Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
1972
Nearly four minutes of bass, hi-hat and lone trumpet before anyone sings, and the groove never sags.
★ 8.3
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.
Alive
1991 · From Ten
Gossard's demo was called Dollar Short until Vedder set it to learning who his real father was.
★ 7.6
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
Rooster
1992 · From Dirt
Cantrell's song for his father, a Vietnam veteran nicknamed Rooster who appears in Pellington's video; number seven on Mainstream Rock.
★ 6.1
Tears in Heaven
1991
Will Jennings helped finish a lyric Clapton wrote after his four-year-old son died; three Grammys followed in 1993.
★ 5.9
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
Wake Me Up When September Ends
2005 · From American Idiot
Armstrong's father died in September 1982; by his account the words he said that day waited twenty years.
★ 5.5
Everything's Gonna Be AlrightNaughty by Nature
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
1991
Treach turned a fatherless East Orange childhood into verse, with Marley's chorus supplying the only comfort on offer.
★ 5.3
Don't You Worry Child
2012
Michel Zitron lifted the chorus line straight from his father, John Martin sang it, and the trio had its farewell.
★ 5.0
Leader of the Band
1981
Fogelberg wrote it for his father Lawrence, a working bandleader who lived to hear it and talk about it.
★ 3.8
Take a Picture
1999
Patrick's blackouts and a father's disappointment sit behind it, six minutes of guitar haze on Title of Record.
★ 3.7
The Living Years
1988
Rutherford and B.A. Robertson had both just lost their fathers; Carrack, who lost his young, sang it.
★ 2.9
The Best Day
1999
A father narrating his son's boyhood, written by Dillon and Chamberlain, and Strait's thirty-sixth number one.
★ 2.7
Blurry
2001
Alone in a Hollywood hotel room missing his son, Scantlin turned the ache into ten weeks atop Mainstream Rock.
★ 2.5