Heartbreak HotelElvis Presley
Heartbreak Hotel
1956
Elvis's first RCA single, all cavernous echo and empty rooms, the loneliest number one ever cut.
★ 9.6
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.
ParanoidBlack Sabbath
Paranoid
1970 · From Paranoid
Iommi's riff arrived as three-minute filler for the album, Butler wrote the words fast, and Sabbath had their biggest UK hit.
★ 8.5
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
1949 · From 40 Greatest Hits
Issued as a B-side because jukeboxes wanted uptempo, with Jerry Byrd's steel guitar shadowing every line Williams sings.
★ 8.5
Under PressureDavid Bowie
Under Pressure
David Bowie and Queen
1981 · From Hot Space
Bowie lived near Mountain Studios, dropped in, and one evening's jam became a UK number one with a disputed bassline.
★ 8.4
Paint It, BlackThe Rolling Stones
Paint It, Black
1966 · From Aftermath
Jones's sitar made it the first number one to feature the instrument, and Decca added the comma by mistake.
★ 8.2
Back to Black
2006 · From Back to Black
Ronson cut it at Daptone with the Dap-Kings, sixties girl-group machinery rebuilt around a voice in ruins.
★ 7.9
Help!
1965 · From Help!
Twelve takes in April 1965, McCartney's counter-melody chasing the lead, and Lennon insisting years later the plea was real.
★ 7.7
Everything In Its Right Place
2000 · From Kid A
Radiohead opened Kid A with no guitars at all, just a Prophet-5 and Yorke's voice diced in Pro Tools.
★ 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
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
Lithium
1991 · From Nevermind
The only Nevermind track cut to a click track, and Grohl's metronome only makes the quiet-loud lurch hit harder.
★ 7.4
Behind Blue EyesThe Who
Behind Blue Eyes
1971 · From Who's Next
Townshend's theme for the villain of his abandoned Lifehouse, and Daltrey sings the self-pity straight before Moon wrecks it.
★ 7.3
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
Whipping PostThe Allman Brothers Band
Whipping Post
1969 · From The Allman Brothers Band
An ironing board cover, charcoal from spent matches, and Berry Oakley's bass counting the intro in eleven menacing beats.
★ 7.2
White RoomCream
White Room
1968 · From Wheels of Fire
A 5/4 intro that worried the label, Pappalardi's violas, Baker's timpani, and Clapton's wah-wah doing the talking.
★ 7.0
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
Many Rivers to CrossJimmy Cliff
Many Rivers to Cross
1969 · From Jimmy Cliff
Fifteen minutes on foot to a New York studio was all the writing time, and Blackwell approved it instantly.
★ 6.9
Everybody HurtsR.E.M.
Everybody Hurts
1992 · From Automatic for the People
Berry wrote most of it over a drum machine, John Paul Jones scored the strings, and the words target teenagers.
★ 6.9
Crazy Blues
1920
Seventy-five thousand copies in two months, Perry Bradford's tune, and Smith's voice opening the record industry to Black audiences.
★ 6.8
Stormy Weather (Lena Horne)
1943
Arlen and Koehler wrote it for the Cotton Club in 1933; a decade later Horne made it hers on film.
★ 6.2