"A Horse with No Name" is a song by the band America. It was their first and most successful single, released in early 1972, topping the charts in several countries. It was certified "gold" by the Recording Industry Association of America.

America's self-titled debut album was released initially in Europe with only moderate success and without the song "A Horse with No Name". Trying to find a song that would be popular in both the United States and Europe, "A Horse with No Name" was originally called "Desert Song" and was written while the band was staying at the home studio of Arthur Brown, in Puddletown, Dorset. The first two demos were recorded there, by Jeff Dexter and Dennis Elliott, and was intended to capture the feel of the hot, dry desert, that had been depicted at the studio from Salvador Dalí painting, and the strange horse had ridden out of an M.C. Escher picture. Writer Dewey Bunnell also says he remembered his childhood travels through the Arizona and New Mexico desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

"A Horse with No Name" was recorded in the key of E minor with acoustic guitars, bass guitar, and bongo drums. The only other chord is a Dadd6add9, fretted on the low E and G strings, second fret. A 12 string plays an added F# (second fret, high E string) on the back beat of the Em. A noted feature of the song is the driving bass line with a hammer-hook in each chorus. A "waterfall" type solo completes the arrangement. Produced by Ian Samwell on the day of final recording at Morgan Studios, at first the group thought it too corny and took some convincing to actually play it. Gerry Beckley has explained in Acoustic Guitarmagazine (March 2007) that the correct tuning for the guitar is D E D G B D, low to high. The chord pattern that repeats throughout the entire song is: 202002 (Em),then 020202 and 000202. The tuning is unique to this song; they did not use it on any other America song.

Despite (or perhaps, because of) the song's being banned by some U.S. radio stations (including one in Kansas City) because of supposed drug references the song ascended to number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the album quickly scored platinum. The song did chart earlier in the Netherlands (reaching number 11) and the UK (reaching number 3), than it actually did in the United States. The interpretation of the song as a drug reference comes from the fact that "horse" is a common slang term for heroin.

The song's resemblance to some of Neil Young's work aroused some controversy. "I know that virtually everyone, on first hearing, assumed it was Neil," Bunnell says. "I never fully shied away from the fact that I was inspired by him. I think it's in the structure of the song as much as in the tone of his voice. It did hurt a little, because we got some pretty bad backlash. I've always attributed it more to people protecting their own heroes more than attacking me." By coincidence, it was "A Horse With No Name" that replaced Young's "Heart of Gold" at the #1 spot on the U.S. pop chart.

The song has also been ridiculed for its banal, oddly phrased lyrics, including "The heat was hot"; "There were plants, and birds, and rocks, and things"; and "Cause there ain't no-one for to give you no pain." Randy Newman once described it as a song "about a kid who thinks he's taken acid". Comedian Richard Jeni mocked the song's title. "You're in the desert," he said. "You got nothing else to do. Name the freakin' horse!"

The song was one of many popular songs quoted and parodied on the The Third Reich 'n Rollalbum by The Residents. In 1987 the Danish rock band D-A-D made a cover version released on the album D.A.D. Draws a Circle. Furthermore, the song has been covered by Larrikin Love with somewhat Celtic-sounding instrumentation and style for Magazine in 2006. The song is also featured in the movie The Trip.In 2008, it was used in a Kohls TV commercial for Vera Wang. It can also be heard in season 2 of Millennium, in the episode "Owls" and was featured in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on one of the in-game radio stations. The song bookends the third season episode of Breaking Bad, "Caballo Sin Nombre" (Spanish for "Horse With No Name"), where the song plays on a car radio as Walter White drives through the desert in the beginning, and is sung by the Walter in the shower at the end.

"A Place With No Name" is the first known unreleased single of singer/songwriter Michael Jackson's posthumous career. It currently exists as a 25-second sound bite. The sound bite was released by news outlet TMZ.com on July 16, 2009 and closely resembles "A Horse with No Name". Jim Morey, both Jackson's and America's former band manager, has stated that "America was honored that Michael chose to do their song and they hope it becomes available for all Michael's fans to hear."