Home Music Music Lists

Every Olivia Rodrigo Song, Ranked

Two albums, both classics. Let’s celebrate a budding rock & roll legend

Olivia Rodrigo songs ranked

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GRIFFIN LOTZ. PHOTOGRAPHS IN ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID LIVINGSTON/FILMMAGIC; KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES; MATT WINKELMEYER/WIREIMAGE; ADOBE STOCK, 2

EVER SINCE HER January 2021 debut single, “Drivers License,” Olivia Rodrigo has been one of pop’s biggest, brightest, most fascinating, and most brilliant stars. Her brand new second album, Guts, proves what everybody already knew from her instant-classic debut Sour: She’s an artist with her own voice, one who is definitely here to stay. With her producer, co-writer, and co-conspirator Dan Nigro, she’s managed to put together a one-of-a-kind catalog already. Both of her albums sound like other artists’ greatest-hits collections.

So let’s celebrate the astounding songbook Olivia has built so far. Obviously, it doesn’t have any of her High School Musical songs — that would be another list. Remember, every fan’s list would be different — that’s the point. These are two classic albums, so the competition for the top is fierce, but this whole list is stacked with bangers from top to bottom. So raise a glass to Olivia, crank up the music, sense the undertones, and sing along loud. Hey, it really is brutal out here.

From Rolling Stone US

4

‘All-American Bitch’

A perfect theme song for the Guts era, with the righteous bravado of her riot-grrrl rock heroes in Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. This pop-punk rager begins the album the same way “Brutal” begins Sour, except Liv’s a little bit older and a lot more brutal. She isn’t trying to keep a lid on her attitude here, or her mouth — she doesn’t even get 30 seconds into the album before she’s boasting, “I’ve got the sun in my motherfucking pocket.” Rebel grrrl, you are the queen of my world.Best line: “I know my age and I act like it/I got what you can’t resist/I’m a perfect all-American bitch.”

3

‘Get Him Back!’

A Joan Jett-worthy guitar tantrum, with some of Olivia’s shadiest shade: “He had an ego and a temper and a wandering eye/He said he’s 6-foot-2 and I’m like, dude, nice try.” When she sings, “I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks,” that is some zoomer-Joni level shit. (On Blue, Joni Mitchell has an extremely similar conversation with Leonard Cohen’s mom, but not in those words.) Famous last words alert: “I am my father’s daughter, so maybe I can fix him?”Best line: “I wanna key his car, I wanna make him lunch.”

2

‘Drivers License’

Olivia seemingly blew in out of nowhere — well, out of High School Musical — to hit Number One with her instant-classic debut single, “Drivers License.” It is one of those rare songs that you hear the first time and within a minute, you know this is a full-on classic you’ll keep singing forever. Olivia sings about driving past her ex’s house like nobody else in history has ever done this before — and when she’s singing about it, she’s right. An absolute classic, now and forever.Best line: “Guess you didn’t mean what you wrote in that song about me/Because you said ‘forever,’ now I drive alone past your street.” 

1

‘Deja Vu’

What an impossible battle for Number One: “Drivers License” or “Deja Vu”? Two of this century’s biggest, best-loved, and just plain weirdest pop classics? But “Deja Vu” is the one, confirming Olivia as not just a bright young songwriter, but a whole new pop-queen paradigm. She and Dan Nigro plot every genius second of this down to the last micro-detail. Those Clash guitars. Those U2 drums. So many scream-out-loud punch lines. And the utterly insane way it’s about Olivia and her ex fighting over which one was into Billy Joel first. What a thrill to be in the crowd the night Billy and Olivia finally sang this together. And “Uptown Girl,” of course.Best line: “Play your piano, but she doesn’t know/I was the one who taught YOU Billy Joel!/A different girl now, but there’s nothing new/I know you get deja vu.”