500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004)
Click here for the new, updated 500 Greatest Songs list from 2021
By Jay-Z
A great song doesn’t attempt to be anything — it just is.
When you hear a great song, you can think of where you were when you first heard it, the sounds, the smells. It takes the emotions of a moment and holds it for years to come. It transcends time. A great song has all the key elements — melody; emotion; a strong statement that becomes part of the lexicon; and great production. Think of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen. That song had everything — different melodies, opera, R&B, rock — and it explored all of those different genres in an authentic way, where it felt natural.
When I’m writing a song that I know is going to work, it’s a feeling of euphoria. It’s how a basketball player must feel when he starts hitting every shot, when you’re in that zone. As soon as you start, you get that magic feeling, an extra feeling. Songs like that come out in five minutes; if I work on them more than, say, 20 minutes, they’re probably not going to work.
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Sly and the Family Stone, ‘Hot Fun in the Summertime’
Writer: Sly Stone
Producer: Stone
Released: Aug. '69, Epic
16 weeks; No. 2Summer was already under way when Stone handed in this heavenly soul ballad to Epic, which was wary of releasing a summer song in August – but it was a smash anyway. The single came out just before the Family Stone performed at Woodstock – they were the first band to sign up for the historic festival. Michael Jackson later bought the rights to the song.
Appears on: Greatest Hits (Epic)
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The Band, ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’
Writer: Robbie Robertson
Producers: John Simon, the Band
Released: Sept. '69, Capitol
Non-singleRobertson, a Canadian, vividly depicted the Civil War-era South in this moving dirge. "I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography," said Levon Helm, the Band's only American, whose gritty vocal evoked the interior struggle of someone trying to make sense of a lost cause – like, in 1969, the war in Vietnam.
Appears on: The Band (Capitol)
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Jackie Wilson, ‘(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher’
Writers: Gary Jackson, Raynard Miner, Carl Smith
Producer: Carl Davis
Released: Aug. '67, Brunswick
12 weeks; No. 6At first, he sang it like a ballad. But Wilson hit the right gallop after producer Davis told him "to jump and go along with the percussion." Motown bassist James Jamerson played down below, along with several other moonlighting members of the Funk Brothers band.
Appears on: The Very Best of Jackie Wilson (Rhino)
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The Spencer Davis Group, ‘Gimme Some Lovin”
Writers: Davis, Steve Winwood, Muff Winwood
Producer: Jimmy Miller
Released: Dec. '66, United Artists
13 weeks; No. 7Teenage singer Steve Winwood provided the impossibly raw vocals. "Steve had been singing, 'Gimme some lovin',' just yelling anything," said bassist-brother Muff. "It took about an hour to write, then down the pub for lunch."
Appears on: Gimme Some Lovin' (Sundazed)
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The B-52’s, ‘Love Shack’
Writers: Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson
Producers: Don Was, Nile Rodgers
Released: June '89, Reprise
27 weeks; No. 3The B-52's had few reasons to party in 1989: Guitarist Ricky Wilson had died; their previous album had flopped. But with production by dance-rock master Don Was, they slapped smiles and Dixie New Wave glitter all over this bouncing beauty.
Appears on: Cosmic Thing (Reprise)
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Elton John, ‘Rocket Man’
Writers: John, Bernie Taupin
Producer: Gus Dudgeon
Released: May '72, Uni
15 weeks; No. 6A perfect song for the age of moonwalks, this star trek was the elegiac tale of an astronaut lost in space, light-years from home. Taupin wrote it on the way to visiting his own family. "I got inside," he said, "and had to rush to write it all down before I'd forgotten it." Taupin was accused of ripping off Bowie's "Space Oddity," but he was actually thinking of "Rocket Man," by acid-folkies Pearls Before Swine.
Appears on: Honky Chateau (Island)
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Sly and the Family Stone, ‘Stand!’
Writer: Sly Stone
Producer: Stone
Released: April '69, Epic
8 weeks; No. 22The title song from Stone's classic black-rock LP became a civil rights anthem. But when a test pressing got a muted reaction on San Francisco radio, Stone added the funky coda, played by what his A&R man Stephen Paley called "old-men horn players," since the Family was unavailable. "He wrote out parts for the horn players and even passed out W-4 forms," said Paley. "He was that together."
Appears on: Stand! (Sony)
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Dion, ‘The Wanderer’
Writer: Ernie Maresca
Producer: Gene Schwartz
Released: Dec. '61, Laurie
18 weeks; No. 2Dion DiMucci's trademark hit – originally the B side to a single called "The Majestic," until DJs began flipping the record over – was a swaggering shuffle about a real-life hard-ass who wore tattoos of his girlfriends' names on his arms. "You say to a chick, 'Stay away from that guy,' " Dion said in 1976, when "The Wanderer" was a Top 20 hit again in the U.K. "And she would say, 'What guy?' Chicks loved a rebel."
Appears on: Runaround Sue (Capitol)
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Dusty Springfield, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’
Writers: John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins
Producer: Jerry Wexler
Released: Nov. '68, Atlantic
12 weeks; No. 10Springfield was white and English but sang as if born with black American soul. In 1968, newly signed to Atlantic and under the tutelage of its star producer Wexler, she went to the mecca of Dixie R&B to record the gospel-tinged Dusty in Memphis. She ended up doing her vocals in New York, but no matter: Her deep, heated voice captured the carnal fire of the South
Appears on: Dusty in Memphis (Rhino)
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Patsy Cline, ‘I Fall to Pieces’
Writer: Hank Cochran
Producer: Owen Bradley
Released: Jan. '61, Decca
20 weeks; No. 12Cline was reluctant to record this ballad, which had been turned down by Brenda Lee, until Bradley coaxed her into it. Seven months pregnant when she cut it, Cline belted the ending the first time through, but the magic happened when she dropped to her lower register on her second try.
Appears on: 12 Greatest Hits (MCA)
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Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force, ‘Planet Rock’
Writers: Bambaataa, John Robie, the Soul Sonic Force
Producers: Bambaataa, Arthur Baker
Released: July '82, Tommy Boy
11 weeks; No. 48"Can you play stuff like Kraftwerk?" asked Bam, who played their records at DJ gigs. Baker worried about stealing the melody from "Trans-Europe Express," but Robie said, "I'll tear that shit up."
Appears on: Looking for the Perfect Beat 1980-1985 (Tommy Boy)
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Ray Charles, ‘I Got a Woman’
Writers: Charles, Renald Richard
Producer: Jerry Wexler
Released: Nov. '54, ABC-Parliament
Predates chartCharles was riding through Indiana one night in 1954 with his musical director Richard when they began singing along to a gospel tune on the radio. "Ray sang something like, 'I got a woman,'" said Richard. "I answered, 'Yeah, she lives across town.'" He finished the song the next day, and Charles cut it at an Atlanta radio station – a session now recognized as the birth of soul.
Appears on: Atlantic Singles (Rhino)
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Buddy Holly and the Crickets, ‘Everyday’
Writers: Charles Hardin, Norman Petty
Producer: Petty
Released: Sept. '57, Coral a
Did not chartThe flip side to "Peggy Sue," "Everyday" features the celesta, a keyboard with a glockenspiel-like tone that Petty kept in his New Mexico studio. The percussion is drummer Jerry Allison keeping time by slapping his knees. For legal reasons, Holly changed his songwriting credit to Charles Hardin, his real first and middle names.
Appears on: Best of Buddy Holly (Universal)
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The Byrds, ‘I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better’
Writer: Gene Clark
Producer: Terry Melcher
Released: June '65, Columbia
Did not chartThe Byrds championed the songs of Bob Dylan, who in turn praised the exotic balladry of Byrd Gene Clark. "I remember him saying, 'Gene is really interesting to me,'" said bassist Chris Hillman. Clark wrote this about a girlfriend from their days at the L.A. club Ciro's. "She was a funny girl, and she started bothering me," he said. "I wrote the whole song within a few minutes."
Appears on: Mr. Tambourine Man (Columbia)
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M.I.A., ‘Paper Planes’
Writers: M.I.A., Diplo
Producers: Diplo, Switch
Released: August '07, Interscope
21 weeks; No. 4Maya Arulpragasam cheerfully threatens to steal your money, over a sample of the Clash's "Straight to Hell." The unlikely hit took off thanks to its inclusion in the Pineapple Express trailer. "The other songs on the chart were Katy Perry and the Jonas Brothers," says M.I.A. "Then you saw 'Paper Planes' and it's cool because there's hope: 'Thank God the future's here.'"
Appears on: Kala (Interscope)
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The Animals, ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’
Writers: Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil
Producer: Mickie Most
Released: Aug. ’65, MGM
11 weeks; No. 13Born in the Brill Building song factory and originally intended for the Righteous Brothers, it got a harsh white-blues treatment from the Animals. As singer Eric Burdon put it, “Whatever suited our attitude, we just bent to our own shape.” Its desperate intensity made the song a huge hit with U.S. soldiers in Vietnam and, a generation later, coalition forces in Iraq.
Appears on: Retrospective (ABKCO)
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Roy Orbison, ‘Only the Lonely’
Writers: Joe Melson, Orbison
Producer: Fred Foster
Released: May '60, Monument
21 weeks; No. 2Orbison intended to offer this song to either Elvis Presley (also a Sun Records alumnus) or the Everly Brothers, who had cut the Orbison song "Claudette." But Orbison's falsetto made the loneliness real. "For a baritone to sing as high as I do," he said, "is ridiculous."
Appears on: For the Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Rhino)
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Marvin Gaye, ‘Sexual Healing’
Writers: Gaye, Odell Brown, David Ritz
Producer: Gaye
Released: Oct. '82, Columbia
21 weeks; No. 3In April 1982 Gaye was living in exile in Brussels and suffering writer's block. "I suggested that Marvin needed sexual healing," Ritz, his biographer, later wrote. Gaye put the idea to a reggae-style beat by sideman Brown. The result: Gaye's last Top Five hit.
Appears on: Midnight Love (Columbia)
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Bob Dylan, ‘Just Like a Woman’
Writer: Dylan
Producer: Bob Johnston
Released: May '66, Columbia
6 weeks; No. 33Dylan wrote this on Thanksgiving Day 1965 – three days after marrying Sara Lowndes – while on tour in Kansas City. His nonstop creative rush was taking a big toll. "I don't consider myself outside of anything," he said at the time. "I just consider myself not around." He turned his torment into this song, allegedly inspired by his recently ended affair with doomed Andy Warhol starlet Edie Sedgwick.
Appears on: Blonde on Blonde (Columbia)
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Van Morrison, ‘Moondance’
Writer: Morrison
Producer: Morrison
Released: Feb. '70, Warner Bros.
4 weeks; No. 92The title song of Morrison's first self-produced album started "as a saxophone solo," he said. "I used to play this sax number over and over, anytime I picked up my horn." He played the sax solo on this recording, which combined the bucolic charm of his life in Woodstock, New York ("the cover of October skies"), with his love of the sophisticated jazz and R&B of Mose Allison and Ray Charles.
Appears on: Moondance (Warner Bros.)
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Muddy Waters, ‘Mannish Boy’
Writers: McKinley Morganfield, Mel London, Ellas McDaniel
Producers: Leonard and Phil Chess, Willie Dixon
Released: May '55, Chess
Did not chartAfter Waters heard Bo Diddley audition "I'm a Man" for Chess, he replied with "Mannish Boy." (Diddley got a credit as McDaniel, his real name.) Both songs were issued in 1955 and shot into the R&B Top 10. "When I heard him, I realized the connection between all the music I heard," Keith Richards said of Waters. "He was like the code book."
Appears on: The Anthology (MCA/Chess)
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Chic, ‘Good Times’
Writers: Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards
Producers: Rodgers, Edwards
Released: June '79, Atlantic
19 weeks; No. 1The tone was half-ironic when Chic released "Good Times," a hedonistic roller-disco tune, during the Seventies recession. The other half was pure joy, and Edwards' bass line – bouncing on one note, then climbing – proved too snappy for just one song. Queen borrowed it for "Another One Bites the Dust"; in the South Bronx, the Sugarhill Gang put it under "Rapper's Delight."
Appears on: Risqué (Atlantic)
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The Clash, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’
Writers: The Clash
Producer: Glyn Johns
Released: May '82, Epic
13 weeks; No. 45"My main influences," Mick Jones said, "are Mott the Hoople, the Kinks and the Stones" – which explains this choppy riff. Jones yells "Split!" because Joe Strummer snuck up behind him while he was recording his vocals. The chorus hints at the band's end: At the time, "none of us were really talking to each other," said Paul Simonon. The original four were soon no more.
Appears on: Combat Rock (Sony)
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James Taylor, ‘Fire and Rain’
Writer: Taylor
Producer: Peter Asher
Released: Feb. '70, Warner Bros.
16 weeks; No. 3Taylor wrote the three verses of this song in three phases following the breakup of his band the Flying Machine. The first came in a London flat while he was signed to the Apple label, the second in a New York hospital as he kicked heroin and the third during a stay in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility. "It's like three samplings of what I went through," he said.
Appears on: Sweet Baby James (Warner Bros.)
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Muddy Waters, ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’
Writer: Willie Dixon
Producers: Leonard and Phil Chess, Dixon
Released: Jan. '54, Chess
Did not chartWaters tested this out at the Chicago blues club Zanzibar. Dixon gave him some advice: "Well, just get a little rhythm pattern," he said. "Do the same thing over again, y'know." Waters cut it a couple of weeks later, with Dixon on bass.
Appears on: The Anthology (Chess/MCA)
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Sly and the Family Stone, ‘Dance to the Music’
Writer: Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone)
Producer: Stone
Released: Jan. '68, Epic
15 weeks; No. 8Saxman Jerry Martini claims Stone did this song just to satisfy CBS executives' desire for a hit. "He hated it," Martini said. "It was so unhip to us. The beats were glorified Motown beats." But "Dance" fit Stone's vision for the band: "I wanted everyone to get a chance to sweat."
Appears on: Dance to the Music (Sony)
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Roy Orbison, ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’
Writers: Orbison, Billy Dees
Producer: Wesley Rose
Released: Aug. '64, Monument
15 weeks; No. 1Orbison told Dees to "get started writing by playing anything that comes to mind….My wife came in and wanted to go to town to get something." Orbison asked if she needed money. Dees then cracked, "Pretty woman never needs any money." The rest was easy.
Appears on: For the Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Rhino)
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Lou Reed, ‘Walk on the Wild Side’
Writer: Reed
Producers: David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Reed
Released: Dec. '72, RCA
14 weeks; No. 16Reed was asked to write songs for a musical based on the novel A Walk on the Wild Side. The show fizzled, 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.
Appears on: Transformer (RCA)
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The Left Banke, ‘Walk Away Renee’
Writers: Michael Brown, Bob Calilli, Tony Sansone
Producer: Harry Lookofsky
Released: Sept. '66, Smash
13 weeks; No. 5In 1965, Brown was a 16-year-old keyboard prodigy with a crush on a bandmate's girlfriend – bassist Tom Finn had introduced Renee Fladen to the group. Brown wrote three songs about her, including "Walk Away Renee." He quit the Left Banke before they finished recording "Renee" but returned after the song became a hit a year later.
Appears on: There's Gonna Be a Storm (Mercury)
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Howlin’ Wolf, ‘Spoonful’
Writer: Willie Dixon
Producers: Leonard and Phil Chess
Released: June '60, Chess
Did not chartChess do-it-all Dixon wrote "Spoonful" for Howlin' Wolf in 1960. "It doesn't take a large quantity of anything to be good," explained Dixon. The Wolf, however, did not cheat on the heavy manners when he devoured the song in the studio with his mad-animal growl. What's more, he often performed the song – later covered by Cream – waving a large cooking spoon in front of his genitalia.
Appears on: Anniversary Collection (Chess)
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John Lee Hooker, ‘Boom Boom’
Writer: Hooker
Producer: Calvin Carter
Released: Feb. '62, Vee-Jay
10 weeks; No. 60Keith Richards said of Hooker, "Even Muddy Waters was sophisticated next to him." That was a compliment. With his gruff voice, the Hook put boogie to the blues, inspiring a generation of British blues acts, including the Animals, who covered this song to great effect. "Boom-boom," by the way, came from an affectionate greeting offered to Hooker by a female bartender in Detroit.
Appears on: The Very Best of John Lee Hooker (Rhino)
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Dolly Parton, ‘Jolene’
Writer: Parton
Producer: Bob Ferguson
Released: Jan. '74, RCA
8 weeks; No. 60When 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, buffing an old-time-y groove and belting a tale of romantic rivalry. It became a Number One country single and has been covered with extra menace by the White Stripes.
Appears on: Jolene (Buddha/BMG)
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The Lovin’ Spoonful, ‘Do You Believe in Magic’
Writer: John Sebastian
Producer: Erik Jacobsen
Released: July '65, Kama Sutra
13 weeks; No. 9The first single by the Lovin' Spoonful went Top 10 and, in a sense, never went away. While rehearsing the song, Sebastian affixed a contact mike to his autoharp, and in combination with Zal Yanovsky's electric guitar, they hit on a unique sound. Sebastian said "Magic" was rooted in "the chord progressions coming out of Motown at the time."
Appears on: Do You Believe in Magic (Buddha)
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Hank Williams, ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’
Writers: Williams, Fred Rose
Producer: Rose
Released: Jan. '53, MGM
Predates pop chartsLegend has it that this song came to Williams when he was thinking about his first wife while driving around with his second; she wrote down the lyrics for him in the passenger seat. After polishing it with Rose, Williams recorded "Your Cheatin' Heart" during the last sessions he ever did, on September 23rd, 1952. He told a friend, "It's the best heart song I ever wrote."
Appears on: The Ultimate Collection (Mercury Nashville)
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Neil Young, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’
Writer: Young
Producers: Niko Bolas, Young
Released: Oct. '89, Reprise
Non-single"Don't feel like Satan/But I am to them," Young spat in this raucously ambivalent song about the pride and guilt of being an American. It was inspired by a remark from a member of Crazy Horse, who said gigs were safer in Europe than in the Middle East: "It's better to keep rockin' in the free world." "It was such a cliché," Young said. "I knew I had to use it."
Appears on: Freedom (Reprise)
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Prince, ‘1999’
Writer: Prince
Producer: Prince
Released: Oct. '82, Warner Bros.
27 weeks; No. 12When 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.
Appears on: 1999 (Warner Bros.)
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The Beach Boys, ‘Caroline, No’
Writers: Brian Wilson, Tony Asher
Producer: Wilson
Released: March '66, Capitol
7 weeks; No. 32Wilson ditched the other Beach Boys and used studio pros like "Be My Baby" drummer Hal Blaine on what was initially released as Brian's first solo single. It was largely the result of a misheard lyric. Wilson told Asher about a girl he'd liked in high school named Carol, and Asher responded with "Oh, Carol, I know." But Wilson heard it as "Caroline, no" and dashed off the rest of the song while stoned.
Appears on: Pet Sounds (Capitol)
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? and the Mysterians, ’96 Tears’
Writer: Rudy Martinez
Producer: Martinez
Released: Sept. '66, Pa-Go-Go
15 weeks; No. 1The band, all Mexican-Americans living in Michigan, cut "96 Tears" in their manager's living room, and ? promoted the single throughout the state, all without ever revealing his real name (Rudy Martinez) or removing his sunglasses. That organ figure put the Farfisa company on the map (? later claimed they had used a Vox). The original has never been released on CD; all the CD versions are rerecordings.
Appears on: More Action (Cavestomp)
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The Beach Boys, ‘In My Room’
Writers: Brian Wilson, Gary Usher
Producer: Wilson
Released: Sept. '63, Capitol
11 weeks; No. 23"Brian was always saying that his room was his whole world," said Usher, who wrote the lyrics based on Wilson's idea. The three-part harmony on the first verse that Wilson sang with his brothers Carl and Dennis recalled the vocal bits that Brian taught them when they shared a childhood bedroom. As the Beatles had done with some hits, the Boys cut a version in German.
Appears on: Surfer Girl/Shut Down, Volume 2 (Capitol)
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Them, ‘Gloria’
Writer: Van Morrison
Producer: Tommy Scott
Released: March '65, Parrot1 week; No. 95
When Morrison wrote his first hit, "Gloria," he was just another hungry young rocker, with the Belfast garage band Them. "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."
Appears on: The Story of Them (Polydor)
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The Everly Brothers, ‘Bye Bye Love’
Writers: Boudleaux and Felice Bryant
Producer: Archie Bleyer
Released: May '57, Cadence
27 weeks; No. 2"Bye Bye Love" had been turned down by 30 artists before Bleyer offered it to the Everlys for their first single. Phil and Don took it happily, if for no other reason than the $64 they would each earn for making it. The guitar intro was borrowed from a song Don had written called "Give Me a Future."
Appears on: All-Time Original Hits (Rhino)
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The Four Tops, ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’
Writers: Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland
Producers: Holland, Dozier, Holland
Released: Aug. '66, Motown
15 weeks; No. 1HDH pumped out Tops hits at a breakneck pace. "They were over so fast I can't remember them at all," said Dozier. Phil Spector called "Reach Out, I'll Be There," their second Number One, "black Dylan."
Appears on: The Ultimate Collection (Motown)
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Bill Withers, ‘Lean on Me’
Writer: Withers
Producer: Withers
Released: June '72, Sussex
19 weeks; No. 1Growing up as one of six kids in the coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Withers learned a lot about helping family and neighbors when they needed you. After a dislocating move to L.A., the bonds he built with co-workers manufacturing airplane toilets reminded him of the tightknit community he'd left back home, providing the inspiration for the plain-spoken "Lean on Me," his biggest hit.
Appears on: Lean on Me (Sony)
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Otis Redding, ‘Try a Little Tenderness’
Writers: Jimmy Campbell, Reginald Connelly, Harry Woods
Producers: Steve Cropper, Jim Stewart
Released: Dec. '66, Stax
10 weeks; No. 25On his own, drummer Al Jackson Jr. switched to double-time on the second verse, for the high-energy climax. "We didn't know he was gonna do that," said bassist Duck Dunn. "It was amazing."
Appears on: Very Best of Otis Redding (Rhino)
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Bob Dylan, ‘Positively 4th Street’
Writer: Dylan
Producer: Bob Johnston
Released: Sept. '65, Columbia
9 weeks; No. 7In whose direction did Dylan aim this? Most likely, "4th Street," the follow-up to "Like a Rolling Stone," is about the people he met in Greenwich Village (when he lived on West 4th) and on fraternity row at the University of Minnesota (on 4th Street in Minneapolis).
Appears on: The Essential Bob Dylan (Sony)
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The Beatles, ‘Come Together’
Writers: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Released: Sept. '69, Apple
16 weeks; No. 1Timothy Leary was running for governor of California and asked Lennon to write a campaign song for him. The tune was not politically useful, so Lennon brought it to the Abbey Road sessions. "I said, 'Let's slow it down with a swampy bass-and-drums vibe,'" said McCartney. "I came up with a bass line, and it all flowed from there." It was the last song all four Beatles cut together.
Appears on: Abbey Road (Apple)
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New Order, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’
Writers: Bernard Albrecht, Gillian Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris
Producers: New Order
Released: Oct. '86, Qwest
2 weeks; No. 98After the death of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, his band became New Order. "There's life, and there's death," drummer Morris said in 1983. "We were still alive, so we thought we'd carry on doing it." New Order wrote their synth-pop hits in a Manchester rehearsal room next to a cemetery. Said Morris, "Fate writes the lyrics, and we do the rest."
Appears on: Substance (Qwest)
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Beck, ‘Loser’
Writer: Beck Hansen
Producer: Karl Stephenson
Released: 1993, Bong Load
24 weeks; No. 10In 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 an album (1994's Mellow Gold) that cost $200 to make.
Appears on: Mellow Gold (Geffen)
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Parliament, ‘Flash Light’
Writers: George Clinton, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins
Producer: Clinton
Released: Dec. '77, Casablanca
16 weeks; No. 16"Flash Light" is the P-Funk Nation's groove manifesto. "We're going to get the message out," Clinton declared in 1978. "We want to put the show on Broadway – tell the story straightforward so people understand that funk mean funk."
Appears on: Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (Mercury)
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ‘Hey Joe’
Writer: William Roberts
Producer: Chas Chandler
Released: Dec. '66, Reprise
Did not chartThismurder ballad was the Experience's first single, recorded two weeks after their live debut. Hendrix was so shy about his voice that manager Chandler even hired a female vocal group, the Breakaways, for backup. The song had already been recorded by the Byrds, Love, the Standells and many other bands, but Hendrix learned it from folkie Tim Rose's version.
Appears on: Are You Experienced? (MCA)
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