Billie Jean
1982 · From Thriller
That bassline, mixed and remixed until it gleamed, and the four minutes that integrated MTV.
★ 9.8
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.
Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
Johnny B. Goode
1958 · From Chuck Berry Is on Top
Chuck Berry's intro lick is rock's opening statement, a country boy's origin myth now drifting past the solar system.
★ 9.8
Stan
2000 · From The Marshall Mathers LP
The 45 King looped Dido under four letters, and Eminem's fan character ended up in the Oxford dictionary.
★ 8.7
Juicy
1994 · From Ready to Die
Poke and Combs looped Mtume's Juicy Fruit, and Wallace told the rags to riches story that hip hop kept retelling.
★ 8.5
In Da Club
2003 · From Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Dre's beat was offered to D12 and Rakim before 50 Cent wrote to it and held number one nine weeks.
★ 7.9
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
Ziggy Stardust
1971 · From The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Cut at Trident in November 1971, never a single, and Ronson's riff draws the character as sharply as the words.
★ 7.7
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
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
1973 · From Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Sessions collapsed in Kingston, so the band regrouped at a French chateau and Taupin traded Oz for a Lincolnshire farm.
★ 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
Mo Money Mo Problems
1996 · From Life After Death
Kelly Price sang the hook uncredited over Stevie J's flip of I'm Coming Out, a posthumous number one.
★ 7.6
Niggas in Paris
Kanye West and Jay-Z
2011 · From Watch the Throne
Hit-Boy's beat, a Blades of Glory sample, and twelve straight encores of it one night in Paris.
★ 7.6
The Next Episode
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg
1999 · From 2001
Dre and Mel-Man built it on a David McCallum orchestral cut from 1967, arranged by Axelrod, and Nate Dogg closes.
★ 7.6
Hypnotize
1997 · From Life After Death
Herb Alpert's Rise looped into a strut, released five days before Wallace was killed, number one within weeks.
★ 7.6
Blank Space
2014 · From 1989
Swift plays her own tabloid caricature, a clicking pen for percussion, and she replaced herself at number one.
★ 7.5
Money for Nothing
1985 · From Brothers in Arms
Knopfler borrowed a pen in a New York appliance store to copy down a delivery man's complaints about MTV.
★ 7.4
My My, Hey Hey
1979 · From Rust Never Sleeps
Recorded live at San Francisco's Boarding House in 1978, and Devo's Mothersbaugh handed Young the phrase that titled the album.
★ 7.4
Freedom! '90
1990
Michael refused to appear, so Fincher had five supermodels lip-sync while his Faith leather jacket burned onscreen.
★ 7.4
All of the Lights
Kanye West and Rihanna
2010 · From My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Rihanna sings the hook, Elton John plays piano, and West spent two years stacking fourteen singers behind the horns.
★ 7.3