Best Funk Songs of All Time
25 essential funk songs of all time — James Brown, Sly Stone, Prince and Parliament, each one linked to the album.
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1JB
Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine
The Godfather locks into an eternal groove.
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2PA
Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)
P-Funk's cosmic party anthem.
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3FU
One Nation Under a Groove
A joyous call to the dancefloor.
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4SA
I Want to Take You Higher
Euphoric, horn-blasted psychedelic funk.
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5AW
Pick Up the Pieces
An instrumental funk classic with a killer horn line.
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6OP
Fire
A chart-topping blast of hot, tight funk.
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7RJ
Super Freak
A synth-bass hook everyone knows.
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8ZA
More Bounce to the Ounce
Talk-box electro-funk that shaped hip-hop.
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9GB
You Dropped a Bomb on Me
Explosive, synth-driven party funk.
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10CA
Word Up!
Sleek 80s funk with an unshakeable hook.
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11K&
Jungle Boogie
A loose, infectious early-70s jam.
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12BR
Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band)
Bootsy's rubbery bass at its most playful.
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13PR
Forget Me Nots
A smooth, much-sampled funk-soul gem.
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14PR
Kiss
The most minimal arrangement Prince ever used — and the most devastating.
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15SW
Superstition
The Moog bassline that Stevie wrote for Beck and kept for himself.
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16EW
Shining Star
The #1 that proved funk could be cosmic.
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17RJ
Super Freak
The most sampled verse in hip-hop history, and still the best.
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18K&
Jungle Boogie
The brass fanfare that never sounds like it should work and always does.
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19CA
Word Up!
The synth-funk of the mid-80s at its most purely pleasurable.
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