Every song's got to have a hook - or at least it does if you want it to be popular.

A song can have the best vocalists, the best instrumentalists and the best lyrics, but unless it has a great hook, it'll never be all that it can be. And unlike words, voices and music, it's hard to articulate how hooks even work; they hit us on a primal level that can't fully be explained.

The most common hook in popular music comes with a punch - for instance, it's often in the chorus, where the song's title is directly or indirectly referenced and the arrangement rides a crescendo. But sometimes a hook is in the verses or the bridge, sometimes it's an instrumental passage like a guitar solo, and sometimes it's a sudden pivot, like a dramatic change in tempo.

One-hit wonders frequently find the magic to a good hook only once, while more savvy artists have a knack for hooks.

On this week's episode of "How We Heard It," your hosts talk about some of the greatest hooks in modern music history, whether they came from Buddy Holly or Motown, The Who or The Kinks, David Bowie or Cheap Trick, New Wave or disco, Sheryl Crow or Weezer, Kendrick Lamar or Mariah Carey, and Olivia Rodrigo or Taylor Swift. 

Have you ever been captivated by a song and you aren't sure why? It was probably the hook.