Ed Sheeran is a very popular singer and songwriter who crosses genres and has recorded music that blends pop, rock, folk, and even hip hop. With such an extensive collection of tracks, we’ve decided to compile a list of the 31 best Ed Sheeran songs of all time below, so continue reading to learn more about his top hits!
1. Happier
Happier is the first song on our list, which is all about feeling bitter when you know your ex is happy in a new relationship. You’re hurt because they’ve moved on and are happy, and the hope you have is that they will break up with the new person and get back with you. The track goes into how your friends tell you that you’ll one day be as happy with someone else, but you’re unsure. It’s a great song we all can relate to, and it made it to 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
2. Castle on The Hill
Next is the song Castle On The Hill, which made it to number two on the Dance Club Songs chart and peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s one of the best tracks because he talks about his life as a young person, how he got into trouble as a kid, and the bad things he did while being underage.
Even though there are bad memories from his youth and the things he got into, he talks about how he learned his lessons and has grown up into a respectful and law-abiding adult. If you’ve ever experienced some bad situations as a youth, you’ll understand and relate to this song.
3. Thinking Out Loud
One on the Adult Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts while it peaked at two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, this is a great song to play at your wedding, and as a ballad, it’s considered to be one of the best romantic tracks that he’s released to date. It was a huge hit internationally, and it managed to spend over a year in the UK Top 40 chart.
Thinking Out Loud is incredible and so beautiful that you’ll listen to this song over and over because it details how the two people will still love each other when they are old and the promises of this being true love that will last well into your golden years.
4. I Don’t Care
We have to mention the song I Don’t Care, which made it to number one on the Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 and peaked at two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It features Justin Bieber, and it’s all about how a man is at a party with someone he loves but wants to leave because he has anxiety and feels very insecure. This is one of Sheeran’s most well-known and most loved songs.
5. Shape Of You
Shape Of You makes our list, which went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was a success both in America and elsewhere. It’s all about how they met someone in a bar and how that’s where their relationship began. Sheeran sings about how men love women and their bodies, and the sexual desire they feel for that woman because she’s so attractive. Even though they like her, the song talks about how a bar isn’t the place to find true love, and this track helped him win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance.
6. Give Me Love
Up next is Give Me Love, which is from his debut album +, and it’s all about a relationship that has nearly ended, and you’re doing all that you can trying to make it better again. Both people start drinking and neither are happy because one person wants more than the other. This track hit 20 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart and is one of the best tracks from his first album.
7. I See Fire
I See Fire made it to number one on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles on the Billboard chart, and it was released in digital download format in 2013. This song is all about how there is a dragon who has started to take over and how people would die if they didn’t move away from the dragon. It takes place near the mountains so Sheeran talks about trying to forget what happened in the mountains, but it’s hard because this dragon just destroyed everything and everyone around.
8. Don’t
Next is the hit Don’t, which peaked at two on the Mainstream Top 40 chart and nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song is said to be about Ellie Goulding and Sheeran when they were dating and how she cheated on him while he was in the next room. If you’ve ever been cheated on then you will relate to this track, and it’s one of the more heartbreaking songs that deals with cheating he’s written about.
9. Photograph
Photograph is next on this list, which is based on the true events of Sheeran having a long-distance relationship with someone. It’s about how the two ended up breaking up because of the distance and how much they desire to keep this person close and hope they get back together with them.
He goes into detail about the struggles of trying to fix a relationship that they know is nearing its end and how the distance creates problems. Photograph made it to number one on the Adult Top 40 and 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
10. Galway Girl
Next is Galway Girl, which made it to 53 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s a song about how Sheeran fell in love with an Irish woman. He talks about this woman, who was in his house, and that was how he started to fall in love with her and how much he wants her. He wrote the track with the Irish Beoga, and it’s definitely got an Irish feel and vibe to it.
11. Perfect
Making it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and UK Singles chart is Perfect. This is a very romantic song that details the journey two people had together, and it’s inspired by his wife Cherry. He goes into how they met, and how after high school, they were doing their own thing and managed to connect later in life, which led them to dating and getting married. It’s a track about how much he loves his wife and everything she means to him.
12. Supermarket Flowers
Supermarket Flowers makes the list, which is a very sad track. It’s about how his grandmother died, but it’s from his mom’s point of view. It’s about the closeness between the two of them and how broken up she was about her mother dying since she loves her so much. He goes into how the grandmother is not worried about dying because she has faith in God and believes in heaven.
It’s such a moving and emotional song about facing your parents dying and how you always hope they will recover when they are on their deathbeds. This track made it to 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is just one of the most touching songs you’ll ever hear.
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13. Beautiful People
The next song is Beautiful People, which made it to 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It is all about how we as a society misjudge and don’t understand what true beauty really is and how that leads to a bunch of bad situations.
In the track, Sheeran talks about celebrities who seem to have everything going for them, such as their beauty but how they are still sad or depressed. This is an empowering song that tells you to not be a materialistic person, to stay true to who you are, and to avoid being superficial because there’s more to life than just outer beauty.
14. The Joker And The Queen
Next up on our list is The Joker And The Queen, which made it to 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In this song, Sheeran talks about how his significant other is very special and compares her to a host for all kinds of kings. He talks about how perfect the relationship is, and even if there are some difficulties along the way, they know they both have something special. In the track, there is also talk about how money isn’t important and not what makes the two people want to be together.
15. Lego House
Lego House is next on our list, which is an emotional tune about how someone struggles when they are in a relationship that’s starting to deteriorate and the things the guy promises to do to make the relationship better. He cheats on his girl, and she wants to break up, but he is trying to get her to stay with him. He’s sitting there hoping she will come back to him.
If you’ve ever messed up a relationship before and are begging someone to come back or stay with you, then this song is going to be relatable. It landed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at 42.
16. Eyes Closed
Coming in at number one on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart and 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart is Eyes Closed. This song is all about loss, and it’s thought to be inspired by the loss of Jamal Edwards, who was Sheeran’s friend.
It goes into grieving for someone when they are gone and how much you hope to run into them when you’re running errands but then realize they are no longer alive. This is one of those tracks we all can relate to since we’ve all experienced the pain of someone dying and the hole in our hearts we feel after the fact.
17. Sing
Sing is next, which is all about how Sheeran wants to be in a relationship with a woman he met and spent a night with. He wants to make this woman his, and he feels that he’s in love with her even though they only had one night with one another. This would be his first number-one hit in the UK, and it also landed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 13.
18. Bam Bam
Bam Bam is a song that features Sheeran on the vocals, and it’s a collaboration with Camila Cabello. It went to 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it’s all about trying to move on after a bad breakup. There’s a lot of pain and heartache when you see your ex with someone new, and he talks about how much he loves his wife and appreciates her and everything she does for him, and he’s grateful for everything he has.
19. Cross Me
Hitting 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 is the next song, which is Cross Me, and this track features PnB Rock and Chance The Rapper. It’s all about how men should protect the women in their lives that they love and how men are also known to protect children. This song goes into why men are protective and how much he and other men will fight for those they love, whether it be their lover or their children.
20. Hearts Don’t Break Round Here
Next is Hearts Don’t Break Round Here, which made it to 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It’s a song about a woman from Thomas Mills High School, and he sings about how he is in love with her while admiring her beauty and her strength. She is compared to a lighthouse, and Sheeran says that he will find his way home because of her. It’s all about trying to win someone’s heart and make them desire you just as much as you desire them.
21. Antisocial
In 2019, Sheeran released Antisocial as part of his album No. 6 Collaborations Project. He is known for writing a lot of uplifting tracks and love songs, but this is the complete opposite of that. In this tune, which features the rapper Travis Scott, Sheeran goes into the mindset of a musician and how there’s a lot of drinking involved and drug use.
This is a dark track that talks about hiding pain with substances and isolating from friends, and he doesn’t care that he’s antisocial or what people think about him. It was a big hit and made it to 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
22. Celestial
In 2022, Sheeran released Celestial, which is a love song that goes into how good his significant other makes him feel, such as appreciating life and everything in it. It details how we should be thankful and feel at peace when we acknowledge the love and things that we have. It also details what can harm a relationship, so it’s a track we all can relate to, and it’s simply beautiful with his vocals.
23. Afterglow
Next on the list is Afterglow, which went to 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made it to seven on the Adult Top 40. This is one of those love songs Sheeran wrote right before their baby daughter came into the world. The track details the winter and how the two lovers met during the cold, but the love they have for one another helps keep them warm. He talks about how it’s a lovely day, and he wants this moment to last forever.
This song goes into how it’s even colder in the winter when we don’t have love in our lives but having someone special during this time when many people feel alone can really make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
24. Wake Me Up
Wake Me Up makes the list, which came out in 2011, and it’s all about being in a relationship, loving someone, and feeling like you’ve got the perfect thing going on. While in the song, Sheeran questions whether he wants to be with her and talks about how simple things such as dinner and a movie are special moments for them and make him happy.
25. Bad Habits
In 2021, Sheeran released the song Bad Habits, which is a track about all of the bad habits people have and make in their lives. This song goes into detail about the types of things people do that are bad for them and how we all have vices and they can bring us down. It went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart and Adult Top 40 chart while landing at two on the Billboard Hot 100. It was an international hit too with it peaking at number one in more than 26 countries.
26. Borderline
Borderline is a song that shows the vulnerability of Sheeran, and it was written not too long after his wife was told she had a tumor. At the time, she was also carrying their second baby. In the track, he really gets into his feelings and emotions, and it’s almost as if it is a diary entry with him confessing things and asking tough questions.
You can feel the despair and hopelessness in his voice when he sings this song, and there are implications that he hides his feelings and covers them with booze. You get a real sense of how heartbroken he was as he dealt with this horrible news.
27. Collide
Collide makes our list, which is an uplifting track that takes a lot of inspiration from Thirteen, a song by Ben Kweller that details events he and his wife did together. Sheeran loved the track so much that he reached out to Kweller to see if he’d agree to let him basically write a song in a similar manner, and he agreed.
Collide is his version of that track, and it goes into all of the things that he and his wife have done together, such as going to the beach together and falling asleep. It’s a celebratory song about love and the memories you’ve made with that special someone.
28. The A Team
In 2010, Sheeran released his first single, The A Team, which is one of the more heartbreaking songs on the list because it’s a true story and revolves around a woman who sells herself for crack because she’s a drug addict.
He met this woman at a homeless shelter, and the track goes into her physical appearance after years of drug use and how she prostitutes to make money to feed her habit. The woman is also broke and goes through a lot of bad situations. This was a huge hit for him, and it instantly made him a success, placing four on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, six on the Adult Top 40, and 16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
29. Shivers
Shivers is on our list, which was released in 2021 and peaked at four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This pop song is very memorable, and it’s all about the things in life that give us the cold chills because they mean everything, such as getting on stage and performing and how scared we all are when we get into a new relationship. In the track, he sings about falling for a woman and how much he loves her and wants to spend his life with her too.
30. Life Goes On
Next is Life Goes On, which is on the Asylum album. This track is about Jamal Edwards, a friend of his who died of a heart arrhythmia. In the track, he is asking how he will go on without Edwards in his life. There is also another version of the song featuring Luke Combs where they sing in duet style. It went to 47 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and peaked at 66 on the Billboard Hot 100.
31. Feels
Last on our list is Feels, which was released in 2023, and Young Thug is featured in the song as well as Rapper J Jus. There is a hip hop element to the track with the addition of the rappers, and Sheeran talks about how long he’s waited to find something that’s real while they rap about their interest in a girl. There is also a reference to Billie Jean in the song.
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