For the six years they were together, One Direction was the biggest pop band on the planet.
Formed in 2010 as a result of talent competition The X Factor, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan were catapulted into the public eye, selling hundreds of millions of records and playing sold-out gigs to crowds of screaming fans.
With the news of Liam Payne’s tragic death, their work is back in the spotlight once more – and many of them are still (rightly) held up as pop masterpieces.
Here are ten of their best tracks, ranked.
Night Changes (Four)
A sweetly wistful ballad, this tribute to seizing the moment sees the band in peak form – and it also happens to be the last single they released before Zayn Malik left in 2015. More mature than its sister track Live While We’re Young, it leaves room for each of the band’s members to showcase their vocals against a mellow guitar backing track. One to weep to.
One Thing (Up All Night)
What is that one thing? Who knows – perhaps that’s the charm of this peppy early single. An epic pop record, it’s packed with a whole heap of sonic goodness: vocal harmonies, guitar riffs and plenty of “na na na’s”. And of course, there’s that anthemic course that defies you not to bellow along. It’s packed full of the youthful optimism of 1D at its best.
Best Song Ever (Midnight Memories)
The release of Best Song Ever ushered in a golden period for 1D, ahead of their smash hit album Midnight Memories. And it’s hard not to love: I challenge you to find another music video where the boys look like they’re having nearly as much fun. Packed with off-the-cuff “Ows!” and stunning vocal work from Malik and Styles, there’s a sense of playfulness at work here, especially in the lyrics. And now we all know who Georgia Rose is.
No Control (Four)
A rare Louis-centric track, this deep cut from album Four was an immediate hit with fans. So much so, in fact, that it caused a furore when it wasn’t chosen as a single. After a social media campaign, the song was duly released and went onto dominate billboards worldwide for quite some time. Muscular and powerful, it’s drawn comparisons to Mr Brightside for the shouted chorus and aggressive guitar riffs.
Little Black Dress (Midnight Memories)
By 2013, Liam Payne had made his way into the One Direction writer’s room, and this has to be one of his best pieces of work. A gem of 70s power pop, it riffs heavily on the Raspberries and Big Star’s sound to create – perplexingly – a smash song in the 2010s. There are no solos here: the song’s success relies on the joint power of the bands’ voices to make it soar. Though kudos to Niall for singing this on his solo tour and getting the crowd to fill in for the rest of the band.
Drag Me Down (Made in the A.M.)
The boys’ first album after Zayn Malik’s departure proved that they were more than capable of filling the void he left behind. In particular, Harry Styles, who neatly steps in to hit those vocal highs – thereby laying the groundwork for his future solo career. As a result, this power-pop anthem more than holds its own against the band’s earlier work.
Story Of My Life (Midnight Memories)
Precision engineered to yank at the heartstrings, the falsetto-heavy Story Of My Life established One Direction as a band capable of more than just the one-hit wonder of What Makes You Beautiful. Showing off a more mature sound, this showcases their vocals against a simple acoustic guitar, as the band members reflect on a romance gone wrong. Contemplative and more laid back than their previous pop-heavy offerings, it laid the groundwork for all their hits going forward and still stands up today.
What Makes You Beautiful (Up All Night)
Name a more iconic opening line (or one more easily recognisable) than “you’re insecure/ don’t know what for.” The song that shot One Direction stratospheric, What Makes You Beautiful is a soaring, joyous piece of work that – like most of their work – pays tribute to a mysterious unnamed love interest.
The vague, complimentary lyrics, married with the boys’ sincerity, was catnip for their millions of young female followers. And the fact it’s a stone cold banger doesn’t hurt either: Liam Payne’s strutting, confident intro followed by the boys’ soaring vocal harmonies in the chorus is sonic catnip.
Where Do Broken Hearts Go (Four)
This is the band at their most commercial, but that’s not a bad thing: on the contrary, Where Do Broken Hearts Do is a masterclass in how to write a modern pop song. The building of the intro gives way to an epic chorus that the boys belt out; the regret implied in the lyrics is given full throttle by Louis Tomlinson’s pared-back intro. When the last line of the verse, “how to fix up a heart that I let down,” comes into view, the band members give it their all: the result is pop perfection.
And the winner is... What A Feeling (Made in the A.M.)
One Direction channels the ghosts of Fleetwood Mac in this slinky 70s inspired ballad. It’s all there: the background harmonies, Steve Nicks-esque tambourine work and verses that slowly build to a shattering chorus. Its bass line recalls hit song Dreams and the smooth guitar work, with its distinctly retro tone, sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time.
“I was so mad when I first heard that song,” Julian Bunetta, one of 1D’s songwriters, said about the song. “I was so pissed off because the chorus was so good. I was just jealous. The harmonies on that song … I’ve had so many nights at my house having little dance parties to that song.”
