FBI spent thirty-one months failing to decode him.
★ 7.8
Ain't No SunshineBill Withers
Ain't No Sunshine
1971
Withers was building airplane toilets when he cut this, and he left the unfinished bridge as twenty-six repeats.
★ 7.8
California Dreamin'
1965 · From If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears
The Phillipses wrote it homesick in a New York winter, and Doherty sang over Barry McGuire's existing backing track.
★ 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
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
...Baby One More Time
1998
Max Martin built it at Cheiron in Stockholm after TLC and the Backstreet Boys passed, and Spears was sixteen.
★ 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
All I Want For Christmas Is You
1994
Carey and Afanasieff wrote it fast in 1994 from Spector chords, and it reached number one twenty-five years later.
★ 7.7
All I Have to Do Is Dream
1958
Two live takes in Nashville, Chet Atkins on guitar, and a harmony that topped three Billboard charts at once.
★ 7.7
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
You Can't Hurry LoveThe Supremes
You Can't Hurry Love
1966
The frame came from a Dorothy Love Coates gospel record, and Jamerson's bass did the rest.
★ 7.6
American Girl
1977 · From Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Petty cut it on the Fourth of July, 1976, and Roger McGuinn heard the Byrds so clearly he covered it.
★ 7.6
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
1987 · From The Joshua Tree
A jam demoed under the title The Weather Girls became a gospel hymn about doubt, and U2's second American 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
I Wanna Dance with Somebody
1987 · From Whitney
Walden thought the demo too country, funked it up, and Houston cut it while shaking off a bronchial infection.
★ 7.5
Thinkin Bout YouFrank Ocean
Thinkin Bout You
2012 · From Channel Orange
Ocean wrote it for Bridget Kelly's album, kept it instead, and the falsetto he reaches for does the rest.
★ 7.5
Someone Like You
2011 · From 21
Dan Wilson of Semisonic at the piano, Adele singing, nothing else added; five weeks at number one.
★ 7.5
Take On Me
1985
Two releases flopped before the third one broke, Furuholmen's Juno-60 riff intact and a video rotoscoped over sixteen weeks.
★ 7.5
I Can't Stop Loving You
1962 · From Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
A Don Gibson country weepie, Marty Paich's strings behind it, and five weeks at number one in 1962.
★ 7.5
Crying
1961
Cut at RCA Studio B with Floyd Cramer on piano, and Orbison's voice climbing until the room falls away.
★ 7.5
Somebody to Love (Queen)
1976 · From Greatest Hits
Mercury wrote it at the piano, then three voices were multitracked into something the size of a gospel choir.
★ 7.4
Just My Imagination
1971
By Otis Williams's account Kendricks stayed for hours of takes; his final Temptations single spent two weeks at number one.
★ 7.4