
Get Lucky
Rodgers' guitar, Pharrell's vocal, Nathan East on bass, and disco walked back onto the radio wearing robot helmets.

Rodgers' guitar, Pharrell's vocal, Nathan East on bass, and disco walked back onto the radio wearing robot helmets.

A stomping riff, a desert studio in Joshua Tree, and the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100.

Sixteen years old, the lyrics done in half an hour, the title from a 1976 photo of George Brett.

Detail's beat was called "Drunk" before Beyoncé heard it; she and Jay-Z freestyled their verses in Manhattan.

Drake wanted a record that weddings would still play in ten years, and Majid Jordan's synths delivered exactly that.

Written first for CeeLo Green, whose label passed, cut in Miami, and given pop's first 24-hour video.
Nina Simone's 1965 Strange Fruit against TNGHT's blaring horns, a breakup rendered enormous; platinum without ever being a single.

A wordless hum to open, then distortion flooding the chorus; lead single from the Mercury-winning Overgrown.

Musgraves wrote it with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, a shrug at conformity the CMAs voted Song of the Year.

A Ponderosa Twins Plus One loop, Charlie Wilson singing the bridge, and Yeezus ending on chipmunk soul.

Six-times platinum for a soundtrack ballad: Rick Nowels producing, Craig Armstrong's strings, Del Rey singing Daisy Buchanan's doubt.

Einziger's acoustic guitar over a house drop confused the crowd at Ultra in 2013, then it became Shazam's most-searched track.

A vocoder over a Strokes drawl: Casablancas welded two Daft Punk demos together and sang about a chance he missed.

Koenig named it for a Columbia classmate from his Buddhism class, and the final minute cracks wide open.

Mike Zombie's beat samples a Bruno Sanfilippo ambient piano piece; the title came out of a Future studio session.

Ludwig Goransson's synths under a hook everyone reads as romance; Glover insists it is really about fearing solitude.

Cut with Joel Little in a small Auckland studio, the beat built before a word, that "Yeah" doing everything.

Three sisters, one kiss-off, and Ariel Rechtshaid's production splitting the difference between Laurel Canyon soft rock and nineties R&B.

Ghost Town DJ's 'My Boo' flipped by Mike Will Made It, Future co-writing, and Ciara singing barely above a whisper.

Timberlake wrote it for Jessica Biel, and Timbaland's eight-minute build spends its whole second half unwilling to end.

Seven and a half minutes, James Murphy at the desk, Haitian percussion, and Bowie volunteering his voice.

A piano ballad written for Teigen that gave Legend his first Hot 100 number one after nearly a decade.

Guitar that unspools for nine and a half minutes, Stella Mozgawa on drums, Vile in no rush anywhere.

Breakbot got a songwriting credit after the fact, and Mars turned late-seventies disco into a top-five American hit.

Snake and Tchami built the drop, Lil Jon shouted the title, and Daniels made a video of pure slapstick.

Danielle, Este and Alana wrote it with Morgan Nagler as a stay-strong pep talk, and it moves like one.

Monae and Miguel trade verses over a slow guitar figure, an android love story dressed as a fifties slow jam.

Dylan left the chorus unfinished in 1973, Secor added verses as a schoolboy, and Rucker made it a country number one.

Written for Rihanna, passed to Mike Will Made It, and the la-di-da-di hook earned Slick Rick a songwriting credit.

A Duralcha loop, Hudson Mohawke and Kanye West on the boards, and Pusha weighing his dealing past against rap money.

Director X shot the video in Memphis with Drake's father, over a DJ Dahi beat that snarls.

Perry left therapy sick of staying quiet, and Bonnie McKee turned that into pop's loudest dust-yourself-off chorus.

Timbaland and The-Dream produced it, Timberlake sings the hook, and Courtney Love cleared the Nirvana interpolation underneath.

Nikki Williams co-wrote it for herself and lost it; Pia Toscano's backing vocals still sit under Lovato's.

Ninety minutes in the studio, twelve weeks at number one, and a copyright verdict for Marvin Gaye's estate.