Paul Weller’s 15 greatest songs, ranked

24 April 2025, 08:58

Paul Weller aka 'The Modfather'. Picture: Getty

By Thomas Edward

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Few artists have successfully changed musical styles, yet remained so stylish.

If there's one thing that's defined Paul Weller's career in music, it's his appetite to never stay still. And maybe his iconic haircut, of course.

Dubbed 'The Modfather' by his many acolytes - which include bands and artist like Oasis, Blur, The Smiths' Johnny Marr, Billy Bragg, and countless others - his imprint on British music is indelible.

Fascinated by the Mod subculture which flourished throughout the sixties, Weller has cited previous British greats like The Beatles, The Who, The Small Faces, and Status Quo as primary influences of his own.

After seeing the latter band in 1972, it confirmed his desire to pursue music himself - and as history tells us that's precisely what he did from then onwards.

Weller achieved more than most by the time his two bands, The Jam and The Style Council, came to their natural conclusion.

Surprisingly, he didn't start his solo career until 1992, but has since created one of the rock music's most influential songbooks.

Born on 25th May 1958, Paul Weller still retains that musical curiosity well into his sixties. He's secured four BRIT Awards, sold millions of records, and scored five top ten and nineteen top twenty singles across his numerous albums.

We've ranked the fifteen very best Paul Weller songs (including The Style Council but excluding The Jam) from top to bottom. Read on to see which made the grade:

'That Dangerous Age'

Paul Weller - That Dangerous Age (Official Video)

Weller's 2012 single 'That Dangerous Age' showed doubters he had plenty left in the tank (the album Sonik Kicks reached number one in the UK) but also that he was aware of the public's perception of him.
Inspired by the 27-year age gap between him and his wife Hannah, Weller explained the backstory on his website:
"There was an inference that I was going through a mid-life crisis, which I found really amusing: the clichéd notion of it. That was the impetus for (the song) even though it isn't really about that. It's a bit tongue in cheek, too."
"I guess it's also about how society views people of a certain age. For me, does it really matter what age you are? It's what up there in your soul that matters."
'The Cranes Are Back'

The Cranes Are Back - Paul Weller Live

This optimistic, gospel inspired song sees Weller draw parallels between London's construction boom and returning crane birds which provide hope for the future.
"It's a reaction to how the world is. In some cultures, when cranes - the birds - are back, it's a sign of good fortune. But I was also thinking about the mechanical cranes, when you see them back in the city, it normally means industry and business is starting up again. It's a song of hope, really."
Making the lyrics "a kind revolution" the album title from which this song was release, Weller later explained his thought process behind it:
"I just thought it felt right for the record, I don't know that it's making any particular statement. It's certainly not a political statement of any kind at all, it's a record that's more about people and humanity."
'From The Floorboards Up'

Paul Weller - "From The Floorboards Up" (Live at Sydney Opera House)

'From The Floorboards Up' saw Weller revisit the urgency of his former band, The Jam.
Released in 2005 and featuring on the album, As Is Now, the 'Modfather' proved he could be as raucous as his rock 'n' roll contemporaries, many of which he'd influenced.
The 2000s might have not been an overly fruitful decade for Weller, but he was still capable of pulling out a trump card when required.
This break-neck bopper reached number six in the UK charts.
'Stanley Road'

Paul Weller - Stanley Road - Later Presents...BBC2 - Friday 23 February 1996

'Stanley Road' was a pivotal album for Paul Weller, released in 1995 when he'd established success in his own right as a solo musician.
The album's title – and achingly bluesy title track – was taken from the street in Woking, Surrey that he grew up on.
Nostalgia courses through the album, paying tribute to his own youth, his present, and the future ahead of him.
Fun fact: the album's collage artwork was designed by Peter Blake, who co-designed The Beatles' iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.
'Long Hot Summer' w/ The Style Council

The Style Council - Long Hot Summer

'Long Hot Summer' was a sweltering R&B hit, nothing like Weller's fans had heard until the point it was released in 1983.
Released for the EP, À Paris, his new outfit The Style Council had released two songs before, but 'Long Hot Summer' hit differently.
Coincidentally, there was a notorious heatwave that gripped British during the summer of 1983 and 'Long Hot Summer' soundtracked it perfectly, especially when coupled with the music video showing the band swanning about on the River Cam in Cambridge.
As it turned out, 'Long Hot Summer' was the band's biggest single as it reached number three in the UK charts.
'Peacock Suit'

Paul Weller - Peacock Suit (Official Video)

'Peacock Suit' was injected with the kind of garage rock vitality you'd expect from a band in their teens, not a man fast approaching 40 years of age.
Weller's reimagining of the Mod music he grew up on that featured on 1996 album Heavy Soul was widely praised.
One critic from Uncut Magazine called it a "snarling update of The Who's 'I'm The Face'."
The fans loved it too - to this day, 'Peacock Suit' is Paul Weller's highest charting solo song in the UK, peaking at number five.
'Into Tomorrow'

Paul Weller, Into Tomorrow

After The Style Council's fortunes faded, which led to an eventual split, Weller believed he wouldn't write music again.
That was until 'Into Tomorrow', a song he penned which made him realise he wanted to release music under his own name for the first time, nearly fifteen years into his music career.
Talking about the 1991 single in Q Magazine, Weller admitted: "The turning point for me was writing ‘Into Tomorrow’ on my first solo album."
"Up until then I thought I’d lost it. Sometimes you just have to wait until it comes round.”
'Sunflower'

Paul Weller - Sunflower (Official Video)

'Sunflower' is as psychedelic a rock song as they come, signposting the retrospective journey Weller would venture on throughout the nineties.
There's echoes of Humble Pie and Steve Winwood in Traffic all around the song, especially in the sumptuous chorus.
Released on his second solo album, Wild Wood, in 1993, 'Sunflower' reached the top 20.
Fresh enough to sound new, but retro-indebted enough to not sound pastiche, 'Sunflower' is the sound of Weller reinventing himself.
'My Ever Changing Moods' w/ The Style Council

The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods

Weller wore the soulful influences on his sleeve when it came to sophisti-pop outfit The Style Council, revealing that 'My Ever Changing Moods' was written as an homage to 'Move On Up' legend Curtis Mayfield.
"It started from the title. I thought, 'What a great title, 'My Ever Changing Mood'."
There's also ominous overtones to the 1984 single that became Weller's most successful in the US:
"But it's about nuclear holocaust as well. 'The hush before the silence, the winds after the blast' and all that. I think it's probably like a lot of songs I've done... they start of being about myself and then I get bored with it and I make it into something else."
'Shout To The Top!' w/ The Style Council

The Style Council - Shout To The Top

Nobody thought a orchestrated, sophisti-pop soul song could've become a rallying cry to the politically disenfranchised - but it did.
Weller washing his hands of punching politically after he disbanded The Jam at their zenith in 1982? Think again.
When 'Shout To The Top!' was released in 1984, its music video incorporated imagery from the miner's strike which gripped the nation, making it clear where Weller's allegiance lay.
In the most Orwellian of years, the song - which later featured in the movie Billy Elliott which was set during the strike - became a smash hit reaching number seven in the UK charts.
'The Changingman'

Paul Weller - The Changingman (Official Video)

Despite admitting that he nicked the cascading guitar intro from Electric Light Orchestra's '10538 Overture', 'The Changingman' is one of Weller's most hypnotising songs and one that sauntered into the UK charts in at number seven.
He wrote the 1995 song during a signature period of change, where his political loyalties and first marriage came to an end.
In response to his ex-wife Dee claiming "he sabotages his own happiness", Weller said:
"I did do that. There was a sense that things were going too well, we were too happy, too comfortable, everything seemed too nice. There was a sense that for me as a writer and an artist I might lose my edge. I had to break the shape up, re-arrange things."
'Walls Come Tumbling Down' w/ The Style Council

The Style Council - Walls Come Tumbling Down! (Live Aid 1985)

Making reference to the Battle of Jericho in the Old Testament, Weller urged the working class to rise up against the Conservative party, with The Style Council's 1985 hit 'Walls Come Tumbling Down'.
Reaching number six in the UK charts, it featured on the album Our Favourite Shop which peaked at number one before being displaced by Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms.
After a decade of Thatcher, Weller was sick and tired so wanted to shake the working class out of their complacency and despair, in what was a fist-pumping soul anthem.
In 2021 he reflected: "From the time Thatcher got in, as far as I'm concerned, from 1979 onwards, it was horrible, but I think it reached a peak in 1984, 1985. It was pretty rough. Pitched battles between the police and the miners, the unions getting smashed, mass unemployment. You were on one side or the other."
'Wild Wood'

Paul Weller - Wild Wood (Official Video)

Exploring new musical territory in the nineties, Weller channelled his idols in Paul McCartney, Nick Drake and Neil Young with his gorgeous 1993 acoustic ballad 'Wild Wood' and the album of the same name.
The song saw Weller change tack once again, focusing on his desire to exist and contemplate within nature rather than consistently get caught up in the hubbub of daily life.
Produced by Brendan Lynch - who worked with many Britpop bands later down the line - Weller told Mojo magazine that what he envisaged as a "modern-day folk song" wouldn't have come to fruition if it weren't for Lynch's input.
"It wasn't really working for us and it might have been Brendan's idea to simplify the whole thing."
'You’re The Best Thing' w/ The Style Council

The Style Council - You're The Best Thing (Official Video)

Café Bleu divided both critics and Paul Weller's fans alike after its 1984 release, given that The Style Council was such a distinct departure from The Jam, and that more than half of the EP's tracks didn't even feature his voice.
A blend of jazz, soul, and chart-ready pop, one song that proved his songwriting was better than ever was the sultry, sumptuously soulful ballad 'You're The Best Thing'.
His tastes may have grown more eclectic and he might have alienated his former fanbase, but Weller was still writing hits with 'You're The Best Thing' charting in the UK at number five.
“I had total belief in The Style Council. I was obsessed in the early years, I lived and breathed it all. I meant every word, and felt every action," he later said.
'You Do Something To Me'

Paul Weller - You Do Something To Me

Without doubt, the greatest song Paul Weller ever wrote as a solo artist: 'You Do Something To Me'.
Released in 1995, the top ten UK hit song was a slight sentimental turn for the rocker who was rediscovering his edge.
But 'You Do Something To Me' has a timeless feel, like it was a classic song love before Weller sang the aching lyrics with his iconic gravelly voice.
It's Paul Weller's most universal tracks, one that has welcomed in weddings or incited floods of tears at painful goodbyes, a song about love being out of reach and being left to long for it alone.
“This definitely strikes a chord in people’s hearts, a song for lovers,” Weller later said.
"I’m told by many people they had it played at their wedding, the first dance… ironically, it’s really about unattainable love. But you can interpret it whichever way you want.”
He sings it pretty plainly in the song's first verse: "I’m hanging on the wire, for a love I’ll never find".
Nevertheless, it's a beautiful work that solidifies Weller - amid the many phases of change and exploration - that he is one of Britain's classic songwriters.