Get Lucky
2013 · From Random Access Memories
Rodgers' guitar, Pharrell's vocal, Nathan East on bass, and disco walked back onto the radio wearing robot helmets.
★ 7.6
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2013
Showing 53 songs from 2013
Do I Wanna Know?
2013 · From AM
A stomping riff, a desert studio in Joshua Tree, and the band's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
★ 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
Drunk in Love
2013
Detail's beat was called "Drunk" before Beyoncé heard it; she and Jay-Z freestyled their verses in Manhattan.
★ 7.2
Hold On, We're Going Home
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Drake wanted a record that weddings would still play in ten years, and Majid Jordan's synths delivered exactly that.
★ 7.1
Happy
2013
Written first for CeeLo Green, whose label passed, cut in Miami, and given pop's first 24-hour video.
★ 6.7
Blood on the LeavesKanye West
Blood on the Leaves
2013 · From Yeezus
Nina Simone's 1965 Strange Fruit against TNGHT's blaring horns, a breakup rendered enormous; platinum without ever being a single.
★ 6.6
Retrograde
2013
A wordless hum to open, then distortion flooding the chorus; lead single from the Mercury-winning Overgrown.
★ 6.4
Follow Your Arrow
2013
Musgraves wrote it with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, a shrug at conformity the CMAs voted Song of the Year.
★ 6.1
Bound 2
2013 · From Yeezus
A Ponderosa Twins Plus One loop, Charlie Wilson singing the bridge, and Yeezus ending on chipmunk soul.
★ 6.1
Young and Beautiful
2013
Six-times platinum for a soundtrack ballad: Rick Nowels producing, Craig Armstrong's strings, Del Rey singing Daisy Buchanan's doubt.
★ 6.0
Wake Me Up
2013
Einziger's acoustic guitar over a house drop confused the crowd at Ultra in 2013, then it became Shazam's most-searched track.
★ 5.9
Instant Crush
2013 · From Random Access Memories
A vocoder over a Strokes drawl: Casablancas welded two Daft Punk demos together and sang about a chance he missed.
★ 5.8
Hannah Hunt
2013 · From Modern Vampires of the City
Koenig named it for a Columbia classmate from his Buddhism class, and the final minute cracks wide open.
★ 5.8
Started From The Bottom
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Mike Zombie's beat samples a Bruno Sanfilippo ambient piano piece; the title came out of a Future studio session.
★ 5.7
3005
2013
Ludwig Goransson's synths under a hook everyone reads as romance; Glover insists it is really about fearing solitude.
★ 5.5
Tennis Court
2013 · From Pure Heroine
Cut with Joel Little in a small Auckland studio, the beat built before a word, that "Yeah" doing everything.
★ 5.4
The Wire
2013
Three sisters, one kiss-off, and Ariel Rechtshaid's production splitting the difference between Laurel Canyon soft rock and nineties R&B.
★ 5.3
Body Party
2013
Ghost Town DJ's 'My Boo' flipped by Mike Will Made It, Future co-writing, and Ciara singing barely above a whisper.
★ 5.3
Mirrors
2013 · From The 20/20 Experience
Timberlake wrote it for Jessica Biel, and Timbaland's eight-minute build spends its whole second half unwilling to end.
★ 5.2
Reflektor
2013 · From Reflektor
Seven and a half minutes, James Murphy at the desk, Haitian percussion, and Bowie volunteering his voice.
★ 5.2
All of Me
2013
A piano ballad written for Teigen that gave Legend his first Hot 100 number one after nearly a decade.
★ 5.1
Wakin' On A Pretty Day
2013
Guitar that unspools for nine and a half minutes, Stella Mozgawa on drums, Vile in no rush anywhere.
★ 5.1
Treasure
2013
Breakbot got a songwriting credit after the fact, and Mars turned late-seventies disco into a top-five American hit.
★ 4.9
Turn Down For What
2013
Snake and Tchami built the drop, Lil Jon shouted the title, and Daniels made a video of pure slapstick.
★ 4.9
Falling (Haim)
2013
Danielle, Este and Alana wrote it with Morgan Nagler as a stay-strong pep talk, and it moves like one.
★ 4.8
PrimeTime
Janelle Monae and Miguel
2013
Monae and Miguel trade verses over a slow guitar figure, an android love story dressed as a fifties slow jam.
★ 4.7
Wagon Wheel
2013
Dylan left the chorus unfinished in 1973, Secor added verses as a schoolboy, and Rucker made it a country number one.
★ 4.5
We Can't Stop
2013
Written for Rihanna, passed to Mike Will Made It, and the la-di-da-di hook earned Slick Rick a songwriting credit.
★ 4.3
Hold On (Pusha T)
2013
A Duralcha loop, Hudson Mohawke and Kanye West on the boards, and Pusha weighing his dealing past against rap money.
★ 4.3
Worst Behavior
2013 · From Nothing Was the Same
Director X shot the video in Memphis with Drake's father, over a DJ Dahi beat that snarls.
★ 4.3
Roar
2013
Perry left therapy sick of staying quiet, and Bonnie McKee turned that into pop's loudest dust-yourself-off chorus.
★ 4.3
Holy Grail
2013 · From Magna Carta Holy Grail
Timbaland and The-Dream produced it, Timberlake sings the hook, and Courtney Love cleared the Nirvana interpolation underneath.
★ 3.8
Heart Attack
2013
Nikki Williams co-wrote it for herself and lost it; Pia Toscano's backing vocals still sit under Lovato's.
★ 3.7
Blurred Lines
2013
Ninety minutes in the studio, twelve weeks at number one, and a copyright verdict for Marvin Gaye's estate.
★ 3.3
Applause
2013
Snippets leaked online, so Gaga rushed it to radio a week early, cheering the crowd that cheers her.
★ 3.3
Holding On For Life
2013
Mercer tried a falsetto in the booth, doubled the take, and Broken Bells arrived sounding like the Bee Gees.
★ 3.2
Line of Fire
2013
González singing about taking responsibility over Winterkorn's organ, the track AMC used to send Breaking Bad off.
★ 3.2
Loyal
Chris Brown and Lil Wayne
2013
Nic Nac's beat borrows from "Money Ain't a Thang," and three regional versions carried it thirty-six weeks on the chart.
★ 2.9
Am I Wrong
2013
Two Oslo singers formerly billed as Envy, a video shot at Victoria Falls, and a Hot 100 number four.
★ 2.8
Double Bubble Trouble
2013 · From Matangi
Dub reggae bass and Indian strings under a nod to Shampoo's 1994 hit "Trouble", produced by The Partysquad.
★ 2.2
I Got a Car
2013
Bubba Strait pitched it off a rodeo friend's CD; his father left it on the coffee table, then cut it.
★ 1.9
YOLO
2013
Needlz produced it around The Joy Formidable's Whirring, and the punchline turns a reckless slogan into pure paranoia.
★ 1.5
23
2013
Mike Will's synths under a Juicy J hook about Air Jordans, with Cyrus rapping on record for the first time.
★ 1.1
Bottoms Up
2013
Brett James co-wrote it with Gilbert and Weaver, his first million-selling single and a Hot Country Songs number one.
★ 1.1
In the City
2013
Recorded at Brooklyn's Rumpus Room with Nick Stumpf producing, and Julia Stiles stars in the video.
★ 0.9