Like a Rolling Stone
1965 · From Highway 61 Revisited
A snare crack, a sneer, and Kooper's uninvited organ swirling through the song that split rock open.
★ 10.0
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.
This Charming Man
1983
Marr stacked roughly fifteen guitar tracks and dropped a knife on the strings; Morrissey lifted a line from Sleuth.
★ 7.8
Sweet Jane
1970 · From Loaded
Tucker was pregnant, so Yule played bass and drums, and the bridge stayed missing from the mix for twenty-five years.
★ 7.5
West End GirlsPet Shop Boys
West End Girls
1985
Cut twice, once for Bobby Orlando and again with Stephen Hague, Tennant half-rapping London class anxiety to number one.
★ 7.5
Royals
2013 · From Pure Heroine
Sixteen years old, the lyrics done in half an hour, the title from a 1976 photo of George Brett.
★ 7.5
Sunny AfternoonThe Kinks
Sunny Afternoon
1966 · From Face to Face
A white upright piano, a bout of illness, and Britain's supertax reimagined as a lounging aristocrat pleading poverty.
★ 7.2
Substitute
1966
Townshend built it from a single word in "Tracks of My Tears", and American pressings rewrote the line about race.
★ 6.8
Uptight (Everything's Alright)
1965 · From Up-Tight
Wonder was fifteen, his voice breaking, and Gordy feared he was finished; Sylvia Moy fed him lyrics line by line.
★ 6.8
Rich Girl
1977
Hall wrote it about a fast-food heir, changed Rich Boy to Rich Girl, and took the duo to number one.
★ 6.0
Shangri-La
1969 · From Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Davies wrote it after seeing his sister's house on an Australian housing estate, turning suburban comfort into a cage.
★ 5.7
Gangnam Style
2012
First video on YouTube to pass a billion views, built on a horse dance Psy worked out over thirty nights.
★ 5.6
Uptown Girl
1983 · From An Innocent Man
Joel chasing Frankie Valli's falsetto and the Four Seasons' bounce; five weeks at number one, his only UK chart-topper.
★ 5.1
Beverly Hills
2005 · From Make Believe
Rick Rubin produced it, the video was shot at the Playboy Mansion, and Cuomo swears the longing was sincere.
★ 3.0