“Sexy” is a relative term: one’s baby-makin’ music could be their partner’s soundtrack for a snoozefest. But there’s nothing subjective about this list. These are, literally, the 60 most popular songs about sex ever, as based on each song’s performance on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (from August 4, 1958 — the inception of the Hot 100 chart — through May 17, 2022).
Tracks like Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” are sure to have baby boomers reminiscing about the good old days — but that doesn’t mean they can’t twerk it out to “WAP” with Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, either. Sex and twerking have since become less taboo — with several more current hitmakers including Drake, Ariana Grande, Silk Sonic and Rihanna making appearances on this list, too.
Some songs are steamy slow-jams, some are hi-octane arena rockers, but what they all have in common (and what got them on this list) is their intimate subject matter — whether raunchy, romantic or somewhere in between. So if you’re on the prowl for new additions to your sexy time playlist, look no further than the tracks below.
Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames were weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
Text by M. Tye Comer, Mariel Concepcion, Monica Herrera, Jessica Letkemann, Evie Nagy, Danielle Pascual and David J. Prince.