93 Blind Melon - No Rain
86 Counting Crows - Mr Jones
84 Sublime - What I Got
77 Hootie and the Blowfish - Hold My Hand
64 Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry
52 Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
47 All 4 One - I Swear
38 The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
25 Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
15 Nelly Furtado - I'm Like a Bird
14 Hootie and the Blowfish - I Only Wanna Be With You
12 Will Smith - Gettin Jiggy with It

Sir, I've time for all these songs.....how can one not appreciate Hootie & The Blowfish? Cracked Rear View was one of the greatest 90s albums fo' sho'.

Moonbeam said:

I love this song!!!!!

89 Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
52 Natalie Imbruglia - Torn

mrjun18 said:

this song is the shit! With Mary singing the hook and everything!!

Huggiebear said:

Huge hit for a reason: good song.


Far from an Alanis wannabe. She had another hit song with "I Don't Wanna Know", which put a lot of money in her pocket by being the theme to Dawson's Creek.

Huggiebear said:

Far from another Alanis wannabe ( ). "Sunny Came Home" was Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. Perk up your ears.

No one wants to be Alanis, or like her. It's juvenile when someone tries to attack a singer and resort to some school yard rant about "they're just jealous" or "they're a wannabe". They sounded NOTHING like Alanis anyway. Alanis has unique of a voice as Macy Gray. How Paula Cole or Shawn Colvin was trying to "be" like Alanis is beyond me.

And do your homework. Alanis was done w/ her tour and record by December 1996, and off to India to get away from it all. "Sunny Came Home" wasn't released until June 1997. (I worked in a major record store chain when those 1997 songs hit, and Alanis was nowhere around. No one was buying her stuff.) Shawn Colvin is a folk/pop singer, not a rock singer like Alanis was becoming. Totally different vocal and music styles, and genres.

"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" was released March 1997, and was recorded in 1995, the same year "You Oughta Know" was released, which means neither knew who the other was when they wrote their songs, giving your "wannabe" accusation no merit.

ernestsewell said:

Actually, it's "I Don't Wanna Wait"

elmer said:

I never knew why Hootie was such a joke to people. While I'm not a huge fan of them in general, I can recognize that it was a diverse band, and even post-Hootie material has shown itself to be a versatile group of band members. Black dude doing country music? Dude, that's the new millenium's Charlie Pride!!! People say, "Who's Charlie Pride?" Pffft, FIND THE FUCK OUT. Cracked Rear View was infectious pop/rock that obviously made a huge note in music history, or we wouldn't be talking about it.

Moonbeam said:

I salute your passion, even if some of your choices occasionally leave me scratching my head a little. I think these two are among the best popular singles of the 90s.

Huggiebear said:

Well that line was packed with frustration and disappointment, so it wasn't settin' back nuthin'.

That's still a good song, to me.

I just absolutely abhor his voice, his style and the lyrics. They're among my bottom 10 artists ever. Sorry!

Moonbeam said:

Why would you be sorry if you feel so strongly about something?

I agree. "Will You Marry Me" sucked. Paula's career in the '80s had a lot with finding a good producer. "Forever Your Girl" was her best album. Whatever she released after that fell behind though "Spellbound" had a few good songs on it. But that song was horrid.

TonyVanDam said:

You can't be serious! the production is cheap and awful!

JoeTyler said:

Fair enough. But the lyrics to Boom Boom Boom Boom are straight to the point, just the way I like my women. No foreplay whatsoever!

ernestsewell said:

I just absolutely abhor his voice, his style and the lyrics. They're among my bottom 10 artists ever. Sorry!

Huggiebear said:

Huge hit for a reason: good song.


Far from an Alanis wannabe. She had another hit song with "I Don't Wanna Know", which put a lot of money in her pocket by being the theme to Dawson's Creek.

Huggiebear said:

Far from another Alanis wannabe ( ). "Sunny Came Home" was Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. Perk up your ears.

No one wants to be Alanis, or like her. It's juvenile when someone tries to attack a singer and resort to some school yard rant about "they're just jealous" or "they're a wannabe". They sounded NOTHING like Alanis anyway. Alanis has unique of a voice as Macy Gray. How Paula Cole or Shawn Colvin was trying to "be" like Alanis is beyond me.

And do your homework. Alanis was done w/ her tour and record by December 1996, and off to India to get away from it all. "Sunny Came Home" wasn't released until June 1997. (I worked in a major record store chain when those 1997 songs hit, and Alanis was nowhere around. No one was buying her stuff.) Shawn Colvin is a folk/pop singer, not a rock singer like Alanis was becoming. Totally different vocal and music styles, and genres.

"Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" was released March 1997, and was recorded in 1995, the same year "You Oughta Know" was released, which means neither knew who the other was when they wrote their songs, giving your "wannabe" accusation no merit.

My reasons don't necessarily make sense to anyone but me.

The 90s threw up some diabolical music, besides all the bands that jumped on the grunge bandwagon, we had to put up with pap rappers like Vanilla Ice and Snow. But can you think of 10 songs that really annoyed the fxxk out of you then and even now. I can, here they are.

10. Breakfast at Tiffanys - Deep Blue Something 1996?
God this was annoying, a one hit wonder and played to death on AOR and MOR stations, it wasn't even very good as middle of the road adult contemporary crap.

9. Where have all the cowboys gone - Paula Cole 1996/97?
Ridiculous Alanis Morrisette wannabe, with ridiculous lyrics (I'm gonna get you ready in my 57 chevy), and lyrics that put womens lib back in the 50s, "I'll get the coffee, you go have a beer"

8. Sunny Came Home - Shawn Colvin 1996?
Another horrendous Morrisette rip off with a silly song about Sunny coming home, did big business in the midst of Morrisette mania.

7. Touch me, Tease Me - Case 1995/96
Had the lyrics, "You're the only one for me in my 94 Wrangler Jeep", need I say more. R Kelly and a lot of inferior Da Brat/Jermaine Dupri type stop start rap with that annoying ping pong beat came out of this.

6. Two Times - Ann Lee 1999
This song is memorable for its stop start beat, and the fact like 13 whole different words feature in the lyrics, including a line that sounds like "Me and Tea Leone we the only ones". However this is probably not the correct lyrics.

5. The One and Only - Chesney Hawkes 1991
Generic pop crap carried on by an English guy who thought he was a huge star on his first and only hit. Apparently his family was the whole fan club.

4. Macarena - Los Del Mar 1996
The original was bad enough, but this was a low grade remake by the apparent creators of this song was insuffrable

3. Mambo No 5 - Lou Bega 1998/99
Face it people it wasn't that great, this was truly tacky then and now.

2. Who am I, where am I? - Jesus Jones 1991
Just to prove I am not only bashing the late 90s, the early 90s stunk too, the first hit Right here, right now was bad enough, but the za zen zahaha part of this song was justifiable torture.

1. Pump it, pump it nice and hard - Icy Blu 1991
Totally dreadful made for label pop rap made by an unknown girl who was trying to outdo Vanilla Ice in the cheesiness stakes, she had the one hit, which made Carmen Electra and Tony M look like MC Lyte and Ice Cube. Can anyone remember this


So can you guys think of some 90s hits worse than Spunilla Ice. I did.
[Edited 5/23/10 3:57am]
[Edited 5/23/10 3:58am]


Nowhere is it mentioned, that ernestsewell or anyone else should be crucifying me for this list.
[Edited 5/23/10 12:46pm]

I agree that it is your opinion, and some seem to be getting a little TOO bent out of shape about it, but I disagree that Paula Cole's "Cowboys" is ridiculous. It has a subtle, haunting melody and vocals, and the lyrics, while on the surface seem to belittle the Feminist Movement, they are much deeper. I think Paula was being sarcastic in her writing. There's no way she really subscribes to those archaic ideals. I mean, she refuses to shave her pits for criminie's sake!

SEANMAN said:

There really is something haunting about the background vocals and her delivery on that song. It's not the best song ever, but it certainly made an impact in music. You know, in the 90's, a lot of music had gotten very "canned" sounding, very hollow in percussion, and over-produced in other areas. Songs like "Sunny Came Home" or "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" was a back lash against that. Even "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks, despite it's drum machine in the beginning, had a more organic and 'real' sound to it. I don't mind that backlash by Cole, Colvin, Brooks, and others. Totally agree about the sarcasm too. The same arguments were made with "Bitch". It's really about empowerment, not submission or backtracking. Hell, "Sunny" is about a girl who plans to murder her lover, stating there needs to be "a few small repairs" (the name of her album too), and that the girl isn't a crazed murder fiend, but rather a desperate woman taking control of her life. In the end of the song, we hear her strike the match, but blow it out instead of setting the house on fire. That, to me, says she took an even bigger state of control of her life and took the high road, instead of lowering herself to murder.

Music has an ebb and flow to it over the decades, and that was a bit of a reprieve from grunge and tin can pop/R&B. It kind of happened again in 1999/2000 onward with boy bands and blond pop princesses doing bubble gum music and dirty pop, but you can folks like Jill Scott sneaking up through the cracks like a flower in the concrete, offering a little bloom of musical color in an otherwise hard and gray landscape of music.

For the record, I never crucified you, Huggiebear. I challenged your list, and stayed on topic, even though you accused me of hijacking your thread. So now even if I'm on topic, it's bad, huh?

Looks like a few folks agree with my little two cents on a couple of songs. (This looks like gloating to me) You know Huggie, the songs aren't yours, or mine. Neither of us wrote, produced, played on, or had anything to do with those songs. For you to get so wrapped up in them that you take a debate or a challenge personally is a bit odd. There's a level of healthy debate and someone saying "I don't agree and here's why" that good. I never called you a dickhead or a numbskull or anything derogatory. I did wonder what Shawn or Paula songs you were hearing that would make you compare them to Alanis, but you never gave me any other examples of that. You climbed up on that cross, and cried boo hoo. You offered a well-rounded list of songs you dislike, yet you can't defend your choices when someone disagrees? Surely you're stronger than that. It's not that either of us are going to convince the other of our own opinions, but there has to be a level of mutual respect for disagreeing, yet having a healthy debate. Maybe you just don't believe your list as much as you'd like people to think you do? Eh, who knows.

All that doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong. It's right to me, but the stuff I disagree with is right to you, so who's right and who's wrong? NEITHER. It means we have different opinions. That kind stuff is what keeps the world interesting, don't you think? I mean, if we all agreed all the time, what a boring fucking place that would be to live in, eh?

Now chill out.

ernestsewell said:

Yeah but maybe, your acerbic comments at the start, opened the floodgates for a whole lot of venal abuse, and the orighinal idea of people attacking my opinions of songs was not the intention of this thread. It was for other lists of dreadful sounding 90s songs to show up on the thread, not Huggiebear has got it wrong comments. I made some mistakes, but who dosen't.
You should realise too, a lot of the artists you people have mentioned, never had songs released in New Zealand or were really only known in alternative circles, this is mainly as we have a lot of our own local artists (May is always New Zealand Music month here), songs from Britain and Australia and even some European (Mostly German and Swedish stuff) that floods our charts, at most music by American artists would make up 40% of what charts here (Most of our charting music is from the UK and Australia). So when Sunny and Cowboys along with Bitch all came out in 96/97, a lot of us attributed then to having the Alanis sound. The Alanis hysteria here lasted from July 95 to early 1997 and her second album even got some attention, until people realised how dreadful it was.
What I am saying, is I started this thread for fun, but once again, you and a few others judged me by American standards and crucified me for not being the Billboard walking encyclopaedia of musical knowledge. Why should everything posted here, have to be an exact scientific explanation, this is prince.org not graduate school.

Perhaps you need to chill out and realise my thread was not started in Music city America, but rural New Zealand which is far away from the USA as you can get. Why can't we have some fun on this site, instead of people like you and a few others have to crucify me for making mistakes about a few songs and not being 100% in tune with the so called opinions you guys think everyone should hold.
[Edited 5/25/10 12:57pm]