350. The Cure – “Lullaby” (1989)
Robert Smith once said that his father would tell him dark bedtime stories, and that macabre disposition towards sleep runs through this Disintegration highlight.
349. Sun Ra & His Arkestra – “Nuclear War” (1983)
The cosmic jazz legend’s career spans hundreds of albums, but maybe the most notable of track of his is this poetic call-and-response on the ever-present anixety about nuclear fallout.
348. MC Shan & Marley Marl – “The Bridge” (1986)
The first major hip-hop feud was a New York City boroughs dispute between South Bronx and Queensbridge with MC Shan unknowingly causing a stir by implying hip-hop started in Queensbridge.
347. George Strait – “Amarillo by Morning” (1982)
Strait ran the Country charts throughout the ’80s and beyond, and his most notable work is this beautifully-underplayed cover about a down-on-his-luck man just looking to stay on the bull for 8 seconds.
346. Mariya Takeuchi – “Plastic Love” (1984)
The most popular song in the city pop genre, this single flopped in Japan until YouTube remixes started going viral within the last 10 years.
345. Queen Latifah (ft. Monie Love) – “Ladies First” (1989)
One of the signature feminist hip-hop anthems, this single finds Latifah and Love trading verses and standing up for women in the hip-hop game.
344. Tom Waits – “Jockey Full of Bourbon” (1985)
Rain Dogs is Waits at his best with tracks like this where his bluesy vaudeville singing style is propped up by Latin-inflected guitar work.
343. Geto Boys – “Mind of a Lunatic” (1989)
The group’s breakthrough album is a dark turn in hip-hop, and its final track is the most notable of all with each verse digging deep into the worst thoughts humans are capable of.
342. Duran Duran – “Rio” (1982)
The title track to Duran Duran’s magnum opus was crafted with no holds barred, from a frantic drum/synth intro to a mid-break sax solo.
341. Sonic Youth – “Silver Rocket” (1988)
Daydream Nation remains the defining indie rock epic with tracks like this offering unparalleled guitar work from nasty riffs to total noise freakouts.
340. Robert Wyatt – “Shipbuilding” (1982)
The confusing inception of this song essentially starts with Clive Langer writing a song for Robert Wyatt but not liking the lyrics, so he brings in Elvis Costello who unsurprisingly crafts a stunning portrait of the Sisyphean work of building ships in wartime.
339. AC/DC – “Back in Black” (1980)
On the Mount Rushmore of hard rock songs, this title track is a rip-roaring display of big dumb guitar riffs and newly-hired Brian Johnson’s guttural yelping.
338. The Clash – “Police on My Back” (1980)
Like they did with “I Fought the Law”, the Clash reached back to the ’60s to cover an overlooked gem and turned those amps up to eleven.
337. Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno – “An Ending (Ascent)” (1983)
This soundtrack for the Apollo mission documentary For All Mankind is now synonymous with the slow ambience of space itself, and its climactic track has been sampled for ’90s electronica and appeared in the London Olympics ceremony.
336. R.E.M. – “The One I Love” (1987)
R.E.M.’s first hit has been woefully interpreted as a love song simply because of its opening line, but it’s more of a diatribe on how we use and discard people.
335. Sade – “Your Love Is King” (1984)
The English band’s first single displays every blissful sophisti-pop element of their sound from the lush arrangements to Sade Adu’s effortless vocals.
334. Loose Joints – “Is It All Over My Face?” (1980)
Arthur Russell never made a second of music without his signature off-kilter touch, including this carnivalesque post-disco single with a ramshackle sense of dancefloor glamour.
333. Yoko Ono – “Walking on Thin Ice” (1981)
On the day John Lennon was shot, he and Yoko had just finished recording this song — her biggest hit — and he was holding the final mix in his hands as he passed.
332. Daryl Hall & John Oates – “Maneater” (1982)
Their longest number one hit in the US. started as an Oates production until Hall turned it into a Motown groove.
331. Kool G Rap & DJ Polo – “Road to the Riches” (1988)
Rarely mentioned in the same breath as the NYC rappers he influenced, Kool G Rap helped build the mafioso rap archetype with robustly-verbose depictions of East Coast streets.
330. Tangerine Dream – “Love on a Real Train” (1983)
The German group brought taste to the ’80s soundtrack landscape with this minimalist progressive electronica piece influenced by Steve Reich, Terry Riley and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
329. Tenor Saw – “Ring the Alarm” (1985)
The Stalag riddim made in 1973 was utilized in hundreds of Reggae/dancehall records, and one of its best uses was by this young singjay with a chorus that would later be used in hip-hop and the post-hardcore scene.
328. Mudhoney – “Touch Me I’m Sick” (1988)
The Seattle indie label Sub Pop would explode in the ’90s, and it all started with this single, a fuzzed-out sardonic joint that signaled grunge’s incoming takeover.
327. Joe Jackson – “Steppin’ Out” (1982)
Forgoing the standard new wave of his earlier work, Jackson incorporated jazz and drum machines into the mix creating a single so blissful that people didn’t stop to think how disparate its influences were.
326. Roxy Music – “Avalon” (1982)
As the decade turned and all the English new wave acts finally caught up to what Roxy Music achieved in the ’70s, the band had another sound to forward called sophisti-pop where lush synths filled the canvas.
325. Tom Tom Club – “Wordy Rappinghood” (1981)
Talking Heads members Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz topped the Billboard disco chart with this early hip-hop treatise on language utilizing a traditional Moroccan song.
324. Yellow Magic Orchestra – “Cue” (1981)
The TR-808 drum machine was the most pivotal introduction into popular music in the ’80s, and the Japanese proto-techno band with Ryuichi Sakamoto led the way with their ’81 classic BGM.
323. Chris Isaak – “Wicked Game” (1989)
One of the sexiest songs of all time released to little fanfare until David Lynch used it for Wild at Heart.
322. The Field Mice – “Emma’s House” (1988)
The English indie band’s debut single is a defining twee pop classic with its melancholy lyrics as engaging as its jangly head-bopping riff.
321. The Cure – “A Forest” (1980)
This is not the band’s first classic (“Boys Don’t Cry” was in ’79), but it solidified the band’s status as goth rock aficionados.
320. Funky 4 + 1 – “That’s the Joint” (1980)
The Sugar Hill sound defined hip-hop’s first wave with disco beats, dance breaks and 9-minute mixes, and this standout record featured the first female rapper MC Sha-Rock.
319. Elvis Costello & the Attractions – “Beyond Belief” (1982)
With Imperial Bedroom and its standout opener, Costello upended his pop rock sound with unusual instrumentation and overdubs while maintaining his unmatched lyrical finesse.
318. Galaxie 500 – “Blue Thunder” (1989)
The indie rock subgenre slowcore gained momentum in the ’90s, and the Cambridge band defined the template with their 1989 classic On Fire.
317. Pixies – “Here Comes Your Man” (1989)
Written before Pixies’ first album, this jaunty rocker is the easiest entry point into the iconic indie band’s catalog.
316. B.W.H. – “Stop” (1983)
This Italo-disco single is 7 minutes of space-age techno bliss and astoundingly doesn’t have a single syntactically correct English lyric.
315. John Lennon – “Watching the Wheels” (1980)
After a five-year break from music, Lennon returned and clarified his new clear-headed state of mind on this piano rock single, the last one from Double Fantasy.
314. Billy Idol – “Eyes Without a Face” (1983)
After leaving the band Generation X, Idol became one of early-MTV’s defining faces with this single being his best work.
313. Metallica – “One” (1988)
One of heavy metal’s defining anthems, this …And Justice for All single is a somber ballad about an injured WWI soldier that turns into a head-banging nightmare.
312. Janet Jackson – “The Pleasure Principle” (1986)
The sixth single from Control was the only one not written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, but rather by Monte Moir who was the keyboardist for the Time.
311. Ramones – “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg” (1985)
This late-career highlight for the punk band is a scathing anti-Reagan anthem that had a memorable appearance in the early-’00s classic School of Rock.
310. Psychic TV – “The Orchids” (1983)
Genesis P-Orridge moved on from Throbbing Gristle into this experimental pop collective that dabbled in just about every underground music trend of the era, including this ambient pop gem.
309. Donald Byrd and 125th Street, NYC – “Love Has Come Around” (1981)
This jazz trumpeter’s career spanned from playing with Coltrane, Monk & Hancock in the ’50s/’60s to this Isaac Hayes-produced funk jazz classic that made some noise on the dance charts.
308. Leonard Cohen – “Tower of Song” (1988)
The gravel-voiced songsmith takes stock in his place among the greats and morbidly dissects his predetermined fate as a tenant in the music business.
307. Violent Femmes – “Add It Up” (1983)
A decade ahead of their time, this scraggly Milwaukee band invented the alternative radio sound with songs like with this emo-tinged classic.
306. Sylvester & Patrick Cowley – “Do You Wanna Funk?” (1982)
Patrick Cowley’s life was tragically cut short the same year his influential hi-NRG production here became a European club staple.
305. Danzig – “Mother” (1988)
Danzig’s first single — released through Rick Rubin’s new Def American label — became a hard blues rock classic and the defining release of the band’s career.
304. Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (1987)
A riff engrained in any rock music fan, it began as a warmup exercise for Slash and became the band’s only number one hit.
303. The Replacements – “Can’t Hardly Wait” (1987)
Originally written for Tim but abandoned, this single was revived with Alex Chilton’s guitar-playing and a horn section to end up being the band’s most accessible work.
302. Spandau Ballet – “True” (1983)
One of the slickest and most soulful songs of the new wave era, this worldwide hit has become synonymous with ’80s romance.
301. The Chills – “Pink Frost” (1984)
New Zealand had a quietly pivotal role in indie music’s evolution with the Dunedin sound — led by this band and their signature song — highlighting reverb-heavy production methods.
Bitter Melodies 