ShyGuy has touched on one from my list.
What is Love - HaddowayIf you don't know this one, well, here's
a link to it. You need to do some musical catching up. Totally iconic thanks to SNL and it is still a go to number to get people on the dance floor. I threw a dance party and as soon as this start playing, people flooded to the dance floor. People seem to have a real fondness for it.
U Can't Touch This - MC HammerThis was big. Did you know M.C. Hammer even had a cartoon show? I actually watched it as a kid. Did you know he defeated paint monsters on it by singing U Can't Touch This? I did. You can see a
copy of that amazing footage clicking here. Skip to the 0:50 mark if you want to save time. If you still want to see the original music video,
than click here. What further makes this song so great is that Hammer wrote it at a time when he was on top and then he lost so much of what he made so the song has become comedic considering what happened after he released it.
Broken Bones - Love Inc.This song amazed me when I was young. I'd never heard anything like it. I'd say it was my introduction to house music. Even now, over a decade later, it still holds up very well and whenever I get nostalgic for the 90's, this is one of my go to songs. Listen to it
by clicking here. If you want to see the music video for it, you can
check it out clicking here. I just find the audio quality to be a bit less compared to the other link.
Drinking in L.A. - Bran Van 3000This is another song that I found very amazing at the time. The way the song incorporates all kinds of other audio clips and just a real mixture of all kinds of different elements but it blended so well and smooth. Whenever I listen to it, it brings back all kinds of memories. Here's
the pointless music video but I suggest listening to the
higher quality version of it here. Give 'em a ring-ding-ding!
Men in Black - Will SmithThis has to be one of the all-time best movie themes. Right up there with Staying Alive. Will Smith was at his height with this. Smooth and danceable still. Back in the day, I learned the MIB Dance. I still like to bust a move with this. Here's
the music video with Will Smith exuding his brand of cool. Just bounce it with me, just bounce with me, just bounce it with me.
Spice Up Your Life - Spice GirlsA 90's top ten and no Spice Girls? Not on my list. I could fill up the rest of this list with Spice Girl songs but I'll limit it to one. I actually always liked some of their slower, more ballad like songs but I'll go with my favorite high energy one of theirs, Spice Up Your Life. I listened to this probably as much as any other. If I can only choose one, then it is today's winner. Here's
the classic music video of them bringing their girl power to a dystopian future that they may already rule based on all the Spice Girl signs in it.
Virtual Insanity - JamiroquaiThis was the song that introduced me to Jamiroquai, a favorite band / artist of mine. While I preferred Canned Heat when it came out later, I listened to this song way more. I'd even recorded the music video with my VCR so that I could play it over and over again later. I was a master of 90's technology. Here's
the famous video where everything in the room seems to move but the floor. I remember it well. (And Canned Heat later got the mainstream success I always thought it deserved thanks to Napoleon Dynamite so I actually think of it more as a double-0 decade song. Still, happy endings all around.)
Everybody Everybody - Black BoxReally, this represents the whole Black Box album of Dreamland on here. Honorable mention goes to these other songs on it: I Don't Know Anybody Else, Fantasy (which seemed to be close to a Super Adventure Island song), Ride on Time, Ghost Box and Strike it Up. My parents had bought this but my brother and I liked it. I actually think it has great appeal to kids because there's a lot you could laugh at with some of the funny sounds from the vocals. For whatever reason, my parents become big country music fans around 1992 and so that was the main type of music that was played in the house. (It had its benefits. I can now often run a category about country music on Jeopardy with no problem despite not listening to it for a good decade.) Thankfully, I always had this cassette of Black Box I could play to remind me that there was a whole other world of music out there besides country. Everybody Everybody was the first track on it so I'll give it the nod. Here's
the music video in which the actual singer Martha Wash is never shown and in her place is an Italian model lip-synching. Hooray advertising!
WonderWall - OasisIt was only about 3 years ago that I ever got around to listening to the actual album which featured this song. A classmate played the song at school one day and I liked it from the first time I heard. I've never really cared much for any of Oasis other works but this song has always stayed with me and resonated with me. It was one of the first time I heard a song just as it was starting to become big and be played on the radio constantly and it felt cool to have been ahead of the curve as it were. Still holds up today. Here's
the music video if you're feeling nostaligic.
Kissed by a Rose - SealOne of the few songs my whole family could agree on. It wasn't until years later that I saw the music video that I even realized it was a song for Batman Forever. I never made that connection when I was a kid. I just thought it was an awesome song. I always listened to it every chance I'd get. Even now, all these years later, there's just something different about this song that seems to make it stand out to me. Hauntingly beautiful. Here's the
music video that makes Batman Forever look like it could be a cinematic masterpiece. Wow, I'm already at the tenth spot. Maybe I should have made this 15 or 20. There's so many other songs I could probably list. It's interesting how many 90's songs and albums I've later discovered way after the 90's. For the first half of the decade, I didn't really pay much attention to music but by the middle of the decade I was starting to become more and more aware of it. By the end of the decade, I was watching music videos and listening to the radio and knew what was being released at that time. The truth is,
the 1999 Billboard hot 100 is a major list of most 90's songs I knew by the end of the decade. The early 2000's is when I was up to date with everything being released and discovering Pink Floyd or Pet Shop Boys and other musical influences that have stayed with me. However, it's hard to call songs of 1999 major songs of the decade for me with it basically wrapping up at that time so I've stuck with the ones that take me back further than that point. In the end, I've decided to conclude with this one:
Amish Paradise - Weird AlI've maybe heard the actual song Gangsta's Paradise all the way through maybe 2 times. However, I can recite all the lyrics to Amish Paradise. It's what introduced me to Weird Al and has always served as a reminder that even though songs can be powerful and emotional and serious, there's also something really wonderful about them when they are just fun and silly too. It was another friend who introduced me to this song when I was visiting him and every time I went over, we would play this song and album at least once. I've been following Weird Al for 20 years since. Here's
the hilarious video and song.
Topic: What are your 10 favorite songs from the 90's? (Read 4450 times)
