OH MY GOD ANOTHER HUGE LIST: The 101 Hottest Hits of the 90s (part 2)

Here’s part 2 of my countdown of the 101 greatest hits of the 90’s. I might note that, since I stuck to American top 40 hits, only a small number of my very favorite albums are represented on this list, so I just thought I’d mention that, if the world were fair, this list would also have lots of Blur, Pulp, My Bloody Valentine, Sleater-Kinney and Elastica. That’s all.

80. Yaki-da, I Saw You Dancing (1995, #24)

I bet you don’t remember this one, huh? Written and produced by Joker from Ace of Base, Yaki-da had a top 40 hit despite the fact that a) I don’t remember ever seeing the video before right now, and b) I definitely never heard this song on the radio except when Casey Kasem was counting it down. I don’t know if it was only a hit in Minnesota or what, but it blends what sounds like a Ukrainian folk song with delightful Nordic pop vocals that longingly command you to say yaki-da. Whatever that means.

79. Enigma, Sadeness part 1 (1991, #5)

I associate this song with a particular stretch of road in Warwick, Rhode Island, and I’m not sure why. Along with LaTour’s People Are Still Having Sex, this was one of the songs that I loved in fifth grade, as much for its strangeness as much as the oddly catchy beat and heavy breathing. Sadly, I’ve yet to find it in any karaoke songbook.

78. Madonna, Human Nature (1995, #16)

I know almost no one agrees with me, but I think this is one of Madonna’s best singles. The whispering and door-slamming would be totally silly if it weren’t for the sexy bassline and hot production. Accompanied by a shiny, sexy video, it’s a neat little fuck you to the critics that spent had their bloomers in a twist about what Madonna might be trying to say to their children.

77. Bonnie Raitt, I Cant Make You Love Me (1992, #13)

Sometimes totally boring musicians have a good song once in awhile. Though most of Raitt’s output makes me yawn, this lite-rock staple follows a cheesy synth-ballad opening with a Bruce Hornsby piano track and, against all odds, it works. It’s still not a very best-produced song, but it’s got a chorus that I can really get behind and sounds more genuinely sad than pretty much any other ballad of the electric-piano era.

76. Salt N Pepa, Let’s Talk About Sex (1991, #7)
I was ten when this song came out, and the boys at my lunch table* thought it was really funny. But seriously, was anybody else talking about AIDS in a way that was accessible to kids? TLC would do it the next year, but Salt N Pepa definitely did it first.

(*The one for bad kids, where every day one kid would steal my Lunchables and spit in them.)

75. Annie Lennox, Little Bird (1993, #31)

Annie Lennox’s baroque dance-pop singles of the early nineties were even better than her Eurythmics output. Little Bird, the third and greatest of the Diva singles, sounds delicately weird until the first fist-pumping chorus. Also, it may have the gayest video in the history of homosexuality.

74. Shanice, I Love Your Smile (1992, #2)

Shanice was perky and her singing style only vaguely decipherable, but with the aid of a silly rap in the bridge and a silly sax solo right after it, she made one of the sweetest-rounding songs of the early nineties. When she says she loves your smile, it’s really easy to believe her.

73. Snow, Informer (1993, #1)

Americans’ interest in Jamaica changed in the 90s–no more rasta hippies, no more political dancehall. No, it was all about Cool Runnings and white Canadians with nerdy glasses who wanted to be Supercat. Which isn’t a bad thing–Snow’s posturing aside, the song’s really well-produced. Which isn’t to say it’s not worth making fun of, especially since Snow looks has all the charm of a sexually frustrated cable repairman, but unlike, say, Ice Ice Baby, Informer’s a song you can still dance around without being ironic.

72. The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony (1998, #23)

Already a hit by the time it appeared without the band’s permission on the soundtrack to Cruel Intentions, the Verve’s biggest US hit nevertheless only reminds me of Sarah Michelle Gellar snorting coke out of a crucifix. One of the only real Britpop songs to catch on in America, the string sample was hard to shake and balanced lyrics that, if you think about them for a second, are actually pretty lame.

71. Hole, Doll Parts (1994, #31)

Possibly the decade’s creepiest hit song, Doll Parts was also Hole’s first pop crossover. They were the band with the bass player who overdosed on heroin and the crazily fragile singer whose husband died, you know, however. I could go into greater detail about how awesome I think Courtney Love is, but it would probably be better if I just went on with the list.

70. Lauryn Hill, Ex-Factor (1999, #21)

The song that’s aged the best from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, this sultry breakup ballad was one of the decade’s best slow jams and, until her venture into surfing penguin pop earlier this year, her last half-decent pop single.

69. Depeche Mode, Enjoy The Silence (1990, #8)

The Mode’s only US top 10 single and a personal karaoke favorite, Enjoy The Silence is the band at the gloomy, dancy best. Also, I wish more pop videos were like this one.

68. Primitive Radio Gods, Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand (1996, #2)

American trip-hop, with beatnik poetry recited dully over an old blues sample, crashing waves, and basically the same beat as Streets of Philadelphia. It became a hit after appearing in The Cable Guy, one of the most annoying movies ever made. Somehow, though, it doesn’t suck!

67. Alannah Myles, Black Velvet (1990, #1)

A bluesy country song beloved by middle-aged housewives the world over, Black Velvet’s a song about Elvis that sounds more like a Night The Lights Went Out On Georgia-style murder ballad. Though this was her only big hit, the profits this song brought in were hopefully enough to feed Myles’ Aqua Net fix for years to come.

66. Nirvana, About A Girl (1994, #29)

Nirvana’s Unplugged album might have been the best thing on TV in the nineties (since the AMAZING raver episode of Touched By An Angel didn’t air until 2001), and the slowed-down version of 1989’s About A Girl was one of its highlights. Blah blah Kurt Cobain so sad he died and actually he was kind of hot on TV despite his dumb hair and old-lady cardigan blah.

65. Urge Overkill, Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon (1994, #28)

Speaking of hair, this song is nothing without Uma Thurman and her black bangs. Well, not nothing–even detached from the movie this greasy Neil Diamond cover’s got a Vegas-y pizzazz to it. But Quentin Tarantino, soundtrack genius that he is, gave the song the needed context that it doesn’t really have otherwise.

64. Natalie Merchant, Carnival (1995, #6)

One of the early hits on the newly made over VH1, Carnival was Merchant’s solo debut. It’s a little dippy, as her songs are wont to be, but the arrangement is so coolly detached that it’s easy not to notice. Her speak-singing was a departure from her 10000 Maniacs hits, the emoting of 1988’s What’s The Matter Here replaced by a more detached “No really, people, what the hell is going on here?”

63. 2Pac & Dr Dre, California Love (1996, #35)

I won’t lie, I thought this was some dumb-ass shit when it was released. I also thought 2Pac in general was pretty lame, and I used to make fun of the people that were sad he died. Anyway, about five years later I overcame my snotty teenage white-boy hatred of rap and came to realize that this song’s actually pretty awesome. Plus, I like songs about states.

62. Smashing Pumpkins, 1979 (1995, #12)

A song I most associate with ninth-grade gym class, when my school didn’t have a gym and so they bussed us across the city to the YMCA to play basketball for about six minutes. (We had 45-minute periods including changing time, and while the busride itself was only about 5 minutes each way it still made no sense. Also, I don’t think the boys on that bus were particularly hot.) Like Pearl Jam, I really like the Pumpkins when they avoid all the guitar angst and try to keep things as poppy as they do on this slacker ballad.

61. Spice Girls, 2 Become 1 (1997, #4)

My favorite slick ballad of the 90’s is Saint Etienne’s Hobart Paving, a song that didn’t qualify for these charts since no American mainstream radio station has ever played it. But 2 Become 1 is a great song and not that far removed from Saint Etienne’s. Goopily sweet and forcefully British, 2 Become 1 the finest moment of their deceptively-titled Girl Power movement.