Bohemian Rhapsody
1975 · From A Night at the Opera
Six minutes with no chorus and so many vocal overdubs the tape wore transparent. Still nothing else like it.
★ 9.1
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.
Folsom Prison Blues
1955 · From Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar
A prison film in Germany gave Cash the song; he borrowed the melody from Gordon Jenkins and later paid up.
★ 8.1
Psycho Killer
1977 · From Talking Heads: 77
A ballad first, written at art school, until Weymouth's French bridge and bassline turned it feral.
★ 7.6
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Closing the Unplugged set at Sony Studios, a Lead Belly song, and a last verse Neil Young called unearthly.
★ 7.4
Hey Joe
1966
Hendrix took Tim Rose's slow arrangement off a jukebox, Chandler hired the Breakaways, and Britain answered at number six.
★ 7.4
Down By The RiverNeil Young
Down By The River
1969 · From Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Young wrote it in bed with a 103-degree fever, and Crazy Horse stretched it to nine ragged minutes.
★ 7.2
Mack the KnifeBobby Darin
Mack the Knife
1959
Richard Wess's arrangement climbs a semitone verse after verse, and Darin rides the tension to his only number one.
★ 6.9
Stagger Lee
1959
An 1895 St. Louis barroom killing, remade by Price into a number one he re-recorded clean for American Bandstand.
★ 6.1
How I Could Just Kill a Man
1991 · From Cypress Hill
Muggs looped Lowell Fulson's 1967 "Tramp" for the guitar and bass, and B-Real's nasal whine arrived fully formed.
★ 6.0
Janie's Got a Gun
1989 · From Pump
Tyler spent nine months on the lyric, Fincher directed the video, and the Grammy went to Aerosmith's bleakest hit.
★ 5.9
Natural Born Killaz
1994 · From Murder Was the Case: The Soundtrack
Sam Sneed and J-Flexx started it as 'The Heist'; Dre and Cube's first record together since N.W.A.
★ 5.2