Can You Identify These 8 Songs From the Bassline Alone?

Strip a song down to its low end and something odd happens. The melody disappears, the vocals vanish, and you’re left with a few notes that somehow still feel familiar. Bass lines are often the part of a record we feel before we think about it.

Here are eight famous examples, each with a few details about who played it and why it sticks. Try humming the pattern in your head before you read each entry.

1. Another One Bites the Dust by Queen

John Deacon wrote this one, and the bass riff is a steady, stalking figure that opens the track almost alone. It leans on space as much as on notes, which gives it a funk feel that surprised many rock fans in 1980.

The song appeared on the album The Game and became one of Queen’s biggest US hits. Deacon has said in past interviews that he was inspired by Chic, and the groove shows it.

2. Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

The bass line in Billie Jean is one of the most recognizable in pop. It’s a hypnotic, repeating pattern that drives the whole track from the first seconds. Session bassist Louis Johnson is often credited on the album, though the synth bass sound on this track is commonly attributed to Michael Sanchez and others, and sources vary on the details.

The song came out in 1983 on Thriller. Its groove is so tight that many listeners can name it from just a couple of notes.

3. Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes

Here’s a trick question, because there’s no actual bass guitar. Jack White ran a guitar through an octave pedal to get that low, growling riff. It’s played in a simple pattern that anyone can hum.

Released in 2003, the riff later became a stadium chant, widely sung by football crowds around the world. Few bass lines, real or not, have travelled so far.

4. Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

Another Deacon moment, and probably the most famous bass line in the collaboration. The pattern is simple, built on a short repeating phrase that listeners recognize instantly. Deacon’s contribution to the riff is well documented, though the story of who came up with it in the studio has been told in slightly different ways.

The track was released in 1981. Its riff was later sampled by Vanilla Ice for Ice Ice Baby in 1990, which introduced it to a new audience.

5. My Girl by The Temptations

This Motown classic opens with a clean, melodic bass intro, followed by guitar. The bass was played by James Jamerson, the legendary Funk Brothers session player who worked on countless Motown hits.

My Girl was released in 1964 and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. That opening phrase is often cited as an example of how a bass line can work like a hook.

6. Come Together by The Beatles

Paul McCartney’s slinky bass opens this track on Abbey Road, released in 1969. It’s slow, swampy and a little menacing, and it sets the mood before any words arrive.

The song was written mostly by John Lennon. McCartney’s part, though, is a big reason the track feels so distinctive.

7. Good Times by Chic

Bernard Edwards played the bass on this 1979 disco hit, and the line became one of the most sampled in music history. It’s bouncy, syncopated and endlessly danceable.

Its influence is easy to trace. The Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Delight in 1979 reused the groove, helping bring hip-hop to a mainstream audience, and Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust owes it a clear debt as well.

8. Superstition by Stevie Wonder

The famous groove in Superstition comes from a clavinet, not a bass guitar, though Wonder also handled bass-like parts with synthesizers on his early 1970s records. That’s why the riff feels so low and rubbery.

The song was released in 1972 and hit number one in the US. Even without the horns and vocals, the riff alone is enough to identify it.

Bass lines like these show how much a song can say with only a few low notes.