Born to RunBruce Springsteen
Born to Run
1975 · From Born to Run
Months of wall-of-sound overdubs poured into one getaway car, and every word still sounds like escape.
★ 9.4
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
Baba O'Riley
1971 · From Who's Next
That opening arpeggio is a Lowrey organ's marimba repeat function; Dave Arbus's violin sends the ending careening.
★ 9.0
Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)
1964 · From Bringing It All Back Home
Bruce Langhorne's giant Turkish frame drum gave Dylan the image, and the Byrds' cover turned it into folk rock.
★ 8.4
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
Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds)
1965 · From Mr. Tambourine Man
Session men cut the track and McGuinn's twelve-string Rickenbacker rang over one Dylan verse; folk rock started there.
★ 8.3
Thunder Road
1975 · From Born to Run
Bittan's piano, a harmonica, and a screen door slamming; Springsteen lifted the title from a Robert Mitchum film poster.
★ 8.3
Good Times
1979
Edwards' bassline turned up on Rapper's Delight within months; the settlement put Chic's names on rap's first pop hit.
★ 8.1
The World Is Yours
1994 · From Illmatic
Ahmad Jamal's piano figure, a hook Pete Rock sang himself, and the most hopeful stretch of Illmatic.
★ 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
Fast CarTracy Chapman
Fast Car
1988 · From Tracy Chapman
Stevie Wonder's gear failed at the Mandela tribute, Chapman went on with a guitar, and the record went top ten.
★ 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
Heroin
1967 · From The Velvet Underground & Nico
Written in 1964 while Reed was a staff songwriter, and Tucker abandoned her drums at the climax, unable to hear.
★ 7.7
Feel Good Inc.Gorillaz
Feel Good Inc.
Gorillaz and De La Soul
2005
Maseo's cackle, Danger Mouse at the desk, and a song Albarn dreamed up driving past California windmills toward Coachella.
★ 7.6
I Wanna Be Sedated
1978 · From Road to Ruin
Joey wrote it stranded in a shut-down London at Christmas, and Johnny's solo is one note, repeated.
★ 7.6
No Surprises
1997 · From OK Computer
Radiohead cut version after version and kept the first take, glockenspiel and all, a lullaby about suburban despair.
★ 7.5
Hey Joe
1966
Hendrix took Tim Rose's slow arrangement off a jukebox, Chandler hired the Breakaways, and Britain answered at number six.
★ 7.4
We Gotta Get Out of This Place
1965
Chandler's bass walks in alone, Burdon arrives furious, and GIs in Vietnam claimed a Brill Building demo.
★ 7.3
Burning Down the House
1983 · From Speaking in Tongues
Frantz came home from a Parliament-Funkadelic show chanting it, and Byrne built the band's only American top ten.
★ 7.3
Champagne SupernovaOasis
Champagne Supernova
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Seven and a half minutes, Paul Weller on lead guitar, and a lyric Noel admits he chose for the rhyme.
★ 7.3
Band on the RunPaul McCartney
Band on the Run
1973
Wings lost two members on the eve of Lagos, so McCartney played the drums and built a three-part escape.
★ 7.2
We Found Love
2011
Calvin Harris wrote and produced it alone, and Rihanna rode ten weeks at number one, 2011's longest run.
★ 7.2
Day 'n' Nite
2008
Cut in Dot da Genius's home studio in East New York, using a Geto Boys favorite as its blueprint.
★ 7.0
Everybody's Talkin'Harry Nilsson
Everybody's Talkin'
1968
A Fred Neil song that flopped in 1968, until Schlesinger put it under Midnight Cowboy and Nilsson won a Grammy.
★ 6.9
Sound and Vision
1977 · From Low
The BBC ran its long instrumental intro under programme trailers, and Bowie's ultimate retreat song went to number three.
★ 6.8
Solsbury Hill
1977 · From Peter Gabriel
Seven-four time, Steve Hunter's Martin triple-tracked at three tape speeds, and Gabriel's first record after walking out of Genesis.
★ 6.8
New Slang
2001 · From Oh, Inverted World
Sub Pop pressed it as a one-off single in 2001; three years later Garden State made it a generational password.
★ 6.8
Under the Boardwalk
1964
Rudy Lewis died the night before the session; Johnny Moore took the lead, and the güiro shrugs it all off.
★ 6.8
Mary Jane's Last Dance
1993 · From Greatest Hits
Originally called Indiana Girl, until Petty decided he couldn't sing that line; Stan Lynch's last sessions with the Heartbreakers.
★ 6.7
In My RoomThe Beach Boys
In My Room
1963 · From Surfer Girl
Three Wilson brothers on the first verse, singing harmonies worked out in the Hawthorne bedroom the song describes.
★ 6.6
Come On Eileen
1982
Fiddle, banjo and a tempo shifting gears, then one week at number one between Billie Jean and Beat It.
★ 6.5
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
Break on Through (To the Other Side)The Doors
Break on Through (To the Other Side)
1967 · From The Doors
Densmore's bossa nova drum feel, Krieger's riff borrowed from a Butterfield blues cover, and a refrain their producer censored.
★ 6.3
Mykonos
2008 · From Sun Giant
Pecknold rebuilt a piano soul demo with Phil Ek at Bear Creek, and the harmonies own the second half.
★ 6.2
Pursuit of Happiness
2010
Ratatat cut the beat before Cudi arrived, MGMT added vocals, and Steve Aoki's remix made a song about intoxication ubiquitous.
★ 6.2
Feel It All AroundWashed Out
Feel It All Around
2009
Bedroom pop in the literal sense, a Gary Low disco record slowed to a crawl, and chillwave had its template.
★ 6.2
Magic Carpet Ride
1968
Moreve's riff, Monarch's feedback spliced onto the front by the engineer, and words Kay wrote about his new stereo.
★ 6.1
Island in the Sun
2001 · From Weezer (The Green Album)
Not planned for the Green Album until Ocasek fought for it, then Spike Jonze filmed the band among wild animals.
★ 6.1
I Ran (So Far Away)
1982
Battery Studios, London: the echoing riffs were written for a guitarist who had just joined, and they still sound airborne.
★ 6.1
Rock and RollThe Velvet Underground
Rock and Roll
1970 · From Loaded
Tucker was pregnant, so Doug Yule played drums, bass and the solo; Reed's Jenny finds her life on the radio.
★ 6.0
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
You Don't Know How It Feels
1994 · From Wildflowers
Rubin produced, Petty blew the harmonica, and MTV solved one lyric by simply running the word backwards.
★ 5.9
Woods
2009 · From Blood Bank
Four lines, no instruments, one voice stacked through Auto-Tune into a choir Kanye West later built a song from.
★ 5.8
Levon
1971 · From Madman Across the Water
Cut in February 1971 with Paul Buckmaster conducting, a character sketch about a balloon seller and the son who leaves.
★ 5.7
What Is and What Should Never Be
1969 · From Led Zeppelin II
Among Plant's first songwriting credits, a CBS contract having blocked him on the debut, over guitars panning across both channels.
★ 5.6
Paradise
2011 · From Mylo Xyloto
Eno took a co-writing credit and played synthesizers; it became Coldplay's second UK number one and a stadium fixture.
★ 5.6
Come Sail Away
1977
A piano ballad at first, then a synthesizer break, then guitars, angels and a starship headed skyward.
★ 5.5
The Way We Get BySpoon
The Way We Get By
2002 · From Kill the Moonlight
Piano, bass and a single nagging guitar figure, with Daniel making aimlessness sound like the best available plan.
★ 5.4
Cowboy Take Me Away
1999 · From Fly
Martie Seidel lifted the title from a Calgon commercial, then wrote the rest about her sister's new romance.
★ 5.3
KicksPaul Revere & the Raiders
Kicks
1966
Mann and Weil wrote it about Gerry Goffin's drug problems, by Mann's account; the Raiders took it to number four.
★ 5.2
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
1975 · From Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Baldry talked Elton out of a wedding in 1968, and Taupin wrote him into the chorus as Sugar Bear.
★ 5.0
FunkytownLipps Inc.
Funkytown
1980
A ten-note synth riff cut at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, Cynthia Johnson vocoded then unleashed at full wail.
★ 4.9
Sleeping InThe Postal Service
Sleeping In
2003
Tamborello mailed beats from Los Angeles; Gibbard answered with a dream he would rather not wake from.
★ 4.9
One Headlight
1997
Jakob Dylan wrote it at a Los Angeles kitchen table, then watched it top all three Billboard rock airplay charts.
★ 4.8
Fly Away
1998
Kravitz stumbled on the riff testing an amplifier, nearly buried it as a B-side, and won a Grammy instead.
★ 4.7
Fantastic VoyageCoolio
Fantastic Voyage
1994
Bryan Dobbs looped Lakeside's 1980 hit, and Coolio rode it to number three dreaming of somewhere trouble-free.
★ 4.7
These Dreams
1985
Taupin and Martin Page wrote it, Nancy Wilson sang lead through a cold, and Heart got their first number one.
★ 4.2
The WayFastball
The Way
1998
Scalzo read about an elderly Texas couple who drove off and never came back, then wrote them a happier ending.
★ 4.0
Angel (Sarah McLachlan)
1998
Piano, upright bass, a drum machine, and McLachlan writing about a Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist's overdose with startling tenderness.
★ 3.9
Hold On (Wilson Phillips)
1990
Chynna Phillips drew the words from AA's one-day-at-a-time, Glen Ballard produced, and it topped Billboard's 1990 year-end chart.
★ 3.8
Grapevine Fires
2009 · From Narrow Stairs
Jason McGerr shaped the drums after the Purdie Shuffle, and Gibbard turned the 2007 California wildfires into something almost calm.
★ 3.7
Hero (Family of the Year)
2012
Richard Linklater put it in Boyhood and its trailer, and the Keefe brothers' harmony now sounds like growing up.
★ 3.7
Walk on the Ocean
1991
Phillips wrote it after a trip to Orcas Island, keeping the placeholder lyrics because nothing he tried afterward worked better.
★ 3.6
Pardon Me
2000
Scott Litt produced it at NRG, and Boyd wrote the lyric amid two deaths and a collapsing relationship.
★ 3.2
Pocketful of Sunshine
2008
Cut at Starstruck in Nashville with John Shanks playing most of it, sunshine offered as an escape hatch.
★ 3.0
Kokomo
1988 · From Cocktail (Original Soundtrack)
Mike Love's chorus of island names over Ry Cooder's guitar, and the Beach Boys' first number one in twenty-two years.
★ 2.6
Free Fallin' (John Mayer)
2008
Two days was all Petty and Lynne needed; Mayer's acoustic version, taped at the Nokia Theatre, became a single itself.
★ 2.3
Beer In Mexico
2005
Chesney wrote it alone in Cabo San Lucas at Sammy Hagar's birthday party, and it topped the country chart.
★ 1.3