40. Beck – "Loser" (1994)
From Mellow Gold
If there’s one thing I like making, it’s broad, sweeping over-generalizations. Beck’s “Loser” is a perfect target for a classic…
It doesn’t really matter what popular music sounds like in a given generation; it’s probably a safe bet that the parents of said generation hate that music. Your grandparents hated the Beatles. Their parents probably hated Frank Sinatra. (I don’t care much for Sinatra either, but I have no taste or class, so whatever.) And, parents of my generation didn’t much care for alternative rock. “Loser” made it harder to justify its existence with the line “I’m a loser baby / So why don’t you kill me?”
Seriously, try and explain away a garbage line like that without saying a) he’s just being ironic/sarcastic or b) he doesn’t really mean it. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Time’s up.
Got nothing? I thought so. Now, I realize it’s not a requisite for your parents to like your music. But if you’re justifying something as being “good” and not just mindless entertainment, shouldn’t you have some sort of substance? The song is catchy and the lyrics, though nonsensical, are actually ones that I sing along to every time it’s on. But that’s not really enough. No wonder Generation X (and whatever generation I am; I’m between X and Y) are looked down upon.
39. Marcy Playground – "Sex and Candy" (1997)
From Marcy Playground
I’m not a candy person – and some would say I’m not a sex person either – but this one-hit wonder from Marcy Playground indeed combines two of life’s greatest pleasures. Like the rest of the album, “Sex and Candy” is music with dopey lyrics – what the hell is disco lemonade, anyway? – and a chill-out acoustic vibe. This is another one of those songs that I loved the hell out of then, and still rock it on a jukebox occasionally.
38. Green Day – "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" (1997)
From Nimrod
On the VH1 special, Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong said that “Time of Your Life” was one of the most punk rock things the band could do. I suppose if doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing, he was right.
Obviously this song was everywhere – even the second-last episode of Seinfeld – when it came out, which kind of hurts its legacy a bit. Yeah, sure, it’s a charming change of pace for a band known for snotty punk-rock, but did radio really need another weepy, acoustic ballad?
37. Sublime – "What I Got (Reprise)" (1996)
From Sublime
I’ve grown to like Sublime over the years, but when they first were played on the radio I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. True, Brad Nowell had a knack for writing the occasional pop gem, like “What I Got,” but in my opinion he also had a lot of clunkers.
Luckily for the band, “What I Got” makes up for all the other crap with what a lot of today’s music is lacking: soul. You could feel what he was talking about in some of his better songs. I picked the “reprise” version of the song because the original or whatever kind of sucks.
36. Nirvana – "Lithium" (1991)
From Nevermind
How in the hell do you pick a song from a band that had so many hits in a short period of time? Add to that the fact that none of those songs – with the obvious exception of ‘Teen Spirit’ – really stands head and shoulders above the rest. They’re just all that good.
“Lithium” gets the nod because I’ve always liked the bass line and when I first heard the song I think it was the first time I’d ever heard the word “horny” used in a rock song.
35. The Verve Pipe – "The Freshmen" (1996)
From Villians
I’m pretty sure I was a sophomore in high school the year this came out. “The Freshman” is one of those mellow sad-bastard type tunes, except that it wasn’t whiny like all the other ones. It’s almost kind of depressing, but even now I can’t help but sing along with it.
Unfortunately, the rest of the album was mediocre except for one other single, “Villains.” I thought the only released one album after their big hit, but according to Wikipedia they’ve been releasing records ever since.
34. Counting Crows – "Mr. Jones" (1993)
From August and Everything After
I hate to rely heavily on the VH1 special for my whatever-you-want-to-call-thems on these songs, but when people were suggesting that “Mr. Jones” was about Adam Duritz’s penis, I had to take note. The more that I think about it, it would have been a really clever idea to write a song about his dong. It would have been the best male genital-related song since Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-a-Ling.”
Except, of course, that it wasn’t. It was probably for the best, anyway. “Mr. Jones” is one of those songs that you can spin on a jukebox that no one really has a problem with.
33. Vanilla Ice – "Ice Ice Baby" (1990)
From To the Extreme
Do you realize it’s been nearly 20 years since Vanilla Ice (a.k.a. Rob Van Winkle) tore up the dance floor with this jam? The more I think about it, the more I can’t explain his success. I was about 9 at the time, what was everyone else’s excuse?
32. Alanis Morisette – "You Oughta Know" (1995)
From Jagged Little Pill
Uncle Joey? Seriously? I think my youth is forever scarred with the knowledge that this song is supposedly about Dave Coulier.
Angry chick rock was pretty popular in the mid-90’s, even with stupid guys like me. I don’t really have any sort of explanation, therefore I will not explain it.
31. Blink-182 – "Adam’s Song" (1999)
From Enema of the State
Blink-182 was probably my favorite pop-punk bands of the era, and it didn’t have so much to do with the music as it did with the humor used in the music. The first time I saw them in 2000, I believe, was awesome because they spent a good part of the show insulting each other on stage.
So of course I’m going to take a completely different route and come up with their saddest song for their entry onto this list. “Adam’s Song” had much the same effect as Green Day’s “Time of Your Life” except that this time around it didn’t seem like such a big deal. This song – about suicide – had an understated charm and showed the world that even a band that made its living on dick and fart jokes had a heart.
30. House of Pain – "Jump Around" (1992)
From House of Pain
“Word to your moms / I came to drop bombs / I got more rhymes / Than the Bible’s got psalms” is one of my favorite lines in the song. Why? I don’t know, it just is. I think this song is so popular because you don’t have to dance to it; you jump around like an idiot just as the title implies. I think that explains why it’s so popular in
29. Everclear – "Father of Mine" (1997)
From So Much for the Afterglow
I can’t ever claim that I had a hard life. My family was middle-class; I didn’t have the nicest things growing up, but my wardrobe wasn’t from Goodwill and the food I ate didn’t come from a soup kitchen. Perhaps more importantly, and unlike other people in my life, my parents were married and still are to this day. So maybe “Father of Mine” didn’t affect me on the same level as it might have for them. But the truth of the matter is that my father and I were quite distant at the time. I may have had a father, but it didn’t make listening to this song any less painful. It hit close to home for me (like I said, in a slightly different way) and I cried in my room when I first heard it.
I thought Everclear was awesome on their album before this one; “Father of Mine” was a big reason why I fell in love with them all over again.
Special Note: I’m noticing more and more that the songs in this batch are in no-man’s land. Earlier songs may not be as good, but they were quirky in some way which gave me material. The top 20 songs are the best of the best, so to speak, so there should be something to say about them. But these songs, everybody knows them and the only things to say about most of them come from VH1 specials and Wikipedia. I don’t want to rehash old stuff (though I know I already have) so the most of the remaining songs in this group will have shorter descriptions. I would apologize for any inconvenience, but any comments so far have been about the placement of the song rather than what I’ve said about them. So whatever.
28. Soundgarden – "Black Hole Sun" (1994)
From Superunknown
I really wanted to like Soundgarden more, but I could never get into them beyond a few singles and some assorted covers. Make no mistake, they were a good, solid rock band. But they never really rose above that.
“Black Hole Sun” featured apocalyptic lyrics (the first of two on this list) and a video that was quite popular for its weirdness. Destructive kids likes me were most notably fond of the melted Barbie doll on the grill.
27. R.E.M. – "Losing My Religion" (1991)
From Out of Time
R.E.M. had its critical peak in the 80’s, but I think its commercial peak in the 90’s. “Losing My Religion” was largely responsible for that. Apparently no one really knows what the lyrics mean, and neither do I.
26.
From Dirt
When I lived in an apartment in college, the ugly white typists’ chair I bought at a thrift store for a dollar served as my own personal “angry chair.” That’s where I wrote most of my best stuff. (The pieces that are on the sidebar of this blog, if you wanted to know.) So that’s what I think of when I hear this song, long nights spent writing about being bitter and pissed off.
I think what’s most striking to me about “Angry Chair” is the fact that, like a lot of
25. Third Eye Blind – "Motorcycle Drive-by" (1997)
From Third Eye Blind
If this list were about non-singles of the 90’s, this song would probably be #1. I don’t know too many people who know this song, yet among Third Eye Blind fans I think it’s a favorite. The band obviously holds it in high regard as it is on their greatest hits album.
24. Red Hot Chili Peppers – "Under the Bridge" (1991)
From Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Hey, look, a Red Hot Chili Peppers song with lyrics that make some sort of sense!
23. Green Day – "Longview" (1994)
From Dookie
The opening bass line to this song is one of the most memorable of the 90’s. “Long View” captures being bored quite well, thus there isn’t really anything more to say about it, is there? “When masturbation’s lost its fun, you’re fucking breaking” is a classic line.
22. Metallica – "King Nothing" (1996)
From Load
Hardcore metal fans hated on anything Metallica released starting with the Black Album. I think I’ll be saying more about this when – here’s a surprise – I write about “Enter Sandman” later in the list. In the meantime, the opening bass line is once again awesome, the riff is good, and even the lyrics aren’t trite as metal tends to be. “King Nothing” is probably my favorite track from the Load/Reload era.
21. Tool - "Aenema" (1996)
From Aenima
At first, this was my favorite Tool song. That opening riff is memorable and the lyrics have to do with the apocalypse, at least as far as
That’s it for #40-21. Goddamn was it a struggle just to get through this batch. Hopefully the top 20 will be worlds easier and we can get through it together. Look for it by Saturday.
2 comments:
motorcycle drive-by! *swoons*
i'm a huge third eye blind fan, and that's one of my favourite songs of theirs. the last three songs on that album are my favourite three songs they ever did.
[and how did you find a karaoke track for that??]
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i was always sad that "sex and candy" was Marcy Playground's one hit. i was always far more of a fan of the second single, "saint joe on the school bus." that's one i really enjoy bringing out for karaoke every so often.
It wasn't an actual karaoke track; the karaoke DJ let me use my own cd's and then he just turned the volume down a little on the vocals. I don't know how effective that was, but I sang the hell out of it anyway.
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