#1
Crazy
Gnarls Barkley, 2006

In this frazzled and fragmented decade, when the Top 40 broke down into squabbling niches, the idea of a universal pop hit, a song anybody could love, seemed like a sweet old-fashioned notion. Then these guys showed up. Atlanta rapper Cee-Lo and indie producer Danger Mouse decided it would be a gas to pretend to be the world's greatest pop group, and so they gave the world “Crazy.” Everybody loved this song, from your mom to your ex-girlfriend’s art professor. It blasted in punk clubs and Burger King bathrooms. Every sucky band on earth tried a lame cover. For the summer of 2006, “Crazy” united us all into one nation under a groove. Gnarls Barkley packed a career's worth of genius ideas into three minutes — and then they basically disappeared. Does that make them crazy? Probably. But was this the most glorious pop thrill of our time? Totally.

#2
99 Problems
Jay Z, 2003

Jigga’s incredible decade-long run reached its hard-rock crescendo in this Black Album smash, flipping an old Ice-T hook with go-go percussion and metal guitars. It was the funkiest thing Rick Rubin had touched since the Eighties. And needless to say, it was a relief for Beyoncé to be upgraded to “nonproblem” status.

#3
Crazy In Love
Beyoncé, 2003

The horns weren’t a hook. They were a herald: Pop’s new queen had arrived. Beyoncé’s debut solo smash, powered by that sampled Chi-Lites brass blast, announced her liberation from Destiny’s Child and established her MO: She’d best the competition by doing everything sassier, bigger, crazier.

#4
Hey Ya!
OutKast, 2003

After all these years, “Hey Ya!” sounds as weird and fantastic as it did the first time: A genre-humping blur of acoustic guitars, hand claps, dance instructions and André 3000’s funktastic charm. Fifty years from now, kids will still be asking what a Polaroid picture is.

#5
Paper Planes
M.I.A., 2007

Rapper Maya Arulpragasam cheerfully threatened to steal your money, over a beat sampled from the Clash’s “Straight to Hell,” tossing in cash-register rings, gunshots and shout-outs to Third World slums. The year after “Paper Planes” came out, the Pineapple Express trailer blew it up into one of the unlikeliest Top 10 jams ever.

#6
Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes, 2003

RJack White uses an effects pedal to make his guitar sound like a bass and howls about a rage so intense, he could take on an army all by himself. Result: the greatest riff of the decade and a massive, career-changing hit that college marching bands now play.

#7
Maps
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 2003

How often do we get a fiery soul ballad and an art-punk classic in the same song? Karen O testifies to the power of love as if she’s miraculously channeling Siouxsie and Sam Cooke at the same time. She wails the word “wait” with a heartsick ache, while Nick Zinner’s guitar and Brian Chase’s drums ride to her emotional rescue.

#8
Rehab
Amy Winehouse, 2006

The humor in Winehouse’s 2006 salvo is darker now, given subsequent crack binges and other misbehavior. But "Rehab" still sums up the London diva’s greatness: Sonically letter-perfect retro soul with producer Mark Ronson's 21st-century beat-muscle and cheekiness. “He’s trying to make me go to rehab,” she sings, “I won’t go, go, go.” You go, girl.

#9
Beautiful Day
U2, 2000

The song that re-established U2 as the world’s biggest band looked backward, reviving the skyscraping sound of their Eighties classics. But the lyrics — “See the canyons broken by cloud/See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out” — were more ambivalent than the title suggested, a prayer for transcendence in a wounded world.

#10
Stan
Eminem, 2000

This creepy hit encapsulated the dramatic flair that made Eminem so impossible to ignore in 2000. A deranged fan writes Em a series of unhinged letters, and as the song builds to a bloodcurdling climax, Em is forced to confront his rep as a bad role model. And despite Dido’s reassurances, this story won’t end well.