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
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.
Rocket Man
1972 · From Honky Chateau
Taupin borrowed the title from a Pearls Before Swine song, and Hentschel's ARP put the loneliness in orbit.
★ 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
Proud Mary
1969 · From Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
Fogerty came out of the National Guard and wrote it in two days, Beethoven's Fifth hiding in the intro.
★ 7.9
Harder Better Faster StrongerDaft Punk
Harder Better Faster Stronger
2001 · From Discovery
Edwin Birdsong's Cola Bottle Baby, found in a record bin, vocoded into a mantra Kanye West later borrowed wholesale.
★ 7.6
9 to 5
1980 · From 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs
Parton played the typewriter part on her acrylic fingernails, credited on the album, then took it to number one.
★ 7.5
Summertime BluesEddie Cochran
Summertime Blues
1958
Cochran overdubbed his own bass voice for the boss and the senator, Earl Palmer drumming behind the great teenage complaint.
★ 7.4
Money for Nothing
1985 · From Brothers in Arms
Knopfler borrowed a pen in a New York appliance store to copy down a delivery man's complaints about MTV.
★ 7.4
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
1984
Marr's melody came from a New York hotel room, the title from Sandie Shaw, and misery never sounded so cheerful.
★ 7.2
Free Man in Paris
1974 · From Court and Spark
Mitchell wrote it for David Geffen after a Paris trip, then set his escape to Jose Feliciano's guitar.
★ 6.5
Everything She Wants
1984
Michael programmed the LinnDrum in an evening, wrote the vocal next morning, and turned marital dread into a groove.
★ 6.1
Working for the Weekend
1981
Dean found an empty beach midweek and wondered where everyone was; Reno turned waiting for the weekend into working.
★ 4.9
Tuesday
iLoveMakonnen and Drake
2014
Sonny Digital and Metro Boomin built the beat, Drake jumped on the remix, and a weeknight became an occasion.
★ 4.7
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
2003
Brown and Rollins wrote it, Stegall cut it, and Buffett collected the first major award of his thirty-year career.
★ 4.4
Busy Earnin'
2014
Two Shepherd's Bush friends hiding behind the initials J and T, falsetto stacked over a warehouse full of dancers.
★ 4.3
Spike Driver Blues (1928)Mississippi John Hurt
Spike Driver Blues (1928)
1928 · From 1928 Sessions
Okeh sent an Avalon sharecropper home after modest sales, leaving behind a fingerpicked John Henry that refuses the hammer.
★ 4.3
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
Work Hard, Play Hard
2012
Benny Blanco and Stargate on the beat, and Marco Rubio calling Khalifa a modern poet during a Senate filibuster.
★ 2.5
Morning Train
1980
Florrie Palmer wrote it, Britain sent it to number three, and America renamed it to dodge Dolly Parton's hit.
★ 2.2
Time is Love
2012
Frank Rogers built it on mandolin, and Billboard named it 2012's top country song despite it never reaching number one.
★ 2.0
Like a Boss
2008
A Slim Thug track turned inside out over Rick tha Rular's beat, with a skeptical Seth Rogen questioning Samberg.
★ 1.3