Pony by Ginuwine (1996)

Pony arrived in 1996 as Ginuwine's debut single and as the world's introduction to Timbaland, whose production, a belching, vocoded bassline that sounded like nothing on the radio, is the reason the song is still played. The lyric is an invitation to "ride", with a "saddle" that is waiting and a horse that is, by every indication, the singer. The verses never leave the ranch, and no actual horse is ever consulted.

It reached number six on the Hot 100, number one on the R&B chart and went Platinum, and Billboard summed it up as a sex jam played out through riding metaphors, which may be the most restrained sentence Billboard has ever had to type. Nobody involved has ever spelled out what the "pony" is, which is why this entry is labelled interpreted, and why nobody has ever needed it spelled out.

Its afterlife is a strip routine. Channing Tatum's number in Magic Mike (2012) made Pony the default male striptease song of the century, and a 2021 TikTok mashup renewed the lease. It is a strange fate for the lyric: the thing being offered in the song is now exactly what the audience has paid to look at, and the "pony" has become a career path.