25 Love Will Tear Us Apart — Joy Division (1980)
Romantic fear and self-loathing wrapped up in a post-punk torch song.

24 God Only Knows — Brian Wilson & Tony Asher (1966)
DV The Beach Boys
Gorgeous devotional love song with baroque melody.

23 I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free — Billy Taylor (1954) DV Nina Simone (1967)
Inspirational civil rights anthem that never forgoes melody for message.0

22 I Heard It Through the Grapevine — Norman Whitfield & Barrett Strong (1966) DV Marvin Gaye (1968)
Rumour, gossip, jealousy transformed into slinky soul.

21 Satellite of Love — Lou Reed (1973)
Reed’s take on jealousy is comically lateral, emotionally fragile yet perversely jolly.

20 We’ll Meet Again — Ross Parker & Hughie Charles (1939) DV Vera Lynn
Optimism and stoicism made this singalong the people’s song of the Second World War.

19 Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want — Morrissey & Marr (1984) DV The Smiths
Morrissey has rarely been as artless, his direct plea set to a beautiful Johnny Marr melody. Key Lyric: “Haven’t had a dream in a long time.”

18 Daddy’s Gone — James Allan (2007) DV Glasvegas
Epic, emotional, boldly prosaic rock and roll ballad of paternal abandonment.

17 One — U2 (1992)
Bitter divorce song that turns into an anthem of mutual dependence.

16 Strange Fruit — Abel Meeropol (1936) DV Billie Holiday (1939)
Sinister poetic account of racist lynchings. Holiday is said to have broken down every time she performed it.

15 The Boxer — Paul Simon (1969)
DV Simon and Garfunkel
A song of survival, with the weary narrator drawing inspiration from a scarred fighter’s refusal to surrender.

14 The River — Bruce Springsteen (1981)
Haunting narrative ballad of how economic hardship can destroy a relationship, with the dried river as a symbol of elusive hopes and dreams.

13 Hallelujah — Leonard Cohen (1984) DV Jeff Buckley (1994)
The song that has everything: desire and rejection, love and sex, God and man, failure and transcendence.

12 Sympathy for the Devil — Jagger & Richards (1968) DV The Rolling Stones
Jagger outrageously puts himself in the cloven hooves of Satan in a wild, evocative roll call of human outrages.

11 God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind) — Randy Newman (1972)
Equally outrageously, Newman casts himself as God contemplating his pitiful creation.

10 Everybody Hurts — Stipe, Berry, Buck & Mills (1993) DV REM
A secular hymn of compassion constructed around a simple picked rock and roll guitar motif.

9 I’ve Got You Under My Skin — Cole Porter (1956) DV Frank Sinatra
Understated, gently loping evocation of addictive desire.

8 Somewhere Over the Rainbow — Harold Arlen & E?Y Yarburg (1939) DV Judy Garland
The rising melody and wistful lyric perfectly encapsulate a sense of yearning for a different life.

7 Saint James Infirmary — Traditional blues DV: Louis Armstrong 1928
Sad yet defiant contemplation of mortality, recorded by artists as diverse as Billie Holiday and the White Stripes.

6 Redemption Song — Bob Marley (1979)
Beautifully simple, stirring yet wistful anthem of freedom, personal and political.

5 Lola — Ray Davies (1970) DV The Kinks
Witty, compassionate, inspirational song of confused, transgender love.

4 Unchained Melody — Alex North & Hy Zaret (1955) DV The Righteous Brothers (1965)
A thousand karaoke versions cannot destroy this epic, vocally demanding ballad.

3 Tangled Up in Blue — Bob Dylan (1975)
Influenced by abstract art, and going through a divorce, Dylan created heartbreaking narrative of star-crossed love.

2 Let It Be — Lennon & McCartney (1970) DV The Beatles (1970)
An anthem of consolation, inspired by Paul McCartney’s dream of a visit from his own mother, Mary.

1. Life On Mars? - David Bowie (1971)
A quite gloriously strange anthem, where the combination of stirring, yearning melody and vivid, poetic imagery manage a trick very particular to the art of the song: to be at once completely impenetrable and yet resonant with personal meaning. You want to raise your voice and sing along, yet Bowie’s abstract cut-up lyrics force you to invest the song with something of yourself just to make sense of the experience. And, like all great songs, its got a lovely tune.