I Heard it Through the Grapevine
1968 · From In the Groove
Motown shelved Gaye's version for over a year; it came out sounding like paranoia set to a Funk Brothers groove.
★ 9.3
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.
Seven Nation Army
2003 · From Elephant
A guitar pitched down to fake a bass, and the seven-note riff every stadium on earth now sings.
★ 9.1
Long Tall Sally
1956 · From Here's Little Richard
Blackwell built the lyric to run too fast for Pat Boone, and Richard shouted it out at Cosimo Matassa's J&M.
★ 7.8
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
Wake Up Little SusieThe Everly Brothers
Wake Up Little Susie
1957
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant's plot is an alibi, Boston banned it as suggestive, and it still topped the pop chart.
★ 7.4
Our Lips Are Sealed
1981
Written by post after Wiedlin and Hall's 1980 tour romance, and it still sounds like a secret being kept.
★ 6.6
Shake it Off
2014 · From 1989
Martin and Shellback stomped the drum pattern on a wooden floor, and Swift turned tabloid noise into fifty weeks charting.
★ 6.2
My Prerogative
1988
Brown flew to New York with Gene Griffin for the aggressive song his album lacked, and new jack swing arrived.
★ 6.0
Anything Goes
1934
Porter loaded the lyric with Depression-era scandal, and Ethel Merman belted it at the Alvin for eight months.
★ 5.8
Flawless (Remix)
Beyonce and Nicki Minaj
2014
Dropped without warning on a Saturday in August, an Outkast sample underneath, Minaj arriving to claim the rap crown.
★ 5.6
Something to Talk About
1991
A Shirley Eikhard song Raitt carried to number five, her biggest American hit, and a Grammy for that vocal.
★ 4.9
Notorious
1986 · From Notorious
Nile Rodgers brought the riff and the Borneo Horns; the band, down to three, answered its own bad press.
★ 4.7
Mind Your Own Business
1949 · From 40 Greatest Hits
Cut at Castle Studio in 1949, Williams answering the gossips with a grin, a fiddle and Clyde Baum's mandolin.
★ 4.5
My Boyfriend's Back
1963
Feldman overheard a schoolgirl brushing off a boy, and the Angels' demo for the Shirelles went out as is.
★ 4.2
Take it on the Run
1981
Epic wanted a different follow-up single; the band held out for Richrath's chain of hearsay and reached number five.
★ 3.6
Don't Judge Me
2012
Produced by The Messengers with Nasri co-writing, the fifth single from Fortune asks a lover to ignore rumor.
★ 1.1