Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next The Best At-Home Espresso Machines to Buy Right Now Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk 500 Kanye West, 'Stronger' 2007 Writer(s):Mike Dean, Edwin Birdsong, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Kanye West, Thomas Banghalter Powered byApple Music Explaining the tighter, broader-reaching songs on his third album, Graduation, Kanye West said, “I applied a lot of the things I learned on tour [in 2006] with U2 and the Rolling Stones, about songs that rock stadiums. And they worked!” West found the inspiration for his most grandiose statement to date from Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” which he sampled and reshaped. West is a big fan of the French duo: “These guys really stick with the whole not-showing-their-faces thing. Just amazing discipline — that’s straight martial-arts status.” supremes baby love 499 The Supremes, 'Baby Love' 1964 Writer(s):Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland Powered byApple Music Diana Ross wasn’t the strongest vocalist in the Supremes, but as the Motown production team discovered, when she sang in a lower register, her voice worked its sultry magic. Berry Gordy instructed the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team to come up with something that replicated “Where Did Our Love Go,” the Supremes’ first Number One single. He thought the result wasn’t catchy enough and sent the group back into the studio. The result: the smoky “Oooooh” at the start. “Baby Love” went to Number One too, the first time a Motown group had topped the charts twice. 498 Townes Van Zandt, 'Pancho and Lefty' 1972 Writer(s):Townes Van Zandt Powered byApple Music An epic story-song about a bandit and the friend who betrays him, “Pancho and Lefty” became a country hit thanks to Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s 1983 duet. But it’s the songwriter’s own forlorn reading, on 1972’s The Late Great Townes Van Zandt, that best conveys the doomed fates of the main characters. It begins with what might be one of the most descriptive opening verses in the country-folk canon: “Living on the road my friend/was gonna keep you free and clean/now you wear your skin like iron/your breath as hard as kerosene.” “It’s hard to take credit for the writing,” Van Zandt said in 1984, “because it came from out of the blue.” 497 Lizzo, 'Truth Hurts' 2017 Writer(s):Eric Frederic, Amina Patrice, Bogle-Barriteau, Melissa Jefferson, Steven Cheungjesse Saint John Powered byApple Music “That song is my life and its words are my truth,” Lizzo wrote at the time. She had to tack on a writing credit to British singer Mina Lioness, who had tweeted its iconic line “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100 percent that bitch,” but the power of this gale-force breakup banger was pure Lizzo, uproariously swaggering and endearingly soulful. “Truth Hurts” was originally released in 2017, but the song got a big boost two years later, when Gina Rodriguez day-drunkenly sang it in the Netflix show Someone Great, and it became Lizzo’s signature hit. 496 Harry Nilsson, 'Without You' 1971 Writer(s):Peter Ham, Tom Evans Powered byApple Music “We did it because my career was on the wane and we wanted something to make a hit,” Harry Nilsson bluntly told an interviewer when asked why he covered Badfinger’s near-despondent ballad: “I heard it and searched through every Beatles album for two and a half weeks, trying to find out which one of their tunes it was.” Producer Richard Perry agreed, piling on the strings to showcase Nilsson’s desperate lunge of a vocal. Both were right — the song went to Number One and earned a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. 495 Carly Simon, 'You're So Vain' 1972 Writer(s):Carly Simon Powered byApple Music The holy mother of all diss tracks, “You’re So Vain” contains one of the most enduring musical mysteries of all time. Just who is so vain that he probably thinks the song is about him? Simon previously revealed that actor Warren Beatty inspired the second verse of the song (“Oh, you had me several years ago/When I was still naive”), but speculation abounds regarding the other man (or men) behind the ire. Either way, the track — boasting omnipresent Seventies arranger Paul Buckmaster’s orchestration and Mick Jagger’s background vocals — is pure soft-rock fire. 494 Cyndi Lauper, 'Time After Time' 1983 Writer(s):Cyndi Lauper, Rob Hyman Powered byApple Music Cyndi Lauper was nervous about “Time After Time” — the aching ballad she wrote in the studio with keyboardist Rob Hyman to finish off her blockbuster solo debut, She’s So Unusual. “I asked them to please not put ‘Time After Time’ out as the first single,” Lauper said. “People would never have accepted me. If you do a ballad first, and then a rocker, that doesn’t work.” Her instincts were right: Following the jaunty “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Time” became her first Number One. 493 The Pixies, 'Where Is My Mind?' 1988 Writer(s):Black Francis Powered byApple Music No song typifies the freakish pop instincts that made the Pixies stand out in a sea of gloomy Reagan-era bands better than “Where Is My Mind?” Joey Santiago’s lead guitar is catchier than most Top 40 hooks, and by the time Fight Club made this song iconic a decade after its release, it had already formed part of the DNA of countless alternative-radio hits in the years between, from Nirvana to Korn. When an interviewer in 1988 asked about his unique ability to crank out great songs, Black Francis’ answer was typically cryptic: “It’s nice to have space. How much can one brain deal with?” 492 Miles Davis, 'So What' 1959 Writer(s):Miles Davis Powered byApple Music It’s likely that no song on this list has soundtracked more dinner parties than Kind of Blue’s warm, welcoming first track. But at the time it was a jarring departure, trading bebop chord changes for a more open-ended modal style. According to pianist Bill Evans, the trumpeter worked up his material just hours before recording dates, but the all-star band here sounds like it’s been living with “So What” for years: Saxophonists John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley turn in solos that have since become as iconic as any in jazz history, and the rhythm section of Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb swings like it’s dancing on air. 491 Guns N' Roses, 'Welcome to the Jungle' 1987 Writer(s):Duff McKagan, Jeffrey Isbell, Saul Hudson, Steven Adler, W. Axl Rose Powered byApple Music Released as the first single from Appetite for Destruction, “Welcome to the Jungle” stiffed at first — it took the massive crossover success of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” to ready radio for GN’R at their most unvarnished. The song’s inspiration, according to Axl Rose, was a hitchhiking trip that landed him in the Bronx, where a stranger approached him and said, “You know were you are? You’re gonna die, you’re in the jungle, baby!” Rose took this mockery and turned it into an anthem. 490 Lil Nas X, 'Old Town Road' 2019 Writer(s):Atticus Matthew Ross, Kiowa Roukema, Michael Trent Reznor, Montero Lamar Hill Powered byApple Music Montero Hill was an Atlanta college dropout sleeping on his sister’s couch and looking to break into music when he came across a track he liked by a Dutch 19-year-old called YoungKio that was based around a banjo sample from a Nine Inch Nails track. “I was picturing, like, a loner cowboy runaway,” he told Rolling Stone. Within a year “Old Town Road” was the longest-running Number One song of all time, seeming to sum up eons of American cross-cultural love and theft in just one minute and 53 seconds. 489 The Breeders, 'Cannonball' 1993 Writer(s):Kim Deal Powered byApple Music Notified by fax that her services in the Pixies were no longer required, Kim Deal called up her twin sister, Kelley, to be her new guitarist (never mind that she didn’t know how to play guitar) and had the last laugh when this absurdist gem became an MTV phenomenon in 1993. “When people were talking about the Breeders being a one-off,” Kelley told Rolling Stone, “I was like ‘No, actually … the Pixies are a side project.'” A little over a year later, the Breeders were on an extended break of their own, but the effortlessly fun trampoline bounce of “Cannonball” is one for all time. 488 The Weeknd, 'House of Balloons' 2011 Writer(s):Abel Tesfaye, Carlo Montagnese, Dom McKinney, John Martin, Peter Clarke, Steven Severin, Susan Ballion Powered byApple Music Far from the international superstar he’d become, Toronto singer-songwriter Abel Tesfaye didn’t even send out photos or do any interviews when he released the first Weeknd album. “The whole ‘enigmatic artist’ thing, I just ran with it,” he said. “No one could find pictures of me. It reminded me of some villain shit.” But the title track of House of Balloons nevertheless set the course for his career, both thematically — drugs and sex, meet depression — and musically, with its sample of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ “Happy House” announcing a new direction for R&B. 487 Solange, 'Cranes in the Sky' 2016 Writer(s):Raphael Saadiq, Solange Knowles Powered byApple Music In an interview with her sister Beyoncé, R&B innovator Solange Knowles described how this song was inspired, in part, by overzealous real estate development she noticed around Miami: “This idea of building up, up, up that was going on in our country at the time, all of this excessive building, and not really dealing with what was in front of us.” She turned the metaphor inward to examine her own feelings about change, self-doubt, and aspiration, finishing the song years after it was originally conceived with producer Raphael Saadiq to create a lavish moment of neo-soul introspection. 486 Lil Wayne, 'A Milli' 2009 Writer(s):Ali Shaheed Jones-Muhammad, Dwayne Carter, Kamaal Fareed, Shondrae Crawford Powered byApple Music Producer Bangladesh looped the opening chords from Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Don’t Burn Down the Bridge,” then segued to a drill-like volley of trap drums. He gave the beat to his friend Shanell — a onetime R&B singer on Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment — to pass along. Wayne initially had grand plans for “A Milli”: He wanted to use the instrumental as skits for rappers like Tyga, Hurricane Chris, Corey Gunz, and Lil Mama. In the end, though, “A Milli” is just Weezy solo, blacking out in the booth and dazzling everyone who hears him. 485 Azealia Banks, '212' 2011 Writer(s):Azealia Banks, Jef Martens Powered byApple Music In 2011, Azealia Banks was a teenage rapper-singer whose clear talent yielded a development deal with XL Recordings but little else. “She had been working on a collection of tracks and there was one Dutch house-sounding one that was just absolutely insane,” producer Jacques Greene recalled. Banks freestyled ferociously about her New York hometown and, uh, cunnilingus over the jittery beats of Belgian house duo’s Lazy Jay’s “Float My Boat.” Initially released in 2011 as a viral track, “212” was a hip-house banger that earned Banks a deal with Interscope and served notice that this uninhibited provocateur would not be constrained. 484 Weezer, 'Buddy Holly' 1994 Writer(s):Rivers Cuomo Powered byApple Music Never has geek been so chic as in Weezer’s 1994 breakout single, “Buddy Holly.” Written for frontman Rivers Cuomo’s girlfriend, the poppy ode to nerdy romance was almost left off the band’s self-titled debut, also known as the Blue Album, due to Cuomo and now-ex-member Matt Sharp’s reticence. “We had the sense that it could be taken as a novelty song, and people aren’t going to take the album seriously,” Sharp told Rolling Stone. After producer Ric Ocasek heard the receptionist at the recording studio humming it, he insisted they keep it in. 483 The Four Tops, 'I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)' 1965 Writer(s):Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier Powered byApple Music One of Motown’s most rousing anthems, “I Can’t Help Myself” was inspired by songwriter Lamont Dozier’s grandfather, who’d call the women his hairdresser wife fixed up “sugar pie” and “honey bunch.” During the recording, engineer Harold Taylor recalled, “People were banging on the door of the studio; they were so ecstatic about what they heard.” Nevertheless, Levi Stubbs asked Brian Holland if he could do another take. Holland promised him they’d do it soon — and Stubbs’ first pass hit Number One. 482 Lady Gaga, 'Bad Romance' 2009 Writer(s):Stefani Germanotta, Nadir Khayat Powered byApple Music Shortly after Gaga had established herself as a star, she catapulted to a next level of weirdness with this Nadir “RedOne” Khayat production, which drew upon the electronic music Gaga had been inundated with while touring Europe. “I want the deepest, darkest, sickest parts of you that you are afraid to share with anyone because I love you that much” is how she summed up the idea behind the song. Fittingly, she debuted the hit-to-be at Alexander McQueen’s show at Paris Fashion Week. 481 Robert Johnson, 'Cross Road Blues' 1937 Writer(s):Robert Johnson Powered byApple Music The primal terror in the Mississippi bluesman’s voice, and his mystifying slide guitar playing, transfixed the Sixties generation of British rockers: “I could take the music only in very small measures because it was so intense,” said Eric Clapton. Recorded during a session at a San Antonio hotel room in 1936, two years before Johnson was murdered at 27, “Cross Road Blues” is a mythmaking statement of spiritual desolation and scorched-earth betrayal — even if the legend that it’s about Johnson selling his soul to the devil in exchange for his monster guitar chops is, as far as we know, apocryphal. 480 Biz Markie, 'Just a Friend' 1989 Writer(s):Marcell Hall, Marley Marl Powered byApple Music Nobody beats the Biz (1964-2021), an impossibly good-natured DJ, rapper, producer, human beatboxer, and hip-hop personality who broke big with this ode to the friend zone off his second album. Built on a fat beat, plinking piano, and his charmingly off-key singing, “Just a Friend” interpolates Freddie Scott’s 1968 song “(You) Got What I Need” as Biz warbles about a love that will never come to pass. It was based on real life. As he told Rolling Stone in 2000, “I was talking to this girl from L.A., and every time I called her, this dude was at her house, and she’d say, ‘Oh, he’s just a friend.’ I hated that.” 479 Santana, 'Oye Como Va' 1970 Writer(s):Tito Puente Powered byApple Music Growing up in San Francisco, Carlos Santana was shaped by the city’s psychedelic explosion. “You cannot take LSD and not find your voice,” he once claimed, “because there is nowhere to hide.” And while his early heroes were bluesmen, he changed history with this foundational Latin-rock reworking of a 1962 salsa number by Cuban percussionist Tito Puente. Santana kept the original’s cha-cha pulse but replaced its horns with Greg Rolie’s organ and Carlos’ lysergic guitar flares. Said Puente years later, “He put our music, Latin rock, around the world, man.” 478 Juvenile feat. Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh, 'Back That Azz Up' 1998 Writer(s):Byron Thomas, Terius Gray Powered byApple Music In the late Nineties, Mannie Fresh’s diamond-sharp productions for Cash Money Records helped put New Orleans in the center of the hip-hop map. The title of this hit was so reminiscent of local artist DJ Jubilee’s single “Back That Thang Up” that Jubilee sued (unsuccessfully) for infringement, and the beat rode the “Triggerman” rhythm that is foundational to New Orleans bounce. Juvenile freestyled his best shit-talking bounce rhymes, and Lil Wayne shut it down with a “drop it like it’s hot” hook. As Mannie said, “[He] immediately was just like, ‘Shit, I’m getting a piece of this.’” 477 The Go-Gos, 'Our Lips Are Sealed' 1981 Writer(s):Jane Wiedlin, Terence Edward Hall Powered byApple Music The radiant first hit of the Go-Go’s was influenced, according to writer Jane Wiedlin, by “the Buzzcocks and Sixties girl-group stuff.” It was also inspired by a clandestine relationship she was having with Terry Hall, of U.K. ska group the Specials, who got a co-writing credit because Wiedlin based the lyrics on some poetry he’d written her in a letter. “It was pretty personal,” Wiedlin recalled. “I mean he had a fiancee at the time — nowadays I wouldn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole, but I was 19, and I was like ‘fiancee shmiancee.’” 476 Kris Kristofferson, 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down' 1970 Writer(s):Kris Kristofferson Powered byApple Music The desolation of spirit in Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” is so heavy, so apparent, that it’s almost hard to listen to. But that despair is exactly what drew Johnny Cash to sing it on his TV variety show in 1970. Kristofferson cut his own stunning studio version that same year for his debut album, Kristofferson. Cash’s interpretation, more shuffling and accessible, is the one most listeners turn to, but listen to them back-to-back if you can, and marvel at how Kristofferson’s lyrics about being hung over, alone, and desperate shake your soul. 475 Janet Jackson, 'Rhythm Nation' 1989 Writer(s):James Harris, Janet Jackson, Sly Stone, Terry Lewis Powered byApple Music Jackson’s socially conscious Number Two hit came together late in the sessions for her blockbuster LP Rhythm Nation 1814. Co-producer Jimmy Jam recalled being in the studio and “switching between MTV and CNN. Watching music videos on one side and watching atrocities on the other. Somehow they all merged together. The idea for ‘Rhythm Nation’ was you can dance, but we can also do something more intelligent.” When Jam heard Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” at a restaurant, he raced to the studio to sample it. 474 Curtis Mayfield, 'Move On Up' 1970 Writer(s):Curtis Mayfield Powered byApple Music Mayfield’s irresistible “Move On Up” was politically empowering, morally demanding, and effortlessly propulsive, powered by swinging horns and tangy congas — the nine-minute LP version, with its powerful drum break, laid a foundation for disco and hip-hop alike. Mayfield’s message was just as steadfast: that pride and dignity were paramount for Black America to rise. “I’m not trying to say anything to make you think, ‘Well, this is the way, this is the only way,'” Mayfield said. “I’m trying to cover the whole subject.” 473 Tammy Wynette, 'Stand by Your Man' 1968 Writer(s):Billy Sherrill, Tammy Wynette Powered byApple Music From the start, this pledge of wifely devotion, the first song Wynette ever co-wrote, was a cultural lightning rod. Feminists recoiled from its pledge of unquestioning fidelity in the Seventies, and Hillary Clinton defined herself a modern woman by slamming the song during Bill Clinton’s first presidential run. But the recording itself steamrolls over ideological objections, as the catch in Wynette’s voice on the verses gives way to a vocal swell that rises to meet the epic sweep of Billy Sherrill’s production. 472 Peter Gabriel, 'Solsbury Hill' 1977 Writer(s):Peter Gabriel Powered byApple Music Shortly after Gabriel quit Genesis in 1975, he climbed to the top of Little Solsbury Hill in Somerset, England, to reflect on his life-changing decision. It inspired his debut solo song, in which he explained to fans why he felt the need to go out on his own. Musically, it was a departure too, a pastoral tune with a 12-string acoustic guitar lead that was pointedly different from Genesis’ prog-rock. The song has since become ubiquitous in movies and film trailers. “Maybe I’ve let it go too much,” he admitted to Rolling Stone in 2011. 471 The Animals, 'The House of the Rising Sun' 1964 Writer(s):Alan Price Powered byApple Music “We were looking for a song that would grab people’s attention,” said Animals singer Eric Burdon. They found it with the old American folk ballad “The House of the Rising Sun.” In 1962, Bob Dylan had sung this grim tale of a Southern girl trapped in a New Orleans whorehouse. The Animals, from the English coal town of Newcastle, changed the gender in the lyrics, and keyboardist Alan Price created the new arrangement (and grabbed a composer’s credit). Price also added an organ solo inspired by Jimmy Smith’s hit “Walk on the Wild Side.” 470 Gladys Knight and the Pips, 'Midnight Train to Georgia' 1973 Writer(s):Jim Weatherly Powered byApple Music Songwriter Jim Weatherly originally composed this as “Midnight Plane to Houston,” only to change it for Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mom) to something “more R&B … in order to get it onto Black radio.” Weatherly had already penned “Neither One of Us,” Knight and the Pips’ Number Two hit, and when they heard “Midnight Train,” they took it to the top. “I never really imagined writing R&B songs,” Weatherly admitted. “I really thought I was writing country songs.” It reflected the times; the 1970s were the first decade since after World War I in which more African Americans were moving to the South than leaving it. 469 Dixie Chicks, 'Goodbye Earl' 2000 Writer(s):Dennis Linde Powered byApple Music A murder ballad with a modern, feminist twist, this jaunty song about poisoning an abusive husband spawned disparate reactions. Some stations banned it, apparently concerned that it would spawn a rash of hubby offings; others shared the number for domestic-abuse hotlines. When the label reps listened to the Chicks’ Fly album, though, they were more concerned with another song: “Sin Wagon,” with its reference to “mattress dancing.” “You can’t say [that],” Natalie Maines recalls their manager’s relayed message from the execs, “but they love the song about premeditated first-degree murder.” 468 Mazzy Star, 'Fade Into You' 1993 Writer(s):David Roback, Hope Sandoval Powered byApple Music Singer Hope Sandoval and guitarist Dave Roback, the prime movers behind Mazzy Star, were active in the 1980s neo-psychedelic Paisley Underground scene in Los Angeles. After Sandoval replaced singer Kendra Smith in the band Opal, David Roback and Sandoval reconstituted the band under the name Mazzy Star. Their second album yielded this spaced-out hit, perhaps dream pop’s ultimate statement of blurry desire. “We’re not so concerned about the outside world,” said Roback. “[Each song] is its own world unto itself.” 467 Nirvana, 'Come as You Are' 1991 Writer(s):Kurt Cobain Powered byApple Music “It’s just about people and what they’re expected to act like,” Kurt Cobain said. “The lines in the song are really contradictory. They’re kind of a rebuttal to each other.” The song is driven by a simple riff that Butch Vig goosed with a flanged, subaquatic guitar effect. Cobain apparently lifted it from a 1984 song by U.K. art-metal band Killing Joke, who Dave Grohl paid back 12 years later by drumming on their 2003 album. In the wake of Cobain’s suicide, though, the most haunting lyric would become, “And I swear that I don’t have a gun.” 466 Luther Vandross, 'Never Too Much' 1981 Writer(s):Luther Vandross Powered byApple Music The Eighties’ major male R&B balladeer’s solo debut was financed in part from money he made singing jingles for KFC and 7UP. Vandross had been pushed to do his own thing by Roberta Flack, for whom he’d sung background. Said Vandross: “She said, ‘Luther, you’re too comfortable sitting on that stool singing “ooh and aaah.”‘ Roberta was single-handedly responsible for me starting my own career.” What pushed her was hearing the demo of “Never Too Much” — one of the most buoyant love songs of the Eighties, with Vandross’ high notes as delicate as soap bubbles. 465 Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams, 'Get Lucky' 2013 Writer(s):Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams Powered byApple Music When Pharrell Williams volunteered to appear on Daft Punk’s fourth album, he told them he’d been thinking about Chic legend Nile Rodgers musically; fortuitously, the French dance producers could play him a track they had on hand that they’d made with Rodgers himself. The result was “Get Lucky,” which, as the lead single from their disco-flavored album Random Access Memories, rose like a phoenix to become the song that defined its year. “I think the robots are leading,” Williams told Rolling Stone. “Daft Punk, they’re definitely leading.” 464 Joni Mitchell, 'Help Me' 1974 Writer(s):Joni Mitchell Powered byApple Music Mitchell’s 1974 album, Court and Spark, her biggest-selling ever, was also the one that she held the tightest amount of musical control over to date. “I guided everything into place on Court and Spark — even though I didn’t play it, I sang it, and then they played it from that, and it was pretty much as writ,” she said. (Her next album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, was looser and more jazz-oriented.) “Help Me,” recorded with the jazz group Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, features one of Mitchell’s sultriest vocals and most brocaded arrangements, inspiring Prince, 13 years later, to pay the song lyrical tribute in his “Ballad of Dorothy Parker.” 463 John Lee Hooker, 'Boom Boom' 1962 Writer(s):John Lee Hooker Powered byApple Music Hooker, whose canny blues boogie became a root integer for early rock & roll, said this swinging, swaggering bit of primal thump was inspired by his inability to get to a regular gig on time. “There was a young lady named Luilla,” Hooker said. “She was a bartender [at the Apex Bar in Detroit]. I’d always be late, and whenever I’d come in she’d point at me and say, ‘Boom Boom, you’re late again.’ One night she said, ‘Boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you down.’ She gave me a song, but she didn’t know it.” Keith Richards said of Hooker, “Even Muddy Waters was sophisticated next to him.” That was a compliment. 462 Van Morrison, 'Into the Mystic' 1970 Writer(s):Van Morrison Powered byApple Music Delectably arranged, transportingly sung, this may be the definitive Morrison song — an evocation of “the days of old” that feels like a lover’s whisper. The highlight of 1970’s classic Moondance, “Into the Mystic” benefited from a new, more organic way of recording for him: “It was more like working with an actual band rather than a bunch of session guys,” Morrison said. As for the lyrics, he’d admit, “So many of my songs from that Seventies period, I haven’t a clue what they’re about. A lot of the time, I was just picking up on a vibe.” 461 Roy Orbison, 'Crying' 1962 Writer(s):Joe Melson, Roy Orbison Powered byApple Music Orbison said he wrote this lush, dreamy ballad after an encounter with an old flame: “Whether I was physically crying or just crying inside is the same thing.” His near-operatic performance culminated in a high, wailing note, which Orbison never lost the capacity to hit before his death, in 1988. “He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop and he meant business,” Bob Dylan wrote in Chronicles. “He was now singing his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal.” 460 Steel Pulse, 'Ku Klux Klan' 1978 Writer(s):David Hinds Powered byApple Music The first great British reggae band — and some of the style’s finest songwriters — made their Island Records debut with this incendiary look at the rising tide of racist violence in late-Seventies Britain: “The Ku Klux Klan/Here to stamp out Black man.” They underlined the lyric by actually performing the song live — including a memorable BBC appearance — wearing white Klan headgear. “The hoods seemed extreme at the time, but that’s what we are in a way,” vocalist Michael Riley said. “When we wore them, people started questioning what the song was about instead of just dancing to it.” 459 Sade, 'No Ordinary Love' 1992 Writer(s):Helen Adu, Stuart Matthewman Powered byApple Music Helen Adu’s small but fully inhabited range has been her secret weapon from the beginning. “I decided that if I was gonna sing, I would sing how I speak, because it’s important to be yourself,” she said. Her voice cracks before she reaches the first chorus of this 1992 hit, playing up the romantic drama of the lyric. Even better, so does Stuart Matthewman’s guitar; in the middle of this otherwise mellow groove, he overdubs a seriously moody and low-key noisy part that gives the whole thing a welcome edge. Sade — it’s not just the singer’s name, it’s also a band. 458 Beck, 'Loser' 1993 Writer(s):Beck Hansen, Karl F. Stephenson Powered byApple Music In 1992, 22-year-old Beck Hansen was scraping by as a video-store clerk while performing bizarro folk songs at L.A. coffeehouses. After friends offered to record some songs, Beck cut “Loser” in his producer’s kitchen. It became the centerpiece of the album Mellow Gold. At first people took “Loser” to be a mere novelty hit, but Beck knew better. “You’d have to be a total idiot to say, ‘I’m the slacker-generation guy. This is my generation.… we’re not gonna fuckin’ show up,'” he said. “I’d be laughed out of the room in an instant.” 457 Bon Jovi, 'Livin' on a Prayer' 1986 Writer(s):Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora Powered byApple Music Like his New Jersey model Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi concentrates on working-class heroes and heroines. “Livin’ on a Prayer,” co-written with guitarist Richie Sambora, pumped the everyday struggles of Tommy and Gina full of grandeur — guitar-pick slides, dramatic pauses, the inevitable key change — and continues to resonate today. “It’s great that we wrote songs so long ago that people can still relate to,” Bon Jovi said in 2005. “When I hear ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ I think to myself, ‘We wrote that. That song has really made its mark. I guess that works.'” 456 Lana Del Rey, 'Summertime Sadness' 2012 Writer(s):Elizabeth Grant, Rick Nowels Powered byApple Music For her second album, Del Rey went for a sound even more lush than on her debut, and the relentless strings of “Summertime Sadness” recall the soundtracks Angelo Badalamenti composed for David Lynch’s films. She wrote the song in Santa Monica. “I would sit under the telephone wires and listen to them sizzle in the warm air,” she recalled. “I felt happy in the warm weather, and started writing about how sad and gorgeous the summertime felt to me.” A year after its first release, Cedric Gervais’ dance remix turned the song into a Top 10 hit. 455 Jefferson Airplane, 'White Rabbit' 1967 Writer(s):Grace Slick Powered byApple Music The song that brought acid rock to Middle America was a heady rock bolero written by vocalist Slick, reportedly after taking LSD and listening to Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain. She first recorded it with her earlier band, the Great Society, before rebooting it with the Airplane. “Our parents read us stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz,” Slick said. “They all have a place where children get drugs, and are able to fly or see an Emerald City or experience extraordinary animals and people.… And our parents are suddenly saying, ‘Why are you taking drugs?’ Well, hello!” 454 Sister Nancy, 'Bam Bam' 1982 Writer(s):Ophlin Russell Powered byApple Music Nancy (a.k.a. Ophlin Russell) was the DJ (mic controller) for Kingston’s Stereophonic sound system when she met reggae producer Winston Riley in the late Seventies. “I really admired how he took recording serious,” Nancy said. “You couldn’t go into his studio and do any foolishness.” Their peak, “Bam Bam,” is one of the great early dancehall anthems, booming but bright, tough but playful — and it’s been sampled extensively by everyone from Lauryn Hill to Kanye West. 453 Missy Elliot, 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)' 1997 Writer(s):Melissa Elliott, Ann Peebles, Bernard Miller, Don Bryant, Timothy Mosley, William Hart Powered byApple Music As producers, Elliott and Timbaland had already made their rhythmic impact on hip-hop and R&B before Missy’s first single. And some high-profile features had even introduced Elliott’s bobbing, whizzing rap style to audiences. But still, no one could have predicted “The Rain,” with its ghostly sample of Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” memorable Beenie Man misquote (“Who got the keys to the jeep?”), and twitchy yet sleek beat. It made Elliott a star, and she and Tim the producers to beat. 452 Toto, 'Africa' 1982 Writer(s):David Paich, Jeffrey Porcaro Powered byApple Music “It’s funny,” Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro said in 1985. “We thought ‘Africa’ was bold, and it did pretty good, but lyrically it didn’t make a dime of sense.” No matter — that instantly calming synthesizer riff, played on a Yamaha GS-1 “dialed in [to] those kalimba, marimba kind of sounds,” as Porcaro described it, does most of the talking, along with that soaring chorus. It hit Number One and has lived on as a yacht-rock touchstone; in 2019, Weezer’s affectionate cover made it ubiquitous all over again — a favor Toto returned by covering Weezer’s “Hash Pipe.” 451 Migos feat. Lil Uzi Vert, 'Bad and Boujee' 2016 Writer(s):Robert Mandell, Kiari Cephus, Kirsnick Ball, Leland Wayne, Quavious Marshall, Symere Woods Powered byApple Music If cellphones gave rise to ringtone rap, social media gave us meme rap. The Atlanta trio Migos’ opus “Bad and Boujee” has become the latter’s keynote anthem, its “Raindrop, drop-top” hook inspiring scores of Twitter memes and Vine clips, and even showing up at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, D.C. The trio’s Offset wrote the song’s hook, he told Rolling Stone, while “I had some little situations going on with life, family stuff going down, so I went downstairs to record. Sometimes that’s the best time to get music off — you might be mad, make some crazy shit.” Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next This Musician-Approved Brand's True Wireless Earbuds Are Finally Under $100 Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 450 Neil Young, 'Powderfinger' 1979 Writer(s):Neil Young Powered byApple Music According to Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Pancho” Sampedro, this song came to Young in a seizure dream: It’s an epic Western crammed into a roaring five minutes, and one of rock’s grizzliest coming-of-age stories. Young sings about a lone 22-year-old left to defend his no-account outlaw kin against government soldiers now that his daddy’s dead, with the corrosive majesty in Young’s frontier-grunge guitar mirroring his protagonist’s doomed dream of freedom. “It shows the futility of violence,” Young wrote. He originally recorded it in 1975 for his abandoned Chrome Dreams album, and returned to it four years later to open the plugged-in side of Rust Never Sleeps. 449 Blue Öyster Cult, '(Don’t Fear) The Reaper' 1976 Writer(s):Donald Roeser Powered byApple Music Blue Öyster Cult, a hard-rock band born out of the intellectual, Sixties hippie scene at Long Island’s Stony Brook University, had been kicking around a few years when they manifested this spooky death trip, which Rolling Stone deemed 1976’s best rock single — as engineer Shelly Yakus said at the end of the first take, “Guys, this is it!” Being the subject of Saturday Night Live’s infamous “More cowbell!” sketch made the song a punch line in the 2000s, but to hear it on the radio late at night is to be freaked out anew by singer-guitarist “Buck Dharma” Roeser crooning about Romeo, Juliet, and the “40,000 men and women every day” headed to the great beyond. 448 Erykah Badu, 'Tyrone' 1997 Writer(s):Erica Wright, Erykah Badu, Norman Hurt Powered byApple Music “Why can’t we be alone sometimes?” Badu pleads at first — and then comes the swerve: Her man’s best friend, Tyrone, should come and get him and his things, stat. It presaged later R&B classics of the type, from TLC’s “No Scrubs” to Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable.” The frank tone of “Tyrone” also helpfully deflated some of the hype surrounding the imperiously cool Badu, a leader of the budding neo-soul scene. “The more they get familiar with me, the more they see I’m not a spiritual-goddess leader without a flaw,” she said. “That makes people doubt you, because a lot of times people look at the messenger more than they wanna take the message.” 447 The Beatles, 'Help!' 1965 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music “Most people think it’s just a fast rock & roll song,” Lennon said. “Subconsciously, I was crying out for help. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie.” Overwhelmed by Beatlemania, Lennon was eating “like a pig,” drinking too much, and “smoking marijuana for breakfast” — only 24 years old, he was already expressing nostalgia for his lost youth. “I don’t like the recording that much,” Lennon would later tell Rolling Stone. “We did it too fast, to try and be commercial.” 446 Bruce Springsteen, 'Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)' 1973 Writer(s):Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music “I wrote it as a kiss-off to everybody who counted you out, put you down, or decided you weren’t good enough,” Springsteen wrote of the first roof-raising arena anthem of his career. The melody and cadence for “Rosalita” came from a Van Morrison-style song that Springteen played as a solo acoustic tune; it evolved into his riotously hard-charging set closer throughout the Seventies, a story of underdog rock & roll romance that he said was ripped straight from his real life — “even the names, Big Bones Billy, Weak Kneed Willy, all of ’em.” 445 T. Rex, 'Cosmic Dancer' 1971 Writer(s):Marc Bolan Powered byApple Music “I am my own fantasy. I am the ‘Cosmic Dancer,’” Marc Bolan said. His fantasy world was all encompassing. T. Rex began as Tolkien-loving hippie-folk gnomes, but by the time they recorded Electric Warrior in 1971, producer Tony Visconti helped them create a glam masterpiece; on the sky-skipping ballad “Cosmic Dancer,” Bolan shows the distracted child beneath his slithering get-it-on persona, singing “I was dancing when I was eight/Is it strange to dance so late,” at once hot, absurd, and disarmingly human. 444 50 Cent, 'In Da Club' 2003 Writer(s):Andre R. Young, Curtis Jackson, Mike Elizondo Powered byApple Music Queens rapper Curtis Jackson came ready-made with a mythic backstory (he’d been shot nine times) and a pedigree of hot mixtapes. When he teamed up with Dr. Dre, he got the sound he needed to become a superstar. Dre actually came up with the spartan-yet-smooth track for “In Da Club” with Eminem protégés D12 in mind, intending to use it on the 8 Mile soundtrack. “50 walked into the studio and picked up a pen,” Dre said. “We were done in an hour. We just made some shit we wanted to hear.” 443 Fall Out Boy, 'Sugar, We’re Goin Down' 2005 Writer(s):Andy Hurley, Joe Trohman, Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz Powered byApple Music “I wrote the lyrics in Chicago,” bassist Pete Wentz told Rolling Stone of modern emo’s national anthem. “I was with my dad, and we were listening to the old music where they’d always say ‘sugar’ and ‘honey’ — stuff like that. I was like, ‘Why doesn’t anyone do that anymore?’” When Fall Out Boy did it, it signaled a sea change — emo, which had roots in confessional hardcore punk, had grown into a new and often highly theatrical kind of arena rock. But when Patrick Stump finishes the title phrase with the word “swinging,” it still makes the heart surge. 442 Motörhead, 'Ace of Spades' 1980 Writer(s):Eddie Clarke, Ian Kilmister, Phil Taylor Powered byApple Music With a galloping beat, assaultive riffs, and loads of distortion on pretty much everything, “Ace of Spades” is a lynchpin moment in English hard-rock’s evolution into a faster, harder, more brutish beast, adored by punks and metalheads alike. The double-time, chunka-chunka percussion that kicks in at around 1:12 is a reverbed wood block, a swinging flourish of detail amid the fury that was added at the suggestion of producer Vic Maile. “I’m glad we got famous for that rather than for some turkey,” bassist-growler Lemmy Kilmister said. “But I sang ‘the eight of spades’ for two years and nobody noticed.” 441 Miranda Lambert, 'The House That Built Me' 2010 Writer(s):Allen Shamblin, Tom Douglas Powered byApple Music For all her sass and swagger, country star Miranda Lambert’s finest moment is this bittersweet ballad, a moving evocation of home as a place you can return to, if only in memory. “The House That Built Me” is full of heart-tugging concrete imagery: the tiny bedroom where the narrator did her homework, the live oak under which her dog is buried. In the studio, Lambert set up photos of her childhood home to set the mood. “I just started bawling from the second I heard it,” she said. It still has the same power; the singer cried performing the song at a show in her home state of Texas in 2021. 440 Alicia Keys, 'If I Ain't Got You' 2003 Writer(s):Alicia Keys Powered byApple Music Saddened by the tragic 2001 death of R&B singer Aaliyah, Keys composed this moving expression of her loss, bringing the organic-feeling lushness of Seventies R&B balladry into the digitized 21st century. She was on such a creative roll at the time of her album The Diary of Alicia Keys that she almost gave the song away to Christina Aguilera, until her A&R rep Peter Edge intervened. “I was like, ‘Why? I’ll write a hundred more,’” she recalled telling him. “I’m kinda glad he made sure I didn’t do that.” 439 Celia Cruz, 'La Vida Es un Carnaval' 1998 Writer(s):Victor Daniel Powered byApple Music Celia Cruz had a voice that combined opulent, operatic tones with the Afro-Cuban call-and-response style of pregón — and her legendary roar was at its most august and powerful extolling the joy of being alive on 1998’s triumphant “La Vida Es un Carnaval.” The song was especially potent coming from Cruz, who came to New York and helped shape the salsa movement following a painful exile from Cuba in the Sixties. “La Vida Es un Carnaval” became a life-giving anthem for audiences and marked a stunning final act of her formidable career. 438 Megan Thee Stallion feat. Beyoncé, 'Savage (Remix)' 2020 Writer(s):Megan Pete, Anthony White, Beyoncé Knowles, Bobby Session Jr., Terius Nash, Brittany Starrah Hazzard, Derrick Milano, Jorden Kyle Lanier Thorpe, Shaun Carter, Powered byApple Music A Houston summit meeting: the skyrocketing MC Megan Thee Stallion’s breakout single, remixed with the city’s — and R&B’s — reigning queen confidently spitting a few quick bars to remind us that, if she really wanted to, she could rap circles around your favorite MC as a full-time job. When Beyoncé confirmed her guest spot was on, Megan said, “I cried — like, I had to call my grandma.” But just her grandma: The collaboration — which hit Number One on its own — was kept under wraps until the last second: “I didn’t even tell my best friend.” 437 Lucinda Williams, 'Passionate Kisses' 1988 Writer(s):Lucinda Williams Powered byApple Music As Williams struggled to find a place in the pigeonhole-happy music industry of the Eighties, she landed on the British punk label Rough Trade and recorded a self-titled album anchored by this raw-voiced demand for not only kisses but also homelier needs like “pens that don’t run out of ink.” Three years later, Mary Chapin Carpenter turned it into a Grammy-winning country hit that also crossed over to pop and adult contemporary, making it Williams’ best-known song. “When I get to the line ‘It’s my right,’ all the women in the audience yell out and go nuts,” Williams has said. “I love it.” 436 Carly Rae Jepsen, 'Call Me Maybe' 2012 Writer(s):Carly Rae Jepsen, Josh Ramsay, Tavish Crowe Powered byApple Music A Canadian pop star mostly unknown in the U.S., Jepsen said she initially wrote the inescapable hit that ruled the radio in 2012 as a “folk song.” Once it was restructured, with giddy string breaks, it caught the ears of reigning pop-power couple Justin Bieber, who tweeted that it was “possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard lol,” and Selena Gomez, who said, “This smile is because of Carly Rae Jepsen. We have not stopped listening to your song girl!” Sometimes even a classic needs a little push. 435 Rush, 'Limelight' 1981 Writer(s):Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart Powered byApple Music Rush drummer Neil Peart tackled the trap of rock-star fame without sounding like a spoiled rock-star misanthrope — and, a little ironically, ended up writing one of the Canadian prog-rock trio’s biggest arena hits. “Limelight” sanded down the knottier edges of its 7/4 riff to sound at home on FM radio, as Geddy Lee sang about feeling “ill-equipped to act/With insufficient tact,” making no apologies for their brainy aspirations. “I didn’t want to be famous,” Peart observed years later. “I wanted to be good. And that’s a whole other thing.” 434 Ramones, 'Sheena Is a Punk Rocker' 1977 Writer(s):Dee Dee Ramone, Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Tommy Ramone Powered byApple Music The Ramones’ ode to the liberating power of punk and the unsinkable spirit of their native New York appeared both as a single that actually hit the charts (at Number 81) and as a slicker, remixed cut on their comparatively high-budget third LP, Rocket to Russia. Joey Ramone took the title from the golden-age comic book Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. “I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, with the primalness of punk rock,” he said. “It was funny, because all the girls in New York seemed to change their names to Sheena after that.” 433 Pet Shop Boys, 'West End Girls' 1984 Writer(s):Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant Powered byApple Music Inspired in equal parts by the hip-hop social commentary of “The Message,” the abstract imagery of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, and a late-night viewing of an old Jimmy Cagney gangster flick, Neil Tennant turned the eye of a detached observer on British club life for the pop duo’s career-making single. Rarely has a synth-bass been as eloquent as the one that underlines this chorus. And in five words, Tennant later summed up not just the song but the Boys’ whole early aesthetic: “It’s about sex. It’s paranoid.” 432 Eddie Cochran, 'Summertime Blues' 1958 Writer(s):Eddie Cochran, Jerry Capehart Powered byApple Music Cochran’s label tried molding him into a crooning teen idol, but he made his mark with a string of rockabilly ravers written with partner Jerry Capehart. Explaining the inspiration for this classic, Capehart said, “There had been a lot of songs about summer, but none about the hardships of summer.” With that idea and a guitar lick from Cochran, they knocked out the song in 45 minutes. It’s one of rock’s first great alienated-teen anthems, with an absurdist political element that resonated with future hard rockers, including the Who and Blue Cheer, who are among the many bands to cover it. 431 Prince, 'Adore' 1987 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music It shows just how jam-packed Prince’s double LP Sign O’ the Times was that its awe-kissed finale, the gospel-drenched slow jam “Adore,” wasn’t a single. But that doesn’t mean the song never got radio airplay — in fact, that’s part of why he recorded it. “Adore” was written to answer criticism that Prince had lost interest in the Black audience. It was aimed at quiet storm, the adult R&B format as heavy on album tracks as on singles — where, as intended, it got substantial play. 430 Pete Rock and CL Smooth, 'They Reminisce Over You' 1992 Writer(s):Maxwell Dixon, Peter Phillips Powered byApple Music When “Trouble” T Roy, a dancer with Heavy D and the Boyz, died on tour in 1990, his pals — hip-hop producer Peter “Pete Rock” Philips and rapper Corey “CL Smooth” Penn — put together hip-hop’s most powerful elegy. Over a warm horn break sampled from composer Tom Scott, Smooth kicks conversational rhymes about love, music, family, memory, and friendship, beautifully honoring their late buddy. “When we listened back to the record, we just started crying,” Pete Rock recalled. “When I felt like that, I was like, ‘This is it.’ Deep in my heart I felt like this was gonna be something big.” 429 Queen and David Bowie, 'Under Pressure' 1981 Writer(s):Brian May, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Roger Taylor Powered byApple Music Queen was in a Swiss studio recording their album Hot Space when they bumped into Bowie, who was in the same studio working on a song for the horror movie Cat People. This epic anthem of resistance against the forces of everyday exhaustion evolved out of an impromptu jam, with Bowie scatting his vocals on the fly. “Everybody just goes in there with no ideas, no notes, and sings the first thing that comes into their head over the backing track,” Queen guitarist Brian May recalled. “Then we compiled all the bits and pieces.” 428 Harry Styles, 'Sign of the Times' 2017 Writer(s):Alex Salibian, Harry Styles, Mitch Rowland, Ryan Nasci, Tyler Johnson, Jeff Bhasker Powered byApple Music When the One Direction heartthrob announced he was going solo, nobody quite expected his first single to be a sweeping, glammy piano ballad. Cut in all of three hours, “Sign of the Times” is full of falsetto verses, choral background vocals, and deep-focus guitar fuzz. “The song is written from a point of view as if a mother was giving birth to a child and there’s a complication,” Styles said. “The mother is told, ‘The child is fine, but you’re not going to make it.’ The mother has five minutes to tell the child, ‘Go forth and conquer.’” 427 Sugar Hill Gang, 'Rapper's Delight' 1979 Writer(s):Bernard Edwards, Gregory Rodgers, Nile Rodgers, The Sugarhill Gang Powered byApple Music When New Jersey indie-label owner and R&B hitmaker Sylvia Robinson heard about rapping DJs from her son, she decided to get in on the action. The Sugarhill Gang, named for the label she co-owned with her husband, Joe, had no ties to the New York hip-hop scene, but with some help from Cold Crush Brothers’ Grandmaster Caz’s rhyme book, they laid out 14 minutes of silly stories and ingratiating style to a re-creation of Chic’s “Good Times” and changed the world. 426 Nicki Minaj, 'Super Bass' 2010 Writer(s):Daniel Johnson, Esther Renay Dean, Jeremy Coleman, Onika Maraj, Roahn Hylton, Ester Dean Powered byApple Music Minaj had surprised fans of her raunchy, skills-flaunting mixtapes with the cotton-candy swirl of radio-friendly synths on her debut LP, Pink Friday. She was a new kind of popular rapper, one who could sing her own hooks without seeming soft. When that album didn’t produce a smash hit, this follow-up did the trick. It’s a dizzy celebration of objectifying and thirsting after boys hooked to a timeless “boom, badoom, boom, boom, badoom, boom, bass.” As Minaj described it at the time, it’s about when “you kind of want to get your mack on, but you’re taking the playful approach.” 425 Muddy Waters, 'Mannish Boy' 1955 Writer(s):Ellas McDaniel, McKinley Morganfield, Melvin London Powered byApple Music Chess Records was a competitive place. After Muddy Waters issued “I’m a Hoochie Coochie Man,” Bo Diddley wrote a response, called “I’m a Man” — and two months after that, Waters wrote his own reply. “Then I got on it with ‘Mannish Boy’ and just drove him out of my way,” he recalled. (Diddley received a co-writing credit.) “Mannish Boy” became a British blues anthem for, among others, the Rolling Stones — a band Waters proudly called “some of my best friends.” 424 Blackstreet feat. Dr. Dre and Queen Pen, 'No Diggity' 1996 Writer(s):Bill Withers, Chauncey Hannibal, Edward Theodore Riley, Lynise Walters, Richard Vick, William Stewart Powered byApple Music No one wanted to record “No Diggity.” Teddy Riley introduced the idea for this R&B rump shaker to Aaron Hall during failed reunion talks for their pioneering New Jack group Guy; Hall passed. Riley’s then-current group, Blackstreet, didn’t like it either: He had to persuade them to do it, even singing the first verse as encouragement. With its old-school harmony vocals and a sample of some Bill Withers acoustic guitar, “No Diggity” became their biggest hit and a guaranteed floor filler ever since its release. 423 Fiona Apple, 'Criminal' 1996 Writer(s):Fiona Apple Powered byApple Music As 18-year-old Apple wrapped up work on her debut, Tidal, her label said the album needed one more commercial track (as labels are known to do). In 45 minutes, she whipped up what would become her only hit single, about “feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality.” A jagged piano bass line, searing strings, and a clattery beat contribute to a moody song that is tricky to pin down — self-critical yet self-satisfied, playful yet ominous, sulky yet seething. 422 Craig Mack feat. Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Rampage, 'Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)' 1994 Writer(s):Craig Mack, Roger Nichols, Paul Williams Powered byApple Music Knowing a smash when he heard it, Bad Boy label head Sean “Puffy” Combs purchased the beat — built around an incessant two-note riff and thick drum smack — from producer Easy Moe Bee and used it for Mack, then making his debut. Mack’s remix verses are solid (“Wanna grab my dick/Too lazy/Hold it for me”), but his guests make this perhaps the greatest posse cut of all time. LL is smooth, Busta spits machine-gun fire and Biggie, mere months away from his own debut, drops such gems as “I get more butt than ashtrays,” and “You’re mad ’cause my style you’re admiring/Don’t be mad, UPS is hiring.” 421 The Smiths, 'How Soon Is Now?' 1984 Writer(s):Johnny Marr, Morrissey Powered byApple Music With its engulfing, molten guitar intro and enormous drums, “How Soon Is Now,” which began life as a B side, grew to become a bona fide club hit for the Smiths. Guitarist Johnny Marr wanted a riff that would be inescapably recognizable: “When [it] plays in a club or a pub,” he said, “everyone knows what it is.” Marr came upon the song’s guitar riff hungover at an afternoon session after producer John Porter asked him to try to replicate the Elvis Presley classic “That’s All Right.” Porter later recalled thinking, “Now we’ve got a band that could be like R.E.M. are now.” 420 The Mamas and the Papas, 'California Dreamin' ' 1965 Writer(s):John Phillips, Michelle Phillips Powered byApple Music One frigid winter in Manhattan, a song came to John Phillips in the middle of the night. He woke up his young wife, Michelle, who was homesick for the West Coast, to help him finish writing “California Dreamin’,” one of the all-time sunniest songs of longing. The tune was first recorded by Phillips’ folk group the New Journeymen, and later given to Barry McGuire as a thank-you after McGuire, riding high with “Eve of Destruction,” introduced the group to producer Lou Adler, who convinced the Mamas and the Papas to cut it themselves. 419 Mariah Carey, 'Fantasy' 1995 Writer(s):Adrian Belew, Christopher Frantz, Dave Hall, Mariah Carey, Steven Stanley, Tina Weymouth Powered byApple Music The diva’s big dive into the world of hip-hop is built on a sample from the Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love,” further enhanced by a Puff Daddy remix. The rap feature from Ol’ Dirty Bastard was hardly smooth sailing — according to A&R rep Cory Rooney, ODB took three naps while recording his verse, and demanded Moët and Newports to get him in the mood. The rapper’s wild presence unsettled Columbia Records execs, but Carey said she loved the energy he brought: “He was your loving, fun-ass uncle who gets drunk at all the festivities, at Christmas dinner, the cookout, Thanksgiving.” 418 Booker T. and the MGs, 'Green Onions' 1962 Writer(s):Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Lewie Steinberg, Steve Cropper Powered byApple Music The Stax house band had never considered making its own hits until it cooked up this simmering jam based around an organ line 17-year-old Booker T. Jones had written, “trying to emulate Ray Charles.” As guitarist Steve Cropper recalled, “I said, ‘Shit, this is the best damn instrumental I’ve heard since I don’t know when.'” As for the onions, Cropper explained that “we were trying to think of something that was as funky as possible.” Its original title was “Funky Onions,” but, according to Jones, “It sounded like a cuss word. So we retitled it ‘Green Onions.'” 417 Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, 'Uptown Funk' 2015 Writer(s):Charles Wilson, Devon Gallaspy, Jeff Bhasker, Lonnie Simmons, Nicholaus Williams, Peter Hernandez, Philip Lawrence, Robert Wilson, Ronnie Wilson, Rudolph Taylor Powered byApple Music The breezy boogie vibes of “Uptown Funk” didn’t come easy. A rehearsal jam at Mars’ Los Angeles studio led to several arduous sessions of trial and error. Mars lifted the “Don’t believe me, just watch” hook from rapper Trinidad James’ hit “All Gold Everything.” Ronson paid homage to Kool and the Gang by using an all-horns chorus featuring Antibalas and the Dap-Kings; he also added a crucial guitar part, while producer Jeff Bhasker contributed synths. After the song became a huge cross-genre hit, its knowing riff on Eighties funk styles also inspired several lawsuits — proof that success has many fathers. 416 Pearl Jam, 'Alive' 1991 Writer(s):Stone Gossard, Eddie Vedder Powered byApple Music This song was the genesis of the band — guitarist Stone Gossard wrote the music, and future singer Eddie Vedder recorded the vocals after hearing a demo — and “Alive” still sounds like Pearl Jam at its wooliest. “It all happened in seven days,” guitarist Mike McCready remembered. “It was very punk rock. Eddie would stay there in the rehearsal studio, writing all night. We’d show up, and there was another song.” Together, Gossard and McCready worked up a maelstrom, while Vedder matched them with a tempestuous vocal as he remembered the difficult days he lived through after learning of the long-hidden identity of his birth parents. 415 Depeche Mode, 'Enjoy the Silence' 1990 Writer(s):Martin Gore Powered byApple Music With a low-slung guitar riff and a lyric delivered by Dave Gahan at his most quaveringly romantic, “Enjoy the Silence” was the Top 10 hit that made Depeche Mode into American superstars, propelling their seventh album, Violator, to triple-platinum status and prompting a near-riot at a SoCal in-store appearance. Originally, “it was kind of half a song,” Gahan said. “And Alan [Wilder] and Flood, who was producing the album, had this idea to put a beat to it.” When Martin Gore added the guitar, Gahan said, “that was it.” 414 Blondie, 'Dreaming' 1979 Writer(s):Debbie Harry, Jimmy Destri Powered byApple Music Featuring one of the greatest opening lines in rock — “When I met you in a restaurant/You could tell I was no debutante” — “Dreaming” is both escapist fun and about escapist fun — the kind that doesn’t cost anything. Blondie guitarist-songwriter Chris Stein called “Dreaming,” the shimmering hit from their 1979 album Eat to the Beat, “a mishmash of a lot of things. It really was supposed to be more disco rock than it came out. The bass drum got swamped by the tom-toms.” Drummer Clem Burke later said that he played all those wild roller-coaster fills because he thought the recording was just a warmup take. 413 Them, 'Gloria' 1965 Writer(s):Van Morrison Powered byApple Music When Van Morrison wrote his first hit, “Gloria,” with the Belfast garage band Them, he was just another hungry young rocker, but his gravelly voice sounds years older than he was, and you can already notice the roots of the Celtic R&B mysticism he’d pursue for decades to come. “I was just being me, a street cat from Belfast,” Morrison said. “Probably like thousands of kids from Belfast who were in bands.” A Chicago group called Shadows of Knight hit with a more cautious version in 1966; Morrison later complained that “Gloria” was “capitalized on, a lot.“ 412 Neneh Cherry, 'Buffalo Stance' 1988 Writer(s):Cameron McVey, Jamie Morgan, Neneh Cherry, Phil Ramacon Powered byApple Music “I always try and put an element of rawness — which probably is sex — into what I do,” Neneh Cherry said of her solo smash “Buffalo Stance.” “It’s that something that sends tingles up your spine, that’s the sex in my voice.” A searing dance track featuring the first rapping by a British woman most Americans had heard, the song was inspired by the London designer Ray Petri, who called his streetwear-inspired fashion Buffalo. “To me, a buffalo stance is an attitude you have to have in order to get by,” she told The New York Times. “It’s not about fashion but about survival.” 411 Wilco, 'Heavy Metal Drummer' 2002 Writer(s):Jeff Tweedy Powered byApple Music Jeff Tweedy yoked the sweetest melody of Wilco’s career to this openhearted song about making peace with the hair-metal dudes he used to mock in his punk-rock youth. It’s the centerpiece of Wilco’s post-alt-country artistic breakthrough Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: a kicky drum groove, some breezy strumming, randomly accented electronic blips, and Tweedy singing himself a midlife lesson about never giving into easy irony. As he said in 2004, “That song is really just another reminder about not being judgmental and reductive.” 410 Allman Brothers Band, 'Whipping Post' 1969 Writer(s):Gregg Allman Powered byApple Music The studio version (recorded when author and singer Gregg Allman was 21 years old, and written a year earlier, on the cover of an ironing board as it came to him) clocks in at a comparatively svelte 5:17 on the Allman Brothers’ 1969 debut. Built around Berry Oakley’s bass riff and opening in an unusual 11/4 time signature, it became the stuff of jam-band legend in its sprawling 22:40 live version on 1971’s At the Fillmore East, where it showcased guitarists Duane Allman and Dickey Betts’ bluesy fire and the rhythm section’s jazzy ramble. 409 Foo Fighters, 'Everlong' 1997 Writer(s):Dave Grohl Powered byApple Music A fittingly intimate monument to the alternative era, “Everlong” has become a quasi-official pop-culture envoi, whether it’s been arranged for strings for Monica and Chandler’s wedding on Friends or performed by the Foo Fighters on David Letterman’s final Late Show. No surprise: Dave Grohl came up in the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, and the signature Foos song was the rare Nineties hit to supersize original Eighties D.C. emocore. Grohl wrote it following his breakup with Louise Post of Veruca Salt; when asked, he would only confirm that it was “about a girl.” 408 Cat Stevens/Yusuf, 'Father and Son' 1970 Writer(s):Cat Stevens/Yusuf Powered byApple Music This wisdom-sharing ballad about the strained generation gap between families has its origins in a musical Stevens wrote about the Russian Revolution. The project was ultimately shelved, and “Father and Son” became a hit from Tea for the Tillerman, one of the biggest albums of the early-Seventies singer-songwriter boom. “That’s a beautiful thing about the gift of music and what it can do to you,” Stevens, who later changed his name to Yusuf Islam, told Rolling Stone. “It’s really become integral to so many people’s lives.” 407 Lynyrd Skynyrd, 'Free Bird' 1973 Writer(s):Allen Collins, Ronnie Van Zant Powered byApple Music This definitive Southern-rock guitar epic had a humble birth, with late Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant scribbling lyrics about keeping love alive on tour, while Allen Collins jammed on guitar — although initially, the singer complained Collins used too many chords. “But after a few months,” said guitarist Gary Rossington, “we were sitting around and he asked Allen to play those chords again. After about 20 minutes, Ronnie started singing ‘If I leave here tomorrow,’ and it fit great.” The nine-minute album cut got heavy rock-radio airplay, an edited single reached the pop Top 20, and Skynyrd always encores with it. 406 Run-DMC, 'Sucker MC's' 1984 Writer(s):Darryl McDaniels, Joseph Ward Simmons, Lawrence Smith Powered byApple Music Rap’s boom-bap Big Bang: On this B side to their first 12-inch (“It’s Like That” was the A), Run-DMC rhymed over a stark break stripped out of an Orange Krush song by their guitarist Davy DMX, inspiring Run’s line, “Davy cut the record down to the bone.” “Sucker MC’s” established the crew as rap’s new kings, turned Queens into the rugged successor to rap’s birthplace, the Bronx, and proved that in hip-hop, melody and other pop niceties were fully optional. “We figured we had very, very good rappers,” co-producer Russell Simmons said, “and we wanted people to appreciate what they did.” 405 Selena, 'Amor Prohibido' 1994 Writer(s):A.B. Quintanilla III, Pete Astudillo, Selena Powered byApple Music By 1994, Mexican American star Selena Quintanilla had proven she could hype a crowd with the party-starting glee of “Baila Esta Cumbia,” and just as easily crush a listener with the tenderness of “Como la Flor.” However, as her husband and bandmate, Chris Pérez, once noted, her voice took on a stunning new resonance when she sang about a deep, forbidden love on “Amor Prohibido,” an upbeat cumbia co-written with her brother that mixed modern pop with Tejano sounds. Selena famously ad-libbed “Oh baby” after the refrain, making a song inspired by her grandparents, as well as her own relationship with Perez, even more personal. It became her first Number One solo single. 404 Kiss, 'Rock and Roll All Nite' 1975 Writer(s):Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley Powered byApple Music After the band’s 1974 album Hotter Than Hell sold poorly, Casablanca Records head Neil Bogart demanded that Kiss write a bigger, more anthemic hit. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley obliged with what Stanley called ”a song that could be the rallying cry for all of our fans.” The result was the ultimate Kiss rocker, closing every one of their concerts since 1976. “When I was writing it, naive or not, it was really about celebrating,” Stanley later said. “It wasn’t about getting high or getting stoned or anything like that.” 403 Rufus and Chaka Khan, 'Ain’t Nobody' 1983 Writer(s):David Wolinski Powered byApple Music When keyboard player David “Hawk” Wolinski showed the “Ain’t Nobody” instrumental to his pal Glenn Frey, the Eagle instantly thought it would be a Number One hit. But Rufus and Chaka Khan’s label, Warner Bros., wasn’t as enthusiastic about “Ain’t Nobody,” according to Wolinski. “I said, ‘If you don’t release the song … I will give that thing to Quincy [Jones] for Michael [Jackson] and retire,'” he remembered. The label relented, and Frey’s prediction proved accurate — “Ain’t Nobody,” with its gnarled guitars and slippery programmed groove, became a Number One R&B hit. 402 Bill Withers, 'Lovely Day' 1977 Writer(s):Bill Withers, Skip Scarborough Powered byApple Music Withers’ vocal style was so laid-back and conversational that it’s easy to overlook that this breezy ballad hinges on an impressive technical feat: For 10 to 20 seconds at a stretch, Withers holds the note containing the second word of the song’s title, and moreover, he holds it absolutely level, with no vibrato and no audible strain. That’s fitting — it’s Withers’ most winsome tune, moving at an unhurried gait, with sepia-toned horns. “I used to get criticized for making simple records — the term was ‘underproduced,'” Withers recalled, adding, “Those few simple songs that I did, fortunately, found their own way.” 401 Fleetwood Mac, 'Go Your Own Way' 1977 Writer(s):Lindsey Buckingham Powered byApple Music “Go Your Own Way” was the sound of a relationship shattering in real time. Lindsey Buckingham, who wrote it while breaking up with Stevie Nicks, said that the razored lyrics came to him “almost as a stream of consciousness,” while Nicks has admitted that they angered her so much that she “wanted to go over and kill [Buckingham]” each time she sang it onstage. For the beat, Buckingham wanted something similar to the way Charlie Watts played on the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” which drummer Mick Fleetwood interpreted into the song’s tension-filled snare-tom thump. Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Set of four t-shirts wit classic Rolling Stone covers on them. Text reads 'Rolling Stone Shop, The Covers Collection. Explore the exclusive collection inspired by Rolling Stone through the decades' Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next Top 5 Ways NFTs, 3D Avatars and the Metaverse Are Changing Music and Entertainment Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 400 David Bowie, 'Station to Station' 1976 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music In 1975, looking for a new change, Bowie fired his manager and moved to L.A., where he let his cocaine habit flourish and made Station to Station, exploring ideas in what he called “sound as texture.” The 10-minute title track, a Kraut-rock disco opus referencing drugs and Kabbalah mysticism, and somehow turning “The European canon is here!” into a get-down dance-floor salvo, introduced his Thin White Duke persona. Bowie later said he didn’t remember much about the recording, but it’s one of the funkiest experiments of his career. 399 Sylvester, 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' 1978 Writer(s):Sylvester, James Wirrick Powered byApple Music Though San Francisco singer and queer icon Sylvester had explored rock and soul on earlier recordings, he soon adapted to the disco that was then blanketing his neighborhood, the defiantly out and gay Castro. Sylvester co-wrote “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” with guitarist James Wirrick, its over-the-top exuberance a match for the singer’s persona. “At first the band didn’t wanna play it as a dance tune,” Wirrick said. “And Sylvester and I kept saying, ‘No, you have to do that because that’s what’s on the radio.'” 398 Duran Duran, 'Hungry Like the Wolf' 1982 Writer(s):Andy Taylor, John Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Roger Taylor, Simon Le Bon Powered byApple Music It took Duran Duran many tries to crack U.S. radio. “But MTV had a more open mind, and they wanted to show new bands,” said singer Simon Le Bon. “Hungry Like the Wolf” has a deeply glammy mix of electronics and guitars (its riff was inspired by Marc Bolan of T. Rex), and was remixed until Americans could hear its charms. The action-packed video, shot in Sri Lanka, became a sensation. “MTV got so many requests that people started requesting it on the radio,” said Nick Rhodes, Duran’s keyboardist. “So it sort of quickly turned around.” 397 Public Enemy, 'Bring the Noise' 1987 Writer(s):Carlton Ridenhour, Charlie Benante, Daniel Alan Spitz, Eric Sadler, Frank Joseph Bello, Hank Shocklee, Joseph Bellardini, Scott Ian Rosenfeld Powered byApple Music When PE recorded “Bring the Noise” for the 1987 movie version of Brett Easton Ellis’ novel Less Than Zero, Chuck D wasn’t much of a fan — “I practically threw it out the window,” he said. Then they started playing it live, and “people went berserk.” Jittery with screeching samples and cranked-up BPM, it answered critics dismissing the crew for their stridency with more of everything: more speed, more sound, and more proud references to their Blackness. “If they’re calling my music ‘noise,’ if they’re saying that I’m really getting out of character being a Black person in America, then fine,” Chuck D told Rolling Stone. “I’m bringing more noise.” 396 Elvis Costello, 'Alison' 1977 Writer(s):Elvis Costello Powered byApple Music Inspired, according to his 2015 memoir, by a “beautiful checkout girl” whose dreams he imagined “would soon be squandered to a ruffian,” this deceptively tender ballad on Costello’s debut album helped enshrine him as post-punk’s most gifted melodist. In 1977, Costello credited his hard-bitten lyrical style to the fact that “there’s nothing glamorous or romantic about the world at the moment.… Nobody’s got the time or the money.” Nevertheless, Costello’s attempt at “a beautiful sound” on “Alison” was inspired in part by Jimi Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”: They share a similarly crackling guitar tone. 395 Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, 'Planet Rock' 1982 Writer(s):Arthur Baker, Afrika Bambaataa, Ellis Williams, John Robie, John Miller, Robert Allen, The Soulsonic Force Powered byApple Music This seminal 12-inch single is the sum of South Bronx DJ Afrika Bambaataa’s polyglot inspirations. There was Kraftwerk, Ennio Morricone’s theme music for Sergio Leone’s Fistful of Dollars trilogy, Captain Sky’s “Super Sporm,” and,more subtly, the pinging delights of Eighties arcade games. John Robie added keyboards, Boston producer Arthur Baker rendered it all through the Roland TR-808 and PCM, and rappers Soulsonic Force brought a unique stop-start, call-and-response party-rocking style they called “MC poppin.” It made for the first definitive hip-hop sound on wax: electro-funk. 394 Jeff Buckley, 'Grace' 1994 Writer(s):Gary Lucas, Jeff Buckley Powered byApple Music Describing himself as, among other things, “the warped lovechild of Nina Simone and all four members of Led Zeppelin,” singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley was a uniquely promising talent who released only one album, 1994’s Grace, before he died by drowning in the Mississippi River. Buckley wrote the lyrics to the album’s incandescent title track after saying goodbye to his girlfriend at the airport; his close collaborator Gary Lucas came up with the searing, spiraling guitar line. The impact was like hearing Chet Baker reborn in the Nineties, playing a cool Lower East Side bar. 393 James Brown, 'Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)' 1968 Writer(s):Alfred Ellis, James Brown Powered byApple Music In 1968, as protests against the Vietnam War raged, the Godfather of Soul put out a patriotic track called, “America Is My Home.” Not long after, activists placed a fake bomb in Brown’s hotel room. One of the singer’s next singles took on a markedly different tone, both politically — “We’d rather die on our feet, than be livin’ on our knees” — and musically, replacing the easy lope of “America Is My Home” with an agitated funk missile. “Say It Loud” was a bigger hit than its predecessor, reaching Number One on the R&B chart, in addition to becoming a Black Power anthem. 392 Coldplay, 'Fix You' 2005 Writer(s):Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion Powered byApple Music From the frayed ends of his falsetto to his heart-on-sleeve lyrics, Chris Martin’s unironic earnestness is his gift; he reaches for the biggest emotions he can, and when he connects, the results can feel colossal. What gives “Fix You” its special charge is that it starts as a simple ballad (for his then-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow) and then the drums crash in, cueing harmonies that cross the cheese of Journey with the astringency of Bowie’s “Heroes,” and elevating the song into an instant standard. Just this year, BTS covered it on MTV Unplugged. 391 Eric Church, 'Springsteen' 2011 Writer(s):Eric Church, Jeff Hyde, Ryan Tyndell Powered byApple Music Over his career, country firebrand Church has proved he can write great songs about great songs (see 2015’s “Record Year”), but he may never top this 2011 ballad, in which Springtseen’s music unlocks a flood of teenage memories. “I went to a concert when I was younger with a girl, and to this day, when I hear that artist, it’s the soundtrack to that girl,” Church recalled. “I never think about her any other time, except when that song is on. That’s where the ‘Springsteen’ came from, and he seemed to be the perfect guy to craft that story around because of my love for him.” 390 Metallica, 'Enter Sandman' 1991 Writer(s):James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich Powered byApple Music Metallica felt their sprawling 1988 LP, …And Justice for All, had been an epic end point, and wanted to go for something more concise. ​​“Writing a simple song is way fucking harder than writing a crazy-busy, sideways, 10-minute song,” drummer Lars Ulrich said. With AC/DC and Mötley Crüe producer Bob Rock pushing them to streamline their sound, they made 1991’s Metallica and its career-changing hit, “Enter Sandman.” Guitarist Kirk Hammett came up with the song’s riff while jamming alone late one night, and Ulrich helped him arrange it into a radio-ready mammoth. 389 Pretenders, 'Brass in Pocket' 1979 Writer(s):Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott Powered byApple Music “Brass in Pocket” is the first Number One U.K. hit of the Eighties, the eighth video played on MTV, and the song that launched the Pretenders into pop stardom. But when Chrissie Hynde first heard the finished version, which she was built around a riff by guitarist James Honeymoon-Scott, she hated it. “I said that would go out over my dead body,” the singer recalled in 2020. “I thought it sounded like it was trying to be a Motown song, but it didn’t quite get it. But now I like that song because it’s one of those songs that served me well.” 388 DMX, 'Party Up (Up in Here)' 1999 Writer(s):Earl Simmons, Kasseem Dean Powered byApple Music “People believe you can only catch the Holy Ghost in church,” DMX said in 1998. “I get it onstage.” Indeed, few artists in any genre could match the late, great Yonkers rapper’s raw, contagious intensity. The commercial peak of his fruitful collaboration with producer Swizz Beatz had everyone from street-corner hustlers to suburban soccer mom’s hollering its avalanche of a refrain. But along with his rib-cage-rattling growl, X’s harried energy proved universal. Who among us hasn’t had the feeling of “Y’all gon’ make me lose my mind/Up in here, up in here.” 387 New York Dolls, 'Personality Crisis' 1973 Writer(s):David Johansen, Johnny Thunders Powered byApple Music “We were very raw,” singer David Johansen recalled. “We were really into confronting the audience: ‘Hey, you stupid bastards. Get up and dance.’” No song better captured the New York Dolls’ glammed-out R&B than “Personality Crisis,” the opening track on the group’s debut. Produced by Todd Rundgren during an eight-day session, “Crisis” was the trashy sound of a meltdown (“Frustration and heartache is what you got”); soon after, the Dolls fell victim to one themselves and dissolved amid a haze of drugs. 386 The Kinks, 'Lola' 1970 Writer(s):Ray Davies Powered byApple Music Kinks frontman Ray Davies was inspired to write “Lola” after hearing about a member of his Kinks’ crew who met a beautiful blonde at a Paris club and took her back to his hotel room. “In the morning, he saw the stubble growing on her chin,” Davies said in 2020. “So, he got a surprise!” The little anecdote grew into a romantic tale of a man that falls for a trans woman (or perhaps a cross-dresser) named Lola. This was radical stuff for the Brady Bunch era, but somehow the theme of the song slipped past many radio programmers and it became a worldwide hit. 385 Diana Ross, 'I'm Coming Out' 1980 Writer(s):Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers Powered byApple Music While working on the album that would become Diana, guitarist-producer-writer Nile Rodgers said, “I went out to this [trans] club one night, the Gilded Grape. I’m at the urinal, and there are three or four Diana Rosses around me. The next day I told Bernard [Edwards, his partner], ‘Man, you won’t believe what happened last night,’ and he said, ‘Great, let’s write that.'” When Ross asked the producers if the song was as pro-gay as it sounded, Rodgers said, “We denied it.” 384 Cardi B, J Balvin, and Bad Bunny, 'I Like It' 2018 Writer(s):Tainy, Anthony Germaine White, Belcalis Almanzar, Benito Antonio Ocasio Matinez, Benny Bonilla, Edgar Machuca, Edgar Wilmer Semper Vargas, Jordan Thorpe, Jose Alvaro Balvin Osorio, Luian Malavé, Manny Rodriguez, Marcos E. Masis, Noah Assad, Tony Pabon, Vincent Watson, Xavier Semer Vargas Powered byApple Music The idea for “I Like It” came from Atlantic CEO (and former DJ) Craig Kallman, who wanted a cut for Cardi’s debut, Invasion of Privacy, that emphasized her Puerto Rican roots. While he and producer J. White developed the backing track, Atlantic A&R rep Edgar Machuca recruited Latin urbano heroes J Balvin and Bad Bunny. The seven-month development process drew others, too, but it was Cardi B who turned “I Like It” into a one-of-a-kind spectacle. “I remember when I was six months pregnant doing the music video for the song,” she told Billboard. “But the outcome of it all was beautiful.” 383 Childish Gambino, 'Redbone' 2016 Writer(s):Ludwig Göransson, Donald Glover Powered byApple Music For his third album as Childish Gambino, actor-writer-comedian-musician Donald Glover set aside the backpack rap of his early releases and attained the Seventies funk grail. Glover and Swedish co-producer Ludwig Göransson built the track atop a drumbeat of Glover’s and interpolated a bit of “I’d Rather Be With You” by P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins, making loads of space for Glover to debut a freakishly high falsetto many assumed must’ve been pitch-shifted. To be sure he’d nailed the right vibe, Glover debuted the track for customers in an Atlanta hair salon. 382 Fiona Apple, 'Paper Bag' 1999 Writer(s):Fiona Apple Powered byApple Music On an album of high emotional and musical drama — When the Pawn…, Apple’s knotty initial collaboration with producer Jon Brion — “Paper Bag” blows in on a warm breeze of swingy brushed drums and swelling horns, inspired, Apple has said, by a bag (actually plastic) she saw floating in the air and mistook for a dove. The song won Apple her second Grammy nomination in the Female Rock Performance category, and its public profile boomed when it was used in the movie hit Bridesmaids. 381 The Slits, 'Typical Girls' 1979 Writer(s):Ariane Forster, Paloma Romero, Tessa Pollitt, Viviane Albertine Powered byApple Music Inspired by the first flash of U.K. punk but uninterested in any of its clichés, London’s the Slits laid out their feminist vision on “Typical Girls,” a salvo against received gender tropes that caroms between peppy pop, punk, reggae, and even a bit of boogie-woogie jazz; “I used to say to the girls, ‘Sing in the same register of voice that you would use if you were shouting across a playground at school to someone,’” recalled guitarist Viv Albertine, whose boyfriend at the time, Mick Jones of the Clash, urged her to make the song more straightforward. Thankfully, the Slits didn’t listen. 380 Fountains of Wayne, 'Radiation Vibe' 1996 Writer(s):Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger Powered byApple Music Schlesinger and Collingwood met at Williams College in Massachusetts. “We played albums by bands like the Replacements and R.E.M. and had long conversations about what their daily lives must be like,” Collingwood told Rolling Stone in early 2020, after Schlesinger died due to complications related to Covid-19. They reconnected in New York in the mid-Nineties and made their debut “bouncy and sloppy and full of spirit,” as Collingwood recalled. It opened with “Radiation Vibe,” power-pop perfection for a post-Nirvana world, and one of the most charming minor hits of the alt-rock era. 379 D’Angelo, 'Untitled (How Does It Feel)' 2000 Writer(s):D’Angelo, Raphael Saadiq Powered byApple Music “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” emerged during the three years of jam sessions for D’Angelo’s second album, Voodoo, channeling the Virginia R&B innovator’s love for Prince’s ballads. It inspired an iconic video that found him bare-chested, muscles rippling with sweat as he crooned sweet falsetto nothings directly into the camera. “He seemed like a very shy guy,” recalled director Paul Hunter, but “once he got in front of the camera, he was a very different person.” 378 The Killers, 'Mr. Brightside' 2003 Writer(s):Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning Powered byApple Music This tale of jealousy and paranoia has become a millennial “Don’t Stop Believin’,” an anthem belted at karaoke parties and by 100,000-strong football-game crowds at Michigan Stadium. Singer Brandon Flowers drew on real-life romantic angst (at one point a jealous Flowers tracked down his paramour and found her with another man at a Vegas bar), while the Killers worked up the grand sweep of U2 and Oasis songs they were referencing in their music at the time. “It was a real rough thing,” Flowers said of the ex in question. “But we got ‘Mr. Brightside’ outta her.” 377 The Cure, 'Pictures of You' 1989 Writer(s):Boris Williams, Lol Tolhurst, Porl Thompson, Robert Smith, Roger O’Donnell, Simon Gallup Powered byApple Music Robert Smith, who’s admitted to fudging the truth in interviews to keep himself interested while doing press, has shared several origin stories for “Pictures of You.” In one, he was inspired to write it after choosing to destroy all his personal photos; in another, he wrote it after finding a picture of his wife in the wreckage of a fire. The real story, however, hardly seems to matter when the end result is a masterclass of windblown goth-pop ecstasy like this, brimming with nostalgia, heartache, destruction, and desire. 376 Merle Haggard, 'Mama Tried' 1968 Writer(s):Merle Haggard Powered byApple Music Haggard started out imitating “Lefty” Frizzell and Jimmie Rodgers. But he found his own voice telling his own story; “Mama Tried” began by invoking his own fatherless childhood, eternally loving mother, and the actual time he’d done in jail (though his bid was three to 15 on a robbery charge, not “life without parole,” as he sang). For the recording, Haggard wanted to mix his hard-driving Bakersfield country sound with folk music — “Somewhere in between Peter, Paul, and Mary and Johnny Cash,” he later said. He ended up with the greatest fugitive anthem in country history. 375 The Drifters, 'Up on the Roof' 1964 Writer(s):Carole King, Gerry Goffin Powered byApple Music “Up on the Roof” — a summertime song for city dwellers whose only getaways were the tar beaches at the top of their buildings — was written by the husband-and-wife team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, rising stars in New York’s Tin Pan Alley scene who had broken through with the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and had already written one Drifters hit (“Some Kind of Wonderful”). It was sung by Rudy Lewis, the third in the Drifters’ cavalcade of great lead voices; in 1970, King reclaimed the song as a recording artist with a wistful, downtempo version. 374 William DeVaughn, 'Be Thankful for What You Got' 1974 Writer(s):William DeVaughn Powered byApple Music William DeVaughn was living in Washington, D.C., when he brought his composition to Omega Sound, a pay-to-play production studio in Philadelphia. When the company realized DeVaughn was talented, they hired producer John Davis to arrange a professional session — with excellent MSFB musicians like drummer Earl Young and guitarist Norman Harris — and sold it to independent label Chelsea Records. DeVaughn’s one-hit wonder has epitomized Seventies-hustle mentality ever since, thanks to his Curtis Mayfield-like croon and the evocative chorus, “Diamond in the back, sunroof top, diggin’ the scene with a gangsta lean.” 373 Drake, 'Hotline Bling' 2015 Writer(s):Aubrey Graham, Paul Jefferies, Timmy Thomas Powered byApple Music “Hotline Bling” was Drake’s entry into an ongoing flurry of new songs based around the rhythm track of “Cha Cha” by Virginia rapper-producer Shelley (formerly D.R.A.M.). “In Jamaica, you’ll have a riddim, and it’s like, ‘Everyone has to do a song on that,'” Drake said. “Imagine that in rap, or imagine that in R&B … that’s kind of what ‘Hotline Bling’ was.” In the same vein as that Jamaican tradition, “Hotline Bling,” with its infectious “You used to call me on my cellphone” intro and instantly meme-ready video, became an enormous viral hit, inspiring versions by everyone from Alessia Cara, who rendered the song as a ballad, to Erykah Badu, who spun her take into an entire phone-themed mixtape. 372 Bonnie Raitt, 'I Can't Make You Love Me' 1991 Writer(s):Michael Reid, Allen Shamblin Powered byApple Music Raitt nailed this staggeringly intimate ballad in one take. “It’s a pretty devastating song to sing more than once,” she said later. “Plus, it took me a minute to recover from how sad it was.” With Bruce Hornsby on piano and Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers on organ, she created an unexpected pop standard, performed by everyone from Adele and George Michael to Boyz II Men and Bon Iver. But no one has come close to Raitt’s honesty or vulnerability. Said producer Don Was: “It’s one of those performances that is so powerful that it changes the definition of what the popular music of the time is.” 371 Elton John, 'Bennie and the Jets' 1973 Writer(s):Bernie Taupin, Elton John Powered byApple Music This weird and wonderful Number One hit — Elton at his most playfully funky — is about a fictional rock band, as told by a ravenous fan preaching the gospel of Bennie and the Jets to her friends Candy and Ronnie. “I saw Bennie and the Jets as a sort of proto-sci-fi punk band,” lyricist Bernie Taupin told Rolling Stone in 2014, “fronted by an androgynous woman, who looks like something out of a Helmut Newton photograph.” Elton didn’t want “Bennie and the Jets” released as a single, only acquiescing after he heard it was getting play on the top Black station in Detroit. 370 Buddy Holly, 'Peggy Sue' 1958 Writer(s):Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Norman Petty Powered byApple Music Holly’s most iconic hit came together in a rehearsal. “Buddy had a song started called ‘Cindy Lou,'” said Jerry Allison, the drummer for Buddy Holly and the Crickets. “I think he had a niece named Cindy Lou.” During the recording, Allison’s snare drum was so loud that producer Norman Petty told him to play in the studio’s reception area. Perhaps to placate his drummer, Holly agreed to Allison’s suggestion that they rename the tune after a woman he was dating, Peggy Sue. 369 The Cars, 'Just What I Needed' 1978 Writer(s):Ric Ocasek Powered byApple Music “If the goal was to have great success making pop music with a sense of irony,” Cars guitarist Elliot Easton told Rolling Stone shortly after Ric Ocasek’s death in 2019, “then mission accomplished, right?” Written in the late Seventies in the basement of a commune where Ocasek lived, the Cars’ debut single defined their mix of precision-tuned sleekness and creepy mystery — especially when he throws in the vampiric line “I needed someone to bleed.” In a testament to the tune’s genius, a rawer early demo, lacking the meticulous studio polish that made it a New Wave smash, broke on Boston radio before the official version even came out. 368 Soundgarden, 'Black Hole Sun' 1994 Writer(s):Chris Cornell Powered byApple Music Chris Cornell was watching TV one day when he thought he heard a news anchor refer to a “black hole sun.” He soon realized he was mistaken, but he liked the phrase, so he hung onto it and later attached it to the otherworldly power ballad that would become Soundgarden’s biggest hit. The song bathed the band’s signature gloomy crunch in a heady psychedelic swirl, giving it an eerie, Floyd-ian feel. “It was this combination of bright and dark,” Cornell recalled, explaining the song’s spooky gravitational pull. “This sense of hope and an underlying moodiness.” 367 Frank Ocean, 'Thinkin Bout You' 2012 Writer(s):Shea Taylor, Lonnie Breaux Powered byApple Music When Ocean sang, “My eyes don’t shed tears, but boy they pour when I’m thinking ’bout you,” the subtle shift in pronoun marked a turning point in R&B; he accompanied his debut, Channel Orange, with a heartfelt open letter on his Tumblr, artfully telling the story of coming to understand his sexuality. “Thinkin Bout You” was in some ways accidental; the song was originally written for R&B singer Bridget Kelly. But when a demo of Ocean’s subtle, elegiac version leaked, it immediately became recognized as the shy soul visionary’s signature song. 366 The Crystals, 'Da Doo Ron Ron' 1963 Writer(s):Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector Powered byApple Music Within a year, the Crystals’ records went from high drama (“He’s a Rebel”) to swooning romance (“Then He Kissed Me”) to the speaking-in-tongues magic that is “Da Doo Ron Ron.” And every one was a smash. Spector, their producer, was adamant: “My belief is that every disc issued should be a hit,” he declared in 1964. “Big labels put out hundreds of discs, but every one I put out I intend for the charts.” The Crystals themselves didn’t all sing on the record — just lead vocalist LaLa Brooks, backed by session singers, including Cher. 365 Sex Pistols, 'God Save the Queen' 1977 Writer(s):Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten, Paul Thomas Cook, Stephen Philip Jones Powered byApple Music Banned by the BBC for “gross bad taste,” this blast of nihilism savaged the pomp of Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee and came in a sleeve showing Her Majesty with a safety pin through her lip. “As far as I’m concerned, she ain’t no human being,” said singer Johnny Rotten. “She’s a piece of cardboard they drag around on a trolley.” The manic sneer in John Lydon’s voice and Steve Jones’ glam-avalancher guitar crunch immediately made it the signature anthem of U.K. punk rock as proud social disease. 364 The Grateful Dead, 'Box of Rain' 1970 Writer(s):Phil Lesh, Robert Hunter Powered byApple Music Perhaps the Dead’s finest moment in a recording studio, with its raggedly gorgeous harmony singing and concise down-home guitar beauty. Robert Hunter wrote “Box of Rain” to music Phil Lesh had given him, quickly penning a reflection on mortality. Lesh learned to sing it while driving out to visit his father, who was dying of cancer. “By ‘box of rain,’ I meant the world we live on,” Hunter said later, “but ‘ball’ of rain didn’t have the right ring to my ear, so ‘box’ it became, and I don’t know who put it there.” 363 Bob Marley and the Wailers, 'Could You Be Loved' 1980 Writer(s):Bob Marley Powered byApple Music In the liner notes to the 1992 Marley box set Songs of Freedom, “Could You Be Loved” is described as “consciously recorded with a sound that would appeal to Black American radio programmers.” Indeed, it’s Marley’s only single to make the Billboard Dance chart, thanks in part to a disco groove and irresistibly fluttering keyboards. He wrote “Could You Be Loved” on airplanes en route to the final shows he would play before his death from cancer in 1981, a slot opening for the Commodores. The sheet music of the song was later emblazoned on a postage stamp issued by the Jamaican government. 362 Kacey Musgraves, 'Merry Go 'Round' 2013 Writer(s):Kacey Musgraves, Luke Laird, Shane McAnally Powered byApple Music Inspired by her upbringing in a “tiny little Bible Belt town,” the Texan country artist channeled years of firsthand observation into her debut single, a searingly on-point bit of small-town realism about folks settling into comfort zones that become life sentences. “I feel like it’s something everyone can relate to,” Musgraves said. The jaw-dropping lines “Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay, brother’s hooked on Mary Jane, and daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors down” might’ve been a little edgy, but the song went Top 10 on country radio and won Best Country Song at the Grammys. 361 Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come' 1972 Writer(s):Jimmy Cliff Powered byApple Music Before this song, Cliff had already won acclaim: Bob Dylan lauded his 1969 single “Vietnam” as “the best protest song ever written.” But Cliff became an international star with this gospel tale of eternal rebellion, expressly written for the movie of the same name, in which he played Ivan Martin, a young man who comes to Kingston, Jamaica, to make his way as a musician. “The film opened the door for Jamaica,” Cliff recalled. “It said, ‘This is where this music comes from.'” 360 Prince, 'Little Red Corvette' 1982 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music A horse-racing metaphor, a car metaphor, and a sex metaphor: Prince didn’t scrimp on literary possibilities in coming up with what would be his first Top 10 hit. In 1982, Prince had a 24-track studio installed in his basement; by 6 p.m. the day after it was set up, he had recorded “Little Red Corvette.” The song is an almost perfect erotic fusion of rock and funk that builds slowly until exploding into a guitar solo. Fittingly, Prince wrote the lyrics in the back seat of a car, but not a red Corvette: It was a bright-pink Ford Edsel belonging to Revolution keyboardist Lisa Coleman. 359 Fugees, 'Killing Me Softly With His Song' 1996 Writer(s):Norman Gamble, Charles Fox Powered byApple Music For all the musical creativity New Jersey trio Fugees unveiled on their classic album The Score, it was a cover of a 1972 Roberta Flack ballad that remains their most iconic moment. Pras came up with the idea to do it, and producer Salaam Remi suggested using A Tribe Called Quest’s “Bonita Applebum” instrumental. Meanwhile, producer Jerry Wonder decided to use a “reggae one drop” bass line. But this song truly belongs to Lauryn Hill: It’s the moment when she evolved from everyone’s favorite femcee to a generational icon. 358 Patti Smith, 'Because the Night' 1978 Writer(s):Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music While recording Darkness on the Edge of Town in 1977, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band had come up with a rough sketch of a song that they weren’t sure what to do with. That is, until engineer Jimmy Iovine stepped in and decided it belonged to another artist he was working with at the time: “One night, whilst we were lounging around the Hotel Navarro in New York, I told Bruce I desperately wanted a hit with Patti, that she deserved one. He agreed.” The rest is history: With its twin verses written by Springsteen and Smith, respectively, “Because the Night” perfectly captured both artists’ hungry-hearted rock & roll spirit, and became Smith’s lone Top 20 hit. 357 Taylor Swift, 'Blank Space' 2014 Writer(s):Taylor Swift, Karl Sandberg, Karl Schuster Powered byApple Music After nearly a decade of having her lyrics, public image, and dating life scrutinized beyond her control, Swift chose to take back the narrative with “Blank Space,” a song that satirizes her “serial dater” persona by doubling down on it — it became an intense-even-for-Taylor highlight of her synth-pop blowout 1989. “That was the character I felt the media had written for me, and for a long time I felt hurt by it,” she said. “I took it personally. But as time went by, I realized it was kind of hilarious.” 356 Cheap Trick, 'Surrender' 1978 Writer(s):Rick Nielsen Powered byApple Music Cheap Trick came out of Rockford, Illinois, in 1974, a Midwestern rock & roll corrective to the self-seriousness of music at the time. ​​“People go to bars to pick up girls and dance,” bassist Tom Petersson recalled. “They didn’t want to hear Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.” Trick provided the ultimate Seventies teen anthem in “Surrender,” with a verse about a kid who catches his mom and dad getting stoned and making out to his Kiss records. Guitarist-songwriter Rick Nielsen’s secret? “I [had] to go back and put myself in the head of a 14-year-old.” 355 Thelma Houston, 'Don't Leave Me This Way' 1976 Writer(s):Cary Gilbert, Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff Powered byApple Music This emotive disco ballad, previously by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, became a barnburner for Motown star Houston. When she was nominated for a Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Grammy for it, she stayed home, having lost a previous time to Aretha Franklin. This time, Houston won. She later recalled: “You don’t want to feel like a fool when you win and people ask you years later, ‘Where were you?’ — ‘Oh, I was at home, scrubbing my kitchen floor.’” 354 Michael Jackson, 'Rock With You' 1979 Writer(s):Rod Temperton Powered byApple Music “Rock With You” is at once a beginning and an end. Released in 1979, it’s the perfect swan song for the disco era — a seductive, love-filled romp with rich horns, staccato strings, slick guitar, and subtle synth work. It’s also the first collaborative effort between Jackson, songwriter Rod Temperton, and producer Quincy Jones, and with “Rock With You” as their foundation, this trio would soon redefine pop and make Jackson its king. Usher later said, “Songs like ‘Rock With You’ made me want to become a performer.” 353 Eurythmics, 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' 1983 Writer(s):Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart Powered byApple Music “Sweet Dreams” was a deceptively catchy and seductive single from two former lovers. “The day Dave and I ended our romance, Eurythmics began,” Lennox told Rolling Stone. Their relationship had crumbled along with their previous band, the Tourists, and the creation of Eurythmics steered the two away from guitar-based New Wave and into the burgeoning synth-pop scene. But the tense sessions for “Sweet Dreams” nearly ended their musical partnership. “I was curled up in the fetal position,” Lennox said. “He programmed this rhythm. It sounded so good. In the end I couldn’t resist it.” 352 Ice Cube, 'It Was a Good Day' 1992 Writer(s):O'Shea Jackson Powered byApple Music Ice Cube’s 1992 album, The Predator, was steeped in the turmoil of the L.A. riots. But for “It Was a Good Day,” he wanted to show a little optimism: “I remember thinking, ‘OK, there’s been the riots, people know I will deal with that. That’s a given. But I rap all this gangsta stuff; what about all the good days I had?’” Yet his day-in-the-life chronicle, which cruises along on a smooth Isley Brothers groove, is hardly carefree; even if Cube didn’t have to use his AK, the specter of violence and racism is always close at hand. 351 Jorge Ben, 'Ponta de Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)' 1976 Writer(s):Jorge Ben Powered byApple Music When David Byrne put together an introductory compilation of Brazilian pop for American listeners in the late Eighties, he opened it with this track, and for good reason. Ben was a versatile artist with a hornlike vocal wail and slippery sense of rhythm who effortlessly fused bossa nova and samba with rock and funk. “Ponta de Lança Africano,” dedicated to an African soccer player, opens his fantastic 1976 album Africa Brazil; Ben works closely with his backup singers, who alternate between echoing the lead and providing sweet chirping accents, to pour fuel on the rhythm section’s fire. The result is a funky tour de force. Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety W.L. Gore Plans Fall 2022 Introduction for New Membrane Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next The Best At-Home Espresso Machines to Buy Right Now Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 350 John Prine, 'Angel From Montgomery' 1971 Writer(s):John Prine Powered byApple Music Prine’s most well-known song may be about, what he described as, “a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is,” but the drudgery and despair depicted in “Angel From Montgomery” is universal, delivered by Prine with characteristic warmth and empathy. “She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything,” Prine said. “She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this.” Bonnie Raitt made the song her own with a majestic 1974 version, but even stripped bare of any music at all, Prine’s blunt words would pack a wallop. 349 The Zombies, 'Time of the Season' 1968 Writer(s):Rod Argent Powered byApple Music If “Time of the Season” did nothing more than introduce the term “Who’s your daddy?” into the cultural lexicon, it would be a landmark achievement. But the 1968 Zombies single is also one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era — the closing track on the band’s 1968 classic Odessey and Oracle. In the studio, the love didn’t flow as freely as it did on the record, including a nasty fight between frontman Colin Blunstone and songwriter-keyboardist Rod Argent. “It ended up with us shouting at each other,” Blunstone said in 2015. “And there I am singing ‘It’s the time of the season for loving …’” 348 Roxy Music, 'Virginia Plain' 1972 Writer(s):Bryan Ferry Powered byApple Music Roxy Music’s debut single didn’t have a chorus, and Bryan Ferry didn’t sing the title until the song’s final words. But the enormously original U.K. glam-rock band was never big on formula. “My head was swimming with lots of different, contrasting types of music,” said Ferry. His pop-eyed lyrics fast-forwarded through a travelogue of glamour (Baby Jane Holzer, Rio, “midnight-blue casino floors”), while Brian Eno coaxed weird sounds from his VCS3 synthesizer. For the motorcycle that revs in the background, the band borrowed a friend’s bike and recorded it live late at night outside the studio. 347 Elvis Presley, 'Heartbreak Hotel' 1958 Writer(s):Mae Boren Axton, Thomas Durden, Elvis Presley Powered byApple Music When RCA Records signed “hillbilly cat” Presley, the label expected more songs like his rockabilly hits from Sun Records. Instead, for his first RCA single, Presley recorded this gloomy, downtempo number, co-written by Mae Boren Axton, his former publicist, and inspired by a Miami Herald report of a suicide note that consisted solely of the line “I walk a lonely street.” But what Sun Records founder Sam Phillips called “a morbid mess” went on to become Presley’s first Number One hit and million-selling single. 346 BTS, 'Dynamite' 2020 Writer(s):David Stewart, Jessica Agombar Powered byApple Music BTS’ first-ever U.S. Number One, as well as their first full English-language song, “Dynamite” was a landmark, hegemony-shattering moment for the world-conquering South Korean group. Their intertwined vocal talent, led by youthful standout Jung Kook, put over the track — which was co-written by British producer-songwriter Dave Stewart (not the one from Eurythmics) and Jessica Agombar. Stewart told Rolling Stone that Columbia Records had been looking for an English-language crossover hit for BTS: “It had to have tempo, be exciting.… one thing I’m good at is writing to brief.” 345 Carole King, 'It’s Too Late' 1971 Writer(s):Carole King, Toni Stern Powered byApple Music For Lou Adler, who produced it, King’s Tapestry was “the Love Story of the record industry. It hit a nerve.” But unlike that film’s gauzy view of romance, King’s biggest hit, “It’s Too Late,” was a forthright, adult song about divorce, a heretofore new topic for pop — and King gave a vocal performance that was as resolutely unsentimental but still as full of warmth as her lyrics. Its Number One status was revelatory at the time, a chart-topping single about the end of a relationship in which a woman is clearly doing the breaking up. 344 Black Sabbath, 'Iron Man' 1971 Writer(s):Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi Powered byApple Music “‘It sounds like a big iron bloke walking about,'” bassist Geezer Butler recalled Ozzy Osbourne saying when he first heard Tony Iommi play the single most iconic guitar riff in metal history. That description was all Butler needed to inspire a tale of literal heavy metal: a man “turned to steel, in a great magnetic field” — apparently totally unrelated to the already-extant Marvel character. Few songs encapsulate an entire genre the way this one does, thanks mainly to Iommi’s plodding doom-blues motif, which Osbourne borrows exactly for his vocal line. 343 The Doobie Brothers, 'What a Fool Believes' 1979 Writer(s):Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald Powered byApple Music Few songs encapsulated the smooth-sailing style that would come to be called yacht rock as much as the Doobies’ Grammy-sweeping hit. The falsetto harmonies, syncopated Michael McDonald keyboard, and lovelorn lyrics (about “two people who see this same thing in their past very differently,” McDonald said) were textbook yacht. But the song didn’t come easy: The Doobies attempted it at least 30 times in the studio, driving everyone nuts, even its singer. “I was like, ‘I hate this fucking song,’” McDonald recalls. “The band was completely disgusted by that point.” 342 Chuck Berry, 'Promised Land' 1964 Writer(s):Chuck Berry Powered byApple Music Berry wrote “Promised Land” in prison, where he was serving a sentence for taking a teenage girl across state lines, a charge he felt was racially motivated. When he arrived at Chess Records for his first session after getting out, the first thing he recorded was “Promised Land,” an American travelogue set to a hot riff that mapped out the same course that the civil rights protesters known as the the Freedom Riders had taken as they tried to integrate Southern bus stations in 1961 — including cities like Rock Hill, South Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama, where the riders were attacked by violent mobs. 341 The Monkees, 'I'm a Believer' 1966 Writer(s):Neil Diamond Powered byApple Music Monkeemania peaked in late 1966 and early 1967 when this Neil Diamond-penned love song stayed at Number One for seven consecutive weeks. The vocals were laid down by Micky Dolenz after a long day on the set of the Monkees TV series; he later recalled that his life at the time was such a blur of filming and recording that he has no memory of making “I’m a Believer.” “It’s probably my signature Monkees tune, though,” he said in 2016. “I can’t explain why it’s proven to be so popular. You can’t reduce art like that, especially collaborative stuff.” 340 The Clash, '(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais' 1978 Writer(s):Mick Jones, Joe Strummer Powered byApple Music This 1978 single exhibits the Clash stretching their sound and figuring out their principles in real time. Over a buoyant groove, Joe Strummer recounts an all-night reggae party at a London venue that proved too pop for his taste, then turns his ire toward fashionable punk bands “turning rebellion into money.” It’s one of Strummer’s catchiest songs, condensing vignette and conviction into a package that showed the Clash were more than just a scrappy punk band. There’s a reason the song was a mainstay of Strummer’s sets even after the Clash — in fact, it was one of the last songs the late frontman ever played. 339 Prince, '1999' 1982 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music When Prince recorded “1999,” he would go all day and all night without rest and turn down food, since he felt eating would make him sleepy. The opening verse was originally recorded in three-part harmony; Prince split up the vocals, and the harmony parts became a new, odd melody. The single’s first release didn’t make the Top 40, but Prince put it out again after “Little Red Corvette,” and it was finally a hit, reaching the Top 20. As keyboardist Matt Fink told Rolling Stone a few years later, “‘1999’ was pretty different for a message. Not your average bubblegum hit.” 338 Black Sabbath, 'Paranoid' 1970 Writer(s):Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, William Ward Powered byApple Music Black Sabbath’s second LP was basically complete when producer Rodger Bain realized that the running time was around three minutes short. So the band quickly came up with this chugging, adrenalized rocker. They worried that it sounded a bit too much like Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown,” but stuck with it anyway, and bassist Geezer Butler worked up a set of lyrics about a man grappling with mental and emotional malaise. “I had been suffering from undiagnosed depression, and the only way of dealing with it was to write about it,” he later told Guitar World. “It was quite cathartic.” 337 Cher, 'Believe' 1998 Writer(s): Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, Timothy Powell, Cher Powered byApple Music At a time when pretty much every artist of her generation was still sticking with guitar-based pop rock, Cher took a gamble on a new futuristic technology called Auto-Tune and won big time. Her secret? Making sure that even through the robotic vocal effects, she sounded like a force to be reckoned with: “I was singing [the song] in the bathtub, and it seemed to me the second verse was too whiny. It kind of pissed me off, so I changed it. I toughened it up a bit.” “Believe” introduced the then-52-year-old singer to a whole new generation of fans, becoming an indelible anthem for the queer community and earning Cher a permanent place in the canon of empowerment-pop anthems. 336 Hall and Oates, 'She’s Gone' 1973 Writer(s):Daryl Hall, John Oates Powered byApple Music “She’s Gone” is a song that thrived in its afterlife. When Hall and Oates released it in 1973, it reached Number 60 on the singles chart. Three years later, a still-scuffling Hall and Oates finally had their first smash, the smoochy ballad “Sara Smile.” When “She’s Gone” was rereleased in 1976, it gave the duo a second huge hit. Its elegant arrangements and slow-build harmonies paid tribute to the great R&B coming out of the duo’s hometown, Philadelphia. “We wouldn’t sound like this if we grew up in Iowa,” Oates later said. 335 Marshall Jefferson, 'Move Your Body (The House Music Anthem)' 1986 Writer(s):Marshall Jefferson Powered byApple Music Chicago native Jefferson was working at a post office when he produced one of the first great vocal house records, nailing the combination of hummable melody and headlong momentum that has pulled wallflowers onto the dance floor for 35 years. “The reason I wanted to have a funky piano in ‘Move Your Body’ was because of Elton John,” Jefferson explained. But since he wasn’t a skilled piano player, he recorded the part at the manageable tempo of 40 beats per minute, and then sped it up to the canonical house tempo of 120 bpm. Jefferson recruited a friend and fellow postal worker, Curtis McClain, to sing vocals. 334 The Grateful Dead, 'Ripple' 1970 Writer(s):Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter Powered byApple Music “It just seemed to happen automatically,” Jerry Garcia said of the writing of one of the Dead’s most Zen-like statements. A serene peak of hippie-folk pastoralism, the song originated during the Canadian tour-by-rail commemorated in the documentary Festival Express, with Garcia setting Robert Hunter’s lyric to music between bar-car jam sessions with Janis Joplin and members of the Band. Hunter himself would declare the lyric “Let it be known there is a fountain/That was not made by the hands of men,” as “pretty much my favorite line I ever wrote.” 333 The Temptations, 'Papa Was a Rollin' Stone' 1972 Writer(s):Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong Powered byApple Music Even after Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder asserted their musical independence, the Motown production assembly line continued to work wonders. “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” a cinematic seven-minute epic of African American musical history and social realism, was previously recorded by the Undisputed Truth before the Temptations turned it into a smash. But the Tempts were hardly Norman Whitfield’s puppets. “We asked for him because we thought he had the capacity to bring out everybody’s talent instead of just one [singer] at a time,” said Temptation Melvin Franklin. 332 Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, 'Umbrella' 2007 Writer(s):Christopher Stewart, Terius Nash, Kuk Harrell, Shawn Carter Powered byApple Music “Before that song, Rihanna was just a pop-single girl,” said Terius “the Dream” Nash, who co-wrote “Umbrella.” “Now she got paparazzi following her around.” An international Number One that transformed the Barbadian singer into a superstar, the song was the prototype for Rihanna’s massive run of hook-storm hits to follow. Amazingly, both Britney Spears and Mary J. Blige passed on the song before it fell into RiRi’s lap. “I’m so thankful for it,” she said. “I prayed for this song.” 331 The Marvelettes, 'Please Mr. Postman' 1961 Writer(s):Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, Robert Bateman Powered byApple Music “Please Mr. Postman” wasn’t just the first Motown recording to go Number One, it was Brian Holland’s first producing job, and the first time the Marvelettes — then the high school harmonizers the Casinyets — had been inside a recording studio. Holland and co-producer Robert Bateman helped fill in a sketch written by departed group member Georgia Dobbins, bringing in Freddie Gorman, an actual postman (who was still in uniform at the studio) for verisimilitude. Afterward, Berry Gordy decided to rename the marvelous group the Marvelettes. 330 The Notorious B.I.G., 'Big Poppa' 1994 Writer(s):Christopher Wallace, Rudolph Isley, O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Ernest Isley, Marvin Isley, Chris Jasper Powered byApple Music “Big Poppa,” the song that smoothed out the Notorious B.I.G.’s tough image and solidified his radio and MTV stardom, came out of the late Brooklyn rapper’s and producer Chucky Thompson’s admiration for massive G-funk hits like Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle and Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day.” Thompson added a funky earworm keyboard line to a sample of the Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets,” and left the beat rolling in the studio. When he returned, Biggie had its classic club chorus: “Throw your hands in the air if youse a true player.” 329 Bad Bunny, 'Safaera' 2020 Writer(s):Sly Dunbar, Benito Martínez, Lloyd Willis, Jose Cruz, Freddy Montalvo Alicia, Melissa Elliott, Timothy Mosley, Bob Marley, Ormani Perez, Shaun Pizzonia, Richard Lied, Felix Rodriguez, Marco Masis, Joel Munoz, Randy Ortiz, Edwin Rosa Powered byApple Music The Puerto Rican reggaeton trailblazer made excellent use of his Covid-19 quarantine, releasing three explosive albums in 2020: “I just thought, ‘Damn. What people need is entertainment,’” he told Rolling Stone. “Safaera,” from the fantastic YHLQMDLG, compacts the sweat-soaked, high-octane vigor of a Nineties-era reggaeton mixtape into a jolting five minutes packed with at least nine beat flips, multiple Puerto Rican guest stars, unflinchingly irreverent lyrics, and samples ranging from Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” to Alexis and Fido’s “El Tiburon.” It’s a song that feels like a writhing, living thing. 328 Red Hot Chili Peppers, 'Under the Bridge' 1991 Writer(s):Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Chad Smith Powered byApple Music The stark, poignant ballad “Under the Bridge” was a breakthrough hit for the Chili Peppers, shattering their party-boy image. It started as an autobiographical confession from frontman Anthony Kiedis, who counted an experience with some gang members under an actual Los Angeles bridge as a low point of his drug addiction. Kiedis started writing it while feeling lonely after a band rehearsal, following the death of the Chili’s guitarist Hillel Slovak. “L.A. — the hills, the buildings, the people in it as a whole — that seemed to be looking out for me more than any human being,” he told Rolling Stone in 1992. 327 Mary J. Blige, 'Real Love' 1992 Writer(s):Mark Rooney, Mark Morales Powered byApple Music Blige’s second R&B chart topper was written two years earlier in a basement in Queens. Producer Kevin Rooney made the track using a medley of keyboards and the stuttered percussion pattern from Audio Two’s old-school-rap hit “Top Billin’.” Mark Morales — a.k.a. Prince Markie Dee of the Fat Boys — wrote the lyrics. The result was a swinging, gospelized lament that would reshape the sound of R&B in the Nineties. Rooney wanted to get rid of the Audio Two sample and play the drums himself, but executive producer Sean “Puffy” Combs kept it in, telling Rooney, “That’s what makes it hip-hop.” 326 Rilo Kiley, 'Portions for Foxes' 2004 Writer(s):Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett Powered byApple Music Rilo Kiley was one of the most exciting indie-rock bands of the early 2000s, and they hit a power-pop peak with “Portions for Foxes.” Jenny Lewis sang about a bad-news relationship, while Blake Sennett piled on ornery guitar fire. Had it come out 10 years earlier, the song might have been an alt-rock radio hit. But it ended up getting a boost all the same when it was used by the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, and Lewis still breaks out the song at her solo shows. 325 Iggy Pop, 'Lust for Life' 1977 Writer(s):David Bowie, Iggy Pop Powered byApple Music With its enormous kaboom and Pop’s sneering, free-associative lyrics (the line about “hypnotizing chickens” is a reference to William S. Burroughs’ The Ticket That Exploded), “Lust for Life” is a kiss-off to drugged-out hedonism. The opening riff was supposedly taken from some Morse-code producer David Bowie had heard on the Armed Forces Network. And the line “Of course I’ve had it in the ear before”? “That’s a common expression in the Midwest,” Pop said. “To ‘give it to him right in the ear’ means to fuck somebody over.” 324 Billy Joel, 'Scenes From an Italian Restaurant' 1977 Writer(s):Billy Joel Powered byApple Music “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” is a seamless three-part saga about nostalgia, dashed expectations, Long Island, and Long Island accents. Joel, the Irving Berlin of suburbia, packs an entire Broadway musical into seven and a half minutes, as he tells the story of Brenda and Eddie, popular kids who marry young, then flameout and divorce — as Joel put it, “People who peaked a little too early in life.” In structuring the song, Joel wanted to replicate the way George Martin had collaged different ideas together for Side Two of the Beatles’ Abbey Road. “Not that I’d ever think we could do something as good as that,” he added. 323 Everly Brothers, 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' 1958 Writer(s):Boudleaux Bryant, Felice Bryant Powered byApple Music Although Don Everly had a contract to work as a songwriter before he and his brother Phil began their hitmaking, their first three big singles were all written by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. “I would go to them for lovelorn advice when I was young, and divorce advice when I was older,” Phil said. “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” with Chet Atkins’ innovative tremolo chording backing the brothers’ high-lonesome harmonies, went to Number One on not just the pop chart, but the R&B chart as well. 322 Neil Young, 'After the Gold Rush' 1970 Writer(s):Neil Young Powered byApple Music Written in about a half hour and recorded in his basement in Topanga Canyon, California, this sci-fi piano ballad — just Young accompanied by a forlorn French horn — is an ecological plea inspired by his friend Dean Stockwell’s idea for a movie about a natural disaster that destroys California. The movie never got made, but the song immediately touched a nerve. As Randy Newman admiringly noted, “‘After the Gold Rush’ is sort of a primal urge for a simpler, better time — which may have never existed, but Neil thinks it does.” 321 U2, 'I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For' 1987 Writer(s):Bono, Larry Mullen Jr., the Edge, Adam Clayton Powered byApple Music “The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God,” Bono told Rolling Stone. U2’s second Number One single revels in ambivalence — “an anthem of doubt more than faith,” Bono has called it. The song was typical of the arduous sessions for The Joshua Tree: Originally called “Under the Weather,” it began, like most U2 songs, as a jam. “It sounded to me a little like ‘Eye of the Tiger’ played by a reggae band,” the Edge recalled. 320 2Pac, 'California Love' 1995 Writer(s):Tupac Shakur, Andre Young, Larry Troutman, Mikel Hooks, Norman Durham, Ronnie Hudson, Woody Cunningham Powered byApple Music There are a few myths surrounding the creation of 2Pac’s biggest hit. One claims that Dr. Dre made the beat during a barbecue at his Calabasas, California, home, and 2Pac jumped in the booth and dropped his verse in a few minutes. Another claims that Dre intended the track for his follow-up to The Chronic, but Death Row don Suge Knight coerced him into giving the single to Pac — whom he had just bailed out of prison and signed to the label. Regardless, “California Love” represents gangsta rap at its most flamboyant and cinematic. 319 Tears for Fears, 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' 1985 Writer(s):Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, Chris Hughes Powered byApple Music With a huge melody and timely geopolitical theme, Tears for Fears’ first Number One exemplified the era’s anthemic synth-rock. “Back when we were doing … ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World,’ we were really discussing the Cold War,” said Curt Smith. “We argued with the American [record] company about releasing [it] as a single.” Its success propelled their LP Songs From the Big Chair to go five-times-platinum in the U.S. — and forced them to rebook their 1985 tour into larger venues. 318 Big Mama Thornton, 'Hound Dog' 1953 Writer(s):Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller Powered byApple Music Blues belter Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton had already made some records when she signed on with R&B bandleader Johnny Otis in 1952. In L.A., they cut “Hound Dog,” a raw, funny blues by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, two white hipsters who were writing R&B songs. The record’s release was held back; a year later, Thornton heard it on the radio in Dayton, Ohio. “I was going to the theater, and I just turned the radio on in the car,” she remembered. “And the man said, ‘Here’s a record that’s going nationwide!'” Of course, it would be even bigger when Elvis Presley cut his version a couple of years later. 317 Bob Dylan, 'Visions of Johanna' 1966 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music In early 1966, Dylan decamped to Nashville to record Blonde on Blonde with a crew of local studio pros assembled by producer Bob Johnston. In their very first late-night session, they fleshed out this seven-minute meditation on unrequited desire. “‘Far out,’ would have been the words I would have used at the time,” recalled Bill Atkins, who played keyboard. Joan Baez claimed the song, originally titled “Seems Like a Freeze-Out,” was about her; if so, she left quite a mark on Dylan; he’s rarely sounded so transcendently dejected. 316 The Shangri-Las, 'Leader of the Pack' 1964 Writer(s):George Francis Morton, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich Powered byApple Music The Shangri-Las, the tough, white girl group among mainly churchgoing Black ones, capped the early-Sixties trend for teen tragedies with their biggest hit. Producer-songwriter Shadow Morton got inspired while shopping for a motorcycle, telling collaborator Jeff Barry to start a song for the Shangri-Las about a biker and “this girl [who] sees him, and she falls in love with him.” Barry objected, saying that DJs would avoid glamorizing such a figure, so Morton improvised an ending: “He … dies.” 315 John Coltrane, 'Pt. 1-Acknowledgement' 1965 Writer(s):John Coltrane Powered byApple Music In late 1964, John Coltrane secluded himself in a spare upstairs bedroom in his house in Dix Hills, Long Island, with his saxophone, pen, and paper. His wife Alice later remembered him emerging “like Moses coming down the mountain” with a brand-new album-length suite of devotional music, which he called A Love Supreme. “This album is a humble offering to Him,” he would write in the liner notes of the LP. “An attempt to say, ‘Thank you God’ through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues.” The opening movement starts off like a musical prayer, before moving into a mantra-esque bass vamp — which later becomes the foundation for a vocal chant of the title phrase — as Coltrane and the other members of his so-called classic quartet, pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones, join in. Coltrane’s majestic, often violent blowing on the track is never self-aggrandizing. He soars with nothing but gratitude and joy. You can’t help but go with him. 314 The Stooges, 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' 1969 Writer(s):Dave Alexander, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton, Iggy Pop Powered byApple Music The idea for the Stooges’ sound came to Iggy Pop while he was smoking a joint on the banks of the Chicago River and thinking about the local musicians he admired. “What you gotta do is play your own simple blues,” he realized. It doesn’t get any simpler than “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” which turned three shaggy chords into a menacing proto-punk mantra. “I don’t want to talk about literature with you.… I don’t want to judge you as a person,” Pop later told Howard Stern when asked about the meaning of the song. “I wanna dog you, you know?” 313 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, 'The Tears of a Clown' 1967 Writer(s):Henry Cosby, William Robinson, Stevie Wonder Powered byApple Music Stevie Wonder gave Robinson a recording of this track, which he was having a hard time writing words for. Its swirling melody brought to mind a circus, but initially that led to another dead end, as Robinson later recalled: “What can I write about the circus that’s going to touch people’s hearts? Can’t write about the animals. People love animals, but what’s that got to do with touching people’s hearts, unless I write something tragic about an animal.” He eventually landed on the idea of a sad clown, and had a chart-topping hit. 312 Isaac Hayes, 'Walk on By' 1969 Writer(s):Burt Bacharach, Hal David Powered byApple Music With hits like Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man” to his credit, Hayes was a successful songwriter for Stax Records when he began to assemble a performing career. He held pickup sessions with the Bar-Kays, a young backing band then evolving into acid-dropping funk-rockers. One of the tracks the ensemble toyed with was “Walk on By,” a 1964 pop hit written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick. By the time Hayes and the Bar-Kays were done with it, they’d transformed a lite-pop staple into 12 minutes of wah-wah guitar and orchestral pomp: the dawn of stoned soul. 311 The Eagles, 'Hotel California' 1976 Writer(s):Don Felder, Glenn Frey, Don Henley Powered byApple Music “Hotel California” was rumored to be about heroin addiction or Satan worship, but Don Henley had more prosaic things on his mind: “We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest,” he said. “‘Hotel California’ was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.” Working in Miami, the Eagles were initially unable to re-create guitarist and co-writer Don Felder’s 12-string intro and elaborate twin-guitar coda. Panicked, Felder called his housekeeper in L.A. and sent her digging through a pile of tapes in his home studio so she could play his demo back over the phone. 310 The Doors, 'Light My Fire' 1967 Writer(s):Robby Krieger, John Densmore, Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek Powered byApple Music It was the first song Robby Krieger ever wrote — with additional lyrics from Jim Morrison and arrangements from the rest of the band. “It’s like I’d saved up all [these ideas] in my mind and got them out all at once,” Krieger said. The song catapulted the Doors to overnight fame, which Krieger said was part of Morrison’s plan: “Jim had this idea of the band being a shooting star,” Krieger said. “Fire” ran for seven minutes on the LP but was cut down to three, with Krieger’s and keyboardist Ray Manzarek’s solos excised, on the single. 309 Bill Withers, 'Ain't No Sunshine' 1971 Writer(s):Bill Withers Powered byApple Music Withers was working at an aircraft-parts factory when he wrote “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a bracingly lonely track inspired in part by the film Days of Wine and Roses, about a couple’s struggle with alcoholism. He recorded the song with pros from Stax Records but still couldn’t quite believe the new situation he found himself in. “Bill came right from the factory and showed up in his old brogans and his old clunk of a car, with a notebook full of songs,” producer Booker T. Jones recalled. “When he saw everyone in the studio, he asked to speak to me privately and said, ‘Booker, who is going to sing these songs?’ I said, ‘You are, Bill.’” 308 Liz Phair, 'Divorce Song' 1993 Writer(s):Liz Phair Powered byApple Music “I wanted to write about all the little in-between moments that people have with their relationship,” Phair said, “just the ordinary things that happen.” In “Divorce Song,” a highlight of her era-defining concept album Exile in Guyville, Phair artfully transforms a meandering late-night drive she once took with a college hookup into a story about miscommunication, regret, and articulation. “It’s an ordinary person doing ordinary things,” she told Rolling Stone years later, “and the action in the song is really just about relating to another person.” 307 Gnarls Barkley, 'Crazy' 2006 Writer(s):Brian Burton, Thomas Callaway, Gian Franco Reverberi, Gian Piero Reverberi Powered byApple Music “Crazy” was a rarity in the 2000s: a universal pop smash that was played on virtually every radio format — it went Top 10 on both the pop and the modern-rock charts. The lyrics came out of a conversation Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse had in the studio: The pair decided that their genre-smashing collaborations were indeed “crazy.” With a haunting melody inspired by spaghetti-Western-soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone, “Crazy” didn’t feel like a hit. “It seemed too out there for urban radio and too urban for rock radio,” Danger Mouse told Rolling Stone. 306 Aretha Franklin, 'Chain of Fools' 1967 Writer(s):Don Covay Powered byApple Music One of five indelible Top 10 smashes Franklin cranked out in 1967, “Chain of Fools” was written by Don Covay, who was inspired by his memories of seeing field hands at work while growing up in South Carolina. He showed it to producer Jerry Wexler, who thought it would be good for Franklin. When something didn’t feel quite finished about the recording, Wexler played it for Brill Building songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who came up with a second background vocal, and sang it herself. As engineer Tom Dowd later recalled, “It came to life.” 305 The Police, 'Every Breath You Take' 1983 Writer(s):Sting Powered byApple Music For their biggest hit, the Police went back to basics, junking an elaborate synth part that distracted from the song’s hypnotic bass line in favor of a lick that guitarist Andy Summers recorded in one live take. Sting admitted that the lyrics — which sounded tender but were actually bitter — were pulled from the rock & roll cliché handbook. “‘Every Breath You Take’ is an archetypal song,” he told Rolling Stone. “If you have a major chord followed by a relative minor, you’re not original.” 304 Kraftwerk, 'Trans-Europe Express' 1977 Writer(s):Ralf Hütter, Emil Schult Powered byApple Music The German group’s hymn to the electronic future reveled in repetition, exerting a huge influence on early hip-hop (see Afrika Bambaata’s “Planet Rock”) and dance music; David Bowie was an avowed fan of the group’s “singular determination to stand apart from stereotypical American chord sequences.” But even while changing the pop landscape, Kraftwerk kept dreaming of the future. “Trans-Europe Express was done with huge machinery,” Ralf Hütter said in 1991. “We’re still carrying a lot of weight from city to city. We’re dreaming of carrying a briefcase from place to place with a laptop.” 303 TLC, 'No Scrubs' 1999 Writer(s):Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, Kevin Briggs Powered byApple Music TLC’s impassioned assertion of their material and romantic must-haves pissed off sensitive men so much that one group of them wrote, recorded, and distributed a response track called “No Pigeons.” TLC released two versions of the song to capture as many radio formats as they could, one without Left Eye’s rap verse and one with, and in turn, the song, all confidence and attitude, became ubiquitous. “Guys started checking themselves, like, ‘Am I a scrub?'” DMV-area DJ Face recalled. “You had to really think.” 302 Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here' 1975 Writer(s):David Gilmour, Roger Waters Powered byApple Music Despite sky-high band tensions during the recording of the Floyd’s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here, Roger Waters and David Gilmour were able to come together for its title track, an elegy for burned-out ex-frontman Syd Barrett. During the recording, Barrett mysteriously appeared in the studio in such bad shape that, at first, nobody in the band recognized him. “He stood up and said, ‘Right, when do I put my guitar on?’” keyboardist Rick Wright recalled. “And, of course, he didn’t have a guitar with him. And we said, ‘Sorry, Syd, the guitar’s all done.’” 301 Bob Seger, 'Night Moves' 1976 Writer(s):Bob Seger Powered byApple Music Seger spent the first decade of his career building up a loyal base of rock aficionados thanks to his high-energy live show, but it wasn’t until “Night Moves” that mainstream audiences followed. That’s because the nostalgic tale of fumbling, innocent teenage love was relatable to most everyone who caught it on the radio, bringing Seger his first of many Top 10 hits that would arrive over the next decade. “It still has the exact meaning it’s always had for me,” Seger said in 1994. “The freedom and looseness I had during high school.” Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next Dave Chappelle Announces Stand-Up Comedy Special 'The Closer' Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 300 The B-52's, 'Rock Lobster' 1978 Writer(s):Fred Schneider, Ricky Wilson Powered byApple Music Mania usually works best in short doses, but “Rock Lobster” sustains an otherworldly energy for nearly seven minutes, while introducing every element that made this self-described “quirky little dance band” from Athens, Georgia, unique: Fred Schneider’s dadaist shouts (“Here comes a bikini whale!”), Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson’s eccentric harmonies, Keith Strickland’s punchy, stripped-down drums, and Ricky Wilson’s stinging appropriation of funk-rhythm guitar. “I was at a disco that had pictures of lobsters and children playing ball,” Schneider recalled. “‘Rock Lobster’ sounded like a good title for a song.” 299 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, 'I Put a Spell on You' 1956 Writer(s):Jalacy Hawkins, Herb Slotkin Powered byApple Music Long before the Doors or Black Sabbath, the Cleveland-born Screamin’ Jay Hawkins connected rock & roll with the underworld, thanks to his signature, macabre stage act. “I used to lose half the audience when I leapt out of my coffin in clouds of smoke and mist,” he recalled. “They all rushed up the aisles, screaming in terror.” To cast the otherworldly vibe of “I Put a Spell on You,” Hawkins got so drunk he didn’t remember the session afterward. 298 Bruce Springsteen, 'Jungleland' 1975 Writer(s):Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music Springsteen’s classic LP Born to Run culminated in “Jungleland,” a nine-and-a-half-minute roller coaster of late-night trouble and saxophone glory. As with most of Born to Run, the song’s creation was torturous, famously including a 16-hour session in which Springsteen led Clarence Clemons through his sax solo, note by note, until it was perfect. Springsteen later called the finished product Clemons’ “greatest recorded moment” and said the song climaxed with his own wordless roar so it could end “in bloody operatic glory.” 297 Beach Boys, 'Wouldn’t It Be Nice' 1966 Writer(s):Brian Wilson, Tony Asher, Mike Love Powered byApple Music The Beach Boys opened their 1966 classic, Pet Sounds, with “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” in which Brian Wilson fantasizes about holding his girlfriend “close the whole night through” once they’re old enough to live together. “The idea is, the more we talk about it, the more we want it,” Wilson said, “but let’s talk about it anyway.” Wilson labored intensely to create it, orchestrating a band that included two pianos, three basses, and two accordions. “I was going for something I wanted to hear, and wanted to feel,” Wilson recalled. “A great feeling of great joy.” 296 Bikini Kill, 'Rebel Girl' 1993 Writer(s):Kathleen Hanna, Billy Karren, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox Powered byApple Music “When she talks, I hear the revolution/In her hips, there’s revolution,” Kathleen Hanna announced on “Rebel Girl,” the Nineties riot-grrrl battle cry that has come to be revered as perhaps the greatest feminist punk anthem of all time. The song is so potent the band recorded and released it three different times, each with a more joyful focus. The most famous version remains the B side of the band’s astounding “New Radio” single, with producer and guitar ringer Joan Jett singing background vocals and adding guitar. 295 The Who, 'Won't Get Fooled Again' 1971 Writer(s):Pete Townshend Powered byApple Music Pete Townshend wrote this for an aborted concept album and film called Lifehouse. But many of that project’s songs were resurrected for Who’s Next, which started off with a week of demo sessions at Mick Jagger’s country house, Stargroves. The synthesizer on “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is from those demos. “Pete came up with sounds, synthesizer basics, for tracks which were just unbelievable,” said producer Glyn Johns. “Nobody had done it before in that way.” “It’s interesting it’s been taken up in an anthemic sense,” Townshend said of the song, “when in fact it’s such a cautionary piece.” 294 The Velvet Underground, 'Sweet Jane' 1970 Writer(s):Lou Reed Powered byApple Music On their first three albums, the Velvet Underground were an outré cult band who were unafraid to sing about drug addiction, violence, and orgies. On Loaded, they reached toward the mainstream, especially on Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane.” After Reed quit the band, a wistful coda was chopped out of this song. “How could anyone be that stupid?” Reed asked Rolling Stone in 1987. “If I could have stood it, I would have stayed with them and showed them what to do.” For years, the only available version of the coda was on the 1969 live LP. 293 Alice Cooper, 'School’s Out' 1972 Writer(s):Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith Powered byApple Music When Johnny Lydon auditioned to become the Sex Pistols’ singer, he did it by singing along to “School’s Out” on the jukebox in a London pub. With its emphatic chorus, crude simplicity, and anti-authoritarian joy, Alice Cooper’s summer 1972 hit was a precursor of both punk rock and Jock Jams, adding a kiddie chorus for a perverse, Children of the Corn effect. And the riff is so much a part of rock history that after guitarist Glen Buxton died in 1997, his friends and fans created a headstone with the musical notation of his four-bar “School’s Out” riff. 292 A Tribe Called Quest, 'Can I Kick It?' 1990 Writer(s):Lou Reed Powered byApple Music Along with De La Soul and the Jungle Brothers, the Queens, New York, trio were part of a bold movement of buoyant positivity in rap at the time. On “Can I Kick It,” Q-Tip and Phife Dawg toggle effortlessly between a slouched coolness and uptempo spontaneity, while producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad puts on a masterclass in free-form sampling brilliance, particularly with the use of the bass line from Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side.” After the sample wasn’t initially cleared, Reed ended up with a solo writing credit for the song, and all the proceeds. 291 Phil Collins, 'In the Air Tonight' 1981 Writer(s):Phil Collins Powered byApple Music In 1979, following a lengthy tour with Genesis that led to the breakdown of his marriage, Phil Collins came home to an empty house. “I was angry, I was miserable, I was sad,” he later said of the period. He set up a makeshift studio in his bedroom and channeled all that hurt into one of the most chilling and arresting songs of the Eighties — an eerie synth-and-drum-machine moodscape, topped with an elliptical, accusatory rant and the Mona Lisa of all drum fills, a descending tom-tom break that Collins once likened to the sound of “barking seals.” 290 Usher feat. Lil Jon and Ludacris, 'Yeah!' 2004 Writer(s):Christopher Bridges, James Phillips, Jonathan Smith, LaMarquis Jefferson, Patrick Smith, Sean Garrett Powered byApple Music In 2004, “Yeah!” was inescapable, like Juicy Couture tracksuits and Von Dutch trucker hats. Ludacris’ cartoonish rap and Usher’s suave R&B collided at full speed, egged on by Lil Jon’s unforgettable ad-libbing. “Yeah!” dropped months before Usher’s seminal Confessions LP, which went on to sell 1 million copies in its first week. The song held down the top of the charts for three months. 289 Bruce Springsteen, 'Atlantic City' 1982 Writer(s):Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music On March 15th, 1981, Philadelphia mob boss Philip “The Chicken Man” Testa was murdered by a nail bomb that had been hidden under his porch. Springsteen took this slice of real life as the starting point for this mournful tale of a desperate man that turns to crime to pay off “debts no honest man can pay.” The song became a concert favorite, and there have been magnificent renditions by the E Street Band and the Sessions Band, but they never quite topped the tragic beauty of the acoustic original from Nebraska. 288 The Funky 4 + 1, 'That's the Joint' 1980 Writer(s):Clifton "Jiggs" Chase, Sylvia Robinson, Keith Caesar, Sharon Green, Jeffrey Myree, Kevin Smith, Rodney Stone Powered byApple Music Some groundbreaking acts never got to make an album. The Funky 4 + 1, an effervescent, explosive O.G. Bronx rap crew featuring the pioneering female MC Sha-Rock, was one. But the group broke up shortly after performing this, their second single, on Saturday Night Live in 1981 — the first hip-hop group ever to appear on the show. “We made it easier for the next generation to be able to just explode from it,” Sha-Rock said, “because at that point the world was ready for it.” 287 AC/DC, 'You Shook Me All Night Long' 1980 Writer(s):Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson Powered byApple Music AC/DC singer Bon Scott died of asphyxiation in February 1980, choking on his vomit after a night of boozing, just as their LP Highway to Hell made stars of the Aussie hard rockers. Two days later, brothers Malcolm and Angus Young were rehearsing again (“Bon would have done the same,” Angus said), and within a fortnight, they’d hired a new singer, Brian Johnson. The first song this new lineup wrote together was “You Shook Me All Night Long,” which Johnson told his new bandmates was “the best rock & roll song I’ve ever heard in my life.” 286 ABBA, 'Dancing Queen' 1976 Writer(s):Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson Powered byApple Music ABBA’s songwriters were inspired by soulman George McCrae’s dance-floor hit “Rock Your Baby” to try their hands at a disco song, deciding to open their tune mid-chorus, Benny Andersson said, “for maximum impact.” When Andersson auditioned the song for his fiancée and band member Anni-Frid Lyngstad, she was moved to tears. Sweden’s biggest musical export debuted “Queen” in 1976 at a ball for King Carl XVI Gustaf on the eve of his wedding. The song, a frothy dessert of sublime melody and pop-operatic harmonies, became the group’s only U.S. Number One. 285 Destiny’s Child, 'Say My Name' 1999 Writer(s):LaShawn Daniels, Rodney Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, Beyoncé Knowles, LeToya Luckett, LaTavia Roberson, Kelly Rowland Powered byApple Music Initially, Destiny’s Child didn’t like producer Rodney Jerkins’ original track. “I don’t think he liked it either. There was just too much stuff going on,” Beyoncé said years later, before a revision “turned it into an amazing, timeless R&B record.” A bigger scandal ensued when manager (and Beyoncé’s father) Mathew Knowles canned LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson when they asked for more money; newcomers Farrah Franklin and Michelle Williams sang the former members’ parts in the track’s video. Controversy sells, of course, and it hardly hurt that “Say My Name” was also a classic millennial R&B moment. 284 Leonard Cohen, 'Suzanne' 1967 Writer(s):Leonard Cohen Powered byApple Music After folk sage Judy Collins recorded “Suzanne,” which Cohen wrote about his unconsummated desire for a friend’s younger wife, avant-garde dancer Suzanne Verdal, it became a standard, covered by everyone from Nina Simone to Neil Diamond; and Cohen, already a well-respected poet, got a record deal. His version is slow-paced and sparse, leaving space for his sensual and biblical symbolism and intimate, unashamed, commonplace voice. “I didn’t know that I’d be able to sing ‘Suzanne’ 40 years later,” he once said. 283 Ray Charles, 'Georgia on My Mind' 1960 Writer(s):Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell Powered byApple Music Charles’ driver had heard him singing “Georgia on My Mind” in the car and suggested that Charles add it to the record he was working on, an album consisting of songs with place names in their titles. Once he recorded it, though, Charles said he thought of many ways his rendition could have been better. As the single was about to enter the charts, he introduced his version to America on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Penthouse, a syndicated show out of Chicago, with David “Fathead” Newman handling the string parts on flute. 282 INXS, 'Never Tear Us Apart' 1988 Writer(s):Andrew Farriss, Michael Hutchence Powered byApple Music This swelling Eighties pop-rock ballad, the fifth Top 10 hit from the Aussie rocker’s album Kick, began as a blues number. “[It was] a Fats Domino … Rolling Stones-y, early-Sixties song,” said producer Chris Thomas, who replaced the demo’s piano part with strings. That orchestra-scale riff and a wailing saxophone solo by Kirk Pengilly made the track perfect for the go-go late Eighties — not to mention the song’s music video, which was shot in Prague right in the midst of the fall of Czech communism. 281 Clipse, 'Grindin'' 2002 Writer(s):Gene Thornton, Terrence Thornton, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo Powered byApple Music “It was a record that I knew was gonna be way too innovative,” Pusha T said in 2012. Indeed, the rolling, sparse drums of “Grindin’” remain a stunning minimalist achievement, even in a genre known for percussive symphonies. Producer Pharrell Williams initially threatened to give the beat to Jay-Z, and Pusha and Malice rewrote their verses a few times in order to match the Neptunes’ startling innovation. Still, it’s hard to hear anyone but the twin brothers on “Grindin’,” especially when the former growls, “I’m trying to show y’all who the fuck I am.” 280 The Beatles, 'Penny Lane' 1967 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music After Lennon composed “Strawberry Fields Forever,” McCartney wrote his own snappy memoir. Penny Lane was a Liverpool bus stop where Lennon and McCartney often met. “The song was generated by a kind of ‘I can do just as well as you can, John,’ because we’d just recorded ‘Strawberry Fields,'” said George Martin. “It was such a knockout, I think Paul went back to perfect his idea.” There was collaboration amid the competition, too: “John came over and helped me with the third verse, as was often the case,” McCartney said. “We were writing recently faded memories from eight or 10 years before.” 279 Radiohead, 'Karma Police' 1997 Writer(s):Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, Philip Selway Powered byApple Music The idea of a karma police started as an inside joke within Radiohead. “When someone in the band behaved like an a-hole,” said guitarist Ed O’Brien, “one of the others always said, ‘The karma police is gonna get you.'” They turned this idea into a groundbreaking track on OK Computer that builds to a haunting outro created by Thom York and producer Nigel Godrich. “It’s not the band playing,” Godrich said. “It’s just samples and loops, which was the forerunner of a lot of things to come, good or bad.” 278 Toots and the Maytals, 'Pressure Drop' 1973 Writer(s):Toots Hibbert Powered byApple Music Mixing Southern soul with Jamaican roots, the Maytals whipped up a near-gospel fervor on “Pressure Drop,” which scores one of the most indelible music sequences in film: Jimmy Cliff being chased through Kingston by the law in The Harder They Come, as Toots’ throbbing reggae groove tails him like a spotlight. In one of his final interviews, Toots Hibbert explained the title’s dual meaning: “Pressure gonna drop off is a good thing. Pressure is gonna drop on people, and they work to get the pressure off.” 277 Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley' 1955 Writer(s):Ellas McDaniel Powered byApple Music Born Ellas Otha Bates, Bo Diddley fashioned himself as the roguish trickster of his own songs’ lyrics, starting with his self-titled debut for the Chess sub-label Checker (which rejected an earlier version, titled “Uncle John,” for being too dirty). Diddley’s badder-than-thou lyrics (“Up your house and gone again,” he sneers to a rival) laid the blueprint for rap boasters from LL Cool J to Drake, and so did his undulant, kinetic guitar rhythms. And the “Bo Diddley beat” — shave and a haircut, two bits — became the Bo Diddley beat, instantly recognizable, eternally imitated but never duplicated. 276 Buzzcocks, 'Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)' 1978 Writer(s):Peter Shelley Powered byApple Music These Manchester kids invented a whole new school of pop punk — faster and funnier than any band around. Pete Shelley poured his heart into witty three-minute vignettes of sexual confusion. This 1978 hit sums them up, right down to the sly quiver in his voice as he sneers the question, “Ever fallen in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with?” The Buzzcocks’ emotional punch — and queer candor — twisted rock’s gender clichés. “Brilliantly non-macho,” the Smiths’ Johnny Marr said. “You don’t know whether Pete Shelley is being sad or funny or sarcastic or sincere.” 275 Randy Newman, 'Sail Away' 1972 Writer(s):Randy Newman Powered byApple Music Singers from Ray Charles to Bobby Darin to Etta James covered this portrait of American capitalist hucksterism, sung from the perspective of a slave trader. “I didn’t just want to say, ‘Slavery is awful.’ It’s too easy,” Newman told Rolling Stone years later. “I had this idea of a slave ship and a sea shanty — this guy standing in a clearing, singing to a crowd of natives.” As usual for Newman, it combines lush melody with painful satire. “One thing with my music,” he said, “you can’t sit and eat potato chips and have it on in the background at a party.” 274 Al Green, 'Love and Happiness' 1972 Writer(s):Al Green, Mabon Hodges Powered byApple Music Mabon “Teenie” Hodges wrote the urgent, romantic “Love and Happiness” one morning in between having sex with his girlfriend and watching wrestling on TV. Green recently claimed that Hodges sang him the opening guitar riff on a road trip and they drove 160 miles back to Memphis to record it that night. He has described the song as “like a slow fever, building on the beat, pushing up the temperature with each breath of the staccato horns and pushing through delirium as we came up on the fade.” 273 Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly With His Song' 1973 Writer(s):Norman Gimbel, Charles Fox Powered byApple Music “Killing Me Softly With His Song” is the culmination of two discoveries. Songwriter Lori Lieberman went to a club one night to see Don McLean, then a little-known singer, and felt, overwhelmingly, like his songs could’ve been about her. She wrote a poem about it, which Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel turned into a song, and Lieberman recorded. Then Roberta Flack heard the song on a plane as part of the in-flight entertainment, and later called it “a song I feel was given to me as a gift.” Her version is stately and elegant, a singer’s tribute to the power of songwriting. 272 Thin Lizzy, 'The Boys Are Back in Town' 1976 Writer(s):Phil Lynott Powered byApple Music After seven years of slogging it out on the concert circuit, opening for the likes of Bob Seger and BTO, Irish rockers Thin Lizzy finally scored a worldwide hit with 1976’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” — powered by the twin guitar attack of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson and frontman Phil Lynott’s rowdy-night-out lyrics. At first, Lynott wasn’t sure what to do with the undeniably hot song he’d come up with. “I was calling it ‘G.I. Joe Is Back,’ ‘The Kids Are Back,’ but that was like the Who,” he recalled. “It was a case of overthinking.” 271 Procol Harum, 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' 1967 Writer(s):Keith Reid, Gary Brooker Powered byApple Music A somber hymn supported by an organ theme straight out of Bach (“Air on the G String,” from his Suite No. 3 in D Major), Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was unlike anything else on the radio in 1967. Keith Reid got the idea for the song when he overheard someone at a party tell a woman, “You’ve gone a whiter shade of pale.” The track was also the only one recorded by the initial lineup of Procol Harum, which started as a British band, the Paramounts. It helped kick-start a late-Sixties classical-rock boomlet. 270 Nine Inch Nails, 'Closer' 1994 Writer(s):Trent Reznor Powered byApple Music “That’s the all-time fuck song,” Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee famously said of “Closer.” “Those are pure fuck beats — Trent Reznor knew what he was doing.” Or did he? According to Martin Huxley’s biography of the band, Reznor was not expecting his blow-by-blow account of self-loathing to dominate the radio airwaves in 1994. But underneath its industrial grime and “I wanna fuck you like an animal!!!!” wails, the song’s got an infectious, Prince-like funk to it — a trait that was only heightened, not diminished, by Reznor’s lustful chorus. 269 The Righteous Brothers, 'Unchained Melody' 1965 Writer(s):Alex North, Hy Zaret Powered byApple Music The ultimate prom ballad, “Unchained Melody” was written in 1955 by a pair of Broadway songwriters — not intended for rock & roll. But a decade later, the blue-eyed soul pioneers the Righteous Brothers took it up, with Bobby Hatfield’s caramel-like tenor soaring over the most swoon-y Wall of Sound producer Phil Spector ever concocted. It proved so irresistible that it became a hit all over again a quarter-century later, thanks to its sync in the hit movie Ghost. 268 The Isley Brothers, 'Shout (Parts 1 and 2)' 1959 Writer(s):Rudolph Isley, Ronald Isley, O'Kelly Isley Powered byApple Music The five-minute-long workout “Shout” was a modest hit upon its original release in 1959, but it’s perhaps better remembered for its appearance in the 1978 movie Animal House, where it was relaunched as an all-time party classic. As O’Kelly Isley, who helped found the group in the mid-Fifties, noted, “People have been playin’ our music in bars and discotheques for years,” he told Rolling Stone in 1975, “’cause it’s danceable, man.” 267 Drake feat. Rihanna, 'Take Care' 2011 Writer(s):Brook Benton, James Smith, Aubrey Graham, Noah Shebib, Anthony Palman Powered byApple Music “‘Take Care’ is this thing we use in passing conversation to dismiss bullshit like, ‘Oh, you couldn’t make it on time? Oh, take care, take care,'” Drake explained. But his second album’s title track is far more tender than that — it cemented the Toronto rapper as pop’s reigning male star. If Drake’s superpower is elevating petty romantic complaints into hip-hop mythmaking, this is the blueprint, made from wholesale samples from Gil-Scott Heron as remixed by Jamie xx. Guest star Rihanna, effortlessly adult and sexy, and singing the refrain from Bobby Bland’s “I’ll Take Care of You,” alchemizes the song. 266 Augustus Pablo, 'King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown' 1974 Writer(s):Augustus Pablo Powered byApple Music This revolutionary dub masterwork was the tip of a musical iceberg — roots reggae’s psychedelic underside, where bedrock grooves were tweaked into startling new shapes by engineers with royal nicknames like King Tubby. He did his definitive work for the B side of the Pablo-produced Jacob Miller single “Baby I Love You So.” Tubby’s remix kept the churning groove, but nearly all of the instruments and Miller’s voice dart in and out of the mix while the King throws echo around like confetti. Floating above it all is Pablo’s melodica, a plastic kids’ instrument, that in his hands summoned an unearthly calm. 265 The Replacements, 'Left of the Dial' 1985 Writer(s):Paul Westerberg Powered byApple Music The Minneapolis indie-rock heroes’ peak songwriting moment was inspired by a crush Westerberg had on Lynn Blakey, singer for the North Carolina band Let’s Active. “I figured the only way I’d hear her voice was her band on the radio … on a college station,” he said. One night on tour, he did, and he turned the moment into a long-distance love song — to a cool Southern girl, to low-wattage college-radio stations, and the whole underground scene the Replacements had grown up in. 264 Marvin Gaye, 'Let's Get It On' 1973 Writer(s):Marvin Gaye, Ed Townsend Powered byApple Music After 1971’s “What’s Going On,” Gaye radically changed course with this ode to sexual bliss. With the help of producer and songwriter Ed Townsend, Gaye created a masterpiece of erotic persuasion that topped the pop and R&B charts. The singer later said that he hoped “Let’s Get It On” didn’t “advocate promiscuity,” but also said he had a hunch the song might have “some aphrodisiac power.” When Gaye’s father heard it, he called and told him, “Please, please, don’t go any further. You’re supposed to be a minister’s son.” 263 Dolly Parton, 'Coat of Many Colors' 1971 Writer(s):Dolly Parton Powered byApple Music “Coat of Many Colors” is part autobiography, part valuable life lesson, set to a hummable melody. Parton’s mother did make her a patchwork coat and the kids at school made fun of her, which was a traumatic experience. She wrote the lyrics on the back of a dry-cleaning receipt when she had the idea, and she came up with a message that still encapsulates her worldview. “It teaches about bullying, about love, about acceptance, about good parents,” she wrote in the book Songteller. “That little story has even been written into a schoolbook to teach children about being different, that it’s all right to be different.” 262 Paul Simon, 'American Tune' 1973 Writer(s):Paul Simon Powered byApple Music “I don’t write overtly political songs,” Simon once said, “although ‘American Tune’ comes pretty close, as it was written just after Richard Nixon was elected.” The gently soaring song perfectly summed up the sense of weary dejection after Nixon’s landslide reelection and the larger fading of the Sixties utopian dream, while also powerfully affirming a core faith in the American story and promise — when Jimmy Carter got elected three years after “American Tune” was released, Simon played it at his inauguration. 261 Curtis Mayfield, 'Pusherman' 1972 Writer(s):Curtis Mayfield Powered byApple Music Mayfield writes from the perspective of the neighborhood drug dealer — a swaggering figure, but also “a victim of ghetto demands” — in this throbbing, wah-wah-slathered track from the soundtrack to the 1972 movie Super Fly. Mayfield doles out his story in terse three-syllable bursts (“Ain’t I clean/Bad machine/Super cool/Super mean”), his heavenly falsetto only partially obscuring the desperation, addiction, and menace he describes. As Johnny Pate, who collaborated with Mayfield on the arrangements for “Pusherman” and other Super Fly tracks, later noted, “If you listen to these closely … Curtis was almost rapping through these things.” 260 The Wailers, 'Get Up, Stand Up' 1973 Writer(s):Bob Marley, Peter Tosh Powered byApple Music “‘Get Up, Stand Up’ was the final song recorded for the original Wailers’ final album, left for last because it was the easiest track on the album, just unison singing,” said Bunny Wailer. But the sessions for Burnin’, the reggae trio’s second album for Island, were thick with tension — Marley’s material was getting more attention than his bandmates’. Marley asked Tosh to write a verse for his rousing anthem to cut him in on the royalties; Tosh later typified his contribution, the song’s fire-breathing final verse, as “bullshit.” 259 Neil Young, 'Heart of Gold' 1972 Writer(s):Neil Young Powered byApple Music “[Heart of Gold] put me in the middle of the road,” Young wrote in the liner notes to his retrospective Decade box. His only Number One signaled the arrival of a new countrified prettiness that would come to define the laid-back Seventies. Future soft-rock aristocrats James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt sang backing vocals at the song’s Nashville session, but there’s nothing mellow about the forlorn worry in Young’s voice when he sings “I’ve been searching for a heart of gold/And I’m getting old.” 258 Gil-Scott Heron, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' 1971 Writer(s):Gil-Scott Heron Powered byApple Music Heron was a 19-year-old college student watching a baseball game in his dorm room when he got the idea for “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” a proto-rap single that demonstrates the wide gap between the messages of advertising-driven media and the goal of real societal change. Even if some of the references are dated — “Women will not care if Dick finally got down with Jane on Search for Tomorrow” — the call to arms has not lost any of its power: “Because Black people will be in the street looking for a brighter day.” 257 Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, 'Heat Wave' 1963 Writer(s):Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier Powered byApple Music The Motown empire really got going in 1963, and the record that underlined the label’s ascent was this buoyant summertime smash: “It became the song that summer,” Reeves recalled. No surprise that it came from the company’s premiere writer-producer team, Holland-Dozier-Holland — who, gearing up for world domination with the Supremes, worked with their audience in mind: “I realized that females bought the most records, and they always seemed to be falling in love with somebody,” Eddie Holland said in 2019. 256 Metallica, 'Master of Puppets' 1986 Writer(s):Cliff Burton, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich Powered byApple Music Metallica have always been at their best when they’re raging against confinement, whether that’s institutional, governmental, religious, familial, or — in arguably the greatest song, on their greatest album — chemical. “‘Master of Puppets’ deals pretty much with drugs,” Hetfield once said of this eight-and-a-half-minute masterwork. “How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you’re taking and doing, it’s drugs controlling you.” Sung from the perspective of the narcotic itself, the song moves from merciless thrash to a mournful ballad interlude, simulating the perilous highs and crushing lows of a life lived at the end of addiction’s strings. 255 Loretta Lynn, 'Coal Miner’s Daughter' 1970 Writer(s):Loretta Lynn Powered byApple Music In the late Sixties, many country singers stopped wearing overalls and skirts and changed into suits and gowns, which reflected the music’s transformation into the more elegant and urbane style known as the Nashville Sound. In 1970, Lynn turned that trend on its end with an autobiographical song, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” that celebrated rural life, in all its difficulties. She wrote it on a $17 guitar that refused to stay in tune, singing about reading the Bible by coal-oil light, going without shoes in summer, her mother’s hands bleeding from hard work. “Every word is true,” she later said. 254 The Supremes, 'Stop! In the Name of Love' 1965 Writer(s):Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland Powered byApple Music Lamont Dozier of Motown’s famed Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team came up with the idea for “Stop! In the Name of Love” after his girlfriend at the time caught him cheating in a motel: “This particular girl was very headstrong,” he recalled. “So we got into an argument. She started swinging, missed me, hit the floor. And I laughed and said, ‘Please stop! Stop in the name of love.’” The silliness of the moment stopped the fight, and immediately struck Dozier as song material, and after affixing it to a killer Brian Holland hook, it became the Supremes’ fourth of five straight Number Ones. 253 Willie Nelson, 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain' 1975 Writer(s):Fred Rose Powered byApple Music The simplicity of this 1947 composition by Fred Rose made it the perfect vehicle for Nelson, who was then working on his ambitious concept album Red Headed Stranger. “I was gathering songs that I thought told that story. And I just thought that ‘Blue Eyes’ was the perfect song for that spot,” Nelson said. “Simple and to the point. Beautiful, sad love song.” The track marked a turning point for Nelson, whose career at the time was still mostly defined by the lush production style of Nashville in the Sixties. After nearly two decades of trying, it became his first country Number One hit as a singer. 252 Parliament, 'Flash Light' 1977 Writer(s):George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrel Powered byApple Music “Flash Light” is the P-Funk Nation’s groove manifesto. Clinton built his Parliament-Funkadelic universe over a run of Seventies concept albums, never faking the funk. “We’re going to get the message out,” Clinton told Rolling Stone in 1978. “We want to put the show on Broadway — tell the story straightforward so people understand that funk mean funk.” “Flash Light” became one of their rare crossover hits, laying out the P-Funk philosophy, with Clinton commanding “Dance, sucker!” over Worrel’s bass line (played on a Moog synth). It all builds up to the orgiastic party chant “Everybody’s got a little light under the sun!” 251 Gloria Gaynor, 'I Will Survive' 1978 Writer(s):Dino Fekaris, Freddie Perren Powered byApple Music By the mid-Seventies, Gaynor’s career was falling apart. Donna Summer had replaced her as the leading disco diva, and 32-year-old Gaynor had suffered the death of her mother and had recently undergone spinal surgery after tripping onstage and triggering temporary paralysis. So when she belted out “I Will Survive,” she brought extra attitude. The track was originally a B side, but after enterprising DJs started to play it at discos, it turned into a smash. “I never tire of ‘I Will Survive,’” Gaynor told Rolling Stone in 2016. “I love doing it for the audience.” Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next Top 5 Ways NFTs, 3D Avatars and the Metaverse Are Changing Music and Entertainment Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 250 The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 'Purple Haze' 1967 Writer(s):Jimi Hendrix Powered byApple Music “Purple Haze” launched not one but two revolutions: late-Sixties psychedelia and the unprecedented genius of Hendrix. The first chord of its main riff has come to be known among guitarists as the “Hendrix chord.” The Experience recorded “Purple Haze” across a series of sessions in January and February 1967, experimenting with recording techniques such as the blitzed-out distortion on Hendrix’s guitar — when the master tape was sent to their American record label, an enclosed note diligently pointed out that the distorted sound of the song was deliberate. 249 Joan Jett, 'Bad Reputation' 1980 Writer(s):Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna, Marty Kupersmith, Ritchie Cordell Powered byApple Music Saint Joan banged out this three-chord nugget after the collapse of the Runaways, at a time when the music business was trying to write her off as a has-been (Jett’s debut album got rejected by 23 labels before she decided to put it out herself). You can hear her explode with fury every time she yells “I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation!” She lived up to the song’s outlaw spirit — not only did she refuse to tame her music or image, she also became a megastar just by being herself. Jett still has her bad reputation, and she still doesn’t give a damn. 248 N.W.A, 'Straight Outta Compton' 1988 Writer(s):MC Ren, Ice Cube, Eazy-E Powered byApple Music N.W.A came in with a bang, kicking off their debut album with this West Coast gangsta attack, changing hip-hop forever. “Straight Outta Compton” cranked up the violence to previously unheard of levels, with DJ Yella and Dr. Dre’s explosive production and Ice Cube boasting “Here’s a murder rap to keep you dancin’/With a crime record like Charles Manson!” It takes only three lines for the first weapon to get fired. “Straight Outta Compton” was an instant sensation, claiming L.A. as rap’s new capital. As Chris Rock said, “It was kind of like the British Invasion for Black people.” 247 Joni Mitchell, 'River' 1971 Writer(s):Joni Mitchell Powered byApple Music Mitchell joked about writing a song called “Have Yourself a Morbid Little Christmas.” But there’s no holiday tune that feels quite as chilly as “River,” from her 1971 classic, Blue. It’s just Mitchell alone at her piano, playing a variation on “Jingle Bells.” She grieves the end of a love affair, singing, “I’m hard to handle, I’m selfish, and I’m sad/Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby that I ever had.” “River” evokes the winter blues — as she said, “It’s a Christmas song for people who are lonely at Christmas.” 246 Faces, 'Ooh La La' 1973 Writer(s):Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood Powered byApple Music These rowdy London lads were all-star mates on a bender, with Rod Stewart up front and Ronnie Wood on guitar. But for all their crazy grins and boozy bluster, the Faces made some of the Seventies’ friendliest-sounding rock & roll. Ronnie Lane co-wrote “Ooh La La,” perhaps best known from the final scene of Rushmore; it’s an old man’s pub lament, but you can hear a smile in it — a song that slaps you on the back and welcomes you into the room. When Lane was a kid, his dad said, “Son, learn to play a guitar. You’ll always have a friend.” That’s the spirit of “Ooh La La.” 245 Beastie Boys, 'Sabotage' 1994 Writer(s):Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch Powered byApple Music The Beasties started raising hell as a New York hardcore-punk band before evolving into hip-hop kings. “Sabotage” shows off their mastery in both domains, a rap-rock bombshell from their 1994 hit Ill Communication. The three MCs jam on Yauch’s fuzzed-out bass riff, while Horovitz gets ill on the mic. As he said, “This one called for some old-fashioned screaming, that’s for sure.” “Sabotage” also inspired one of the coolest videos ever, a Seventies trip full of bad wigs and cheap suits — as big an influence on comedy as it was on music. 244 Pavement, 'Summer Babe (Winter Version)' 1992 Writer(s):Stephen Malkmus Powered byApple Music Pavement dropped the last thing anyone expected from indie rock in 1991 — a wistful ballad about a summer crush. Malkmus and Kannberg, two guitar dudes from Northern California, cut “Summer Babe” in the garage studio of their hippie drummer, Gary Young. “We didn’t know how to record,” Malkmus confessed. “We used reverb on the drums — the cheapest, worst reverb ever.” (They released “Summer Babe” as a single on the tiny Drag City label in 1991, and a year later it opened their classic Matador debut, Slanted and Enchanted.) According to Malkmus, he was trying to imitate Lou Reed, singing about “sad-boy stuff.” It evokes the levees and houseboats of their youth — as Malkmus said, “That’s definitely the suburban California summer.” 243 The Beatles, 'Eleanor Rigby' 1966 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music “Eleanor Rigby” was one of the Beatles’ most radical shifts, both musically and emotionally. McCartney was still just 23 when he wrote this empathetic portrait of old age. He fumbled with the story until he hit on the image “picks up the rice in a church where a wedding has been.” As he said, “So this became a song about lonely people.” None of the Beatles play on it — George Martin conducted an eight-man classical-string section. “Father McKenzie” was originally “Father McCartney”; Lennon and McCartney flipped through a phone book until they found the name they wanted. 242 Jerry Lee Lewis, 'Great Balls of Fire' 1957 Writer(s):Otis Blackwell, Jack Hammer Powered byApple Music With Lewis pounding the piano and leering, “Great Balls of Fire” was full of Southern Baptist hellfire turned into a near-blasphemous ode to pure lust. Lewis, a Bible-college dropout and cousin to Jimmy Swaggart, refused to sing it at first and got into a theological argument with producer Sam Phillips that concluded with Lewis asking, “How can the devil save souls?” But as the session wore on, Lewis’ mood changed considerably — on bootleg tapes, he can be heard saying, “I would like to eat a little pussy if I had some.” 241 Digital Underground, 'The Humpty Dance' 1990 Writer(s):Earl Humphrey, Gregory Jacobs Powered byApple Music Humpty Hump taught the world how to do “The Humpty Dance” in 1990, making party animals shout along to “I get stupid! I shoot an arrow like Cupid! I use a word that don’t mean nothing, like ‘loopid!’” Bay Area crew Digital Underground infused hip-hop with the crazed spirit of George Clinton and Prince, lecherous without any of the era’s usual sexist clichés. As the late Shock G said, “I brought the perv tone.” “The Humpty Dance” still drops enough bass to make anyone get busy in a Burger King bathroom. 240 Backstreet Boys, 'I Want It That Way' 1999 Writer(s):Andreas Carlsson, Karl Sandberg Powered byApple Music The Backstreet Boys sang a boy-band standard with their 1999 smash “I Want It That Way.” It defined the MTV Total Request Live era, when BSB and ‘NSync battled it out for the hearts of young America. It came from Swedish songwriters Carlsson and Martin, who were still just learning English. “The lyric doesn’t really mean anything,” Carlsson admitted. “The record company was like, ‘We need to bring in maybe another lyricist to help work on this.’” But Brian, Howie, A.J., Nick, and Kevin make every line soar like pure poetry. 239 Big Star, 'September Gurls' 1974 Writer(s):Alex Chilton Powered byApple Music Chilton and his band Big Star got totally ignored in the early Seventies, but “September Gurls” remains the stuff of legend. It’s the sound of Memphis boys schooled in Stax soul, but reaching for Byrds-Beatles songcraft, with guitar chime and Chilton’s yearning voice. “I guess I was one of those kind of maudlin, young, early-twenties sort of people at that time,” Chilton recalled later. “There were a lot of youthful questions on my mind I wanted to answer.” Big Star became hugely influential, inspiring kindred spirits like R.E.M., the Replacements, and Elliott Smith. 238 Aaliyah, 'Are You That Somebody?' 1998 Writer(s):Stephen Garrett, Timothy Mosley Powered byApple Music The world deserved a lot more of Aaliyah, and “Are You That Somebody” is the jewel of her tragically brief yet amazing career. Timbaland came up with one of his most sonically audacious productions, with a stop-and-start stutter of Dirty South future-shock funk. It was created in just one night on an 11 a.m. deadline for the Dr. Dolittle soundtrack –“The spirit of the moment,” Timbaland recalled later. The bigger this song got on the radio, the more bizarre it sounded. Yet Aaliyah held it all together with her seductive, smoothed-out vocals. She died far too young in 2001, but she will always be that somebody, and this will always be her song. 237 Hank Williams, 'Your Cheatin' Heart' 1953 Writer(s):Hank Williams Powered byApple Music No country singer could write an alone-and-forsaken lament like Williams. He recorded “Your Cheatin’ Heart” at his final session, on September 23rd, 1952. He told a friend, “It’s the best heart song I ever wrote.” But Williams didn’t live to hear it become one of the greatest country standards of all time. A few weeks before it was released, he died in the back seat of his car, on New Years Day 1953, during an all-night drive from one gig to the next. He was only 29, but you can hear a lonesome lifetime in “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” 236 Bill Withers, 'Lean on Me' 1972 Writer(s):Bill Withers Powered byApple Music Withers was a soul singer who wrote plainspoken-language songs on acoustic guitar. But because he was a Black man whose career began in the R&B era, record labels “didn’t want me to do anything quiet.” He kept his factory day job, making toilets for 747 planes, even after his first album came out, to retain his independence. A man who did as he pleased, Withers mixed folk with R&B, sang a love song about his grandmother, dressed square, and wrote “Lean on Me,” a quiet pledge of friendship and strength, and his only Number One hit. 235 New Order, 'Blue Monday' 1983 Writer(s):Gillian Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner Powered byApple Music Using a variety of then-next-gen technology, including a drum machine, samples, and a sequencer he built from a kit and programmed in binary code, New Order singer Bernard Sumner created this instant club classic — officially the bestselling 12-inch single of all time. “Blue Monday” took its cue from the frenetic disco joy of Donna Summer: The beat is swiped from her song “Our Love.” “When we started the sequencer, it fired up slightly out of time, which, although unintentional, sounded really nice and funky,” Sumner wrote. 234 The Supremes, 'You Keep Me Hangin’ On' 1966 Writer(s):Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland Powered byApple Music “Get out my life, why don’t ya, baby?” is one of the nicest, nastiest ways in recorded music to tell an ex-lover to scram. Holland-Dozier-Holland intended “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” to be a rock song (check out that searing S.O.S. guitar intro), but it turned into so much more: The angst of rock is married with the angelic trills of pop, the rhythm of soul, and the urgency of disco 10 years before disco existed. When “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was released, seven Supremes songs had seen the top of the pop chart. This became their eighth, and one of their most memorable. 233 Deee-Lite, 'Groove Is in the Heart' 1990 Writer(s):Dmitry Brill, Chung Dong-Hwa, Kierin Kirby Powered byApple Music Deee-Lite, a multiethnic New York trio, grew out of New York’s pansexual club culture and spread the ecstatic ethos of hot spots like Paradise Garage and the Saint onto MTV, and into international consciousness. The song plucks Ron Carter’s elastic bass line from Herbie Hancock’s 1967 jazz-funk track “Bring Down the Birds,” Bootsy Collins adds background vocals, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker from James Brown’s band play the horns, and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest drops by to rap a verse. It all creates a collage across different generations of funkateers. 232 The Who, 'My Generation' 1965 Writer(s):Pete Townshend Powered byApple Music “My Generation” wasn’t intended as a youth-mutiny anthem at first. It was a Jimmy Reed-style blues, reflecting Pete Townshend’s fears about the impending strictures of adult life. “‘My Generation’ was very much about trying to find a place in society,” he told Rolling Stone in 1987. “I was very, very lost. The band was young then. It was believed that its career would be incredibly brief.” Instead, “My Generation” became the Who’s ticket to legend. The October 1965 session that created it was so intense that bassist John Entwistle had to buy three new basses to finish the recording because he kept breaking strings and couldn’t find replacements. 231 Whitney Houston, 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' 1987 Writer(s):George Merrill, Shannon Rubicam Powered byApple Music Songwriters George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who’d helped make Whitney Houston a superstar by contributing the bubbly “How Will I Know?” to her smash debut, thought they had a sure-shot song for her follow-up. But Houston’s producer, Narada Michael Walden, wasn’t so convinced. “The song reminded me of a rodeo song with Olivia Newton-John singing,” he recalls. The funky pop groove he fashioned changed all that, and once Houston ad-libbed, “Don’t you wanna dance, say you wanna dance,” over the coda, the ebullience was undeniable. 230 The Byrds, 'Mr. Tambourine Man' 1965 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music The only Byrd to play on the band’s first hit was Roger McGuinn, whose chiming 12-string Rickenbacker guitar became folk rock’s defining sound. Everything else came from L.A. session players, including drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Larry Knechtel of Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew. But the rest of the Byrds soon caught up, and as the song was breaking, a curious Bob Dylan checked out the band at Ciro’s, a Los Angeles club. Reportedly, he didn’t recognize some of his own songs in their electrified versions. 229 Woody Guthrie, 'This Land Is Your Land' 1951 Writer(s):Woody Guthrie Powered byApple Music In 1940, the folk icon was so perturbed by the pomposity of Kate Smith’s inescapable recording of “God Bless America” that he dashed off a set of down-to-earth, radical lyrics in response. “God blessed America for me,” Guthrie initially titled his answer song, borrowing a melody from the Carter Family’s “When the World’s on Fire.” Four years later, he’d edit those lyrics down to record “This Land Is Your Land,” which has become a kind of populist national anthem, sung by everyone from kindergarten classes to Jennifer Lopez at the 2021 presidential inauguration. 228 Beyoncé, 'Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)' 2008 Writer(s):Beyoncé Knowles, Christopher Stewart, Terius Nash, Thaddis Harrell Powered byApple Music Beyoncé’s generational anthem of matrimonial empowerment was written in “like 17 minutes” by Tricky “the Dream” Stewart, who wanted to find a way to universalize her relationship with Jay-Z. “You want him to commit,” he recalled. “How do I make this a coffee-table conversation?” Beyoncé’s record label wasn’t too excited about promoting the song with black-and-white imagery. “They told me I wouldn’t sell if it wasn’t in color,” she recalled years later. “That was ridiculous.” Of course, the black-and-white video became iconic too, winning Video of the Year at the 2009 VMAs. 227 Creedence Clearwater Revival, 'Fortunate Son' 1969 Writer(s):John Fogerty Powered byApple Music Maybe some people were temporarily distracted from the ugliness of the Vietnam War by the fancy wedding plans of Richard Nixon’s daughter Julie, but not John Fogerty. “You just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be too involved with the war,” the CCR frontman recalls thinking as he witnessed the pageantry. But Fogerty turned his disgust to inspiration and wrote this stinging, righteous defense of the poor against the privileged. As Fogerty rightly reminds us, “The song speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself.” 226 The Smiths, 'There Is a Light That Never Goes Out' 1986 Writer(s):Johnny Marr, Morrissey Powered byApple Music “Someone told me that if you listen with the volume really, really up, you can hear me shout, ‘That was amazing,’ right at the end,” guitarist Johnny Marr recalled, looking back on the recording of this uncannily beautiful song — Morrissey’s most moving statement of afflicted romantic hunger, set to a riff Marr nicked from the Rolling Stones’ cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hiker.” Amazingly, Moz wasn’t sure of the song, and wondered if it should be released. He wrote in his memoir, “It is often a relief to be wrong.” 225 Joni Mitchell, 'Both Sides Now' 1969 Writer(s):Joni Mitchell Powered byApple Music The late Sixties were a bittersweet time for Joni Mitchell. As her first marriage was falling apart, her songwriting career was blossoming: Judy Collins’ version of “Both Sides Now” was a Top 10 hit. The following year, for the LP Clouds, Mitchell recorded her own less-sweetened version of the song, which she’d written on an airplane, glancing out at the clouds, while reading Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King. She’s described the song as “a meditation on reality and fantasy.… The idea was so big it seemed like I’d just scratched the surface of it.” 224 Derek and the Dominos, 'Layla' 1970 Writer(s):Eric Clapton, Jim Gordon Powered byApple Music Embroiled in a love triangle with George and Pattie Boyd Harrison, Clapton took the title for his greatest song from the Persian love story “Layla and Majnun.” Recorded by the short-lived ensemble Derek and the Dominos, “Layla” storms with aching vocals and crosscutting riffs from Clapton and contributing guitarist Duane Allman, then dissolves into a serene, piano-based coda. “It was the heaviest thing going on at the time,” Clapton told Rolling Stone in 1974. “That’s what I wanted to write about most of all.” 223 Eminem feat. Dido, 'Stan' 2000 Writer(s):Marshall Mathers, Dido Armstrong, Paul Herman Powered byApple Music Eminem’s scariest song is rooted in a terrifying nightmare: What if the rapper’s violent, self-destructive lyrics could drive an obsessed fan to murder? “He’s crazy for real, and he thinks I’m crazy, but I try to help him at the end of the song,” said Eminem of his character. “It kinda shows the real side of me.” Anchored by a sample from Dido’s “Thank You” (which became a hit itself as a result) and augmented by a haunted house’s worth of sound effects, “Stan” proved that Eminem understood the dark side of his music better than his worst critics did. 222 Crosby, Stills, and Nash, 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' 1969 Writer(s):Stephen Stills Powered byApple Music “When Stephen Stills first played me this song, I wondered what planet he was from,” Graham Nash recalls. No wonder: What Stills had written for his ex-girlfriend Judy Collins was less a song than a set of memorable fragments in search of a structure. As Stills put it, “It was the beginnings of three different songs that suddenly fell together as one.” Working together, the new trio fit those parts together as smoothly as their three voices harmonized, and as the lead track on their self-titled debut, this suite was a declaration of their desire to transcend simple pop forms. 221 Ike and Tina Turner, 'River Deep, Mountain High' 1966 Writer(s):Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich Powered byApple Music Phil Spector heard the Ike and Tina Turner Revue at a Hollywood club at a time when their recording career had stalled, following a handful of R&B hits in the early 1960s. Spector had a song called “River Deep, Mountain High” that he was sure was going to be huge (in fact, “River Deep” barely cracked the Top 100), and he wanted Tina to sing it, though he forbade Ike from even coming to the sessions. “I must have sung that 500,000 times,” Tina later said. “I was drenched with sweat. I had to take my shirt off and stand there in my bra to sing.” 220 New Order, 'Bizarre Love Triangle' 1986 Writer(s):Gillian Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Bernard Sumner Powered byApple Music After the death of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, his band became New Order. “There’s life, and there’s death,” drummer Stephen Morris told Rolling Stone in 1983. “We were still alive, so we thought we’d carry on doing it.” “Bizarre Love Triangle” was a peak moment in their marriage of moody dance rock and electronic bounce, with Bernard Sumner swooning in cryptic wistful ecstasy amid the synths and sequenced grooves. Remarkably, it was never a huge hit in the U.S., barely cracking the Hot 100 — Aussie band Frente’s 1994 cover version actually charted considerably higher. 219 Tom Petty, 'Free Fallin'' 1989 Writer(s):Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell Powered byApple Music Petty wrote “Free Fallin’” with Jeff Lynne, who produced his solo debut, Full Moon Fever. “I got to the chorus of the song, and he leaned over to me and said the word ‘free-falling,’” Petty recalled. “I couldn’t get the whole word in. So I sang, ‘Freeee,’ then ‘free-falling.’ And we both knew at that moment that I’d hit on something pretty good.” They finished and recorded it in just two days, the first song completed for the album. The label initially rejected Full Moon Fever because of a lack of hits. “So I waited six months and brought the same record back,” Petty said. “And they loved it.” 218 Wilson Pickett, 'In the Midnight Hour' 1965 Writer(s):Wilson Pickett, Steve Cropper Powered byApple Music Pickett’s first two singles for Atlantic were recorded in New York, and they flopped. “I told Jerry Wexler I didn’t want to be recorded this way anymore,” Pickett said. “I said I heard a song by Otis Redding out of Memphis, and that’s the direction I wanted to take.” Pickett soon headed south. He and Steve Cropper wrote “In the Midnight Hour” in the Lorraine Hotel (where Martin Luther King Jr. would later be assassinated), and while they were cutting the song, an idea shot Wexler out of his seat. “I was shaking my booty to a groove made popular by the Larks’ ‘The Jerk,’ a mid-Sixties hit,” wrote Wexler. “The idea was to push the second beat while holding back the fourth.” And a soul classic was born. 217 Stevie Nicks, 'Edge of Seventeen' 1981 Writer(s):Stevie Nicks Powered byApple Music Stevie Nicks once casually asked Tom Petty’s wife, Jane, when the two had met. “During the age of 17,” Jane said, but because of her Southern accent, Nicks thought she’d said, “the edge of seventeen,” and took it as a song title on her first solo album. Over Waddy Wachtel’s distinctive 16th-note guitar riff, later sampled by Destiny’s Child, Nicks sang about innocence and loss, moved by the recent deaths of an uncle and John Lennon. The line “He seemed brokenhearted,” though, was about Petty, she said. “That was Jane, talking about Tom. I was chronicling their relationship, as she told it to me.” 216 Elvis Presley, 'Jailhouse Rock' 1957 Writer(s):Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller Powered byApple Music Songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller had already penned a couple of Presley hits — most notably “Hound Dog,” picked up from blues belter Big Mama Thornton — but the theme song for Presley’s third movie was the duo’s first studio collaboration with the young superstar. “Jailhouse Rock” was decidedly silly, the kind of tongue-in-cheek narrative goof they had been coming up with for the Coasters. The King, however, sang it as straight rock & roll, introducing Scotty Moore’s guitar solo with a cry so intense that the take almost collapses. 215 Mobb Deep, 'Shook Ones, Pt. II' 1995 Writer(s):Albert Johnson, Kejuan Muchita Powered byApple Music Mobb Deep may have been dropped from their first label after their 1993 debut, Juvenile Hell, but watching top producers like Large Professor and DJ Premier chop samples during its sessions proved instructive. Picked up by Loud Records, the two teenagers found inspiration in “Jessica,” a deep cut from Herbie Hancock. “I just had the mind to sample it and rearrange it,” Havoc recalled, adding that he was going for “darker music.” The result was one of the most soul-crushing beats ever, and a template for the coldhearted verses that ensured Mobb Deep’s place in history. 214 Steely Dan, 'Deacon Blues' 1977 Writer(s):Walter Becker, Donald Fagen Powered byApple Music “‘Deacon Blues’ is about as close to autobiography as our tunes get,” Donald Fagen has said. A dream of escape into a bohemian existence that’s also a fantasy of hipster oblivion, the song is the elegant, elegiac centerpiece of Steely Dan’s 1977 album, Aja. As for the characteristically cryptic title, Fagen later recalled, “If a college football team like the University of Alabama could have a grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, the nerds and losers should be entitled to a grandiose name as well.” 213 The Rolling Stones, 'Paint It, Black' 1966 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music The Stones’ experimental mid-Sixties period was partly driven by Brian Jones’ restlessness. “Brian had pretty much given up on the guitar by then,” said Keith Richards. “If there was [another] instrument around, he had to be able to get something out of it.” At one L.A. session, Jones plucked a haunting melody on a sitar, to which Bill Wyman added klezmer-flavored organ and studio legend Jack Nitzsche provided gypsy-style piano. It could have all been a goof, but Charlie Watts’ booming drums and Mick Jagger’s full-throated vocals made “Paint It, Black” more of a gaze into the abyss. 212 Boston, 'More Than a Feeling' 1976 Writer(s):Tom Scholz Powered byApple Music Every night Tom Scholz would come home from his day job at Polaroid to labor away in his Watertown, Massachusetts, basement studio. Here, inspired by the Left Banke’s lovely psych-pop ballad “Walk Away Renee,” he painstakingly constructed the majestic studio-rock symphony that would become Boston’s career-making hit, centered on a vision of Marianne — who, in fact, existed. “She was my older first cousin, who I had a crush on when I was 10,” Scholz said. Many accused Nirvana of nicking the chords to the chorus of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from “More Than a Feeling,” but not Scholz, who’s said simply, “I don’t hear it.” 211 U2, 'With or Without You' 1987 Writer(s):Bono, Larry Mullen Jr., the Edge, Adam Clayton Powered byApple Music The Joshua Tree was U2’s ode to America: Its songs were inspired by folk, gospel, and roots music, and its lyrics, as the Edge noted, were sparked by civil rights heroes and the New Journalism of the 1960s. Yet “With or Without You” — with its simple bass groove and ethereal guitar hum framing Bono’s yearning vocals — was one of U2’s most universal songs to date, a meditation on the painful ambivalence of a relationship. Bono insisted it was “about how I feel in U2 at times: exposed.” It would turn out to be U2’s first Number One hit in the U.S. 210 Funkadelic, 'One Nation Under a Groove' 1978 Writer(s):George Clinton, Garry Shider, Walter Morrison Powered byApple Music “We really wanted it to be a hit so we really made it more commercial and more straightforward than I like to do it.” That’s how Funkadelic ringmaster George Clinton described this funky dance-floor anthem in 1978. “The band were even singing ‘Corny or not, here we come!’” Clinton’s idea of pop was to overload a track with enough ideas and slogans and melodies for a full album and still make it stomp like a mother. As bassist Bootsy Collins puts it, “George’s thing was, ‘It don’t matter how many hooks you put in. Don’t matter! Put them all in there.’” 209 Don Henley, 'Boys of Summer' 1984 Writer(s):Don Henley, Mike Campbell Powered byApple Music While fooling around with his new LinnDrum machine, Heartbreakers’ guitarist Mike Campbell whipped up a hypnotic guitar figure over an electronic beat and brought the results to his pal and boss, Tom Petty. The track didn’t quite work for Petty, but former Eagle Don Henley heard something poignant in the looping production and he immediately wrote some lyrics that expressed the ultimate farewell to Sixties idealism, made more poignant by the song’s very Eighties sound. Its stark black-and-white video won Video of the Year at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. 208 Hole, 'Doll Parts' 1994 Writer(s):Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Kristen Pfaff, Patty Schemel Powered byApple Music Courtney Love said she wrote “Doll Parts” in 20 minutes in a bathroom in Boston. “It was about a boy, whose band had just left town, who I’d been sleeping with, who I heard was sleeping with two other girls,” she explained years later. “It was my way of saying, ‘You’re a fucking idiot if you don’t choose me, and here is all the desire and fury and love that I feel for you.’” Guitars stagger forward but never lose their footing; Love’s obsession builds slow, then erupts in erotic threats. Oh, and the upshot of Love’s story: “I married that guy.” 207 Rage Against the Machine, 'Killing in the Name' 1992 Writer(s):Tim Commerford, Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk Powered byApple Music A killer riff can arise at any time — even during a guitar lesson. That’s when Tom Morello, who was teaching on the side, came up with the start of the song that would become RATM’s breakthrough anthem. “I stopped the lesson, got my little Radio Shack cassette recorder, laid down that little snippet, and then continued with the lesson,” he said. Rage’s bludgeoning rhythm section bolstered that riff, and Zack de la Rocha contributed sharp critiques of the police (“Some of those that work forces/Are the same who burn crosses”) as well as the universally anti-authoritarian mantra “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.” 206 Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman' 1968 Writer(s):Jimmy Webb Powered byApple Music Inspired by the isolation of a telephone-pole worker he saw on the Kansas-Oklahoma border, Jimmy Webb wrote this in 1968 for Campbell, who had asked if Webb could come up with another “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” “I just tried to take an ordinary guy and open him up and say, ‘Look there’s this great soul, and there’s this great aching and this great loneliness inside this person, and we’re all like that,’” Webb told the BBC. Campbell added a guitar part and kept the organ from Webb’s demo; the chiming sound at the fade, evoking telephone signals, was done on a massive church organ. 205 Britney Spears, '...Baby One More Time' 1998 Writer(s):Karl Sandberg Powered byApple Music The song that introduced the world to the most influential female pop artist to come around since Madonna was originally intended for TLC, but the R&B group rejected it. Once Swedish songwriter Max Martin met Spears, a new 15-year-old singer with Jive Records, he thought he had the right person for the track. Spears agreed. “I wanted my voice to be kind of rusty,” she told Rolling Stone years later. “I wanted my voice to just be able to groove with the track. So the night before, I stayed up really, really late, so when I went into the studio, I wasn’t rested.” 204 David Bowie, 'Young Americans' 1975 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music “It’s about a newlywed couple who don’t know if they really like each other,” Bowie said of “Young Americans.” He had ditched the glam look that made him a star and embraced what he called “plastic soul,” embedding in Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, which had been producing ornately orchestrated soul hits from the likes of the O’Jays and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Listen close to this R&B homage and you’ll hear two stars in the making: Luther Vandross on backup vocals, and David Sanborn wailing on sax. 203 Stevie Wonder, 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours' 1970 Writer(s):Stevie Wonder, Lee Garrett, Syreeta Wright, Lula May Hardaway Powered byApple Music Wonder experimented with producing on this 1970 R&B chart topper, with its distinctive sitar intro and expansive soul-pop arrangement played by the Funk Brothers. He has credited the song’s iconic refrain to his mother, who received a co-writing credit on the classic. The song ushered in a new era of creative renaissance for the 20-year-old singer, and would go on to be covered by everyone from Elton John to Ariana Grande and become a favorite of Barack Obama’s on the 2008 campaign trail. 202 Elton John, 'Your Song' 1970 Writer(s):Elton John, Bernie Taupin Powered byApple Music Bernie Taupin has often claimed that a song should never take more than an hour to write. His first classic took all of 20 minutes. In 1969, Taupin and Elton were sharing a bunk bed at Elton’s mom’s house when Taupin wrote the words to “Your Song” one morning at the breakfast table. Elton assumed that the soaring piano ballad was inspired by an old girlfriend of Taupin’s, but the lyricist maintains that it was aimed at no one in particular. “The early ones were not drawn from experience, but imagination,” Taupin said. “‘Your Song’ could only have been written by a 17-year-old who’d never been laid in his life.” 201 Johnny Cash, 'Ring of Fire' 1963 Writer(s):June Carter, Merle Kilgore Powered byApple Music June Carter came up with this song while driving around aimlessly one night, worried about Cash’s wild-man ways — and aware that she couldn’t resist him. “There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns,” she wrote. Not long after hearing June’s sister Anita’s take on the song, Cash had a dream that he was singing it with mariachi horns. Cash’s version became one of his biggest hits (inspiring cover versions by everyone from Frank Zappa to Adam Lambert), and his marriage to June four years later helped save his life. Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Set of four t-shirts wit classic Rolling Stone covers on them. Text reads 'Rolling Stone Shop, The Covers Collection. Explore the exclusive collection inspired by Rolling Stone through the decades' Newswire Powered by ‘Kindred’ Pilot at FX Adds Six to Cast Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next Issa Rae Talks to the Voice in Her Head in 'Insecure' Final Season Trailer Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 200 David Bowie, 'Changes' 1971 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music The keynote from Bowie’s 1971 album, Hunky Dory, “Changes” challenged rock audiences to “turn and face the strange.” But the song originally stalled on the charts in both Britain and the United States, and it didn’t really take off until after the international success of 1972’s Ziggy Stardust. Eventually, Bowie fans adopted it as the theme song for the man who’d already given them Hippie Bowie, Mod Bowie, and Bluesy Bowie. As it turned out, he had barely begun to show the world his wardrobe of disguises. The poignant sax solo at the end is played by Bowie himself. 199 Aerosmith, 'Dream On' 1973 Writer(s):Steven Tyler Powered byApple Music Funnily enough, Steven Tyler was just a teenager when he wrote the lyrics “Every time when I look in the mirror/All these lines on my face getting clearer/The past is gone.” Though he’d started to write the music to what would become Aerosmith’s breakthrough hit in his adolescence, he never expected much from it. “It was just this little thing I was playing, and I never dreamed it would end up as a real song or anything,” he said later. But the inspirational, colossal power ballad, the first recording in which Tyler unleashed his piercing falsetto, was first a local hit in Boston and then nationally in 1976. 198 Marvin Gaye, 'Sexual Healing' 1982 Writer(s):Marvin Gaye, Odell Brown Powered byApple Music Not many biographers inspire their subjects to create hit singles. According to Gaye biographer David Ritz, the writer was visiting Gaye in Belgium in April 1982 to continue writing the story of his life, but he found the R&B legend blocked creatively and obsessed with pornography. “I suggested that Marvin needed sexual healing,” Ritz later wrote. Gaye took it from there. His first post-Motown single was built on a beat from a Roland TR-808 drum machine (the device’s first appearance on a mainstream pop hit), sinuous layers of synthesizers, and Gaye’s own incomparable voice, both seductive and spiritual, combining the physical and the transcendent. 197 Ann Peebles, 'I Can't Stand the Rain' 1973 Writer(s):Ann Peebles, Don Bryant, Bernard Miller Powered byApple Music The opening riff of “I Can’t Stand the Rain” still sounds eerie nearly 50 years after its release, like a submarine’s sonar system gone haywire. Producer Willie Mitchell was responsible for pulling out the electric timbales, which was the source of that uncanny opening melody; “When I heard it,” songwriter Don Bryant remembered, “it blew my mind.” The title phrase was provided by Peebles, who was frustrated one night by a sudden burst of precipitation, and the trusty Hi Records band, which also played on Al Green’s many hits, contributed the steamrolling, organ-heavy, Southern soul instrumental. Peebles’ dramatic vocal delivery turns a lonely night into an epic struggle with nature. 196 James Brown, 'Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine' 1970 Writer(s):Bobby Byrd, James Brown, Ron Lenhoff Powered byApple Music The Godfather of Soul started a new decade with a brand new band: the J.B.’s, featuring drummer Jabo Starks and the Collins brothers, Bootsy and Catfish. He also had a stripped-down new sound, streamlining Sixties soul till there was little more left than an extended funky vamp that dared you to keep up, fired by a call-and-response between Brown and his trusted sidekick, Bobby Byrd. Engineer Ron Lenhoff earned a co-writing credit the hard way: He got out of bed and drove five hours to Nashville at Brown’s urgent request. And as this track demonstrates, Brown could be very persuasive. 195 Patsy Cline, 'Crazy' 1961 Writer(s):Willie Nelson Powered byApple Music Cline wasn’t impressed when her husband, Charlie Dick, brought home a demo by a 28-year-old rookie Nashville songwriter named Willie Nelson. Told that the song’s title was “Crazy,” she responded, “It sure is.” But producer Owen Bradley helped Cline make the song her own with a lush arrangement and understated backing vocals from gospel quartet the Jordanaires. “Crazy” would, years later, help set the stage for a sophisticated new phase of the C&W sound known as “countrypolitan,” although Cline herself wouldn’t be around to shape it: She died in a plane crash less than two years later. 194 PJ Harvey, 'Rid of Me' 1993 Writer(s):PJ Harvey Powered byApple Music Polly Harvey began writing the title track to her second album in a crap London flat she shared with her bandmates, “sitting on my bed in my damp front room by the gas heater,” as she later recalled. Its power was revealed halfway around the world, when the trio entered Pachyderm Recording Studio in Minnesota with producer Steve Albini, whose mix highlighted the contrast between Harvey’s simmering verses and sledgehammer chorus. Oddly, at least one young couple found this masterpiece of possessive rage … romantic? “I actually played at my brother’s wedding,” Harvey told GQ. “The song that they requested for me to play was ‘Rid of Me.’” 193 The Rolling Stones, 'Wild Horses' 1971 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music Keith Richards initially wrote this acoustic ballad about leaving his wife, Anita, and newborn son Marlon as the Stones prepared for their first American tour in three years. Stones sidekick Ian Stewart didn’t want to play the minor chords required, so Memphis maverick Jim Dickinson filled in on upright piano at the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recording session. “It was one of those magical moments when things come together,” Richards wrote of the song. “Once you’ve got the vision in your mind of wild horses, I mean, what’s the next phrase you’re going to use? It’s got to be ‘couldn’t drag me away.’” 192 Geto Boys, 'Mind Playing Tricks on Me' 1991 Writer(s):Brad Jordan, J. Prince Powered byApple Music After building a reputation as wild shock rappers, Houston’s Geto Boys dialed back the gore and toyed with something equally twisted but more real, showing the paranoia that lurked beneath their hard exteriors. Writer-producer Scarface rapped about looking over his back and checking his telephone for taps over a dusky Isaac Hayes sample that added a funky depth to the dread. “They lost the extremism and played it more to the middle, with chilling deadpan perfection,” Questlove wrote in his 2012 list of the 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time. “As a result, this is an awesome complex display of paranoia, and somehow manages to add a third dimension — which of course humanizes them in the end.” 191 Bobbie Gentry, 'Ode to Billie Joe' 1967 Writer(s):Bobbie Gentry Powered byApple Music Bobbie Gentry was only 24 when she sent Capitol Records her demo of “Ode to Billie Joe” in early 1967, hoping an established star like Lou Rawls might record it. By August of that year, however, the Mississippi-born singer-songwriter had a Number One with the Delta noir ballad that insisted on its own alluringly ambiguous narrative. Gentry has remained mum on the song’s mystery ever since. As to what exactly Billie Joe McAllister and the song’s narrator dropped off the Tallahatchie Bridge? “I left it open so the listener could draw his own conclusion,” she said. 190 N.W.A, 'Fuck tha Police' 1988 Writer(s):MC Ren, Ice Cube Powered byApple Music With this song, the long-standing battle between young Black men and the LAPD was placed out in the open for white America to see and hear. The confrontational L.A. crew’s label, Priority Records, received a bulletin from the FBI denouncing the song for encouraging “violence against and disrespect for the law-enforcement officer”; the promoter who booked the group’s next tour imposed a contract that the band would be fined $25,000 if it ever played the song live. But as MC Ren told Arsenio Hall, the song was more about venting than threatening: “Once in everybody’s lifetime, they get harassed by the police for no reason, and everybody wants to say it, but they can’t say it on the spot ’cause something will happen to ’em.” 189 David Bowie, 'Space Oddity' 1969 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music As its name suggests, Bowie’s ethereal “Space Oddity” was heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey, rather than the actual 1969 moon landing that closely coincided with its release. “It was picked up by the British television, and used as the background music for the landing itself,” Bowie said. “I’m sure they really weren’t listening to the lyric at all. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to juxtapose against a moon landing.” Crucially, it became Bowie’s first U.S. hit, offering just a glimpse of the ever-evolving star he would become. 188 The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 'Little Wing' 1967 Writer(s):Jimi Hendrix Powered byApple Music Blissed out from his appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, Hendrix conjured this brief reverie in a London session, saying the gossamer ballad was “like one of those beautiful girls that come around sometimes.” His guitar solo emerges from a Leslie speaker cabinet, a piece of equipment originally designed for organs, which accounts for the oscillating sound, and a glockenspiel completes the mood. It’s a performance that stuns guitarists still, as Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine noted: “He seamlessly weaves chords and single-note runs together and uses chord voicings that don’t appear in any music books.” 187 Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' 1965 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music “The first rap record,” according to Tony Glover, a buddy of Dylan’s from the early Sixties Minneapolis folk scene. “It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of ‘Too Much Monkey Business,’ and some of the scat songs of the Forties,” Dylan said. The opening lines riffed on an old Woody Guthrie tune, the first gust in a monsoon of imagery that opened Dylan’s folk-rock classic Bringing It All Back Home, and set a whole new course for what a rock & roll song could say. John Lennon once said of the track that it was so captivating it made him wonder how he could ever compete. 186 The Staple Singers, 'I'll Take You There' 1972 Writer(s):Alvertis Isbell Powered byApple Music The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section copied the note-for-note introduction to this Staple Singers pop-funk smash from the 1969 reggae instrumental “Liquidator,” by the Harry J. All Stars. “We took ‘The Liquidator’ and rearranged the pattern a bit,” as bassist David Hood put it. But the star of the song, which teased sexual, divine, and political deliverance, was vocalist Mavis Staples, who improvised some of the lyrics on the spot (one take of the song reportedly lasted a full 30 minutes). “That music was so good to me,” Staples recalled years later. “I fell right into it.” 185 Michael Jackson, 'Beat It' 1982 Writer(s):Michael Jackson Powered byApple Music “I wanted to write the type of rock song that I would go out and buy,” said Jackson, “but also something totally different from the rock music I was hearing on Top 40 radio.” Producer Quincy Jones wanted Jackson to write something like the Knack’s “My Sharona.” The result was a throbbing dance single with West Side Story gang-war imagery and a fingers-flying guitar solo provided by Eddie Van Halen. “I’m not gonna sit here and tell you what to play,” Jones instructed Van Halen. “The reason you’re here is because of what you do play.” 184 Sinéad O’Connor, 'Nothing Compares 2 U' 1990 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music Originally recorded by one of Prince’s side projects, the Family, the tune became a striking Number One in 1990 when O’Connor transformed it into a universal declaration of loss. “As far as I’m concerned,” O’Connor would later say, “it’s my song.” The video focused on her face for three minutes until she shed a lone tear. For O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U” has become an eternal tribute to her mother, whom she lost as a teenager: “I was always — and am always — singing to my mother,” she wrote of the song. “Every time I perform it, I feel … that I’m talking with her again.” 183 Stevie Wonder, 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life' 1972 Writer(s):Stevie Wonder Powered byApple Music Wonder originally wrote and recorded “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” while he was finishing his 1972 LP, Music of My Mind, but he decided to hang on to it until his next album, Talking Book, where it became the album’s second Number One, following “Superstition.” The song originated from a band rehearsal and was recorded that same night at Electric Lady Studios. “The feeling of the melody is happy, because when I wrote it I was in New York in late spring, early summer,” Wonder later said. “Good things were happening.” 182 Simon and Garfunkel, 'The Sounds of Silence' 1964 Writer(s):Paul Simon Powered byApple Music Paul Simon was just 21 years old when he took his guitar into his Queens, New York, bathroom, as he often did, and shut the lights off. “I’d turn on the faucet so that water would run,” he said in 1984. “I like that sound, it’s very soothing to me. And I’d play. In the dark. ‘Hello darkness my old friend/I’ve come to talk with you again.’” Simon and Garfunkel’s original acoustic version of “The Sound of Silence” was a commercial dud, but when producer Tom Wilson added electric instrumentation (without the duo’s knowledge), it became a folk-rock smash. By the time “Sounds of Silence” was featured in The Graduate, it was already a Sixties touchstone. 181 The Byrds, 'Eight Miles High' 1966 Writer(s):Gene Clark, James McGuinn, David Crosby Powered byApple Music This rare collaboration between Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, and Gene Clark turned into what is often regarded as the first psychedelic rock song. It was inspired in part by both John Coltrane and the band’s first time together on an airplane, a flight to England in 1965. “Gene asked, ‘How high do you think that plane was flying?’” McGuinn recalled years later. “I thought about seven miles, but the Beatles had a song called ‘Eight Days a Week,’ so we changed it to ‘Eight Miles High’ because we thought that would be cooler.” Several radio stations picked up on the song’s trippy double meaning and banned it. 180 Lou Reed, 'Walk on the Wild Side' 1972 Writer(s):Lou Reed Powered byApple Music Reed was asked to write songs for a musical based on the novel A Walk on the Wild Side. The show never happened, but Reed kept the title. “I thought it would be fun to introduce people you see at parties but don’t dare approach,” he said. The Mick Ronson/David Bowie-produced result was an unsentimental look back at the characters from Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, complete with references to transgender people, oral sex, and amphetamines — shocking stuff for the radio in 1972. “In novels, this would be considered nothing,” he told Rolling Stone years later. “It’s not a scary song — The Brothers Karamazov is scarier than that song.” 179 Pink Floyd, 'Comfortably Numb' 1979 Writer(s):David Gilmour, Roger Waters Powered byApple Music Roger Waters was suffering from stomach cramps before a gig in Philadelphia when a doctor injected him with tranquilizers. “He gave me a shot, and to this day I don’t know what it was,” the bassist recalled in 2010. “But it’s not something I would ever recommend giving to a human being. It came out of a dart that felt like it was used to tranquilize an elephant.” From that experience came The Wall epic “Comfortably Numb,” one of the saddest drug songs ever, featuring not just one, but two mind-melting solos from David Gilmour. “I’m perfectly happy to puzzle the hell out of people who try to work out how it was done,” he said. 178 Billie Eilish, 'Bad Guy' 2019 Writer(s):Finneas O'Connell, Billie Eilish O'Connell Powered byApple Music Written and painstakingly recorded with brother-producer Finneas at his house, the racing beat, whispery stacked harmonies, crackling finger snaps, and ground-quaking bass of Eilish’s biggest hit to date are both menacing and whimsical (the Wizards of Waverly Place theme was an inspiration). Eilish’s lyrics reduce some swaggering male to a mere simp, and she delivers them with IDGAF insouciance. “I’m actually so shocked and happy that people like it the way that it is,” Eilish told Rolling Stone. “The thing we were most worried about was the chorus, and having it have no hook.” 177 Van Halen, 'Jump' 1983 Writer(s):Edward Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth Powered byApple Music Eddie Van Halen, then best known for lightning-fast shredding, had the stabbing, anthemic synth riff mapped out since at least 1982, allegedly inspired by a riff from Hall and Oates’ “Kiss on My List.” Producer Ted Templeman wasn’t crazy about “Jump.” (“When Van Halen uses keyboards,” he said, “they should sound nasty.”) Nor was singer David Lee Roth (tensions between Roth and Eddie led to Roth departing the band in 1985), but that didn’t stop Diamond Dave from belting it to Number One, making “Jump” the only chart topper the band ever achieved. 176 The Kinks, 'You Really Got Me' 1964 Writer(s):Ray Davies Powered byApple Music Convinced that the band’s previous two singles had flopped because they were too pristine, the Kinks went into the studio in the summer of 1964 to record this deliberately raw rave-up, written by Ray Davies on the piano in his parents’ living room. But the original recording still felt too shiny, and the band had to borrow £200 to cover the cost of another session. Seventeen-year-old guitarist Dave Davies took a razor to the speaker cone on his amp to get the desired dirty sound for that immortal, blistering riff. “The song came out of a working-class environment,” Dave recalled. “People fighting for something.” 175 The Flamingos, 'I Only Have Eyes for You' 1959 Writer(s):Al Dubin, Harry Warren Powered byApple Music Like many great singing groups, this smooth quartet honed their distinct harmonies in the Black church. Tenor Terry “Buzzy” Johnson struggled to devise a novel arrangement that could make crooner Ben Selvin’s 1934 hit engaging to modern audiences, until the otherworldly echo, piano plink, and coaxing doo-bop-sh-bops that would set the Flamingos’ version apart came to him in a dream. The other members weren’t exactly thrilled when he called them over at four in the morning to share his revelation, but the classic recording proved worth losing a little sleep over. 174 R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe' 1983 Writer(s):Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Powered byApple Music R.E.M.’s first single was a pure band creation: “I wrote the verse and B section late one night while sitting alone downstairs in an Athens record store, while a party was going on upstairs,” recalled bassist Mike Mills. “Peter wrote the chorus and bridge, and Michael supplied the melody and lyrics.” They released a raw, fast version on a local indie label in 1981, and rerecorded it for 1983’s epochal Murmur, with a richer melody and tighter rhythm — “like Motown,” Buck recalled. Stipe mumbled his lyrics because he hadn’t finished writing them when it was time to record. 173 Television, 'Marquee Moon' 1977 Writer(s):Tom Verlaine Powered byApple Music The centerpiece and title track of Television’s debut album is a guitar epic full of spooky rapture and urban paranoia. The twin guitars of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd stretch out for 10 minutes, closer in style to the Grateful Dead than the Ramones, but with a sleek, street-smart edge, their guitar lines dodging and weaving like midtown traffic. “I would play until something happened,” Verlaine said of his style. “That comes from jazz, or even the Doors, or the Five Live Yardbirds album — that kinda rave-up dynamics.” 172 Nina Simone, 'Mississippi Goddam' 1964 Writer(s):Nina Simone Powered byApple Music Until 1963, Nina Simone hadn’t been much of a fan of protest songs, calling them “simple and unimaginative.” Then a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four Black children, and NAACP official Medgar Evers was murdered, and a song “erupted out of me quicker than I could write it down,” she said. Driven by Simone’s effervescent piano and vivacious delivery, “Mississippi Goddam” feels jaunty — “a show tune … but the show hasn’t been written for it yet,” she sang. Its speedy sprightliness is harried, as if she was channeling the way that so many at the time were shocked by events and demanding change. 171 Louis Armstrong, 'What a Wonderful World' 1967 Writer(s):G.D. Weiss, G. Douglas Powered byApple Music The jazz legend cut this tender song of autumnal optimism one late night after performing in Vegas. It stiffed in the U.S. — the president of ABC Records was so miffed that Pops hadn’t recorded something upbeat, à la “Hello Dolly,” that he refused to promote the song. British music fans didn’t care though; they made “What a Wonderful World” an overseas hit, the last during Armstrong’s lifetime. Two decades later, when it appeared in the Robin Williams film Good Morning Vietnam, the song finally entered the U.S. charts, belated proof of how beloved it had grown over the years. 170 The Five Satins, 'In the Still of the Night' 1956 Writer(s):Fred Parris Powered byApple Music Five Satins frontman Fred Parris wrote the song while on guard duty in the Army, and the group recorded it in the basement of a church in Parris’ hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. The roughness shows: The drums and piano are muffled, the alto sax cracks during the solo, and the backing vocals wander off-key. But the primitive sound — and the fact that only four of the Five Satins were even present for the session — can’t keep “In the Still of the Night,” originally released as a B side, from being a sublime, definitive piece of doo-wop. 169 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 'American Girl' 1976 Writer(s):Tom Petty Powered byApple Music Mike Campbell remembers the moment he and his fellow Heartbreakers heard “American Girl” on the radio. “We were like kids on Christmas,” the guitarist said. Petty’s signature anthem was recorded, fittingly, on the Fourth of July, 1976, supercharging Byrds-y jangle for the arena Seventies. He later said the song tumbled out of him while he sat in his apartment in Encino, California, listening to the traffic on the freeway below his window, landing on a riff so powerful it would show up 25 years later in another hit, the Strokes’ “Last Nite.” “I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it,” Petty told Rolling Stone in 2006. “That made me laugh out loud. I was like, ‘OK, good for you.’ It doesn’t bother me.” 168 Dusty Springfield, 'Son of a Preacher Man' 1968 Writer(s):John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins Powered byApple Music Aretha Franklin initially passed on the song that would forever become associated with British white soul singer Dusty Springfield, who recorded the single for her Atlantic debut, Dusty in Memphis. Springfield always claimed she was unsatisfied with her vocal take. She preferred the subsequent version from Franklin, who recorded it a year later, in 1970, after Springfield’s became a hit. The song, Springfield later said, “was just not good enough.… To this day, I listen to her phrasing and go, ‘Goddamnit. That’s the way I should have done it.’” 167 Eminem, 'Lose Yourself' 2002 Writer(s):Marshall Mathers Powered byApple Music Few rappers can throw themselves into a character as fully as Eminem, but for the relentlessly striving anthem to his not-exactly-autobiographical film debut, 8 Mile, the rapper said he struggled to find a voice for his alter ego, Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith. “I have to make parallels between my life and his,” he wrote. “That was the trick I had to figure out — how to make the rhyme sound like him, and then morph into me somehow, so you see the parallels between his struggles and mine.” Ditching his persona shifts and shock-rap gags, Eminem turned in a track as earnest as an Eighties-soundtrack fist pumper. 166 Mott the Hoople, 'All the Young Dudes' 1972 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music Mott the Hoople were on the verge of splitting up when David Bowie played them a demo of “All the Young Dudes” in 1972. The band had already declined “Suffragette City,” so this time they thought twice. Bowie originally wrote the song to tie into the apocalyptic futurist vibe of his classic album Ziggy Stardust; in the hands of Mott the Hoople, it became a call-to-arms glam-rock anthem, defining the band and overshadowing the rest of its career. “You can say it might have had an adverse effect on the band’s image,” said Ian Hunter. “But without it there wouldn’t have been a band. Simple as that.” 165 Hank Williams, 'I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry' 1949 Writer(s):Hank Williams Powered byApple Music This track — a vision of lonesome Americana over a steady beat — was Williams’ favorite out of all the songs he wrote. But he worried that the lyrics about weeping robins and falling stars were too artsy for his rural audience, which might explain why the track was buried on the B side of “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.” “Lonesome” didn’t catch much attention, but after Williams’ death it came to symbolize his whiskey-soaked life, and artists such as Willie Nelson resurrected it, setting the mood for much of the country music that followed. 164 Bob Dylan, 'Mr. Tambourine Man' 1965 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music Inspired by Bruce Langhorne — a session guitarist who played on several Dylan records — “Mr. Tambourine Man” is the tune that elevated Dylan from folk hero to bona fide star. “[Bruce] was one of those characters.… He had this gigantic tambourine as big as a wagon wheel,” Dylan said. “The vision of him playing just stuck in my mind.” Written partly during a drug-fueled cross-country trek in 1964, the song was recorded on January 15th, 1965; five days later, based on a demo (which Dylan cut with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott) they’d heard, the Byrds recorded their own electrified version. “Wow, man,” said Dylan, “you can even dance to that!” 163 Fleetwood Mac, 'Landslide' 1975 Writer(s):Stevie Nicks Powered byApple Music “Landslide” is amazing not just because it’s a stunning reflection on aging, but also because Nicks wasn’t even 30 years old when she wrote it. “I was only 27,” she told Rolling Stone in 2014. “I wrote that in 1973, a year before I joined Fleetwood Mac. You can feel really old at 27.” At the time, Nicks was working as a waitress and wondering, as she said later, if the move she and Lindsey Buckingham had made from San Francisco to Los Angeles was a good idea. Decades later, you could still catch glimpses of affection between Buckingham and Nicks when they performed it live. 162 Nick Drake, 'Pink Moon' 1972 Writer(s):Nick Drake Powered byApple Music Drake had recorded two excellent albums with a producer and arranger. For what would be his final LP (he died of a drug overdose two years after it was recorded, at 26), the painfully reclusive English folk genius stripped away any needless embellishment, had engineer-producer John Wood simply roll tape, and set down 28 minutes of hushed meditations on life’s fleeting beauty and bottomless despair. Three decades later, Pink Moon’s heartbreakingly delicate title track would show up in a Volkswagen commercial, bringing new attention to an artist who had already influenced generations of songwriters. 161 Madonna, 'Into the Groove' 1985 Writer(s):Madonna, Stephen Bray Powered byApple Music Perhaps the greatest dance-pop invitation of the Eighties, “Into the Groove” was written by Madonna and Steve Bray, who had played drums in the punk band Madonna briefly fronted during her early New York days. The song soundtracked the scene where she goes to NYC hot spot Danceteria in her movie Desperately Seeking Susan, and soon became a smash. “The dance floor was quite a magical place for me,” she said n 1998. “I started off wanting to be a dancer, so that had a lot to do with it. The freedom that I always feel when I’m dancing, that feeling of inhabiting your body, letting yourself go, expressing yourself through music.” 160 R.E.M., 'Nightswimming' 1992 Writer(s):Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe Powered byApple Music This majestic piano reverie became the mega-emotional climax of R.E.M.’s greatest album, Automatic for the People. It’s a bittersweet memory of skinny-dipping in the Georgia pines, haunted by sex and grief, with Stipe trying to hold on to these images before they fade away. Mills wrote the piano part at Miami’s Criteria Studios — the same piano you hear at the end of “Layla.” The orchestration came from Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. “Nightswimming” was never a hit, but over the years, it’s rightly taken its place as one of Nineties rock’s most fiercely beloved classics. 159 The Who, 'Baba O'Riley' 1971 Writer(s):Pete Townshend Powered byApple Music “Baba O’Riley” is named after Townshend’s guru Meher Baba and composer Terry Riley, whose experimental minimalism is reflected in the opening synthesizer line. The song was originally written for Lifehouse, the elaborate rock opera that was supposed to follow Tommy. “Baba O’Riley” ended up opening Who’s Next instead, with Townshend’s lyrics surveying the drugged-out masses he’d seen on the festival fields of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight. “The dichotomy was that it became a celebration,” Townshend said years later. “‘Teenage wasteland! Yes. We’re all wasted!’ People were already running toward the culture and its promise of salvation. But not everyone survived.” 158 The Meters, 'Cissy Strut' 1969 Writer(s):Leo Nocentelli, Arthur Neville, George Porter, Joseph Modeliste Powered byApple Music In the late Sixties, every New Orleans band — including the Meters — was opening its set with “Hold It,” a Bill Doggett instrumental. But Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli thought it was time for a change. “I got sick of playing that, so I wrote ‘Cissy Strut,’” he said, contributing a trebly guitar lick that feeds into a thick chord flick, while the heavy strut of drummer Joseph Modeliste’s beat carries NOLA tradition into the future of funk. Years later, when rappers burned out on James Brown needed new breaks, the Meters’ signature tune was one place they turned. 157 Sonic Youth, 'Teenage Riot' 1988 Writer(s):Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley Powered byApple Music In 1988, as George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis competed for the presidency, the arty New York visionaries in Sonic Youth imagined something different. “J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. represented our slacker genius, so in tribute we wrote a song called ‘Rock’N’Roll for President,’” Thurston Moore later explained, with the underground rock hero as “our de facto alternative dream president.” That song evolved into “Teenage Riot,” with Sonic Youth’s confrontational noise suddenly mustered into the service of a shockingly straight-ahead melody. Its video flashed images of icons like Mark E. Smith of the Fall, Sun Ra, and Kiss, a catalog of the band’s loves and lineage. 156 The Kingsmen, 'Louie Louie' 1963 Writer(s):Richard Berry Powered byApple Music A blast of raw guitars and half-intelligible shouting recorded for $52, the Kingsmen’s cover of Richard Berry’s R&B song hit Number Two in 1963 — thanks in part to supposedly pornographic lyrics that drew the attention of the FBI. The Portland, Oregon, group accidentally rendered the decidedly noncontroversial lyrics (about a sailor trying to get home to see his lady) indecipherable by crowding around a single microphone. “I was yelling at a mic far away,” singer Jack Ely told Rolling Stone. “I always thought the controversy was record-company hype.” 155 The Strokes, 'Last Nite' 2001 Writer(s):Julian Casablancas Powered byApple Music Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas was inspired to come up with “Last Nite” after gorging himself on the music of the Velvet Underground, giving the band an anthem that brought them from the clubs of New York to enormous festival sites all over the world. Many critics pointed out that it borrowed generously from Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” but it hardly mattered. “People would say, ‘You know that song “American Girl” by Tom Petty?’” Casablancas said. “‘Don’t you think it sounds a little like that?’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah, we ripped it off. Where you been?’” 154 Howlin’ Wolf, 'Spoonful' 1960 Writer(s):Willie Dixon Powered byApple Music Though this earthy Chicago-blues classic has been covered plenty, no one has sunk their teeth as deeply into it and as hungrily as Wolf did in 1960. While some thought the spoon might have been a drug reference, songwriter Willie Dixon, Chess Records’ in-house jack of all trades, has disavowed that notion, saying, “People who think ‘Spoonful’ was about heroin are mostly people with heroin ideas.” What’s more, Wolf often waved an oversize cooking spoon in front of his crotch while performing the song, in case anyone wondered what he hoped to provide a heaping helping of. 153 Rick James, 'Super Freak' 1981 Writer(s):Rick James, Alonzo Miller Powered byApple Music James was nearly done with his 1981 LP, Street Songs, when one day in the studio, he started noodling around on the bass and singing random lines like “She’s a very kinky girl.” He didn’t give it a second thought, until a bandmate told him to keep going. “Made it up on the spot,” James recalled in his memoir, Glow. “It just kinda grew out of me.” He called in the Temptations to help him sing the harmonies. “It’s not as funky as my usual stuff,” he told them. “But maybe that’ll mean white people will dance to it.” It also meant the biggest hit of his career, a Grammy winner for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and a huge payday when MC Hammer sampled it for “U Can’t Touch This.” 152 Creedence Clearwater Revival, 'Proud Mary' 1969 Writer(s):John Fogerty Powered byApple Music “Proud Mary” began as a phrase in Fogerty’s three-ring-binder notebook. He didn’t know what to do with it until the day in 1968 when his honorable-discharge papers came in the mail from the Army, meaning he wouldn’t have to serve in Vietnam. He then ran into his apartment, picked up his Rickenbacker, and the song poured out of him in a state of euphoria over the course of just one hour. “I knew I had entered the land of greatness,” Fogerty wrote in his memoir, Fortunate Son. “Far above anything I had even thought about.” Two years later, Ike and Tina Turner completely reinvented the song as a funk epic. 151 The Shirelles, 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' 1960 Writer(s):Gerry Goffin, Carole King Powered byApple Music After a few minor Shirelles hits, Scepter Records founder Florence Greenberg asked King and Goffin to write the group a song. On the piano in Greenberg’s office, King finished a song the team had been working on. “I remember giving her baby a bottle while Carole was writing the song,” Greenberg said. Lead singer Shirley Owens initially found “Tomorrow” too countryish for the group, but Luther Dixon’s production changed her mind. King’s devotion to the song was so strong that she replaced a subpar percussionist and played kettledrum herself. With its forthright depiction of a sexual relationship, it became the first girl-group record to go Number One. Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Newswire Powered by ‘Kindred’ Pilot at FX Adds Six to Cast Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next This Musician-Approved Brand's True Wireless Earbuds Are Finally Under $100 Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 150 Green Day, 'Basket Case' 1994 Writer(s):Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tre Cool Powered byApple Music Billie Joe Armstrong wrote “Basket Case” as a way to process the panic disorder that plagued him in his younger years. “The only way I knew how to deal with it,” he said, “was to write a song about it.” Written from the perspective of a jittery “melodramatic fool” unable to tell if he’s paranoid or stoned, the song became an MTV favorite in the mid-Nineties, and remains a key part of Green Day’s live show to this day. “It’s about other people now,” Armstrong told Rolling Stone in 2014. “When I look at people as we play that song, they’re having their own moment. At that point, I’m the audience.” 149 Elton John, 'Rocket Man' 1972 Writer(s):Elton John, Bernie Taupin Powered byApple Music In the future that Taupin imagined when he started writing “Rocket Man” for Elton John in 1971, astronauts are blue-collar laborers trapped in space for months on end, desperately missing their families and not even remotely understanding how their spaceships work. He was inspired by a 1951 Ray Bradbury short story. Elton took his words and transformed them into a soaring anthem that became his second Top 10 hit, following “Your Song.” “It had an acoustic guitar on it, it was a different song for me — it was a simpler sound,” he told Rolling Stone. “I’d moved into a house, I was becoming successful, I was so confident, musically.” 148 Led Zeppelin, 'Kashmir' 1975 Writer(s):John Bonham, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Powered byApple Music While vacationing in southern Morocco, Plant conjured the lyrics for Led Zeppelin’s most ambitious experiment, the centerpiece of 1975’s Physical Graffiti. As he traveled the desert in northwest Africa, Plant envisioned himself driving straight through to Kashmir, on the India-China border. Meanwhile, back in the band’s studio in rural England, Page and Bonham began riffing on an Arabic-sounding set of chords that would perfectly match Plant’s desert vision. “The song was bigger than me,” said Plant. “I was petrified. I was virtually in tears.” John Paul Jones’ string arrangement provided the crowning touch, ratcheting up the song’s grandeur to stadium-rock proportions. 147 Fats Domino, 'Blueberry Hill' 1956 Writer(s):Al Lewis, Larry Stock, Vincent Rose Powered byApple Music “Blueberry Hill” was first recorded in 1940 by several artists, including Gene Autry and Glenn Miller. But Domino drew on the 1949 Louis Armstrong version when he had run out of material at a session. Producer Dave Bartholomew thought it was a terrible idea but lost the argument. Good thing, too. It ended up being Domino’s biggest hit and broadened his audience once and for all. As Carl Perkins later said, “In the white honky-tonks where I was playin’, they were punchin’ ‘Blueberry Hill.’ And white cats were dancin’ to Fats Domino.” 146 James Taylor, 'Fire and Rain' 1970 Writer(s):James Taylor Powered byApple Music Writing “Fire and Rain” was like a therapy session for Taylor. “It’s like three samplings of what I went through,” he recalled. The first verse was written in his London apartment, after learning about the suicide of his friend Suzanne Schnerr. The second verse is about his drug addiction, while the final verse refers to his stay in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility. “That song relieved a lot of tension,” he said. “There were things that I needed to get rid of.” In a key decision, drummer Russ Kunkel switched from sticks to brushes, helping further set the sensitive mood. 145 Outkast, 'Ms. Jackson' 2000 Writer(s):André Benjamin, Antwan Patton, David Sheats Powered byApple Music “Ms. Jackson” is a story of failed romance, broken dreams, and the family caught in the messy aftermath, shrouded in one of the most memorable hooks in hip-hop history. Inspired by André 3000’s split with neo-soul goddess Erykah Badu, the song is full of calamity, but in real life, it brought Outkast some peace. In it, Dré and Big Boi appeal to the mothers of their childrens’ mothers with sharp, desperate raps. “Music gives you the chance to say what you want to say,” André later said. “And [Badu’s] mom loved it. She’s like, ‘Where’s my publishing check?’” 144 The Rolling Stones, 'Jumpin’ Jack Flash' 1968 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music Keith Richards was on a historic run in 1968, exploring the open-D blues-guitar tuning for the first time and coming up with some of his most dynamic riffs. He overheard an organ lick that bassist Bill Wyman was fooling around with in a London studio and turned it into the unstoppable, churning pulse of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” The lyric was inspired by Richards’ gardener, Jack Dyer, who slogged past as the guitarist and Mick Jagger were coming to the end of an all-night session. “Who’s that?” Jagger asked. “Jumpin’ Jack,” Richards answered. The song evolved into supernatural Delta blues by way of Swinging London. The Stones first performed it at their final show with Brian Jones. 143 The Clash, 'London Calling' 1980 Writer(s):Mick Jones, Joe Strummer Powered byApple Music In 1979, Britain was suffocating in crisis: soaring unemployment, racial conflict, widespread drug use. “We felt that we were struggling,” Joe Strummer said, “about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us.” Strummer and guitarist Mick Jones channeled that trial and worry into a song, produced with hellbent atmosphere by Guy Stevens, that sounded like the Clash marching into battle: Strummer and Jones punching their guitars in metallic unison with Paul Simonon’s thumping bass and Topper Headon’s rifle-crack drumming. The “nuclear error” referred to the March 1979 meltdown of a reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. 142 George Jones, 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' 1980 Writer(s):Bobby Braddock, Curly Putnam Powered byApple Music One of the most gut-wrenching songs of all time, George Jones’ 1980 classic is about a man who spends decades hoping his true love will return to him, but their reunion doesn’t happen until his funeral. Jones was highly reluctant to record it at first, but producer Billy Sherrill insisted. “I looked Billy square in the eye,” Jones wrote in his memoir, “and said, ‘Nobody will buy that morbid son of a bitch.’” Jones was happy to be proven wrong when the song hit Number One on the Hot Country Song chart. “I was back on top,” he wrote. “A four-decade career was salvaged by a three-minute song.” 141 Rod Stewart, 'Maggie May' 1971 Writer(s):Rod Stewart, Martin Quittenton Powered byApple Music Stewart plays a schoolboy in love with an older temptress in “Maggie May” — he claimed it was “more or less a true story about the first woman I had sex with.” The song, a last-minute addition to Every Picture Tells a Story, was initially the B side of “Reason to Believe.” Stewart has joked that if a DJ hadn’t flipped the single over, he’d have gone back to his old job: digging graves. But the song’s rustic mandolin and acoustic guitars — and Mickey Waller’s relentless drum bashing — were undeniable. The song became Stewart’s first U.S. Top 40 hit — and his first Number One. 140 Bob Marley and the Wailers, 'No Woman No Cry' 1975 Writer(s):Vincent Ford, Bob Marley Powered byApple Music Perhaps the greatest example ever of a live version usurping the studio recording to become definitive. The uptempo “No Woman No Cry” on 1975’s Natty Dread is nice, but the swaying, incantatory take on 1975’s Live! — recorded at the London Lyceum in July 1975, and captured by the Rolling Stones’ mobile recording unit — immediately became one of the reggae legend’s most beloved performances. The “government yard in Trench Town” refers to the Jamaican public-housing project where Marley lived in the Fifties. He gave a songwriting credit to his childhood friend Vincent “Tata” Ford to help keep Ford’s Kingston soup kitchen running. 139 Madonna, 'Vogue' 1990 Writer(s):Madonna, Shep Pettibone Powered byApple Music Inspired by the way men were dancing at the gay clubs she frequented, Madonna wrote some lyrics that connected the act of striking a pose to classic Hollywood glamour. Producer Shep Pettibone, who’d remixed some of the pop star’s earlier singles, whipped up a booming disco beat and synth bass, then later mixed in syncopated stabs of house piano after Madonna had recorded her vocals in a Manhattan basement. The most amazing part? They did it all on a budget of $5,000, with the idea that something so bold could probably only be a B side. 138 Blondie, 'Heart of Glass' 1979 Writer(s):Chris Stein, Debbie Harry Powered byApple Music Blondie wrote “Heart of Glass” during their punk days on the CBGB scene, calling it both “The Disco Song” and “Once I Had a Love,” but they didn’t find a way to make it work until the 1979 sessions for Parallel Lines, when they drew inspiration from Donna Summer and tried it with a Roland drum machine and a synthesizer. It became their first Number One hit. “A lot of people we’d hung out and been close friends with on the scene for years said we’d sold out by doing a disco song,” Debbie Harry recalled. “It always pissed me off that people could have the nerve to pretend to be so stupid.” 137 Ariana Grande, 'Thank U, Next' 2019 Writer(s):Kimberly Krysiuk, Tayla Parx, Victoria McCants, Ariana Grande, Charles Anderson, Michael Foster, Njomza Vitia, Tommy Brown Powered byApple Music Grande released “Thank U, Next” a little more than a year after her concert in Manchester, England, came under attack, ending in the deaths of 22 people. Within the same year, her engagement to the comedian Pete Davidson ended, and her ex-fiancé, Mac Miller, tragically passed away. “​​She could’ve released whatever fluffy song,” her co-writer Savan Kotecha told Rolling Stone. “But she was brave enough to go, ‘I’m going to talk about it.’” The result was “Thank U, Next,” a song that floats with strength and grace, offering a sage perspective on the work of moving on, from a place of profound centeredness. 136 Otis Redding, 'Try a Little Tenderness' 1966 Writer(s):Harry Woods, James Campbell, Reginald Connelly Powered byApple Music Redding’s signature song derived from unlikely origins: a sentimental 1930s Tin Pan Alley standard popularized by Ray Noble’s New Mayfair Dance Orchestra. Redding transformed the tune alongside Booker T and the M.G.s in three 1966 takes, beginning with the eternal horn intro: “That little riff just came off the top of Otis’ head, and it went into our hearts and onto that tape,” said trumpeter Wayne Jackson. Redding’s rendition changed both his career and the trajectory of Stax. Said label head Jim Stewart, “It has everything that Stax is or was about.” 135 The Beatles, 'She Loves You' 1964 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music Lennon and McCartney began writing this song in a tour van, and George Harrison dreamed up the harmonies, which George Martin found “corny.” The band overruled Martin on the harmonies, but they took his suggestion to kick off the song with the jubilant chorus. When McCartney’s father heard the song, he said, “Son, there are enough Americanisms around. Couldn’t you sing, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ just for once?” McCartney responded, “You don’t understand, Dad. It wouldn’t work.” 134 Tina Turner, 'What's Love Got to Do With It' 1984 Writer(s):Graham Lyle, Terry Britten Powered byApple Music Written by the British duo of Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” was rejected by Cliff Richard and Donna Summer before Tina Turner got her hands on it. She was 46 and seen by much of the industry as a decade past her prime, but she infused every word of the song with heartache and pain drawn from her real life. Millions connected to it, and the song topped charts all over the world, solidifying one of the great comebacks in rock history. “It’s neither rock & roll nor R&B,” Turner told Rolling Stone right after it hit. “It’s a bit of both.” 133 Journey, 'Don’t Stop Believin’' 1981 Writer(s):Jonathan Cain, Neal Schon, Stephen Perry Powered byApple Music When Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain was a struggling musician on the Los Angeles scene, his father would often say to him, “Don’t stop believing.” He thought of the phrase when he sat down to write a song with Journey frontman Steve Perry for their 1981 LP, Escape. Many of the lyrics came to them after a show in Detroit, when they looked down from their hotel room at people walking near bright street lamps. “I thought, ‘Wow, streetlight people,’” Perry told Rolling Stone. “‘That’s so cool.’” With help from guitarist Neal Schon, they turned it into one of the most enduring songs of the Eighties. 132 Eric B. and Rakim, 'Paid in Full' 1987 Writer(s):Eric Barrier, William Griffin Powered byApple Music At this track’s revolutionary core is a verse in which Rakim effortlessly growls the template for gangsta rap, from stick-up language (“Don’t nothing move but the money”) to bleak hopes for the future (“Search for a nine-to-five, if I strive/Then maybe I’ll stay alive”). Coldcut’s dance remix, commissioned by the crew, which laid a sample of Israeli singer Ofra Haza over its classic breakbeat (Soul Searchers’ “Ashley’s Roachclip”), was a global hit, but the original is the soul of East Coast hip-hop. “Rap has established itself as music now,” Rakim declared. “Before, people just thought it was noise.” 131 Ben E. King, 'Stand by Me' 1961 Writer(s):Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller Powered byApple Music King wrote “Stand by Me” when he was still the lead singer of the Drifters — but the group didn’t want it. As King recalled, the Drifters’ manager told him, “Not a bad song, but we don’t need it.” But after King went solo, he revived “Stand by Me” at the end of a session with producer Jerry Leiber. “I showed him the song,” King said. “Did it on piano a little bit, he called the musicians back into the studio, and we went ahead and recorded it.” “Stand by Me” has been a pop-soul standard ever since, covered by everyone from John Lennon to Green Day. 130 Martha and the Vandellas, 'Dancing in the Street' 1964 Writer(s):Ivy Joe Hunter, Marvin Gaye, William Stevenson Powered byApple Music Gordy Stevenson, who gave Martha Reeves her first job, as his secretary, approached the group with this song after it was turned down by Motown labelmate (and future Mrs. Stevenson) Kim Weston. The trio agreed to record “Dancing in the Street” as a demo, with its songwriters singing backup. “When Martha got into the song,” Stevenson said, “that was the end of the conversation!” Against a backbeat that cracks like a gunshot, Reeves reinvents the world as a giant block party. 129 Drake feat. Majid Jordan, 'Hold On, We're Going Home' 2013 Writer(s):Aubrey Graham, Jordan Ullman, Majid Maskati, Noah Shebib, Paul Jeffries Powered byApple Music That Drake titled his third album Nothing Was the Same is on the nose even for him. But the chart-topping rapper is indeed perceptive. The record found Drake transitioning from successful rap star to global powerhouse. On the single “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” he channels the timeless hits of the prior generation’s greats — something like OVO’s take on Thiller-era Quincy Jones. Drake even told MTV at the time that he thought the song was more fit for weddings than the club. He’s right. “Hold On, We’re Going Home” has the enduring appeal of a late-Eighties hit. 128 Led Zeppelin, 'Whole Lotta Love' 1969 Writer(s):John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Willie Dixon Powered byApple Music The members of Led Zeppelin first got their sound together by jamming on blues standards, stretching them out into psychedelic orgies. “Whole Lotta Love” was a tribute to Chicago-blues songwriter Willie Dixon, based on his “You Need Love,” a Muddy Waters single from 1962 (though Robert Plant also threw in quotes from songs Dixon wrote for Howlin’ Wolf). The copyright issues weren’t sorted out until 1985, when Dixon brought legal action and got his rightful share of the credit for “Whole Lotta Love.” “[Jimmy] Page’s riff was Page’s riff,” Plant said. “I just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to sing?’ That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for.” Said Page, “Usually my riffs are pretty damn original. What can I say?” 127 TLC, 'Waterfalls' 1995 Writer(s):Brandon Bennett, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Marqueze Etheridge, Rico Wade, Ray Murray, Sleepy Brown Powered byApple Music R&B trio TLC had to fight to get this hit the corporate backing it deserved. Clive Davis, president of their label, Arista, wasn’t a fan of “Waterfalls,” which would become a massive hit from their megaplatinum album CrazySexyCool. TLC pleaded for a video budget to help them better communicate the ballad’s cautionary tales and message of hope; in a daring gesture, “Waterfalls” dealt with HIV/AIDS during a year when more than 50,000 Americans succumbed to the disease. With $1 million and director F. Gary Gray, TLC finally made a striking video and became the first Black act to win Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. 126 George Michael, 'Freedom! '90' 1990 Writer(s):George Michael Powered byApple Music Fed up with life as a pin-up idol, Michael poured his frustrations into “Freedom! ’90,” which nodded to hip-hop with its sample of James Brown’s 1970 classic “Funky Drummer.” “Went back home, got a brand-new face for the boys on MTV,” he sang. “But today the way I play the game has got to change/Now I’m gonna get myself happy.” To drive the point home, he refused to appear in the video (hiring supermodels Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford to lip-sync his part) and literally torched the iconic leather jacket, jukebox, and guitar from his Faith period. 125 Sex Pistols, 'Anarchy in the U.K.' 1977 Writer(s):John Lydon, Glenn Matlock, Paul Cook, Simon Ritchie, Steve Jones Powered byApple Music The Sex Pistols set out to become a national scandal in the U.K., and they succeeded with their debut single. Steve Jones made his guitar sound like a pub brawl, while Johnny Rotten snarled, spat, and snickered, declaring himself an antichrist and ending the song by urging his fans to “Get pissed/Destroy!” EMI, the Sex Pistols’ record label, pulled “Anarchy in the U.K.” and dropped them, which just made them more notorious. “I don’t understand it,” Rotten said in 1977. “All we’re trying to do is destroy everything.” 124 Buddy Holly, 'That’ll Be the Day' 1957 Writer(s):Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison, Norman Petty Powered byApple Music Recorded in Clovis, New Mexico, in February 1957, the song took its title from a recurring line in the John Wayne movie The Searchers. “We were cutting ‘That’ll Be the Day’ just as a demo to send to New York, just to see if they liked the sound of the group — not for a master record,” recalled Crickets drummer Jerry Allison. “So we just went in and set up and sort of shucked through the song.” Allison credits Holly’s guitar-picking on “That’ll Be the Day” to the influence of New Orleans bluesman Lonnie Johnson. 123 Talking Heads, 'This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)' 1983 Writer(s):Chris Frantz, David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth Powered byApple Music The origins of this Talking Heads classic came from a rough instrumental the band had been working on for some time. “The original basic track was called ‘Naive Melody,’ because the melody was naive-sounding,” drummer Chris Frantz later explained. David Byrne’s lyrics represented a new level of emotional honesty and directness for the Talking Heads frontman. “It’s a real honest kind of love song,” Byrne said. “I tried to write one that wasn’t corny, that didn’t sound stupid or lame, the way many do. I think I succeeded.” 122 The Impressions, 'People Get Ready' 1965 Writer(s):Curtis Mayfield Powered byApple Music “It was warrior music,” said civil rights activist Gordon Sellers. “It was music you listened to while you were preparing to go into battle.” Curtis Mayfield wrote the gospel-driven R&B ballad, he said, “in a deep mood, a spiritual state of mind,” just before Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on the Impressions’ hometown of Chicago. Shortly after “People Get Ready” was released, churches in Chicago began including their own version of it in songbooks. Mayfield’s version of the song ended with “You don’t need no ticket/You just thank the Lord,” but the churches’ rendition, ironically, made the lyrics less Christian and more universal: “Everybody wants freedom/This I know.” 121 The Beatles, 'Let It Be' 1970 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music Inspired by the church-born soul of Aretha Franklin, an anxious Paul McCartney started writing “Let It Be” in 1968 and unveiled a skeletal version to the other Beatles during the disastrous Let It Be rehearsals in January 1969. John Lennon was brutally dismissive, mistaking McCartney’s secular humanism for self-righteous piety. Yet the Beatles put special labor into the song, getting the consummate take on January 31st — the day after their last live performance, on the roof of their Apple offices in London. Released four months later, “Let It Be” effectively became an elegy for the band that had defined the Sixties. 120 X-Ray Spex, 'Oh Bondage! Up Yours!' 1977 Writer(s):Poly Styrene Powered byApple Music With their braces-wearing, mixed-race singer Poly Styrene and saxophone shredder Laura Logic, who was all of 16 years old when she joined the band, X-Ray Spex looked and sounded like nothing else on the London punk scene. And their legendary debut single remains punk’s greatest statement of anti-consumerist revolution. “I think [Poly] felt that everyone was in a type of bondage — restricted, crushed, and alienated by modern materialistic society,” Logic later recalled. “The goal of our society is sense gratification — that is the only prize on offer. But one can never satisfy the senses; it is an impossible goal.” 119 Marvin Gaye, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' 1968 Writer(s):Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield Powered byApple Music Motown producer Norman Whitfield had a reputation for recording the same song with a number of acts, changing the arrangement each time. This irritated some of the label’s artists, but every now and then he would get a golden idea — as happened with Gaye’s 1968 version of “Grapevine,” which had been a hit the year before for Gladys Knight. Whitfield and co-writer Barrett Strong set the track in a slower, more mysterious tempo, and the song — which Gaye initially resisted recording — became the bestselling Motown single of the decade. 118 Radiohead, 'Creep' 1992 Writer(s):Albert Hammond, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Jonny Greenwood, Mike Hazlewood, Philip Selway, Thom Yorke Powered byApple Music “I wasn’t very happy with the lyrics; I thought they were pretty crap,” Thom Yorke told Rolling Stone in 1993. He’d written the song in college, before Radiohead existed. But “Creep” had the right note of post-Nirvana miserablism, and it vaulted the band into the U.S. charts. Guitarist Jonny Greenwood later admitted that he found the success that came after “Creep” to be “stultifying,” but Radiohead’s experience with cookie-cutter fame played a role in driving the band to create challenging albums like OK Computer and Kid A, some of the most groundbreaking rock of the past 50 years. 117 Aretha Franklin, 'I Say a Little Prayer' 1968 Writer(s):Burt Bacharach, Hal David Powered byApple Music Franklin’s takeover of this perfectly crafted Burt Bacharach-Hal David gem is one of pop’s great happy accidents. Dionne Warwick was the first to cut the song, which evoked a woman yearning for a partner who’s been shipped off to Vietnam. The story should have ended there, but Franklin wanted to record it herself (over the protestations of producer Jerry Wexler, who felt Franklin’s version would come out too soon after Warwick’s). Even then, it was initially a B side. But the puckish joy in Franklin’s delivery, combined with the song’s supple arrangement, couldn’t be denied — even Bacharach called Franklin’s version “definitive.” 116 Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, 'It Takes Two' 1988 Writer(s):Robert Ginyard Powered byApple Music Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock had modest hopes for “It Takes Two.” Perhaps it would become a hit in the Northeastern tristate area, they thought. But the joyous pop-rap opus became an overnight smash, thanks to its infectious positivity and high-energy sample of Lyn Collins’ James Brown-produced 1972 funk-soul banger “Think (About It).” “One day, we doing little block parties and rockin’ outside for free, to doing big clubs and arenas and stuff like that,” Base told Rolling Stone. “Once the song started to get played … we woke up and we were just different people.” 115 Etta James, 'At Last' 1960 Writer(s):Harry Warren, Mack Gordon Powered byApple Music For James’ first album for their Chess label, brothers Leonard and Phil Chess envisioned her as a crossover pop stylist rather than the gutsy R&B belter of her earlier singles. Among the songs they picked was this modest hit for big-band leader Glenn Miller in the Forties. Yet it was James’ commanding version that turned “At Last” into a pop standard. Its enduring allure has not been lost on the singer herself: “Some people in the front rows, they’ll go, ‘At last,’ or either somebody just got married or is about to get married.” 114 Britney Spears, 'Toxic' 2003 Writer(s):Cathy Dennis, CKS Garage, Henrik Jonback, Pontus Winnberg Powered byApple Music After years of maximalist hits, the pop princess went for something a little more subtle with producers Bloodshy and Avant, who piled on James Bond guitar, Bollywood strings, and robo-funk vocoders — making for a different kind of song that felt sticky-sweet but also global and avant-garde. “Toxic” redefined Spears’ image and sound, but it almost wasn’t hers. “That was written in Sweden,” co-writer Cathy Dennis explained. “I went over there to write with Janet Jackson in mind.” The song didn’t end up making it to Jackson, and was then passed up by Kylie Minogue before getting into Spears’ hands. 113 Stevie Wonder, 'Higher Ground' 1973 Writer(s):Stevie Wonder Powered byApple Music Recorded in a mere three hours and driven by a foot pedal that made his keyboard sound extra funky, “Higher Ground” had a drive and intensity that truly sounded like Wonder reaching for new heights. Unfortunately, it was cut just before he was involved in a near-fatal 1973 car accident that left him in a coma. During Wonder’s recovery period, his road manager would sing the melody of “Higher Ground” into his ears. “For a few days [afterward],” Wonder said later, “I was definitely in a much better spiritual place that made me aware of a lot of things that concern my life and my future, and what I have to do to reach another higher ground.” 112 R.E.M., 'Losing My Religion' 1991 Writer(s):Michael Mills, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, William Berry Powered byApple Music R.E.M. fully crossed over into the mainstream with this largely unplugged ballad, which had its origins in Peter Buck fiddling around with a mandolin while watching TV and idly practicing. “I probably wouldn’t have written the chords for ‘Losing My Religion’ the way they were had I not played it on my mandolin,” he told Rolling Stone. Yet the mandolin laced throughout the song was one of the most striking aspects of “Losing My Religion,” which was named after a Southern expression for being at the end of one’s rope. Never before had Michael Stipe sounded so vulnerable, yearning, and articulate. 111 Bruce Springsteen, 'Thunder Road' 1975 Writer(s):Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music “We decided to make a guitar album, but then I wrote all the songs on piano,” Springsteen said of his third LP, Born to Run. “Thunder Road,” its opening track, is a cinematic tale of redemption with a title borrowed from a 1958 hillbilly noir starring Robert Mitchum as a bootlegger with a car that can’t be beat (though Springsteen had never actually seen the movie). Decades later, he would marvel that he wrote the line “You’re scared, and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore” when he was all of 24 years old. 110 The Beatles, 'Something' 1969 Writer(s):George Harrison Powered byApple Music In 1968, James Taylor, a new signee to the Beatles’ Apple Records, recorded “Something in the Way She Moves,” the title of which inspired George Harrison to write “Something” near the end of the White Album sessions (one place-holder lyric: “Something in the way she moves/Attracts me like a cauliflower”). It was too late to squeeze it onto the disc, so he gave it to Joe Cocker. The Beatles cut a new version the next year with a string section, Harrison’s only A-side single with the Beatles, which quickly became a standard recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles. 109 Sly and the Family Stone, 'Everyday People' 1968 Writer(s):Sylvester Stewart Powered byApple Music “Everyday People” appeared on Sly and the Family Stone’s fourth LP, Stand!, which explored everything from hot funk to cool pop. “I was into everyone’s records,” Sly Stone said of his radio days. “I’d play Dylan, Hendrix, James Brown back-to-back, so I didn’t get stuck in any one groove.” As the song was going to Number One, Stone canceled three months of bookings, including a slot on The Ed Sullivan Show, when trumpeter Cynthia Robinson needed emergency gallbladder surgery. Hits were nice, but family came first. 108 The Cure, 'Just Like Heaven' 1987 Writer(s):Boris Williams, Lol Tolhurst, Porl Thompson, Robert Smith, Simon Gallup Powered byApple Music Robert Smith wrote the Cure’s 1987 single “Just Like Heaven” after a romantic getaway to Beachy Head in East Sussex, England, with his future wife, Mary Poole. “The song is about hyperventilating — kissing and fainting to the floor,” Smith said in 2003. “Mary dances with me in the video because she was the girl, so it had to be her. The idea is that one night like that is worth 1,000 hours of drudgery.” Millions of people connected to that sentiment, and “Just Like Heaven” became the Cure’s first Top 40 hit in America. 107 Wu-Tang Clan, 'C.R.E.A.M.' 1994 Writer(s):Wu-Tang Clan Powered byApple Music Originally titled “Lifestyles of the Mega-Rich,” the third single from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) offers a gritty East Coast rejoinder to slick West Coast gangsta rap. Inspectah Deck later recalled writing his verses years earlier, “standing in front of the building with crack in my sock.” Producer RZA pared down what was at first a sprawling crime narrative, and Method Man provided one of the greatest hooks in hip-hop history, an acronym for “Cash rules everything around me,” which he got from his buddy Rader Rukus, and “dolla dolla bill,” a reference to Jimmy Spicer’s early rap single “Money (Dolla Bill Y’all).” 106 The Rolling Stones, 'Sympathy for the Devil' 1968 Writer(s):Keith Richards, Mick Jagger Powered byApple Music The inspiration for this hellish detour came from Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita, which depicts Satan having his way in 1930s Moscow. Keith Richards struggled to find the right backing for Mick Jagger’s menacing Dylan-esque lyrics, unsure “whether it should be a samba or a goddamn folk song,” he recalled. The Stones ended up giving the devil one of their best grooves, built on Rocky Dijon’s congas and Bill Wyman’s Bo Diddley-ish maracas. “Before, when we were just innocent kids out for a good time, [the media said], ‘They’re evil, they’re evil,'” Richards said. “So that makes you start thinking about evil.… Everybody’s Lucifer.” 105 David Bowie, 'Life on Mars?' 1971 Writer(s):David Bowie Powered byApple Music “Inspired by Frankie,” read Bowie’s liner note about this Hunky Dory track when it was released in 1971. The Frankie in question was Sinatra: His “My Way” was based on the 1967 song “Comme d’habitude,” by French artist Claude François, for which Bowie had written (rejected) English lyrics. “That really made me angry for so long — about a year,” Bowie later joked. He wrote the similar-sounding “Life on Mars?” as “a revenge trip on ‘My Way.’” Accompanied by Rick Wakeman of Yes on piano, Bowie spins the surrealistic tale about the limits of escapism, complete with references to John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” and the Hollywood Argyles’ “Alley Oop,” a 1960 doo-wop tune about a caveman. 104 The Jackson 5, 'I Want You Back' 1969 Writer(s):Alphonso Mizell, Berry Gordy, Dennis Lussier, Freddie Perren Powered byApple Music “I Want You Back” was the song that introduced Motown to the futuristic funk beat of Sly Stone and James Brown. It also introduced the world to an 11-year-old Indiana kid named Michael Jackson. The five dancing Jackson brothers became stars overnight; “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There” followed in rapid succession on the charts, but none matched the boyish fervor of “Back.” It remains one of hip-hop’s favorite beats, sampled everywhere from Kris Kross’ “Jump” to Jay-Z’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.).” 103 Alanis Morissette, 'You Oughta Know' 1995 Writer(s):Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard Powered byApple Music Long rumored to be about Full House actor Dave Coulier, whom she once dated, Morissette’s scorched-earth breakthrough boasts a one-and-done vocal performance, plus instrumental contributions from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dave Navarro and Flea, as well as longtime Tom Petty sideman Benmont Tench. “I didn’t write it to get back,” Morissette said. “It’s a devastated song, and in order to pull out of that despondency, being angry is lovely. I think the movement of anger can pull us out of things.” The blockbuster sales of her album Jagged Little Pill showed she wasn’t the only one who felt angry. 102 Chuck Berry, 'Maybelline' 1955 Writer(s):Chuck Berry Powered byApple Music The pileup of hillbilly country, urban blues, and hot jazz in Berry’s electric twang is the primal language of pop-music guitar. The groove for “Maybelline” comes from “Ida Red,” a 1938 recording by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys (of a song that dates back to the 19th century). By the time of the May 21st, 1955, session, Berry had been playing country tunes for Black audiences for a few years: “After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.” Leonard Chess came up with the title, inspired by a Maybelline mascara box lying on the floor at the Chess studio. 101 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Maps' 2003 Writer(s):Brian Chase, Karen Lee Orzolek, Nicholas Joseph Zinner Powered byApple Music The Lower East Side trio was one of the coolest bands to emerge from the New York indie-rock boom of the early 2000s, fronted by force-of-nature vocalist Karen O. “Maps” is both a soul ballad and an art-punk classic, with torrents of jagged guitar noise and thundering drums backing up Karen O’s lovesick wail. The YYY’s breakthrough hit was inspired by a case of real-life rock & roll romance: Karen O wrote the song about being on tour and missing her then-boyfriend, Angus Andrew, singer for fellow New York band Liars. Years later, “Maps” would get the ultimate endorsement when Beyoncé interpolated it for the Lemonade track “Hold Up.” Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] Rolling Stone Send a Tip Log In Subscribe Music TV Movies Politics Culture Charts Pro Newsletters Shop Read Next Trump Donor Accuses Corey Lewandowski of Groping, Harassing Her at Charity Event Log In Subscribe 500 - 451 450 - 401 400 - 351 350 - 301 300 - 251 250 - 201 200 - 151 150 - 101 100 - 51 50 - 1 rolling stone rs 500 greatest songs Photo Illustration by Sean McCabe. Photographs used within illustration by Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, 3; Paul Natkin/WireImage; Val Wilmer/Redferns/Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Jack Mitchell/Getty Images; C Flanigan/Getty Images; Scott Dudelson/Getty Images; Gie Knaeps/Getty Images; Emma McIntyre/Getty Images; Steven Nunez; STILLZ Home Music Music Lists September 15, 2021 8:43AM ET The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics By Rolling Stone Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Show more sharing options In 2004, Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It’s one of the most widely read stories in our history, viewed hundreds of millions of times on this site. But a lot has changed since 2004; back then the iPod was relatively new, and Billie Eilish was three years old. So we’ve decided to give the list a total reboot. To create the new version of the RS 500 we convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers — from Angelique Kidjo to Zedd, Sam Smith to Megan Thee Stallion, M. Ward to Bill Ward — as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs, and we tabulated the results. Nearly 4,000 songs received votes. Where the 2004 version of the list was dominated by early rock and soul, the new edition contains more hip-hop, modern country, indie rock, Latin pop, reggae, and R&B. More than half the songs here — 254 in all — weren’t present on the old list, including a third of the Top 100. The result is a more expansive, inclusive vision of pop, music that keeps rewriting its history with every beat. More on How We Made the List and Who Voted Written By Jonathan Bernstein, Jon Blistein, David Browne, Jayson Buford, Nick Catucci, Mankaprr Conteh, Bill Crandall, Jon Dolan, Gavin Edwards, Jenny Eliscu, Brenna Ehrlich, Jon Freeman, David Fricke, Andy Greene, Joe Gross, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Will Hermes, Brian Hiatt, Christian Hoard, Joseph Hudak, Jeff Ihaza, Rob Kemp, Greg Kot, Elias Leight, Rob Levine, Alan Light, Julyssa Lopez, Angie Martoccio, Michaelangelo Matos, Tom Moon, Tom Nawrocki, Jon Pareles, Parke Puterbaugh, Mosi Reeves, Jody Rosen, Robert Santelli, Austin Scaggs, Claire Shaffer, Bud Scoppa, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer, LC Smith, Brittany Spanos, Rob Tannenbaum, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Barry Walters, Alison Weinflash, Douglas Wolk Load Previous 100 Bob Dylan, 'Blowin' in the Wind' 1963 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music “Blowin’ in the Wind” was Dylan’s first important composition. It is also the most famous protest song ever written. The song’s melody borrows from the slavery-era folk song “No More Auction Block for Me,” and its language is rooted as much in Woody Guthrie’s earthy vernacular as in biblical rhetoric. But in a decisive break with the current-events conventions of topical folk songs, Dylan framed the crises around him in a series of fierce, poetic questions that addressed what he believed was man’s greatest inhumanity to man: indifference. “Some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong,” he declared in the Freewheelin’ liner notes. 99 Bee Gees, 'Stayin' Alive' 1977 Writer(s):Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Barry Gibb Powered byApple Music This disco classic was written when director Robert Stigwood approached the Bee Gees for music for a film based on the Brooklyn club scene. He needed a groove for an eight-minute John Travolta dance sequence and asked for a song called “Saturday Night,” but since the Bay City Rollers already had a hit with that title, the band wisely took things in a different direction. “Whether you like the song or not, John couldn’t dance to ‘Stayin’ Alive.’ It wasn’t a dance record, if you think about it,” Barry Gibb said later. Travolta didn’t need to dance to it, anyway — all he had to do was strut his way to infamy in the film’s opening scene. 98 The Beatles, 'In My Life' 1965 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music “‘In My Life’ was, I think, my first real, major piece of work,” John Lennon said. “Up until then it had all been glib and throwaway.” The ballad reflects the serious turn the Beatles took with Rubber Soul, but it specifically arose from a journalist’s challenge: Why don’t you write songs about your life? The original lyrics put Lennon on a bus in Liverpool, “and it was the most boring sort of ‘What I Did on My Holidays Bus Trip’ song,” he said. So Lennon rewrote the lyrics, changing the song into a gorgeous reminiscence about his life before the Beatles. The distinctive “harpsichord” solo near the song’s end is actually an electric piano played by George Martin and sped up on tape. 97 Patti Smith, 'Gloria' 1975 Writer(s):Patti Smith, Van Morrison Powered byApple Music The legend-making first line of Smith’s galvanic act of rock & roll vandalism — “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine” — began as part of a poem called “Oath,” which she performed around the East Village in the early Seventies. When she began practicing with guitarist Lenny Kaye and piano player Richard Sohl, they often jammed on Them’s 1964 garage-rock song “Gloria,” reveling in its cathartic simplicity, and Smith came up with the idea of fusing the two, creating something reverent and revolutionary that opened her landmark 1975 debut LP, Horses, the first album-length bow shot from the CBGBs punk scene. 96 Jay-Z, '99 Problems' 2003 Writer(s):Shawn Carter, Fredrick Rubin, Norman Landsberg, Felix Pappalardi, William Squier, John Ventura, Leslie Weinstein, Tracy Marrow, Alphonso Henderson, Bernard Freeman Powered byApple Music The original “99 Problems” was a 1993 song by gangsta-rap great Ice-T. The idea of revisiting it came from Chris Rock. As producer Rick Rubin recalled, “[Chris] said, ‘Ice-T has this song, and maybe there’s a way to flip it around and do a new version of that.’” Jay-Z asked for a beat like the Eighties classics Rubin had produced for the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Run-DMC, and he came up with the ideal stark, slamming backdrop for Jay to lance into everything from critics to racist cops. “At no point in the song am I talking about a girl,” he said. 95 Oasis, 'Wonderwall' 1995 Writer(s):Noel Gallagher Powered byApple Music Supposedly inspired by his girlfriend at the time, Noel Gallagher wrote this unabashedly earnest and heartfelt ballad, which has become one of the biggest rock standards of the past 20 years. It earns at least $1 million a year and passed 1 billion Spotify streams in 2020. Ironically, Liam Gallagher was iffy on it at first. “I said, ‘I don’t like this — it’s a bit fonky,’” he told Rolling Stone last year. “I got Police vibes. It was a bit Sting. I like the heavier stuff.” But he ultimately decided to give it a go, and the whole song was finished in about two days, with Noel playing all the guitars, even bass, and Liam knocking out his vocal in a few hours. “I was always desperate to get to the pub,” he said. 94 Whitney Houston, 'I Will Always Love You' 1992 Writer(s):Dolly Parton Powered byApple Music Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” about the difficult decision to move on from her mentor Porter Wagoner, and reached Number One on the country charts with two different recordings of it. Kevin Costner suggested the song to his Bodyguard co-star Houston, who with the aid of producer David Foster, revamped it as a mighty R&B ballad that became an even bigger hit. Houston and Costner insisted on keeping the song’s a cappella intro against the label’s wishes. “I didn’t care if it was ever on the radio,” Costner said later. “I said, ‘We’re also going to do this a cappella at the beginning. I need it to be a cappella because it shows a measure of how much she digs this guy — that she sings without music.'” 93 Kelly Clarkson, 'Since U Been Gone' 2004 Writer(s):Lukasz Gottwald, Martin Sandberg Powered byApple Music Swedish pop scientists Max Martin and Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald wrote this indignant track with Pink in mind, but Clarkson’s A&R rep snatched it up for the first-ever American Idol. The result was a career-making hit that gave teen pop a feisty new template. When she first heard a rough demo of the song, Clarkson wasn’t sure it was right for her. “We amped up the track and made it a little more rockin’,” she told Rolling Stone of the sessions in Sweden with Martin and Dr. Luke. “But they didn’t know I was going to go an octave above on the chorus.” 92 Little Richard, 'Good Golly, Miss Molly' 1958 Writer(s):Robert Blackwell, John Marascalco Powered byApple Music Little Richard first heard the phrase “Good golly, Miss Molly” from a Southern DJ named Jimmy Pennick. He turned the words into perhaps his most blatant assault on American propriety: “Good golly, Miss Molly/You sure like to ball.” He swiped the music from Ike Turner’s piano intro to Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” recorded by Sam Phillips in Memphis seven years earlier. “I always liked that record,” Richard recalled, “and I used to use the riff in my act, so when we were looking for a lead-in to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly,’ I did that and it fit.” Richard had renounced rock & roll the previous year, but Specialty Records couldn’t leave this classic in the vaults. 91 UGK feat. Outkast, 'Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)' 2007 Writer(s):Bernard Freeman, Chad Butler, Andre Benjamin, Antwan Patton, Jordan Houston, Paul Beauregard Powered byApple Music The influence of Houston’s UGK is felt all over hip-hop, from Jay-Z to Megan Thee Stallion, but it took 20 years for the group to record the song that truly solidified its place in the canon. Sampling Willie Hutch’s “I Choose You,” full of the trillest love stories ever told, and opened by André 3000’s most iconic verse, the song is as much fun as its music video’s wild wedding. “People always telling me they walk down the aisle to that song,” Outkast’s Big Boi told Rolling Stone. “When people get married to music, that’s some powerful shit.” The song helped shoot UGK’s 2007 album, Underground Kingz, to Number One, a first for the duo. Sadly, just six months after the video’s release, UGK’s Pimp C died, leaving “Int’l Players Anthem” as a glorious epitaph. 90 Aretha Franklin, '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman' 1967 Writer(s):Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jerry Wexler Powered byApple Music Carole King and her husband/songwriting partner Gerry Goffin wrote “Natural Woman” specifically for Aretha Franklin at the request of producer Jerry Wexler in 1967, shortly after “Respect” and “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” turned her into a superstar. It came together in their suburban New Jersey home over just a few hours, after their kids went to bed. “Hearing [Aretha sing it] for the first time, I experienced a rare speechless moment,” King wrote in her 2012 memoir Natural Woman. “To this day I can’t convey how I felt in mere words.… It touched me more than any recording of any song I had ever written.” 89 The Beatles, 'Hey Jude' 1968 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music The Beatles’ biggest U.S. single — nine weeks at Number One — was also their longest, at seven minutes and 11 seconds. During the recording sessions, producer George Martin objected to the length, claiming DJs would not play the song. “They will if it’s us,” John Lennon shot back. Paul McCartney wrote “Hey Jude” in June 1968, singing to himself on his way to visit Lennon’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, Cynthia, and their son, Julian. The opening lines were, McCartney once said, “a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.'” McCartney changed “Jules” to “Jude” — a name inspired by Jud from the musical Oklahoma! 88 Guns N' Roses, 'Sweet Child O' Mine' 1987 Writer(s):Duff McKagan, Jeffrey Isbell, Saul Hudson, Steven Adler, W. Axl Rose Powered byApple Music Rose wrote this love letter to his then-girlfriend Erin Everly (daughter of Don). Slash said he was just “fucking around with the intro riff, making a joke.” The guitarist didn’t think much of it, but Rose knew better. That steely-yet-sensitive guitar part would accompany a bit of inspired Southern-rock cosplay from Rose. “I went out and got some old Lynyrd Skynyrd tapes to make sure we’d got that down-home, heartfelt feeling,” he said at the time. Though Rose and Everly’s marriage didn’t last long, the song went on to be a pivotal breakthrough for the band and remains its sole Number One hit in the U.S. 87 LCD Soundsystem, 'All My Friends' 2007 Writer(s):Pat Mahoney, James Murphy, Tyler Pope Powered byApple Music James Murphy and his crew of NYC punk-funk warriors whipped up a sardonic generational anthem in “All My Friends” — a celebration of hitting the dance floor until dawn, even when you’re old enough to know better. Over the urgent electro pulse, Murphy looks back on his wasted nights and crushed dreams. “I was in my thirties,” he admitted. “I’d been a completely failed teenager and twentysomething, deeply failed, deeply, deeply failed. Like ‘live with your rich girlfriend so you don’t have to pay rent’ failed, ‘be homeless in your office on an inflatable bed’ failed.” Yet the music surges with joy, capturing that late-night moment when you realize that all your years of stupid decisions have accidentally added up to a life. 86 The Rolling Stones, 'Tumbling Dice' 1972 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music In one of its first incarnations, then called “Good Time Women,” this Exile on Main St. gem was friskier, faster, and bawdier. By the time it was transformed into “Tumbling Dice” during the infamous Exile sessions in the South of France, the song had been slowed down. “I remember writing the riff upstairs in the very elegant front room,” said Keith Richards, “and we took it downstairs the same evening, and we cut it.” Mick Jagger’s lyrics fit the slowed-down groove, revealing a new sense of gritty weariness. Since Bill Wyman wasn’t around, Mick Taylor played bass, as well as those slinky slide-guitar parts. 85 Prince, 'Kiss' 1986 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music When Mazarati, one of the bands in Prince’s Paisley Park orbit, asked him for a song, Prince dashed off a bluesy acoustic demo for them. Mazarati added a funk groove, and Prince was smart enough to take the song back, maintaining some of producer David Z’s arrangements and the band’s background vocals but no bass line, to the disappointment of his label. “At that time, however, Prince had enough power to go, ‘That’s the single and you’re not getting another one until you put it out.’ The rest is history,” Z recalled in an interview. “That song totally reignited his career, and a year later Warner Bros. was trying to sign people who sounded like that.” 84 Al Green, 'Let's Stay Together' 1971 Writer(s):Al Green, Al Jackson Jr., Willie Mitchell Powered byApple Music After producer Willie Mitchell gave Green a rough mix of a tune he and drummer Al Jackson had worked out, Green wrote the lyrics in five minutes. Still, Green didn’t want to record the song and fought with Mitchell for two days before finally agreeing to cut it. The recording was finished late on a Friday night in the fall of 1971; Mitchell pressed the single on Monday, and by Thursday Green was told that “Let’s Stay Together” would be entering the charts at Number Eight. Within two weeks, it had reached Number One on the R&B charts, and in February 1972, the warm, buoyant love song gave Green his only Number One pop hit. 83 Bob Dylan, 'Desolation Row' 1965 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music Dylan was in full poetic frenzy when he wrote this surreal pageant, the 11-minute tour de force that caps his 1965 classic Highway 61 Revisited. “I was in the back of a taxicab,” Dylan told Rolling Stone in 1969, when asked where he wrote the song. “That period of ‘Desolation Row,’ that kind of New York-type period, when all the songs were ‘city songs.’” (Considering how “Desolation Row” clocks in at 11 minutes, that’s one long cab ride.) His cast of misfits includes Cinderella, Romeo, Ophelia, Casanova, Cain and Abel, Einstein disguised as Robin Hood. And Dylan himself, ever the outsider. “I don’t consider myself outside of anything,” he said at the time. “I just consider myself not around.” 82 Adele, 'Rolling in the Deep' 2011 Writer(s):Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, Paul Richard Epworth Powered byApple Music “The beat of the song was my heartbeat … it just built and built,” Adele said of the surging soul rumble that backed her on what became her signature hit. Stung by a bad breakup and struggling to find the right artistic footing for her second album, the singer met with producer Paul Epworth, who encouraged her to tap into her rawest emotions. To get the appropriate booming effect, Epworth used a marching band kick drum to add muscle to the groove. But the song’s power was all Adele, whose demo vocal made the finished track. As Epworth told Rolling Stone of the “Rolling in the Deep” session, “She was obviously quite fragile and very open about what had happened. But she had fire in her belly.” 81 The Velvet Underground, 'I’m Waiting for the Man' 1967 Writer(s):Lou Reed Powered byApple Music The Velvets were ahead of their time with this blast of New York street life. In the Summer of Love, while hippie heads were full of crystal visions, Lou Reed was getting down and dirty about the details of scoring $26 worth of heroin in Harlem. “Everything about that song holds true,” said Reed, “except the price.” Reed and Sterling Morrison beat up on the evil riff, with jagged R&B guitars distorted into proto-punk menace. John Cale walks it home with that one-note piano barrage. Within a few years, the world was full of bands trying to sound this mean. 80 Ray Charles, 'What'd I Say' 1957 Writer(s):Ray Charles Powered byApple Music “The people just went crazy, and they loved that little ‘ummmmh, unnnnh,’” Ray Charles told Rolling Stone in 1978, describing the instant genesis of “What’d I Say,” his first Top 10 pop single. He literally wrote “What’d I Say” in front of an audience. He and his crack R&B orchestra, newly supplemented by a female vocal group, the Raelettes, were playing a marathon dance show in a small town near Pittsburgh. When Charles ran out of repertoire late in the second set, he kicked into an uphill bass-note arpeggio on the piano, told the band to follow along, and instructed the Raelettes, “Whatever I say, just repeat after me.” Afterward, Charles said, dancers rushed up to him and asked, “Where can I buy that record?” 79 Amy Winehouse, 'Back to Black' 2006 Writer(s):Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson Powered byApple Music “It’s a constant thing for me to better myself,” Winehouse said before she embarked on the making of “Back to Black.” “I’ve got a clear ambition now, to make a record of what I hear in my head … and I don’t want strings.” The great, melodramatic girl-group records of the early Sixties became the perfect backdrop for her updated tales of on-again, off-again romance and treachery, while the song’s knowingly retro arrangement gave it a cinematic gravitas (which she heightened by adopting a beehive do). Winehouse’s vocal matches the mournful piano and tympani, stoic and pained, flinty and acute. “The thing that always drove me,” she said, “[is] relationships and how fucked up they can get.” 78 The Four Tops, 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)' 1967 Writer(s):Brian Holland, Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier Powered byApple Music Before writing “Reach Out (I’ll Be There),” songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland had long discussions about what women want. “We all three agreed that they wanted someone to be there for them, through thick or thin, and be there at their beck and call,” Lamont Dozier once said. The truly brilliant turn, though, was contrasting apocalyptically afflicted verses and an angelic chorus, belted by lead Top Levi Stubbs, sounding like he’d drag himself over broken glass for the one he loved. “Eddie [Holland] realized that when Levi hit the top of his vocal range, it sounded like someone hurting, so he made him sing right up there,” the Tops’ Duke Fakir once said. “You could hear the tears in his voice.” 77 The Modern Lovers, 'Roadrunner' 1976 Writer(s):Jonathan Richman Powered byApple Music Jonathan Richman was an ordinary geek from suburban Boston, but he made “Roadrunner” the ultimate garage-rock road trip. It’s an ecstatic two-chord tribute to cruising down the highway, just a lonely kid in a car with the radio on. “High school and I didn’t understand each other,” Richman said in 1976. “So I heard the Velvet Underground, got inspired, took up guitar, and terrorized audiences with my four-and-a-third-note vocal range.” He became a key punk influence, even if he sang about health food, liking his parents, and not doing drugs. This 1972 demo (featuring future members of Talking Heads and the Cars) wasn’t even released until four years later. But “Roadrunner” has been breaking speed limits ever since. 76 Johnny Cash, 'I Walk the Line' 1956 Writer(s):Johnny Cash Powered byApple Music Cash began work on this track while he was in Germany with the Air Force, years before he would ever enter a studio. He returned to it after he hit with “Folsom Prison Blues,” only to find that the original tape had gotten mangled. But Cash liked the strange sound and added a click-clack rhythm by winding a piece of wax paper through his guitar strings. Sam Phillips then had him speed up the song, originally a ballad, to a driving rumble. “It was different than anything else you had ever heard,” Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone. “A voice from the middle of the Earth.” 75 Pulp, 'Common People' 1996 Writer(s):Candida Doyle, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Russell Senior, Steve Mackey Powered byApple Music Brit-pop legend Jarvis Cocker has more soul and swagger exhaling a puff of smoke than most singers have in their entire careers. His band Pulp were kicking around the U.K. indie scene for years until they blew up in the Nineties with “Common People.” Cocker sings about a posh art student who tells him, “I want to sleep with common people like you.” (His reply? “I’ll see what I can do.”) It’s a witty satire of class tourism, but also a defiant tale of feeling like an outcast your whole life. “Common People” was a huge U.K. hit in 1995 — yet it just keeps getting more beloved over the years. 74 Leonard Cohen, 'Hallelujah' 1984 Writer(s):Leonard Cohen Powered byApple Music Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” begins with scripture and ends with the confession of a broken man, holding onto the one word with any hope left in it for him. “I wanted to indicate that Hallelujah can come out of things that have nothing to do with religion,” he once said. The song itself struck some secret chord with listeners and got born again through the lips of John Cale, Jeff Buckley, and Bob Dylan. “The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say, ‘Look, I don’t understand a fucking thing at all — Hallelujah!'” Cohen said. “That’s the only moment that we live here fully as human beings.” 73 Beyoncé, 'Formation' 2016 Writer(s):Aaquil Brown, Beyoncé, Khalif Brown, Michael L. Williams II Powered byApple Music When Beyoncé released “Formation” in 2016, the tremors were immediate, and undeniable. She debuted the song on the eve of her Super Bowl 50 performance, where she enthralled (and startled) audiences by employing dozens of dancers dressed like Black Panthers. That set the table for the video, which protested police brutality and drew the ire of police unions. And then came the song itself, in which Beyoncé nodded to her Southern roots, declaring “My daddy Alabama/My ma Louisiana/You mix that Negro with that Creole/Make a Texas bama” over hip-hop superproducer Mike WiLL Made-It’s spring-loaded synth. It was a complete package of Black radical feminist self-assertion. 72 The Beatles, 'Yesterday' 1965 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music Paul McCartney’s greatest ballad holds a Guinness World Record as the most recorded song of all time; seven years after its release, there were 1,186 versions by artists as varied as Frank Sinatra, Otis Redding, and Willie Nelson. McCartney auditioned the song for George Martin, with the working title “Scrambled Eggs,” in a hotel room in Paris in January 1964 — before the Beatles had even landed in America — but would not record it for another year and a half. “We were a little embarrassed about it,” McCartney confessed. “We were a rock & roll band.” A Number One single in America, “Yesterday” was, in his own words, “the most complete song I have ever written.” 71 Tracy Chapman, 'Fast Car' 1988 Writer(s):Tracy Chapman Powered byApple Music Chapman became an unlikely star with “Fast Car,” a haunting rumination on poverty and escape that touched a nerve, putting her stark acoustic folk music on MTV. A veteran of Boston coffeehouse gigs (she once got a demo-tape rejection letter suggesting she tune her guitar), Chapman suddenly found herself in the Top 10 and with a Grammy. “I had so many people come up to me and say that they felt it was their song, and someone told me at one point that they thought I’ve been reading their mail,” she once said. “They were saying, ‘You seem to know my story.'” 70 Elvis Presley, 'Suspicious Minds' 1969 Writer(s):Mark James Powered byApple Music When producer Chips Moman presented this song to Presley in 1969, the singer was, as the lyrics put it, “caught in a trap” — a cash cow being milked dry by his label and hangers-on. That might be why Presley was convinced he could turn the song into a deep soul hit, even though it had flopped in 1968 for singer-songwriter Mark James. Recorded between four and seven in the morning, during the landmark Memphis session that helped return the King to his throne, “Suspicious Minds” — the final Number One single of his lifetime — is Presley’s masterpiece: He sings so intensely through the fade-out that his band returns for another minute of the tear-stained chorus. 69 Taylor Swift, 'All Too Well' 2012 Writer(s):Taylor Swift, Liz Rose Powered byApple Music “It was a day when I was like a broken human walking to rehearsal, just feeling terrible about what was going on in my personal life,” Swift told Rolling Stone, recalling the origins of “All Too Well.” She ad-libbed lyrics over chords she had written, as her backing band fell in behind her. “They could tell I was really going through it.” Originally 10 minutes long, “All Too Well” would be paired down by Swift and co-writer Liz Rose into a finely burnished reflection on past love, full of unforgettable imagery and detail. “I thought it was too dark, too sad, too intense, just too many things,” Swift said. But it has become a songwriting peak and one of the greatest breakup songs of all time. 68 Chic, 'Good Times' 1979 Writer(s):Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers Powered byApple Music For Chic, disco was more than a beat — it was a “new state of mind.” Guitar master Nile Rodgers and bassman Bernard Edwards were inspired by the glam art rock of Roxy Music, as well as jazz and R&B. As Rodgers put it, “We shared Afrobromantic dreams of what it would be like to have real artistic freedom.” “Good Times” turned those dreams into a utopian disco celebration. It’s a hedonistic Seventies roller-boogie hit with an ironic edge, while Edwards plays one of history’s most influential bass lines. It’s the bass that kicked off the hip-hop era — the Sugarhill Gang rapped over it for “Rapper’s Delight,” while Grandmaster Flash turned it into “Wheels of Steel.” 67 Bob Dylan, 'Tangled Up in Blue' 1975 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music When Dylan introduced “Tangled Up in Blue” onstage in 1978, he described it as a song that took him “10 years to live and two years to write.” It’s still one of his most frequently performed live staples. It was the six-minute opener from Blood on the Tracks, written as his first marriage was falling apart. Dylan takes inspiration from classic country singers like Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell, in a tale of a drifting heart on the road through the Sixties and Seventies. Dylan kept revising the song heavily through the years; on 1984’s Real Live, he plays with the chords and lyrics to tell a whole new story. 66 Simon and Garfunkel, 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' 1970 Writer(s):Paul Simon Powered byApple Music When Simon wrote this tribute to friendship, he and Garfunkel were arguing over everything, even who should sing it. “He felt I should have done it,” Simon said. “Many times I’m sorry I didn’t.” The “Sail on, silver girl” verse was Garfunkel’s idea; Simon has never liked it. The melody came from the Bach chorale, and the title phrase came from a Sixties song by West Virginia gospel group the Swan Silvertones — “I guess I stole it, actually,” Simon told Dick Cavett around the time “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was the Number One song in America, a position it held for six weeks. He later paid the Silvertone’s singer, Claude Jeter, $1,000 as a way of saying thanks. 65 Earth, Wind, and Fire, 'September' 1978 Writer(s):Albert McKay, Allee Willis, Maurice White Powered byApple Music Earth, Wind, and Fire were at their commercial peak when they went into the studio to cut “September” in the fall of 1978 as a bonus track for The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1. The nostalgic song about a perfect September romance was written by EWF guitarist Al McKay, bandleader Maurice White, and songwriter Allee Willis, who hated White’s additions of “Ba-du-da” and “Ba-dee-ya” throughout the song. “It took me about a month to calm Allee down,” White wrote in his memoir. “She perceived it as a slight to her lyric-writing abilities.… Try as I might, I couldn’t get her to understand that good music is all about the vibe.” She probably calmed down when the song hit Number One on the R&B chart and Number Eight on the Hot 100. 64 Ramones, 'Blitzkrieg Bop' 1976 Writer(s):Tommy Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone Powered byApple Music In less than three minutes, this song threw down the blueprint for punk rock. It’s all here on the opening track of the Ramones’ debut: the buzz-saw chords, which Johnny played on his $50 Mosrite guitar; the snotty words, courtesy of drummer Tommy (with bassist Dee Dee adding the brilliant line “Shoot ’em in the back now”); and the hairball-in-the-throat vocals, sung by Joey in a faux British accent. Recorded on the cheap at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, of all places, “Blitzkrieg Bop” never made the charts; instead, it almost single-handedly created a world beyond the charts. The kickoff chant — “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” — meanwhile, is now an anthem of its own at sporting events nationwide. 63 Dolly Parton, 'Jolene' 1974 Writer(s):Dolly Parton Powered byApple Music When Parton recorded “Jolene” in 1974, she was chiefly known as Porter Wagoner’s TV partner, although she had written the hit “Coat of Many Colors.” “Jolene” showed how she could put her stamp on traditional country. The Jolene that inspired the song was actually a young autograph seeker; “I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.'” Parton got the idea for the song’s lyrics after too many run-ins with a flirty bank teller: “She got this terrible crush on my husband. And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us.” 62 U2, 'One' 1992 Writer(s):Bono, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, Adam Clayton Powered byApple Music Achtung Baby was the album on which U2 traded in a decade of earnestness for irony, but the new approach resulted in their most moving single ever. “One” was spun off from another song, “Mysterious Ways,” when the Edge came up with two ideas for the bridge, and Bono so liked one of them that he wrote a new set of lyrics. Though some hear it as a love song, the words are full of hurt and ambiguity. “People have told me they play it at their wedding,” the Edge said. “And I think, ‘Have you listened to the lyrics? It’s not that kind of a song.'” 61 Led Zeppelin, 'Stairway to Heaven' 1971 Writer(s):Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Powered byApple Music ​​All epic anthems must measure themselves against “Stairway to Heaven,” the cornerstone of Led Zeppelin IV. The acoustic intro sounds positively Elizabethan, thanks to John Paul Jones’ recorder solo and Robert Plant’s fanciful lyrics, which were partly inspired by Lewis Spence’s historical tome Magic Arts in Celtic Britain. Over eight minutes, the song morphs into a furious Jimmy Page solo that storms heaven’s gate. Page said the song “crystallized the essence of the band. It had everything there and showed us at our best. It was a milestone. Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time. We did it with ‘Stairway.'” 60 Kate Bush, 'Running Up That Hill' 1985 Writer(s):Kate Bush Powered byApple Music The song was originally called “A Deal With God.” Bush changed the title after he label got worried it would be controversial. The deal in question: “If the man could be the woman and the woman the man … they’d understand what it’s like to be the other person and perhaps it would clear up misunderstandings,” Bush once explained. Deploying her futuristic new Fairlight CMI synthesizer over a rumbling LinnDrum beat as her ecstatic voice bounced around a track that seems to stretch past the horizon, the song kicked off her massively ambitious 1985 album, Hounds of Love, one of the Eighties’ most resonant records. 59 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, 'The Message' 1982 Writer(s):Edward Fletcher, Melvin Glover, Clifton Chase, Sylvia Robinson Powered byApple Music “The Message” was a breakthrough in hip-hop, taking the music from party anthems to street-level ghetto blues. It began as a poem by schoolteacher Duke Bootee; Sugar Hill boss Sylvia Robinson decided to make it a rap record with Melle Mel of the Furious Five. Said Flash in 1997, “I hated the fact that it was advertised as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, because the only people on the record were Mel and Duke Bootee.” But the song, driven by its signature future-shock synth riff and grim lyrics about urban decay, became an instant sensation on New York’s hip-hop radio. “It played all day, every day,” Flash said. “It put us on a whole new level.” 58 The Band, 'The Weight' 1968 Writer(s):Robbie Robertson Powered byApple Music The Band was chiefly known as Bob Dylan’s touring group when they retreated to a pink house in Woodstock, New York, to record their debut, Music From Big Pink. The album was centered by “The Weight,” an oddball fable of debt and burden driven by an indelible singalong chorus. Robbie Robertson said he was inspired to write the song after watching director Luis Buñuel’s films about “the impossibility of sainthood,” but characters such as Crazy Chester could have walked straight out of an old folk song. As for the biblical-sounding line “pulled into Nazareth,” it refers to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, home of the Martin Guitar factory. 57 Sly and the Family Stone, 'Family Affair' 1971 Writer(s):Sylvester Stewart Powered byApple Music When There’s a Riot Goin’ On came out in 1971, a Rolling Stone reporter mentioned the rumor that Stone had played all the instruments himself, and he asked Sly just how much he played. “I’ve forgotten, man,” Stone said. “Whatever was left.” The leadoff single, the aquatic funk number “Family Affair,” was widely considered to be about his relationships with his band, family, and the Black Panthers. “Well,” Stone said, “they may be trying to tear me apart; I don’t feel it. Song’s not about that. Song’s about a family affair, whether it’s a result of genetic processes or a situation in the environment.” 56 Missy Elliott, 'Work It' 2000 Writer(s):Melissa Elliott, Timothy Mosley Powered byApple Music Elliott and Timbaland were on top of the world when they made “Work It,” her biggest hit. Yet they stayed as hungry and experimental as ever. The first time they cut this song, Tim said something he’d never told her before: “That ain’t it.” So they went back to the studio. As he told Rolling Stone, “With ‘Work It,’ I made her go back four times. Because I’m like, ‘That ain’t it. That’s not it. That’s not it.’” But it paid off when Elliott came up with the backward-vocal hook. “When she got to that reverse part, I was like, ‘Oh, we out here. We’re done.’ When you bake a great cake, you need the right icing on top.” 55 Madonna, 'Like a Prayer' 1989 Writer(s):Madonna, Patrick Leonard Powered byApple Music Only Madonna could combine love, religion, and oral sex into a six-minute gospel-pop powerhouse. To her, “Like a Prayer” is “the song of a passionate young girl so in love with God that it is almost as though He were the male figure in her life.” The song debuted as part of a soft-drink ad campaign, which got yanked after the ostentatiously blasphemous video hit MTV. Right on schedule, the Vatican condemned it, as if intentionally playing its part in the song’s marketing. “In Catholicism you are born a sinner and you are a sinner all of your life,” Madonna said in 1989. “No matter how you try to get away from it, the sin is within you all the time.” 54 Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, 'The Tracks of My Tears' 1965 Writer(s):Marvin Tarplin, William Robinson, Warren Moore Powered byApple Music Legend had it that audiences would actually break into tears when Robinson and the Miracles sang “The Tracks of My Tears.” “It tapped into their emotions,” said Warren “Pete” Moore of the Miracles. Pete Townshend was obsessed with the way Robinson put across the word “substitute” (“Although she may be cute/She’s just a substitute”). So obsessed, he said, “that I decided to celebrate the word with a song all its own” — which is how he came to write the Who’s 1966 hit “Substitute.” When Robinson cut “Tears,” it was such a clear winner that even hard-to-please Motown founder Berry Gordy proclaimed it a masterpiece. 53 The Beach Boys, 'Good Vibrations' 1966 Writer(s):Brian Wilson, Mike Love Powered byApple Music “This is a very spiritual song,” Brian Wilson said after its release, “and I want it to give off good vibrations.” Wilson was still working on his long-playing magnum opus, Pet Sounds, when he started “Good Vibrations” late on the night of February 17th, 1966, at Gold Star Recorders in Los Angeles. During the next seven months, in four studios, at a cost of more than $50,000 (at that point the greatest sum ever spent on a single), Wilson built “Good Vibrations” in sections, coloring the mood swings with locomotive cello, saloon piano, and the spectral wail of a theremin. “We didn’t think about doing it in pieces at first,” Wilson said years later, “but after the first few bars in the first verse, we realized that this was going to be a different kind of record.” 52 Donna Summer, 'I Feel Love' 1977 Writer(s): Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte Powered byApple Music Summer wasn’t terribly impressed when co-writer Giorgio Moroder presented her with “I Feel Love.” “Giorgio brought me these popcorn tracks he’d recorded, and I said, ‘What the hell is this, Giorgio?’ I finished it sort of as a joke,” she told Rolling Stone in 1978. But the song’s impact on dance music is incalculable. Moroder’s decision to jettison disco’s fluffy orchestrations for throbbing strobe-light-synth minimalism (augmented by his crack team of Munich session musicians) set the table for Euro disco, synth-pop, and wave upon wave of electronic music to come. When Brian Eno first listened to it, he told David Bowie, “I’ve heard the sound of the future.” 51 Dionne Warwick, 'Walk on By' 1964 Writer(s): Burt Bacharach, Hal David Powered byApple Music Early in her career, Warwick was a backup singer who also cut demos for Brill Building songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This forlorn classic solidified her stardom, capping a series of singles in which she played the pleading lover. A downcast ballad set to a bossa nova beat, it was originally relegated to the B side of “Any Old Time of the Day,” until New York DJ Murray the K asked listeners to vote on the single’s two sides. The winning cut scaled the charts during the heady exuberance of Beatlemania, which provided an unwitting foil for the understated perseverance of “Walk on By.” “I didn’t get the guy very often in those days,” Warwick said. Load More In This Article: direct, RS500Songs Want more Rolling Stone? Sign up for our newsletter. Trending Drugs, Desperation, and Dementia: ‘Britney Vs Spears’ Reveals New Horrors in Conservatorship ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ Is ‘Exactly The Same’ As ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ – and 11 Other Things We Learned From Dave Grohl Toadstool Dicks and Soothing Show Tunes: New Book Details More Trump White House Insanity David Bowie’s Lost Album ‘Toy’ Emerges From the Vaults Hear Bruce Springsteen Join John Mellencamp for ‘Wasted Days’ Newswire Powered by A&M Records’ History to Be Explored in Two-Part Epix Docuseries, ‘Mr. A & Mr. M’ Posted on: Variety Miss Dior’s Millefiori Garden Blooms in Paris Posted on: WWD Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith Pay $11.3 Million for All-New Hidden Hills Mansion Posted on: Dirt Ridley Scott: ‘Gladiator 2’ Being ‘Written Now,’ Will Be ‘Ready to Go’ After Napoleon Movie Posted on: Indiewire LaLiga Tech Unveils New Fan-Engagement Tools, Anti-Piracy Deal Posted on: Sportico Rolling Stone Music TV Movies Politics Culture RS Pro Advertise Contact Live Media Events Accessibility Statement Legal Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices PMC Entertainment California Privacy Rights Do Not Sell My Personal Information Connect With Us Facebook Twitter YouTube Newsletter Signup Have a Tip? We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Send Us a Tip © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. Powered by WordPress.com VIP Our Brands 1353: Billie Eilish and the Pursuit of Happiness [Privacy Badger has replaced this Pinterest button] 50 Daddy Yankee, 'Gasolina' 2010 Writer(s):Francisco Saldaña, Ramon Ayala, Victor Cabrera Powered byApple Music The Puerto Rican rapper was in San Juan when he heard a man shout, “Echa, mija, como te gusta la gasolina!” — a playful phrase lobbed at girls who would seek out the sleekest rides to get to parties. The line morphed into a ubiquitous chorus that ignited a global fervor for reggaeton. Veteran producer Luny Tunes drove up the intensity by adding the thrum of motors and the singer Glory’s voltaic call for “mas gasolina,” while Daddy Yankee delivered his breakneck verses with so much power that the song sounds like it could combust at any moment even decades later. 49 Lauryn Hill, 'Doo Wop (That Thing)' 1998 Writer(s):Lauryn Hill Powered byApple Music Hill’s debut solo single following the success of the Fugees’ The Score was a bit different from what fans had heard from the young star. “She wanted to bring some of that doo-wop swing essence to the song,” backup singer Lenesha Randolph recalled. Hill and her singers recorded it after dinner one night, channeling a barbershop-quartet style as Hill warns both men and women of being too concerned with sex, power, and appearances. It was a killer entrance for the then-23-year-old rapper-singer: The release became the first Number One single in the U.S. that was written, produced, and performed by one sole woman since Debbie Gibson’s “Foolish Beat” a decade earlier. 48 Radiohead, 'Idioteque' 2000 Writer(s):Arthur Krieger, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Jonny Greenwood, Paul Lansky, Philip Selway, Thom Yorke Powered byApple Music “Idioteque” is the foreboding, spellbinding centerpiece of Kid A, a squinting image of dystopia set to a glacially slamming beat. The song began as a 50-minute synth collage by Jonny Greenwood, which Thom Yorke digested, pulling out, as he later put it, “a section of about 40 seconds in the middle of it that was absolute genius.” From there, the band built a quaking glitch-core opus, driven by some of the most genuinely freaked-out vocals Yorke ever delivered. And somehow it still became a monster stadium-rock moment live. 47 Elton John, 'Tiny Dancer' 1972 Writer(s):Bernie Taupin, Elton John Powered byApple Music The “seamstress for the band” of the lyrics was a real person: Maxine Feibelman, then the wife of lyricist Bernie Taupin. “I had been into ballet as a little girl, and sewed patches on Elton’s jackets and jeans,” she said. When Taupin and John had arrived in L.A. in late 1970, Feibelman so beguiled Taupin that he wrote the rapturous “Tiny Dancer” for her. John’s skyrocketing melody got a little help from Paul Buckmaster’s strings and from Rick Wakeman, soon to join prog-rockers Yes, who played organ. Nearly 30 years later, Almost Famous revived the song, which at the time wasn’t a hit, failing to reach the Top 40 in its truncated radio edit. 46 M.I.A., 'Paper Planes' 2008 Writer(s):Joe Strummer, Maya Arulpragasam, Mick Jones, Nick Headon, Paul Simonon, Wesley Pentz Powered byApple Music “The other songs on the chart were Katy Perry and the Jonas Brothers,” said M.I.A. “Then you saw ‘Paper Planes,’ and it’s cool because there’s hope: ‘Thank God the future’s here.'” With its gunshot and cash-register sound effects, producer Diplo’s brilliantly flipped sample of the Clash’s “Straight to Hell,” and M.I.A.’s gleeful boasts about running drugs and taking your money, “Paper Planes” sure didn’t sound like Katy Perry. “[I was] thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like, ‘What I wanna do is come and get your money,'” M.I.A. said. “America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it.” Sure enough, it became a surprise hit. 45 Kendrick Lamar, 'Alright' 2015 Writer(s):Kendrick Lamar, M. Spears, P. Williams Powered byApple Music Kendrick Lamar dropped “Alright” in the spring of 2015 — a time when the Black Lives Matter movement was just starting to gather momentum. The song instantly became part of that movement — a jazzy political protest, but also a statement of rage and hope in the face of oppression. “Alright” was a standout on his epochal album To Pimp a Butterfly, but it has just gained resonance over the years. “It was a lot goin’ on, and still to this day, there’s a lot going on,” Lamar said. “I wanted to approach it as more uplifting — but aggressive. Not playing the victim, but still having that ‘We strong,’ you know?” That “we strong” spirit is at the heart of “Alright.” 44 Michael Jackson, 'Billie Jean' 1982 Writer(s):Michael J. Jackson Powered byApple Music Sinuous, paranoid, and omnipresent: The single that made Jackson the biggest star since Elvis Presley was a denial of a paternity suit, and it spent seven weeks at Number One on the pop charts. Jackson came up with the irresistible rhythm track on his home drum machine, and he nailed the vocals in one take. “I knew the song was going to be big,” Jackson said. “I was really absorbed in writing it.” How absorbed? Jackson said he was thinking about “Billie Jean” while riding in his Rolls-Royce down the Ventura Freeway in California — and didn’t notice the car was on fire. 43 The Temptations, 'My Girl' 1965 Writer(s):Ronald White, Smokey Robinson Powered byApple Music The Temptations were sharing a bill with Smokey Robinson and his group the Miracles at Harlem’s Apollo Theater when Robinson took time out to cut the rhythm track for a new song. After they heard it, the Tempts begged him to let them record the song rather than the Miracles, as he had been planning. Robinson relented and chose the throaty tenor David Ruffin to sing lead, the first time he had done so with the group. The Tempts rehearsed the song that week at the Apollo, then recorded it back home in Detroit on December 21st, 1964. 42 Bob Marley and the Wailers, 'Redemption Song' 1980 Writer(s):Bob Marley and the Wailers Powered byApple Music Marley had already recorded a version of this freedom hymn with his band when Island Records chief Chris Blackwell suggested he try it as an acoustic-style folk tune. Inspired by the writings of Marcus Garvey, Marley’s lyrics offer up music as an antidote to slavery, both mental and physical. “I would love to do more like that,” Marley said a few months before his death from cancer in 1981, at age 36. As the final track on his final album, “Redemption Song” stands as his epitaph. 41 Joy Division, 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' 1980 Writer(s):Bernard Sumner, Ian Curtis, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris Powered byApple Music The pinnacle of Joy Division’s gloom-ridden Mancunian post-punk vision still hits like an ice pick aimed at your soul. Depressed over his collapsing marriage, singer Ian Curtis actually came up with the title as a sardonic response to Captain and Tenille’s 1975 pop hit “Love Will Keep Us Together,” and, in a fittingly creepy gesture, even cut it in the same studio where “Love Will Keep Us Together” had been recorded. “Ian’s influence seemed to be madness and insanity,” said guitarist Bernard Sumner. The song would be Joy Division’s last single, released weeks after Curtis’ death by suicide, a fact that makes the haunting chorus even more affecting. 40 The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 'All Along the Watchtower' 1968 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music “All Along the Watchtower” had just been released on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding when Hendrix began tinkering with the song at Electric Lady Studios in New York on January 21st, 1968. Using the line “And the wind began to howl” as a springboard, Hendrix constructed a tumultuous four-part solo that transformed Dylan’s concise foreboding into an electric hurricane. Dylan acknowledged Hendrix’s masterstroke: Dylan’s subsequent versions of “All Along the Watchtower,” including the treatment on his 1974 reunion tour with the Band and the live LP Before the Flood, emulated Hendrix’s cover. 39 Outkast, 'B.O.B.' 2000 Writer(s):André Benjamin, Antwan Patton, David Sheats Powered byApple Music The ATLien hip-hop visionaries dropped “B.O.B.” when the world was still reeling from the innovations of Aquemini. But André 3000 and Big Boi were not standing still. “Everybody’s been doing music like they all have the same formula: E = MC2,” Big Boi said at the time. So Outkast made sure nobody could fit “B.O.B.” into any formula — manic drums, headbanging rock guitar, DJ scratches, a gospel chorus. “It was an idea before it was a song,” said André, who was inspired by the frenetic beats of U.K. drum-and-bass, which he and Big Boi heard at a party in London. “It was the tempo I was looking for, so I thought about how to Americanize it.” 38 Otis Redding, '(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay' 1967 Writer(s):Otis Redding, Steve Cropper Powered byApple Music A few days after his star-making set at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, Redding stayed on a houseboat in Sausalito, California, while he played the Fillmore in San Francisco. He wrote the first verse to “Dock of the Bay” on that boat, then completed the song with guitarist Steve Cropper in Memphis. Just a few days later, Redding was on tour with the Bar-Kays when his private plane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. While divers searched for Redding’s body, Cropper kept his mind busy by mixing “Dock of the Bay.” On December 11th, 1967, the plane was pulled out of the lake, with Redding’s body still strapped into the co-pilot’s seat. 37 Prince and the Revolution, 'When Doves Cry' 1984 Writer(s): Prince Powered byApple Music The Purple Rain soundtrack album was completed, and so was the movie. But Prince just couldn’t stop making music. And at the very last minute, he added a brand-new song: “When Doves Cry.” Even by Prince standards, it’s eccentric; after single-handedly recording the stark, brokenhearted song in the studio, he decided to erase the bass track from the final mix. According to the engineer, Prince said, “Nobody would have the balls to do this. You just wait — they’ll be freaking.” He was right. Prince made it the soundtrack’s first single — and 1984’s most avant-garde pop record became his first American Number One hit, keeping Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” out of the top spot. 36 The White Stripes, 'Seven Nation Army' 2003 Writer(s):Jack White Powered byApple Music Jack White was futzing about on his guitar during soundcheck on one of the White Stripes’ Australian tours when he stumbled upon the weightiest hard-rock riff this side of Jimmy Page. “I didn’t have lyrics for it until later on, and I was just calling it ‘Seven Nation Army’ — that’s what I called the Salvation Army when I was a kid,” White once said. “So that was just a way for me to remember which [riff] I was talking about.” By the time he finished the lyrics, which addressed people gossiping about who he and his ex-wife, White Stripes drummer Meg White, were dating, he gave the term new life: “I’m gonna fight ’em all/A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.” Same goes for the riff. 35 Little Richard, 'Tutti-Frutti' 1955 Writer(s):Dorothy LaBostrie, Richard Penniman, Joe Lubin Powered byApple Music “I’d been singing ‘Tutti-Frutti’ for years,” said Richard, “but it never struck me as a song you’d record.” Producer Robert Blackwell asked Dorothy LaBostrie, a young songwriter who had been pestering him for work, to clean up the filthy original lyrics (“Tutti-Frutti, good booty/If it don’t fit, don’t force it/You can grease it, make it easy”). “Fifteen minutes before the session was to end, the chick comes in and puts these little trite lyrics in front of me,” said Blackwell. Richard cleaned up his own “Awop-bop-a-loo-mop a-good-goddamn” and loaded LaBostrie’s doggerel with sexual dynamite. 34 James Brown, 'Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag' 1966 Writer(s):James Brown Powered byApple Music In mid-1965, Brown was locked in a contract struggle with King Records, but when he learned King was nearly bankrupt, he threw the label a bone: a song he’d recorded a few months earlier, yelling “This is a hit!” as the tape rolled. Arguably the first funk record, it’s driven by the empty space between beats as much as by Brown’s bellow and guitarist Jimmy Nolen’s ice-chipper scratch. In a stroke of postproduction genius (you can hear the original recording on the Grammy-winning Star Time box set), Brown sliced off the intro to have the song start with a face-smashing horn blast, and sped it up just enough so it sounded like an urgent bulletin from the future. 33 Chuck Berry, 'Johnny B. Goode' 1958 Writer(s):Chuck Berry Powered byApple Music “Johnny B. Goode” was the first rock & roll hit about rock & roll stardom. The title character is Chuck Berry — “more or less,” as he told Rolling Stone in 1972. “The original words [were], of course, ‘That little colored boy could play.’ I changed it to ‘country boy’ — or else it wouldn’t get on the radio.” “Johnny B. Goode” is the supreme example of Berry’s poetry in motion. The rhythm section rolls with freight-train momentum, while Berry’s stabbing, single-note lick in the chorus sounds, as he put it, “like a-ringin’ a bell” — a perfect description of how rock & roll guitar can make you feel on top of the world. 32 Notorious B.I.G., 'Juicy' 1994 Writer(s):Diddy, James Mtume, Jean-Claude Olivier, The Notorious B.I.G. Powered byApple Music “If you don’t know, now you know,” Biggie announces in “Juicy” — and this was the hit that guaranteed everyone around the world would know. The Notorious B.I.G. made “Juicy” his first pop shot, from his 1994 debut, Ready to Die, repping Brooklyn over a sample of Mtume’s lush Eighties oral-sex jam “Juicy Fruit.” At a time when East Coast hip-hop was too busy playing D against the West, Biggie’s lyrical confidence was a game-changer, revitalizing New York rap. He boasts about going from dreaming of stardom to rocking sold-out shows, and dressing his mom up in mink — the first rush of “mo’ money” before the “mo’ problems” kicked in. “I told him, ‘No landlord dissed us!’” said Voletta Wallace. “He said, ‘Mom, I was just writing a rags-to-riches kinda story.’” 31 The Rolling Stones, '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' 1965 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music The riff came to Keith Richards in a dream one night in May 1965, in his motel room in Clearwater, Florida, on the Rolling Stones’ third U.S. tour. He woke up and grabbed a guitar and a cassette machine. Richards played the run of notes once, then fell back to sleep. “On the tape,” he said later, “you can hear me drop the pick, and the rest is snoring.” Jagger later said that “Satisfaction” was “my view of the world, my frustration with everything.” Inspired by that riff and the title line, also Richards’ idea, Jagger wrote the words — a litany of disgust with “America, its advertising syndrome, the constant barrage” — in 10 minutes, by the motel pool the day after Richards’ dream. 30 Lorde, 'Royals' 2011 Writer(s):Ella Yelich O'Connor, Joel Little Powered byApple Music “I’ve always been fascinated with aristocracy,” Lorde told Rolling Stone around the time “Royals” came out of nowhere to take the Number One spot on the U.S. charts. Written “in like half an hour” by a 15-year-old New Zealander taking influence from the diamond-encrusted swagger of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne as well as the muted electronic work of artists like James Blake, “Royals” was maximal minimalism, a mumbled thunderbolt of playful resistance against rap and pop’s obsession with wealth and status. As Lorde said later, “I was definitely poking fun at a lot of things people take to be normal.” 29 Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg, 'Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang' 1992 Writer(s):Calvin Broadus, Frederick Knight, Leon Haywood Powered byApple Music At the intersection of past and future West Coast hip-hop sits Dre’s debut solo single, a smooth and inimitable kickback classic that would help define his career following the demise of N.W.A. In a radio interview, the producer and rapper revealed that the song originally sampled a track by Boz Scaggs before he settled on the bass line from Leon Haywood’s 1975 hit “I Want’a Do Something Freaky to You.” Snoop was in jail while Dre was recording, so he had to originally record his parts over the phone. “I really wanted this demo done, so he called in and I taped the receiver of the phone to the mic,” Dre recalled. “You can hear jail sounds in the back.” 28 Talking Heads, 'Once in a Lifetime' 1980 Writer(s):Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth Powered byApple Music Talking Heads had a difficult time bringing “Once in a Lifetime” to life. The song began during jams at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas as the band worked on its groundbreaking Afro-funk influenced album Remain in Light. Producer and co-writer Brian Eno wanted to ditch the tune altogether until David Byrne started performing his “Same as it ever was” monologue like an evangelical preacher, which somehow sharpened his message about questioning identity and reality. “We’re largely unconscious,” the singer once said. “You know, we operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven’t really stopped to ask ourselves, ‘How did I get here?'” 27 Bruce Springsteen, 'Born to Run' 1975 Writer(s):Bruce Springsteen Powered byApple Music This song’s four and a half minutes took three and a half months to cut. Aiming for the impact of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, Springsteen included strings, glockenspiel, multiple keyboards — and more than a dozen guitar tracks. “I had enormous ambitions for it,” said Springsteen. “I wanted to make the greatest rock record I’d ever heard.” Springsteen’s lyrics told a story of young lovers on the highways of New Jersey. “I don’t know how important the settings are,” Springsteen said. “It’s the idea behind the settings. It could be New Jersey, it could be California, it could be Alaska.” 26 Joni Mitchell, 'A Case of You' 1971 Writer(s):Joni Mitchell Powered byApple Music One of the many searing moments on Mitchell’s landmark Blue, “A Case of You” unsparingly grapples with conflicted feelings and entangled identities. The male character in the song is apparently a composite of several men in her life during that time, notably Leonard Cohen, and her partner at the time of its recording, James Taylor, who joins in on guitar, with Mitchell herself on dulcimer. She later dismissed “A Case of You” as “a doormat song,” yet it remains one of her most beloved. Prince, who once said that “Joni’s music should be taught in school, if just from a literature standpoint,” covered it several times during his career. 25 Kanye West feat. Pusha T, 'Runaway' 2010 Writer(s):Emile Haynie, John Roger Branch, Kanye West, Malik Yusef, Pete Rock, Terrence Thornton, Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean Powered byApple Music West had always generated controversy and criticism, but after he interrupted Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs, his public image was at an all-time low. So he took off for a self-imposed exile in Hawaii and recorded his nine-minute masterpiece — a toast to the “douchebags” and an unguarded reflection on his image and intimacy issues. “The song sounds like it’s talking about a girl — could also be talking about my relationship with society or my relationship with the fans or anyone who I let down or people who had to defend me that really love me,” West said. He was so impressed with Pusha T’s guest verse that he signed him to his GOOD Music label and eventually made the Clipse member president of the label. 24 The Beatles, 'A Day in the Life' 1967 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music “A Day in the Life” was one of the last true Lennon-McCartney collaborations: John Lennon wrote the opening and closing sections, and Paul McCartney contributed the “Woke up/Fell out of bed” middle. For the climax, they hired 40 musicians, dressed them in tuxedos and funny hats, and told them they had 15 bars to ascend from the lowest note on their instruments to the highest. “Listen to those trumpets — they’re freaking out,” McCartney said. The final piano chord concluded Sgt. Pepper and made rock’s possibilities seem infinite. 23 David Bowie, 'Heroes' 1977 Writer(s):David Bowie, Brian Eno Powered byApple Music After a coke-fried spell in Los Angeles, Bowie was detoxing in Berlin when he spied two lovers having a rendezvous by the Berlin Wall. Said Bowie, “I thought, of all the places to meet in Berlin, why pick a bench underneath a guard turret on the wall?” Imagining the story behind their affair, Bowie wrote his most compassionate song ever. The song builds for six minutes, with Bowie setting his ragged, impassioned croon over a throbbing groove consisting of Eno’s humming synths, Robert Fripp’s guitar, and producer Tony Visconti banging on a metal ashtray that was lying around the studio. Bowie wails with crazed soul about two doomed lovers finding a moment of redemption together — just for one day. 22 The Ronettes, 'Be My Baby' 1963 Writer(s):Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector Powered byApple Music Phil Spector rehearsed this song with Ronnie Bennett (the only Ronette to sing on it) for weeks, but that didn’t stop him from doing 42 takes before he was satisfied. Aided by a full orchestra (as well as a young Cher, who sang backup vocals), Spector created a lush, echo-laden sound that was the Rosetta Stone for studio pioneers such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson, who calls this his favorite song. “The things Phil was doing were crazy and exhausting,” said Larry Levine, Spector’s engineer. “But that’s not the sign of a nut. That’s genius.” 21 Billie Holiday, 'Strange Fruit' 1939 Writer(s):Lewis Allan Powered byApple Music One of pop’s first protest songs is also one of its most profoundly disturbing. Written by a Jewish schoolteacher in the Bronx, its lyrics evoke the horrors of a lynching (“Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze/Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”), and its languid melody conjures the unsettling quiet of a Southern backwoods night. The song was so controversial in the late Thirties that Holiday, a Columbia Records artist, had to find another label to release it (an indie owned by Billy Crystal’s uncle). “‘Strange Fruit’ is still relevant, because Black people are still being lynched,” Andra Day, who sang it in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, told Rolling Stone last year. “It’s not just a Southern breeze. We’re seeing that everywhere.” 20 Robyn, 'Dancing on My Own' 2010 Writer(s):Robin Miriam Carlsson, Patrik Berger Powered byApple Music Swedish disco queen Robyn captured all the agony and ecstasy of twirling alone in a corner of the dance floor, spinning around in circles, and losing yourself in the beat for a moment of solitary triumph. “I think ‘Dancing on My Own’ is totally from me just being in clubs and going out and dancing a lot, and seeing people and thinking, ‘What are they doing here?’” she said later. Written with Stockholm producer Patrik Berger, the song made Robyn an iconic cult hero. But it also became the template for a whole generation of young songwriters, from Taylor Swift to Lorde, looking for the ideal glitter-and-sobs cocktail. “This song, to me, is perfect,” Lorde wrote. “Joyous even when a heart is breaking.” 19 John Lennon, 'Imagine' 1971 Writer(s):John Lennon, Yoko Ono Powered byApple Music “It’s not like he thought, ‘Oh, this can be an anthem,'” Yoko Ono recalled years later of this song’s creation in March of 1971. “Imagine” was “just what John believed: that we are all one country, one world, one people. He wanted to get that idea out.” Lennon admitted that “Imagine” was “virtually the Communist Manifesto.” But the elementary beauty of his melody, the warm composure in his voice, and the poetic touch of co-producer Phil Spector — who bathed Lennon’s performance in gentle strings and summer-breeze echo — emphasized the song’s fundamental humanity. Lennon knew he had written something special. In one of his last interviews, he declared “Imagine” to be as good as anything he had written with the Beatles. 18 Prince and the Revolution, 'Purple Rain' 1984 Writer(s):Prince Powered byApple Music On the 1999 tour in 1983, Prince found himself sharing arenas with Bob Seger, and he challenged himself to write a Seger-like ballad, but instead of “Night Moves,” he channeled a heartrending meditation on love, trust, God, and purple rain. “It was so different,” the Revolution’s Bobby Z. said. “It was almost country. It was almost rock. It was almost gospel.” The version of the song on the Purple Rain soundtrack is actually a live recording from 1983 that Prince later polished into a transcendent anthem worthy of a movie title. After the film came out, the song and its jaw-dropping guitar solo got only bigger: The performance on the 1985 home video Prince and the Revolution: Live stretches to almost 19 minutes — and it is stunning. 17 Queen, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' 1975 Writer(s):Freddie Mercury Powered byApple Music The 1970s, rock’s most grandiose decade, never got more grandiose than here. “Bohemian Rhapsody” contains a reported 180 vocal parts and spans rock, opera, heavy metal, and pop — all in six minutes. But for as elegant as it sounds, recording it was a literal mess. Freddie Mercury taped scraps of paper containing his own bizarre musical notations to his piano and simply started pounding out chords for his bandmates to follow. Somehow he pieced it all together beautifully, singing about killing a man (possibly a metaphor for obliterating the heterosexual image of himself) and commedia dell’arte characters like Scaramouche. Recording technology was so taxed by the song that some tapes became virtually transparent from so many overdubs, but Queen had created something that embodied the absurd tragedy and humor of human existence. 16 Beyoncé feat. Jay-Z, 'Crazy in Love' 2003 Writer(s):Shaun Carter, Beyoncé Knowles, Eugene Record, Rich Harrison Powered byApple Music Producer Rich Harrison had trouble convincing friends and peers that the beat to “Crazy in Love” had much potential. So he added a five-alarm horn blast taken from Seventies soulsters the Chi-Lites’ “Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So),” as well as his own instrumental flourishes, and kept it at the ready for the right moment and the right artist — “Until I got the call from B,” he later said. As the single that inaugurated Beyoncé’s solo career, the song emphatically announced her arrival as the era’s dominant pop power. Jay-Z’s killer verse was added at the last minute. Bey and Jay had just started dating at the time, and the song’s lyrics and head-over-heels delivery reflected what she described as “the first step of a relationship right before you let go.” 15 The Beatles, 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' 1963 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music In 1963, the Beatles gave themselves an ultimatum: “We’re not going to America till we’ve got a Number One record,” Paul McCartney declared. So he and John Lennon went to the home of the parents of Jane Asher, McCartney’s girlfriend, where — “one on one, eyeball to eyeball,” as Lennon later put it — they wrote “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” an irresistibly erotic come-on framed as a chaste, bashful request. The lightning-bolt energy of their collaboration ran through the band’s performance. Rush-released in America the day after Christmas, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” hit Number One in the states on February 1st, 1964. When the bandmates got the news in Paris, during a three-week stand there, they partied all night. 14 The Kinks, 'Waterloo Sunset' 1967 Writer(s):Ray Davies Powered byApple Music After the Kinks’ first burst of British Invasion pop success fizzled, Ray Davies really needed to write another hit. But instead, he wrote “Waterloo Sunset.” It’s a delicate guitar ballad about a solitary man who watches the world from his window, gazing on a couple of lovers who meet at a dismal London train station. For Davies, it was so personal he didn’t even dare show the lyrics to the other Kinks until he recorded his vocal. As he said, “It was like an extract from a diary nobody was allowed to read.” Yet it became his most beloved creation. You’d never know from the song what a dump Waterloo Station is — a tribute to Davies’ power to find beauty in the mundane. 13 The Rolling Stones, 'Gimme Shelter' 1969 Writer(s):Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Powered byApple Music The Stones channeled the emotional wreckage of the late Sixties on a song that Keith Richards wrote in 20 minutes. The intro, strummed on an electric-acoustic guitar modeled on a Chuck Berry favorite, conjures an unparalleled aura of dread. Singer Merry Clayton brings down Armageddon with a soul-wracked wail: “Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away.” The song surfaced days after Meredith Hunter’s murder at the Altamont music festival. “That’s a kind of end-of-the-world song, really,” Mick Jagger said in 1995. “It’s apocalypse.” Richards later said that his guitar fell apart on the last take, “as if by design.” 12 Stevie Wonder, 'Superstition' 1972 Writer(s):Stevie Wonder Powered byApple Music Stevie Wonder debuted this hard blast of funk live while opening for the Rolling Stones in the summer of 1972, intent on expanding his audience. The 22-year-old former child star had written it at a drum set, humming the other parts to himself. Wonder had initially intended for Jeff Beck to record the song, but Berry Gordy wouldn’t let him give it away. It became the first single from Talking Book — and Wonder’s first Number One hit in nearly a decade. “A lot of people, especially Black folks, let superstition rule their lives,” Wonder said. “This is crazy. The worst thing is, the more you believe in it, the more bad things happen to you.” 11 The Beach Boys, 'God Only Knows' 1966 Writer(s):Brian Wilson, Tony Asher Powered byApple Music “It’s very emotional, always a bit of a choker with me,” said Paul McCartney of this Pet Sounds ballad. The night McCartney and John Lennon first heard Pet Sounds, at a London party, they wrote “Here, There and Everywhere,” which is influenced by “God Only Knows.” Carl Wilson’s understated lead vocal is note-perfect, but it’s the arrangement of horns, sleigh bells, strings, and accordion that gives “God” its heavenly feel. Brian Wilson was fascinated by spirituality and said this song came out of prayer sessions in the studio. “We made it a religious ceremony,” he said of recording Pet Sounds. The only problem: The use of the word “God” in the title scared off some radio programmers. 10 Outkast, 'Hey Ya!' 2003 Writer(s):André Benjamin Powered byApple Music About as radical as fun can get, “Hey Ya!” is funk, pop, rap, and rock spun into something otherworldly yet immediately lovable via Outkast’s one of a kind Stankonian vision. André 3000 began writing the song on acoustic guitar, bashing out some chords that he wanted to sound like the Smiths and the Buzzcocks. “He had the bulk of it already conceptualized in his head,” said recording engineer John Frye. “It all happened quite fast. We recorded the skeleton part, with the intro and the first verse and hook, all in one night.” The song would end up going through numerous permutations; one key assist came from former Cameo member Kevin Kendricks, who laid down the synth part and bass. At one point it was called “Thank God for Mom and Dad,” a title that makes plain its complicated lyrics about the challenges of keeping a romantic relationship afloat. On Twitter, in 2021, Outkast even called it “the saddest song ever written.” In 2003, however, most of that was lost on a world that simply wanted to dance, party, and shake it like a Polaroid picture. “Hey Ya!” was the most universal pop smash of the early 2000s, the first song to be downloaded 1 million times on iTunes. 9 Fleetwood Mac, 'Dreams' 1977 Writer(s):Stevie Nicks Powered byApple Music In the face of a lover telling her to go her own way, Stevie Nicks penned the ethereal “Dreams.” During the Rumours sessions in Sausalito, California, Nicks spent an off day in another room of the Record Plant that was supposedly used by Sly and the Family Stone. “It was a black-and-red room, with a sunken pit in the middle where there was a piano, and a big black-velvet bed with Victorian drapes,” she told Blender. There she reflected on the thunder and rain of her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham, whose guitar parts slice through the song’s mystical beat. “I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me, found a drum pattern, switched my little cassette player on, and wrote ‘Dreams’ in about 10 minutes,” she continued. “Right away I liked the fact that I was doing something with a dance beat, because that made it a little unusual for me.” The second single on Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster album Rumours, “Dreams” would become the band’s only U.S. chart topper, and it would continue to enchant new generations — and even return to the charts — for decades to come. 8 Missy Elliott, 'Get Ur Freak On' 2001 Writer(s):Missy Elliott, Timbaland Powered byApple Music “Oh yeah, man, we was on some futuristic stuff for sure,” Missy Elliott told Rolling Stone in 2020, on her musical chemistry with Timbaland. “It was something hypnotic about those records.” Missy and Tim took over the radio in the late Nineties, just two kids out of Portsmouth, Virginia, blowing minds with their own unique space-funk sound. She didn’t obey any of the rules for female stars at the time. And her music didn’t obey rules either — nobody could duplicate the Missy-Tim mojo. “Get Ur Freak On” is the peak of their long-running collaboration — a massively weird avant-garde experiment that also blew up into a global pop hit. Even by their standards, “Get Ur Freak On” was a crazed challenge to the audience, with Missy yelling “Hollaaaa!” over a warped bhangra loop. As she once recalled, “I was like, ‘Tim, you sure this isn’t too far left that people won’t get it? It sounds like some Japanese stuff mixed with a hip-hop beat.’” But everybody who heard it was hooked — the whole world wanted to holla along with Miss E. “Get Ur Freak On” remains an anthem for freaks everywhere. And even after 20 years, it still sounds like the future. 7 The Beatles, 'Strawberry Fields Forever' 1967 Writer(s):John Lennon, Paul McCartney Powered byApple Music John Lennon was one of the world’s most visible people in 1966 — but he wrote his most exquisitely lonely song with “Strawberry Fields Forever.” It opened up a whole new psychedelic era for the Beatles, changing the way pop music was heard and made. But it began with Lennon alone on a Spanish beach, with an acoustic guitar, writing a song about his painful childhood memories. Strawberry Field was the name of a Liverpool orphanage where he used to play — and hide from the world — as a boy. “I have visions of Strawberry Fields,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “Because Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go.” Lennon bared himself so vulnerably in this song that he was nervous about playing it for the other Beatles. There was a moment of silence — until Paul McCartney said, “That is absolutely brilliant.” They turned it into a groundbreaking sonic collage, thanks to George Martin’s studio wizardry. It was the first song cut at the Sgt. Pepper sessions, though it got left off the album so it could come out as a February 1967 single, with McCartney’s “Penny Lane” on the flip side. “Strawberry Fields” is a song full of raw pain — yet the Beatles made it feel like an irresistible invitation. 6 Marvin Gaye, 'What’s Going On' 1971 Writer(s):Marvin Gaye, Renaldo Benson, Al Cleveland Powered byApple Music “What’s Going On” is an exquisite plea for peace on Earth, sung by a man at the height of crisis. In 1970, Marvin Gaye was Motown’s top male vocal star, yet he was frustrated by the assembly-line role he played on his own hits. Devastated by the loss of duet partner Tammi Terrell, who died that March after a three-year battle with a brain tumor, Gaye was also trapped in a turbulent marriage to Anna Gordy, Motown boss Berry Gordy’s sister. Gaye was tormented, too, by his relationship with his puritanical father, Marvin Sr. “If I was arguing for peace,” Gaye told biographer David Ritz, “I knew I’d have to find peace in my heart.” Not long after Terrell’s passing, Renaldo Benson of the Four Tops presented Gaye with a song he had written with Motown staffer Al Cleveland. But Gaye made the song his own, overseeing the arrangement and investing the topical references to war and racial strife with private anguish. Motown session crew the Funk Brothers cut the stunning, jazz-inflected rhythm track (Gaye joined in with cardboard-box percussion). Then Gaye invoked his own family in moving prayer: singing to his younger brother Frankie, a Vietnam veteran (“Brother, brother, brother/There’s far too many of you dying”), and appealing for calm closer to home (“Father, father, father/We don’t need to escalate”). Initially rejected as uncommercial, “What’s Going On” (with background vocals by two players from the Detroit Lions) was Gaye’s finest studio achievement, a timeless gift of healing. 5 Nirvana, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' 1991 Writer(s):Kurt Cobain Powered byApple Music Producer Butch Vig first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in early 1991, on a boombox cassette recorded by bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Dave Grohl, and singer-guitarist-songwriter Kurt Cobain in a barn in Tacoma, Washington. The fidelity was abysmal. Vig — about to work with Nirvana on their major-label debut, Nevermind — could not tell that the song would soon make underground Seattle rock the new mainstream and catapult Cobain, a troubled young man with strict indie-culture ethics, into mega-celebrity. “I could sort of hear the ‘Hello, hello’ part and the chords,” Vig said years later. “But it was so indecipherable that I had no idea what to expect.” “Teen Spirit” was Cobain’s attempt to “write the ultimate pop song,” he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for John Lennon. Cobain “had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation,” Vig said, “but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In ‘Teen Spirit,’ a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice.” Sadly, by the time of Nirvana’s last U.S. tour, in late 1993, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play “Teen Spirit” every night. “There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better,” he claimed. But few songs by any artist have reshaped rock and roll so immediately, and permanently. 4 Bob Dylan, 'Like a Rolling Stone' 1965 Writer(s):Bob Dylan Powered byApple Music “I wrote it. I didn’t fail. It was straight,” Bob Dylan said of his greatest song shortly after he recorded it in June 1965. There is no better description of “Like a Rolling Stone” — of its revolutionary design and execution — or of the young man, just turned 24, who created it. Dylan began writing an extended piece of verse — 20 pages long by one account, six in another — that was, he said, “just a rhythm thing on paper all about my steady hatred, directed at some point that was honest.” Back home in Woodstock, New York, over three days in early June, Dylan sharpened the sprawl down to that confrontational chorus and four taut verses bursting with piercing metaphor and concise truth. Before going into Columbia Records’ New York studios to cut it, Dylan summoned Mike Bloomfield, the guitarist in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, to Woodstock to learn the song. “He said, ‘I don’t want you to play any of that B.B. King shit, none of that fucking blues,’” recalled Bloomfield (who died in 1981). “‘I want you to play something else.’” Just as Dylan bent folk music’s roots and forms to his own will, he transformed popular song with the content and ambition of “Like a Rolling Stone.” And in his electrifying vocal performance, his best on record, Dylan proved that everything he did was, first and always, rock & roll. “‘Rolling Stone’ is the best song I wrote,” he said flatly at the end of 1965. It still is. 3 Sam Cooke, 'A Change Is Gonna Come' 1964 Writer(s):Sam Cooke Powered byApple Music In 1963, Sam Cooke — America’s first great soul singer and one of the most successful pop acts in the nation, with 18 Top 30 hits since 1957 — heard a song that profoundly inspired and disturbed him: Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” What struck Cooke was the challenge implicit in Dylan’s anthem. “Jeez,” Cooke mused, “a white boy writing a song like that?” Cooke’s response, “A Change Is Gonna Come,” recorded on January 30th, 1964, with a sumptuous orchestral arrangement by Rene Hall, was more personal — in its first-person language and the experiences that preceded its creation. On October 8th, 1963, while on tour, Cooke and members of his entourage were arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, for disturbing the peace after they tried to register at a white motel — an incident reflected in the song’s third verse. And Cooke’s mourning for his 18-month-old son, Vincent, who drowned that June, resonates in the last verse: “There have been times that I thought/I couldn’t last for long.” On December 11th, 1964, almost a year after he recorded it, Cooke was fatally shot at an L.A. motel. Two weeks later, “A Change Is Gonna Come” was released, becoming Cooke’s farewell address and an anthem of the civil rights movement. 2 Public Enemy, 'Fight the Power' 1989 Writer(s):Carlton Ridenhour, Eric Sadler, Hank Shocklee, Keith Shocklee Powered byApple Music Chuck D once likened “Fight the Power” to Pete Seeger singing “We Shall Overcome.” “‘Fight the Power,'” he said, “points to the legacy of the strengths of standing up in music.” Filmmaker Spike Lee had originally asked Public Enemy to write an anthem for Do the Right Thing — a movie about confronting white supremacy — so Chuck and the group’s producers, the Bomb Squad, took inspiration from the Isley Brothers’ funky “Fight the Power” and used the title as a blueprint for a whole new war cry. In just under five minutes of scuzzy breakbeats and clarion-call horn samples, Chuck D and his foil, Flavor Flav, present a manifesto for racial revolution and Black pride with koans like “Our freedom of speech is freedom of death,” and rallying cries to rethink the basics of American life itself in lines like “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” The song was exactly what Lee’s movie needed, so it was played over and over again, anytime the character Radio Raheem showed up with his boombox, making it an instant classic. “I think it was Public Enemy’s and Spike Lee’s defining moment because it had awoken the Black community to a revolution that was akin to the Sixties revolution, where you had Martin Luther King or Malcolm X,” the Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee once said. “It made the entire hip-hop community recognize its power. Then the real revolution began.” 1 Aretha Franklin, 'Respect' 1967 Writer(s):Otis Redding Powered byApple Music When Aretha Franklin left Columbia Records for Atlantic in 1966, the label’s vice president, Jerry Wexler, came to the singer with some suggestions for songs she might cover, like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Ray Charles’ “Drown in My Own Tears.” She liked those ideas, but she had one of her own: “Respect,” a song she’d been performing live. “Long as she changes it up,” Wexler told Franklin’s manager Ted White in an exchange recounted by Franklin’s biographer David Ritz. “You don’t gotta worry about that,” White responded. “She changes it up all right.” Otis Redding wrote “Respect” and recorded it for the Stax/Volt label in 1965. But Franklin took possession of the song for all time with her definitive cover, cut at Atlantic’s New York studio on Valentine’s Day 1967. “Respect” was her first Number One hit and the single that established her as the Queen of Soul. In Redding’s reading, a brawny march, he called for equal favor with volcanic force. Franklin wasn’t asking for anything. She sang from higher ground: a woman calling for an end to the exhaustion and sacrifice of a raw deal with scorching sexual authority. In short: If you want some, you will earn it. “For Otis, ‘respect’ had the traditional connotation, the more abstract meaning of esteem,” Wexler said in his autobiography, Rhythm and the Blues: A Life in American Music. “The fervor in Aretha’s magnificent voice demanded that respect and more: Respect also involved sexual attention of the highest order. What else could ‘Sock it to me’ mean?” He was referring to the knockout sound of Franklin’s backup singers — her sisters, Carolyn and Erma — chanting “Sock it to me” at high speed, which Aretha and Carolyn cooked up for the session. The late Tom Dowd, who engineered the date, credited Carolyn with the saucy breakdown in which Aretha spelled out the title: “I fell off my chair when I heard that!” And since Redding’s version had no bridge, Wexler had the band — the legendary studio crew from Muscle Shoals, Alabama — play the chord changes from Sam and Dave’s “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby” under King Curtis’ tenor-sax solo. There is no mistaking the passion inside the discipline of Franklin’s delivery; she was surely drawing on her own tumultuous marriage at the time for inspiration. “If she didn’t live it,” Wexler said, “she couldn’t give it.” But, he added, “Aretha would never play the part of the scorned woman.… Her middle name was Respect.” Leading off her Atlantic debut, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, “Respect” catalyzed rock & roll, gospel, and blues to create the model for soul music that artists still look to today (Mariah Carey called Franklin “my mentor”). Just as important, the song’s unapologetic demands resonated powerfully with the civil rights movement and emergent feminist revolution, fitting for an artist who donated to the Black Panther Party and sang at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. In her 1999 memoir, Franklin wrote that the song reflected “the need of the average man and woman in the street, the businessman, the mother, the fireman, the teacher — everyone wanted respect.” We still do.