Dear Mama
1995
Pizarro built it from a Joe Sample loop and the Spinners' Sadie, and the Library of Congress later archived it.
★ 8.5
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.
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
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
Under the Bridge
1991 · From Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Rubin found the poem in Kiedis's notebook and pushed for it; Frusciante's mother sings in the choir at the end.
★ 7.7
Lust for Life
1977
Bowie found the beat in an Armed Forces Network call sign; Hunt Sales hammered it out in Berlin.
★ 7.7
Swimming Pools (Drank)Kendrick Lamar
Swimming Pools (Drank)
2012 · From good kid, m.A.A.d city
T-Minus made the beat for Trey Songz, who passed; Lamar turned the rejected demo into a study of addiction.
★ 7.4
Chandelier
2014
Written first for Rihanna, kept by Sia instead, and given a video where an eleven-year-old dancer did the acting.
★ 7.4
White LinesGrandmaster Flash
White Lines
1983
Doug Wimbish replayed Liquid Liquid's Cavern bassline, Melle Mel wrote the warning, and Flash's name went on the label anyway.
★ 7.3
Fire and RainJames Taylor
Fire and Rain
1970 · From Sweet Baby James
Kunkel's brushes, Carole King's piano, and three verses that hold a death, an addiction and a band's collapse.
★ 7.3
Say It Ain't So
1994 · From Weezer (The Blue Album)
Cuomo's working title was "The Classic Rock Song"; Ocasek produced, and the clean offbeat chords carry a family's addiction.
★ 7.0
Would
1992 · From Dirt
Cantrell wrote it for the Singles soundtrack while grieving Andrew Wood; Starr's bass line and two voices doing the mourning.
★ 6.9
The Needle and the Damage DoneNeil Young
The Needle and the Damage Done
1972 · From Harvest
Two minutes on addiction, taped live at UCLA's Royce Hall in January 1971 and placed unchanged on Harvest.
★ 6.7
Between the Bars
1997 · From Either/Or
A lullaby melody hiding a song about alcohol, and one of three Either/Or tracks in Good Will Hunting.
★ 6.5
Pusherman
1972 · From The Anthology 1961-1977
Master Henry Gibson's percussion over Lucky Scott's bass, Mayfield indicting the drug trade where the film saw only glamour.
★ 6.5
Scar Tissue
1999 · From Californication
Frusciante's slide guitar on his first record back with the band, then sixteen weeks atop Billboard's modern rock chart.
★ 6.4
Interstate Love Song
1994
Robert DeLeo worked it out as a bossa nova on nylon strings; Weiland nailed the Atlanta vocal in one take.
★ 6.3
Get By
2003
Kanye West built the beat from Nina Simone's "Sinnerman", and Kweli turned survival into his commercial breakthrough.
★ 6.2
Halcyon and On and On
1992
Named for the tranquilizer the Hartnolls' mother took, with Kirsty Hawkshaw's vocal reversed and stretched across nine minutes.
★ 6.2
Semi-Charmed Life
1997
An answer song to "Walk on the Wild Side," mistaken for a summer hit; its real subject is addiction.
★ 6.0
Needle in the Hay
1995 · From Elliott Smith
Cut in September 1994 at bandmate Tony Lash's house, trumpet and harmonica stripped away until only guitar and dread remain.
★ 5.8