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You've Got a Friend
King sounds as if she’s making the offer to one person in the room. The unhurried delivery gives her promise to come when called some weight. In her own recording, it’s easy to hear what matters about the offer: the friend gets to make the call.
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Lean on Me
An offer of help becomes mutual as soon as Withers recognizes that he’ll need the same thing someday. The opening piano makes the invitation simple enough to join. By the time other voices take it up, you can hear the arrangement putting that idea into practice.
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With a Little Help From My Friends
Ringo Starr gets to ask what his friends would do if he got something wrong, and the other voices get to ask questions of him. The friendly back-and-forth puts people in the song who can meet his doubts with another point of view.
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We're Going to Be Friends
School starts and the narrator decides that Suzy Lee is somebody he wants to walk there with. The little acoustic pattern has the pace of children taking their time. It’s a song about how little a friendship sometimes needs to get underway.
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Bros
Ellie Rowsell wrote about a childhood friend who shared her imaginary worlds. The quick guitar and drums give the memory the energy of play. Hearing the band open up around her makes it easy to understand how much bigger the world can get when one other person shares it.
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Friends (1984)
First released
The refrain asks who actually deserves the name, and the verses let different disappointments answer. A quick bass figure under the hard beat gives the question momentum. This is a good one for hearing how being around somebody and being able to count on them can come apart.
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Canção da América
Nascimento and Fernando Brant write about someone leaving and the hope of meeting again. The voices of Boca Livre broaden the sound around Nascimento. There’s comfort in the way the music can carry a friendship even when the two people are apart.
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One Love (1994)
First released
Nas writes to friends in prison and tells them what’s changed outside. The details do the work a broad promise couldn’t, and that letter-writing voice has time to move between concern and everyday news. Q-Tip’s steady refrain gives these very different bits of news a shared sign-off.
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Bad Friend
Sawayama starts with memories of singing and dancing together in Tokyo. When the song turns to the calls she doesn’t answer, its bigger chorus sounds like an accusation she has to make against herself. An upbeat memory and an uncomfortable admission get to occupy the same song.
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Old Friends
Running into old friends at a funeral brings up the ordinary things the singer wishes he’d said while he had the chance. The band gets louder as he settles on something he still can do. The change makes speaking up sound more possible, even if the first opportunity has already passed.
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Graceland Too
The singer follows a woman through an uncertain trip, paying attention to the odd things she does to get herself through it. Then the voice moves to what the narrator would do for her. The banjo and close harmonies give that turn toward company a sound of its own.
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Best Friend
Brandy has said she had her brother Ray J in mind. On the recording from her self-titled debut, the spring in the rhythm leaves room for her layered harmonies. It’s a warm account of a sibling who has also earned the place of a friend.
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Les Copains d'abord
Brassens puts his friends on a boat, with a gentle guitar rhythm to carry them. His jokes about famous ships and noble ideals make these companions sound all the more ordinary. The charm is what happens when people with little claim to grandeur keep turning up for one another.
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Best Friend (2001)
First released
Kiroro’s 2001 single notices the sort of care that can pass without much comment, like a friend who can see when you’re struggling. The piano leaves room for the voice to move from taking stock to saying thank you outright. It has the gentleness of an overdue acknowledgment.
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What About Your Friends
The chorus asks how your friends will act when your circumstances change. Around it, TLC sound brisk enough to keep the question from becoming a lecture. Listen to the difference between the verses, which pick at individual doubts, and the chorus, which hands the question to everybody.
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