Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)Fleetwood Mac
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
1977 · From Rumours
Nicks wrote it in a black velvet studio room at Sausalito's Record Plant; it remains the band's only US number one.
★ 8.9
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.
Ms. Jackson
2000 · From Stankonia
Andre 3000 apologizing to Erykah Badu's mother, who liked it enough to buy a Ms. Jackson license plate.
★ 8.7
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
2008
Beyonce found Bob Fosse's Mexican Breakfast on YouTube; three Grammys and a decade of wedding receptions followed.
★ 8.6
That's Alright MamaElvis Presley
That's Alright Mama
1954 · From The Sun Sessions
Presley started clowning through an Arthur Crudup blues on a break; Sam Phillips heard it and rolled tape.
★ 8.6
Go Your Own Way
1977 · From Rumours
Buckingham aimed Mick Fleetwood at the Street Fighting Man groove, then sang a breakup line Nicks demanded he cut.
★ 8.5
I Will Always Love You
1992 · From The Bodyguard (soundtrack)
Parton wrote it to leave Porter Wagoner; Houston opened a cappella and held the Hot 100 for fourteen weeks.
★ 8.1
I Will SurviveGloria Gaynor
I Will Survive
1978
Buried as a B-side until DJs flipped it, and Gaynor cut the vocal in a back brace after spinal surgery.
★ 8.1
Hit the Road JackRay Charles
Hit the Road Jack
1961
Percy Mayfield mailed it in as an a cappella demo; Margie Hendrix answers Charles line for line.
★ 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
Free Bird
1973 · From Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
Collins's chords sat unused for two years until Van Zant found the melody; the long outro was his onstage rest.
★ 7.7
The ChainFleetwood Mac
The Chain
1977 · From Rumours
Razor-blade tape splices turned rejected scraps into the one Rumours song credited to all five, McVie's bass ending it.
★ 7.7
Last Nite
2001 · From Is This It
Built on the bones of Tom Petty's American Girl, which Petty confirmed without complaint, and recorded in Gordon Raphael's basement.
★ 7.7
Don't You Want Me
1981 · From Dare
Oakey thought it the weakest thing on Dare; it became Britain's best-selling single of 1981 and Christmas number one.
★ 7.6
You Keep Me Hangin' On
1966
Dozier reportedly took the Morse code guitar figure from a radio news signal, and Ross demands her exit over it.
★ 7.6
Free Fallin'
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Two days of writing with Jeff Lynne, Mike Campbell's twelve-string, and Ventura Boulevard turned into the whole San Fernando Valley.
★ 7.6
96 Tears
1966
A Vox Continental organ, a Michigan basement studio, a tiny local label, and somehow the number one record in America.
★ 7.5
Since U Been Gone
2004
Pink passed on it and Duff couldn't hit the notes, so Clarkson asked for heavier guitars and won a Grammy.
★ 7.5
Ticket to Ride
1965 · From Help!
Cut at EMI in February 1965, with Harrison's Rickenbacker riff and a record Lennon later called the first heavy metal.
★ 7.5
Rolling in the Deep
2010 · From 21
Written with Paul Epworth in one afternoon after a breakup, and the credits list stiletto heels as percussion.
★ 7.5
Dust My BroomElmore James
Dust My Broom
1951
Johnson's 1936 triplet figure run through an amplifier, Sonny Boy Williamson on harmonica, and a riff everybody stole.
★ 7.5
Heartless
2008 · From 808s & Heartbreak
Auto-Tune, a TR-808, No I.D. co-producing, and Kid Cudi writing the hook: rap learned to sing from this.
★ 7.5
Tainted LoveSoft Cell
Tainted Love
1981
A Northern soul flop from 1964 rebuilt on synthesizers at Advision, Marc Almond's first vocal take kept intact.
★ 7.4
You Oughta Know
1995
Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on guitar, recorded in Glen Ballard's home studio, behind the nineties' fiercest kiss-off.
★ 7.4
The EndThe Doors
The End
1967 · From The Doors
Krieger's raga-style tuning, Morrison at his most unnerving, and nearly twelve minutes Coppola later gave to Apocalypse Now.
★ 7.4
Friends in Low Places
1990
Bud Lee forgot his wallet, joked that he knew the cook, and Brooks took it to number one.
★ 7.3
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
1966
Chuck Berghofer's descending double bass, plus Sinatra talking Hazlewood into letting a woman sing lines written for a man.
★ 7.3
It's Too Late
1971 · From Tapestry
Toni Stern wrote the words in a day after her romance with James Taylor ended, and Curtis Amy's sax answers.
★ 7.2
Suite: Judy Blue EyesCrosby Stills and Nash
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
1969
Stills nailed the seven-minute basic track in one take, then all three sang into a single microphone.
★ 7.2
Bye Bye Love
1957
Some thirty acts turned the Bryants' song down; Don Everly's intro, written for something else, took it to number two.
★ 7.1
Cry Me A River
2002 · From Justified
Storch's clavinet, Timbaland's beat, and a breakup Timberlake spent years declining to explain; the Grammy arrived anyway.
★ 7.1
Should I Stay or Should I Go
1982 · From Combat Rock
Spanish backing vocals translated by the tape operator's mother over the phone, and a jeans advert made it number one.
★ 7.0
By the Time I Get To Phoenix
1967
Webb mapped a drive that is geographically impossible, and Sinatra still called it the greatest torch song ever written.
★ 6.9
Skinny Love
2008 · From For Emma, Forever Ago
Vernon cut it alone in his father's Wisconsin hunting cabin over a winter, and the falsetto still sounds snowbound.
★ 6.9
Irreplaceable
2006
Ne-Yo pitched it as country, written with Shania Twain in mind; Beyoncé turned it into ten weeks at number one.
★ 6.8
I Knew You Were Trouble
2012 · From Red
A wobble bass drop grafted onto a country breakup song, and Swift's full move to pop became inevitable.
★ 6.8
Love Lockdown
2008 · From 808s & Heartbreak
Taiko drums against an 808 heartbeat, Auto-Tune everywhere, and a version West scrapped and recut after the fan backlash.
★ 6.7
Train in VainThe Clash
Train in Vain
1979 · From London Calling
Mick Jones wrote it overnight for an NME flexi-disc that fell through, and the printed sleeves never listed it.
★ 6.7
I Can't Make You Love Me
1991
Bruce Hornsby's piano behind a vocal Raitt cut in one take, then refused to try again.
★ 6.7
Blood on the LeavesKanye West
Blood on the Leaves
2013 · From Yeezus
Nina Simone's 1965 Strange Fruit against TNGHT's blaring horns, a breakup rendered enormous; platinum without ever being a single.
★ 6.6
Somebody That I Used to Know
2011
Recorded at his parents' house on the Mornington Peninsula around a Luiz Bonfá sample, eight weeks at number one.
★ 6.5
Dammit (Growing Up)
1997
Hoppus turned bumping into an ex into four chords, a Trombino production, and pop punk's great shrug at adulthood.
★ 6.5
You're Gonna Miss Me
1966
Erickson wrote this kiss-off at fifteen, and Tommy Hall's electric jug gave Texas garage rock its strangest sound.
★ 6.4
With Every Heartbeat
2007
No chorus, just strings and a rising ache; Kleerup's living-room track became Robyn's first British number one.
★ 6.4
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
1997 · From Nimrod
Armstrong wrote it in 1993 about a girlfriend leaving for Ecuador; Cavallo added the strings while the band played foosball.
★ 6.4
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
2012 · From Red
Twenty-five minutes with Max Martin and Shellback, by Swift's account, and her first Hot 100 number one followed.
★ 6.3
I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
A few minutes' work by Clark about a girlfriend from the Ciro's residency, and a refrain hinging on "probably".
★ 6.3
Easy
1977
Richie traced that Sunday-morning ease to the small Alabama town he grew up in; the singer is walking away relieved.
★ 6.3
Funeral For a Friend Love Lies Bleeding
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
John wrote the instrumental half imagining music for his own funeral; Hentschel's ARP 2500 overdubs did the rest.
★ 6.3
End of the Road
1992
Thirteen weeks at number one, a record until Whitney broke it in early 1993, on Babyface's Boomerang ballad.
★ 6.3
Don't Come Around Here No More
1985 · From Southern Accents
Stewart's electric sitar, a title Stevie Nicks said out loud one night, and Petty at his strangest.
★ 6.2
Return of the Mack
1996
Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love beat rebuilt as smooth British R&B, and Morrison sounding utterly unbothered about being wronged.
★ 6.2
My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)
1992
Foster and McElroy looped a guitar figure from James Brown's "The Payback," and four voices turn refusal into swagger.
★ 6.1
Fuck You
2010
Twinkling piano, bumping bass, the Smeezingtons doing sixties Motown, and a typography video that went viral on release day.
★ 6.1
Wild World
1970
Stevens called it his parting song for Patti D'Arbanville, and Jimmy Cliff took it into the UK top ten.
★ 6.1
Little Lion Man
2009
Banjo hammering under a chorus that needed a radio edit, produced by Markus Dravs and voted Australia's song of 2009.
★ 6.1
I Want to Break Free
1984 · From Greatest Hits
Deacon's song, Fred Mandel's Jupiter-8 solo in a single take, and a video of Queen in Coronation Street drag.
★ 6.0
The Wind Cries MaryJimi Hendrix
The Wind Cries Mary
1967
Twenty minutes at the tail end of the Fire session, and Hendrix trading fire for something quiet and blue.
★ 5.9
You're No Good
1974 · From Heart Like a Wheel
Ronstadt rejected the first take as the wrong groove; four days later Andrew Gold's solo sealed her only number one.
★ 5.9
Always Be My Baby
1996
Carey stacked her own harmonies with Kelly Price behind them, and Jermaine Dupri's shuffle carried her eleventh number one.
★ 5.9