410Sly and the Family Stone, 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)'

Writer:Sly StoneProducer:StoneReleased:Jan. '70, Epic13 weeks; No. 1The double-sided smash "Thank You"/"Everybody Is a Star" wasSly's sole new release in 1970. "Thank You" rode on the finger-popping bass of Larry Graham, who played like that in a duo with his organist mother. "I started to thump the strings with my thumb," he said, "to make up for not having a drummer."Appears on:Anthology(Epic)RELATED:100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Sly Stone100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Sly and the Family Stone 409The Shirelles, 'Tonight's the Night'

Writers:Luther Dixon, Shirley OwensProducer:DixonReleased:Sept. '60, Scepter12 weeks; No. 39The Shirelles, who originally called themselves the Pequellos, formed while at their Passaic, New Jersey, high school. Lead singer Owens was only 19 when she co-wrote this hit about romantic surrender, full of Latin-style syncopation and soulful yearning.Appears on:25 All-Time Greatest Hits(Varse Fontana)RELATED:100 Greatest Artists of All Time: The Shirelles 408Metallica, 'Enter Sandman'

Writers:James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk HammettProducers:Bob Rock, Hetfield, UlrichReleased:July '91, Elektra20 weeks; No. 16Thanks to producer Rock, the coiled, brooding "Enter Sandman" was the firstMetallicatune that sounded perfect for the radio. As drummer Ulrich pointed out in 1991, "The whole intro, the verse, the bridge, the chorus it's the same riff."Appears on:Metallica(Elektra)RELATED:500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Metallica'sMetallica 407Lynyrd Skynyrd, 'Sweet Home Alabama'

Writers:Ed King, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van ZantProducer:Al KooperReleased:April '74, MCA17 weeks; No. 8Van Zant sang this pissed-off answer toNeil Young's "Southern Man," and even Young loved it. "I'd rather play 'Sweet Home Alabama' than 'Southern Man' anytime," Young said. The admiration was mutual; Van Zant wore a Young T-shirt on the cover ofSkynyrd's final album,Street Survivors, and according to legend, he is buried in the shirt.Appears on:Second Helping(MCA)RELATED:100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Lynyrd Skynyrd 406Big Star, 'Thirteen'

Writers:Alex Chilton, Chris BellProducer:John FryReleased:April '72, ArdentNon-SingleChilton wrote this acoustic ballad about two kids in love with rock & roll, featuring the deathless couplet "Won't you tell your dad, 'Get off my back'/Tell him what we said about 'Paint It Black.'" It's simple musically; as Chilton said, "I was still learning to play and stuff." It never came out as a single or got any radio play, but "Thirteen" is one of rock's most beautiful celebrations of adolescence.Appears on:#1 Record/Radio City(Fantasy)RELATED:500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Big Star's#1 Record 405Blue yster Cult, '(Don't Fear) the Reaper'

Writer:Donald RoeserProducers:Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman, David LucasReleased:July '76, Columbia14 weeks; No. 12This Long Island band's death trip was picked byRolling Stonecritics as the best rock single of 1976. With its ghostly guitars and cowbell, "Reaper" has added chills to horror flicks fromHalloweentoThe Stand. Bonus points for the crackpot theology about how "40,000 men and women every day" join Romeo and Juliet in eternity.Appears on:Agents of Fortune(Columbia) 404The Shangri-Las, 'Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)'

Writer:George "Shadow" MortonProducer:MortonReleased:Aug. '64, Red Bird11 weeks; No. 5The Shangri-Las, two sets of sisters from Queens, were in high school when producer Morton hired them to record "Remember" a tune he claimed to have written in 20minutes on the way to the studio. One story has it that a 15-year-old Billy Joel played piano on the session. Morton went on to produce the New York Dolls.Appears on:The Best of the Shangri-Las(Mercury) 403Elvis Presley, 'Can't Help Falling in Love'

Writers:George Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi CreatoreProducer:Joseph LilleyReleased:Oct. '61, RCA14 weeks; No. 1This adaptation of Giovanni Martini's 18th-century song "Plaisir d'Amour" was given toElvisfor his movieBlue Hawaii hence the Hawaiian steel guitar. But this was no vacation for Presley: It took him 29 takes to nail his exquisitely gentle vocals. The song became the closing number for most of his Seventies concerts.Appears on:Elvis 30 #1 Hits(RCA)RELATED:100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Elvis Presley100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Elvis Presley 402The Five Stairsteps, 'O-o-h Child'

Writer:Stan VincentProducer:VincentReleased:April '70, Buddha16 weeks; No. 8"O-o-h Child" gave the Five Stairsteps four brothers and a sister from Chicago a pop-soul classic that rivaled the hits of another sibling gang, the Jackson 5. The children of police detective Clarence Burke, the Five Stairsteps, who played their own instruments as well as sang, ranged in age from 13 to 17 whenCurtis Mayfieldsigned them to his Windy C label.Appears on:Soul Hits of the '70s: Didn't It Blow Your Mind! Vol. 2(Rhino) 401The Lovin' Spoonful, 'Summer in the City'

Writers:John Sebastian, Steve Boone, Mark SebastianProducer:Erik JacobsenReleased:June '66, Kama Sutra11 weeks; No. 1"Summer in the City" was a stylistic turn for the Lovin' Spoonful tougher and less daydreamy. "We felt the only way we could stick out would be to sound completely different from one single to another," said John Sebastian. With a barrage of car horns on the bridge, the record evoked its subject with urban grit and Gershwin-esque grandeur.Appears on:The Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits(Buddha)

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