Seven Nation Army
2003 · From Elephant
A guitar pitched down to fake a bass, and the seven-note riff every stadium on earth now sings.
★ 9.1
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.
HeroesDavid Bowie
Heroes
1977 · From "Heroes"
Recorded beside the Berlin Wall, Fripp's feedback howling while Bowie sings himself hoarse over a single defiant day.
★ 9.1
Straight Outta Compton
1988 · From Straight Outta Compton
Dre and Yella built it in a Torrance studio on almost no money, and Compton stopped being invisible.
★ 8.8
Fuck tha PoliceNWA
Fuck tha Police
1988 · From Straight Outta Compton
Structured as a mock trial with Dre presiding, and it drew a warning letter from an FBI assistant director.
★ 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
Jumpin' Jack FlashThe Rolling Stones
Jumpin' Jack Flash
1968
Named for the gardener who woke them up, and cut with an acoustic guitar recorded into a Philips cassette recorder.
★ 8.1
We Will Rock You
1977 · From Greatest Hits
May came home from a Stafford gig where the crowd sang back, and built a chorus from stomps and claps.
★ 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
Sabotage
1994 · From Ill Communication
Yauch's bass line started it, Ad-Rock turned a joke about their producer into a scream, and Jonze filmed the rest.
★ 8.0
99 ProblemsJay-Z
99 Problems
2004 · From The Black Album
Rick Rubin's first rap production in years, a Billy Squier drum break, and a second verse about a traffic stop.
★ 8.0
Still Dre
1999 · From 2001
Jay-Z wrote every line of it, Scott Storch played the piano figure, and Dre's seven-year album silence ended.
★ 7.8
Rehab
2006 · From Back to Black
Cut live to tape at Daptone in Brooklyn with the Dap-Kings, and it took Record and Song of the Year.
★ 7.8
Mama Said Knock You Out
1990 · From Mama Said Knock You Out
His grandmother told him to knock them out; Marley Marl looped Funky Drummer, and the Grammy followed.
★ 7.7
Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins)
1956
Cash suggested the phrase, Phillips talked him into changing one word, and Sun got its first million seller.
★ 7.7
Bring the Noise
1987 · From It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
First released on the Less Than Zero soundtrack, it opens with Malcolm X and never stops arguing rap's case.
★ 7.6
Chain of Fools
1967 · From Lady Soul
Joe South's tremolo guitar opens it, Don Covay wrote it young while singing gospel, and Franklin turns it merciless.
★ 7.5
The Harder They Come
1972 · From Original Soundtrack (The Harder They Come)
Cliff coined the phrase on set, Henzell made it the film's title, and the Dynamic Sounds session was filmed.
★ 7.5
Bad
1987 · From Bad
Scorsese shot eighteen minutes in a Brooklyn subway station, and the brass hits point straight back at James Brown.
★ 7.4
Rock the Casbah
1982 · From Combat Rock
Topper Headon cut the drums, piano and bass himself, and Strummer finished the lyrics in the studio bathroom.
★ 7.4
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
My Name Is
1998 · From The Slim Shady LP
Dre and Eminem finished it in an hour, over a Labi Siffre interpolation, and Slim Shady existed.
★ 7.3
ThinkAretha Franklin
Think
1968 · From Aretha Now
Co-written with Ted White, out weeks after King's assassination, and a bridge that turns on one word, freedom.
★ 7.1
Dirt Off Your Shoulder
2004 · From The Black Album
Timbaland's beat is all snap and space, and in 2008 a presidential candidate borrowed the shoulder-brush on a Raleigh stage.
★ 7.0
Nasty
1986
Jackson answered street harassers by demanding respect over a factory preset Jimmy Jam found on an Ensoniq Mirage.
★ 7.0
Don't Dream It's Over
1986
Froom's Hammond solo does the heavy lifting, and Finn wrote the rest as an exhortation to himself.
★ 7.0
Ruff Ryders' Anthem
1997
DMX turned the beat down for sounding too rock; his uncles talked him into it, and Swizz Beatz arrived.
★ 6.9
Shout (Tears for Fears)
1985 · From Songs from the Big Chair
Orzabal wrote it on a small synth as an album track; Stanley heard a worldwide smash and was right.
★ 6.9
Can't Tell Me Nothing
2007 · From Graduation
DJ Toomp built the beat and bassline, West layered the strings, and Zach Galifianakis lip-synced it on a tractor.
★ 6.9
Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley)
1956 · From Elvis Presley
Scotty Moore and Bill Black behind him in New York, and Presley made RCA hold the single for Perkins.
★ 6.9
I Won't Back Down
1989 · From Full Moon Fever
Harrison on acoustic guitar and harmonies, Lynne producing, and Petty answering the arsonist who burned his house down.
★ 6.9
Pretty Vacant
1977 · From Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Matlock's riff, lifted off ABBA's "SOS", and the sound of a generation deciding not to care.
★ 6.7
I Can't Go For That
1981
Hall started with a Roland preset and a Korg bass line, the one Jackson borrowed for Billie Jean.
★ 6.7
Blank GenerationRichard Hell and the Voidoids
Blank Generation
1977
A rewrite of a 1959 novelty called "The Beat Generation", with Quine and Julian's guitars turning parody into manifesto.
★ 6.4
Complete Control
1977
Lee Perry produced it after CBS released a single without the band's consent; Topper Headon's first Clash session.
★ 6.4
Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
1966 · From Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)
Lynn and her sister Peggy Sue wrote it, and the album became country music's first gold record by a woman.
★ 6.3
It's Your ThingThe Isley Brothers
It's Your Thing
1969
Sixteen-year-old Ernie Isley's bass on his first session, cut for the brothers' own T-Neck label, funk built on a shrug.
★ 6.2
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
1980
Schwartz took the title from a pillow-punching therapy session, and Benatar made it her first American top ten.
★ 6.2
Shake it Off
2014 · From 1989
Martin and Shellback stomped the drum pattern on a wooden floor, and Swift turned tabloid noise into fifty weeks charting.
★ 6.2
Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)
2014 · From Run the Jewels 2
El-P's beat, de la Rocha recruited a day after a chance encounter, and the fiercest track on the album.
★ 6.0
You Get What You Give
1998
Alexander buried a celebrity taunt in the last verse to prove the press would ignore the politics; it worked.
★ 6.0
Survivor
2001
A radio host's joke about the lineup changes, flipped into a Grammy winner Beyonce largely wrote on a flight.
★ 6.0
Titanium
David Guetta and Sia
2011
Sia cut the vocal as a guide for another singer; Guetta released it anyway, and she got a number one.
★ 6.0
My Prerogative
1988
Brown flew to New York with Gene Griffin for the aggressive song his album lacked, and new jack swing arrived.
★ 6.0
The Underdog
2007 · From Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Jon Brion produced this track and no other on the album, adding mariachi-style horns and handclaps to Britt Daniel's warning.
★ 5.9
Bye Bye Bye
2000
Andreas Carlsson reportedly wrote the lyric during a Stockholm driving test; Cheiron's producers built pop's most decisive exit.
★ 5.8
Love is a Battlefield
1983
Holly Knight and Mike Chapman wrote it as a ballad; Neil Giraldo's drum machines turned it into dance-rock.
★ 5.7
Hollaback Girl
2005
Courtney Love called her a cheerleader, so Stefani and the Neptunes built the taunt into pop's first million-selling download.
★ 5.7
Queen
2014
Adrian Utley of Portishead helped build the noise, and Hadreas answers a lifetime of stares with pure swagger.
★ 5.7
We're Not Gonna Take It
1984
Snider hung the melody on "O Come, All Ye Faithful," and the PMRC filed it under filth anyway.
★ 5.5
Ridin'
2006
3.2 million ringtones sold, a Grammy won, and Play-N-Skillz's beat under a hook about racial profiling.
★ 5.3
Rape Me
1993 · From In Utero
Written on acoustic guitar in 1991, recorded by Albini at Pachyderm, and stocked by Walmart under a changed title.
★ 5.2
I Love It
Icona Pop and Charli XCX
2012
Charli XCX passed on her own demo; Icona Pop roughed it up, and HBO's Girls did the rest.
★ 5.0
Bleeding Love
2007
Hollywood Records turned it down for McCartney; Tedder recut it in a new key and Cowell called it the one.
★ 4.7
It's My Life (No Doubt)
2003
Hollis and Friese-Greene wrote it for Talk Talk in 1984, and Nellee Hooper's production hands Stefani a stadium chorus.
★ 4.5
Love Song
2007
Epic wanted a radio-friendly love song; Bareilles wrote a refusal instead, and that piano riff climbed to number four.
★ 4.4
Worst Behavior
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Director X shot the video in Memphis with Drake's father, over a DJ Dahi beat that snarls.
★ 4.3
Roar
2013
Perry left therapy sick of staying quiet, and Bonnie McKee turned that into pop's loudest dust-yourself-off chorus.
★ 4.3
