50 Memorable Songs Of The Late 1990s That Apparently Only You Remember, Even Though They Were Totally On The Radio And Stuff

Added, in honor of Somebody helped me figure out what fucking song this is! - MC Breed, "It's All Good"

kind of hard for me to believe that #8 "The Fix (remix)" is real even though it shows every indication of being an actual video that was played on MTV2

do we have a "Directed by: Paul Hunter" appreciation thread yet

WAOOOW! AWRIGHT Y'ALL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ5av3dglzY

Stroke 9 - "Letters." Followup to the unexpected success of the re-release of four-year-old track "Little Black Backpack." A Modern Rock #27 "hit"; pretty sure I haven't heard it since a week or two in early 2000. You're leaving me here. Dear. Alone with all your lettERS.

I've never heard that song before, but I am aware of Stroke 9 through their song "Kick Some Ass", which I've often thought of it as one of the last songs of the "90s" since I only saw the video for it once and that was on like September 9, 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0Ds0sYARY

Pushmonkey - "Handslide." Also known as "the 'break that water' song."

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

God, Pushmonkey were fucking HUGE on Houston Rock radio in '96.

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

― WE WANT FET WAP (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, June 28, 2015 7:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm having trouble imagining a dad playing this CD a lot in the car, was your dad a member of stroke 9?

Playlist updated btw! Found a bunch of things not previously available, and purged some karaoke versions. Threw in K's Choice - Everything For Free, which somehow hasn't come up here already.

Still missing, for future checkup reference:

Billy Lawrence - Come On
LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest"
Warren G's "Smokin' Me Out"
Little T and One-Trick mike - Shaniqua Don't Live Here No More
B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem)
Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne"
Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"
Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"
Forest For The Trees, "Dream"
sun 60 c'mon kiss me
Amateur Lovers - consolation prize
702 - steelo
qkumba zoo - the child inside
Liquido - Narcotic
Liquido - Play Some Rock
Chopper One - Punk Named Josh
Carnival Art
Moxy Fruvous - King of Spain
Patti Rothberg - Inside
Sylk E Fyne, Romeo & Juliet
Sylk E Fyne - Keep It Real
Asante "Look at What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"
Dayna Manning - My Addiction
Eve's Plum - I Want It All
Fluorescein - Cathy's On Crank
Sprung Monkey - Get 'Em Outta Here
Huffamoose - Wait
Filter - Jurassitol
Memory Dean - So Complicated
Cardigans - My Favorite Game
Jerry Cantrell - And the Fools Shine On
Jerry Cantrell - Leave Me Alone

that's https://open.spotify.com/user/doctorcasino/playlist/2taIeJ0IhYbdEJWgGXJBsK

Billy Crawford - Urgently in Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp1oAy5lwZQ

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

― WE WANT FET WAP (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, June 28, 2015 7:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm having trouble imagining a dad playing this CD a lot in the car, was your dad a member of stroke 9?

We just listened to a lot of modern rock radio!

haha, fair, fair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdAt4qWvz_8

Squirrel Nut Zippers - "Put A Lid On It," the followup to the unlikely success of "Hell." I also feel like I heard "The Suits Are Picking Up The Bill" (the go-nowhere lead single from the next album) but listening to it, it seems like there's no way this ever got on the radio -- maybe on a station promo compilation or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8IPLgAIueo

The Urge - Jump Right In (1998). Featuring Nick Hexum of 311, who clearly shot all his scenes separately and is thus spared from having to perform fifteen feet in the air on a wobbling pole. So many questions about this video - why the bleak, washed-out color for this mood-boosting ska song? Why Chinatown? Why the Hare Krishnas?

I had totally missed these guys the first time around but they still have some kind of beloved institution status here in St. Louis; singer is some kind of local sausage magnate now?

I hope they have local TV ads urging people to jump right in... to a double-dog combo!

Oh man, "Jump Right In"...I saw The Urge on my first Warped Tour in '98. They were on the main stage in a mid-size arena with a shitty PA. But half the floor was a mosh pit (easily the biggest I'd seen at that point), and when "Jump Right In" started it was like getting permission to tear shit up.

I always liked how they worked the band name into the lyrics ("Fought the urge to do it..."). Imagine there was a lot of high-fiving in the studio that day.

I kept thinking of that video during "Fury Road"

hahaha, oh man, video mashup waiting to happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRQMB0tkBY

The Nixons - "Baton Rouge." This was a top 10 rock hit in 1997.

And I bet hasn't been played on the radio since mid-1998.

Wow. Really struggling to say whether I've ever heard this before. Even more grating than I remember most of this era of post-grunge being. Guy's vocal delivery should have been saved in a time capsule, along with basically everything about the video.

This is from 2000, so I'm not sure if quite counts:
Elwood - Sundown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu-fH2b7Pro

Maybe about time for the early 2000s version of this thread tbh.

Ooh I dunno like, we'll need to carry out a detailed cost-analysis. In the meantime:

top 10 hits that no one remembers

(I'm sure they accept genre chart top 10s, they're nice people)

ha sorry, that came out weird but basically i've been thinking about launching the 'sequel' but wondering if the time was ripe in terms of enough 'distance' from the early 2000s. but i just checked and i started this thread barely seven years out from the late 90s. so...yeah.

Now That Was Totally On The Radio and Stuff! Vol. 2: Forgotten Singles of the Early 2000s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibawg0lW7Kw

Presidents of the United States of America - Video Killed the Radio Star

Used to love this band, thought this cover and "Cleveland Rocks" both outdid the originals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Myp1plDUGA

Gangsta Boo - Don't Stand So Close

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQaMMJQwtgM

Goodie Mob feat. Big Boi and Backbone, "Get Rich to This"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4QfYcMRN9E

Vertical Horizon - We Are (1999). First single off the album that subsequently yielded the lousy mega-hit "Everything You Want" and the less-remembered "You're A God." The video somewhat implausibly features a live crowd being super-hyped about seeing Vertical Horizon, but YMMV. Popped into my head just now for reasons I cannot explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPUY_otr-Q

Master P - Kenny's Dead (1998). Mayfield-derived tribute to the South Park character. I don't think I've posted this one before - a real artifact of the early South Park popularity phenomenon

.

if you count 2002 as late 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-py5G1j4Q

if you count 2002 as late 90s

2002 possibly the last year of the "long 90s" in terms of the viability of certain musical genres.

90s started with Nirvana
90s ended with Limp Bizkit or 9/11, take your pick

did....Limp Bizkit do 9/11?

Now That Was Totally On The Radio and Stuff! Vol. 2: Forgotten Singles of the Early 2000s

some good 'long 90s' vs. 'interzone' discussion here i think: The song that represents the END of the 90s

as someone pointed out in that thread, the video for "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit has them playing on top of the World Trade Center.

Summercamp - Drawer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_k-6U8HOc

guessing this was more popular in the UK but "Millenium" by Robbie Williams is like the best forgotten 90's jam

^^ I wish it were forgotten o'er here, still hear it a lot in stores, stations I don't listen to etc.

In the US it basically didn't exist except for mysteriously honorific placement in a Now! advertisement iirc.

"Millennium," and some other Williams tracks, got quite a bit of play here in Canada, both on radio and on Much Music, but it always felt like an attempt to make Robbie Williams happen in North America far more than actual demand. His albums pretty much collected dust at the record store I worked at during that time.

yea I definitely remember MTV fawning over him, "he's a big star in the UK, he's gonna be like the Spice Girls!" but that lasted about three weeks. love that tune though.

to this day in my mind I still think of this as being a huge hit but BradNelson and I seem to be the only 2 ppl on the planet who know this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0NILJQN-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXzphHiHD8

Bad Ronald - "Shoot the ****" (lol)

"I've been waitin all day for that Bad Ronald" is probably my favorite opening line in a debut single

Our Lady Peace are huge in Canada. I heard that song all the time.

hahah for some inexplicable reason i once owned the CD single of "Is Anybody Home?" i didn't even like it very much! certainly not compared to "Clumsy" and "Superman's Dead" which were JAMS to me and my tenth-grade buddies. feels like something from the dollar bin, or maybe the free bin.

That OLP guy's voice was a major public nuisance here in Canada for about a decade.

imo the our lady peace album that contains "is anybody home" is their best record and an alt-rock classic but

the only OLP song I like is "Naveed"

I don't know that Authority Zero song but it sounds like something the Sims would listen to at one of their rockin' parties

haha otm

Bad Ronald one of the very first acts posted to the early 2000s sequel to this thread. Now as then, I attempted listening to it and was caught in a void of vague familiarity, as if I had indeed heard it once upon a time.

oh damn - must be a misprint on my memory

Some random songs I have on an alt-rock "follow up singles that weren't as popular" playlist:

Elastica - Car Song
Tripping Daisy - Piranha
Better than Ezra - Rosealia
Cranberries - Ridiculous Thoughts

Also, how about Blind Melon "Galaxie"??

I love the hook and the dark vibe. Creepy video too. Went to #8 modern rock. RIP Shannon Hoon.

did....Limp Bizkit do 9/11?

― Neanderthal, Thursday, 30 March 2017 04:46 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry for formatting I'm on my mobile. I was doing my normal YouTube research for the truth and i stumbled upon this song by Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (air raid vehicle) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYnFIRc0k6E).

All of a sudden, it hit me. This is blatant conspiracy at work.

Right at the beginning you see a car and its license plate (http://i.imgur.com/dLrHU.png). I did some simple math and realized that 9 and then 9+5-6-6-9-5 = negative 12. Put together, that is 9-12. This is all on a Bentley which is symbolism that after 9-11 on 9-12 the rich will be the ones who have all of the power (symbolized from the car and the fact that it has a lot of horsepower). Ben Stiller is the driver of the car which shows that both the JEWs and HOLLYWOOD are intertwined and involved heavily in the events of 9/11.

Seconds later you can see the Bentley superimposed over the twin towers (http://i.imgur.com/tLUXo.png) obvious foreshadowing of Jewish power and their taking the lead in 9/11.

Then it cuts to them performing ON the WTC building roof and on the helicopter landing pad (http://i.imgur.com/5dGvK.png). OBVIOUSLY mocking everyone because on 9/11 there would be no LANDINGS.

The lyrics “keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin“ are obviously a foretelling of America’s foreign policy after 9/11 – keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ into foreign countries and taking them over. Predictive programming I would say.

As you can see (http://i.imgur.com/rDDjt.png) everyone is wearing the same outfit. Obviously, painfully shoving it in our face that FEMA would be setting up camps in the near future and we will all be stuck in them WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT. MORE PREDICTIVE PROGRAMMING.

Also this video proves without a doubt that if Limp Bizkit was able to perform a concert full with lighting equipment and backup dancers on the WTC buildings without getting stopped then it would be painfully easy to lace the building with bombs to demolish it on 9/11.

Then there are the lyrics “You cant mess with Limp Bizkit” By proxy, you cant mess with the government and they are rubbing it right in your face.

Many would point to the dress and makeup of the guitarist as symbolism or some shit but they are stupid. He is obviously a false flag to distract you from the real shit Limp Bizkit is pulling.

There is so much more imbedded in this video (didn't touch on the obvious Illuminati references) but I can't spoon feed you guys everything. WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!

Scrolling down I was sure ^^ this was a Karl Malone post, but halfway I was like 'no wait, it's bizarro'. Kudos. The Bentley is a dead giveaway tbh.

all credit must go to a redditor whose account is now deleted, presumably because they were getting dangerously close to the truth

does anyone else remember "Got You (Where I Want You)" by The Flys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM_OWaItNJM

yeah that song is dope

love that one. chorus is probably the best fake Cornell to ever hit the radio.

video is fake "velouria" also, and iirc disturbing behavior was fake stepford wives, oh well

Classic 'One & Done' band. The song had its run, which concluded with both it and the band disappearing.

Thought about this song the other the day for the first time in forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIriSoch9rE

The video and song are both 'so 1996' that of course they came out in early '97.

From the comments:

Carlos Roots 2 years ago
Man, I used to wait up until all hours to watch this music video back in the 90's. Now, the only time I am up at all hours is if I have to go pee. Oh, and the lead singer looks strangely like my next door neighbor.
Reply 2
Mike M
Mike M 8 months ago
the lead singer probably is your neighbor

^^Orbit: "Medicine", for those w/images/vids off and still keeping score.

watching that Flys video, I'm reminded of a little bit of useless trivia: There were two versions of the song serviced to radio--one was the version heard in the video, with the other singer doing his rapping/toasting thing, and the other identical but with his track removed/muted.

Huh - a rare case of that being done to a white act - and one loud and grating enough that a top 40 crossover surely couldn't be in the cards. (Obviously things like the massive Semi-Charmed Life edit are sort of related, but specifically cutting out the 'rapper' is normally reserved for Supercat, Snoop Dogg, et al.)

That Orbit song isn't ringing any bells besides the really loud and clear debt to the Pixies' arrangements. The rest is a kind of mishmash of 1996, indeed - bit of Better than Ezra, bit of Gavin Rossdale, maybe even a bit of Trent Reznor. Not bad though!

Gilby Clarke (Izzy's replacement in GnR) brings the buttrock in '94. Both of these were MASSIVE on Houston radio at the time. For some reason I still vividly remember riding around all day on a Saturday in the summer and hearing one or the other every hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qg1APJTk14

"Tijuana Jail"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcboNoPcJyc

"Cure Me or Kill Me"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsQZvsR_QI

Is it true that Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in LA wasn't a hit i. The US? I know it was big in Canada and in Mexico.

I found out it wasn't that popular in the US after a couple of friends and me were drunk singing the chorus in LA (felt apropos and we very surely sounded like idiots) and some people were asking us what song it was. I went to the wiki article the next day and apparently it didn't chart at all in the US but did good on UK and Canada and still gets some airplay now and then.

It was an alternative sort of "hit" the video for which got played a lot in NZ too, dunno if it sold at all. I get it in my head a lot still.

Same. Was a huge hit w/ MTV Europe, they played the shit out of that video (regardless of how it charted I suppose).

It got short-term alt-rock radio play in the US. It didn't really "take," but people like me (aka teenagers obsessively listening to such stations in the late 90s) know it and can sing along if you bring it up.

(Also, thinking about that, if someone else wants to start an Early 90s version of this thread for things like those Gilby Clarke tracks, they should go for it! I didn't start digging into radio and MTV until right around '95 so it wouldn't really be my turf.)

damn, sugar should've sued orbit

Is it true that Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in LA wasn't a hit i. The US?

I worked at Sam Goody when it came out and we received one copy that never sold during the year-and-a-half that I worked there. I only just listened to it now for the first time.

It got enough play on MTV for me to buy the album; I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio.

I didn't have MTV at the time and also never heard it on the radio.

It got enough play on MTV for me to buy the album; I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio.

― PJD PDJ DPJ (DJP), Wednesday, May 24, 2017 6:06 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same, and I even hung around for their second album, which I still think is really actually pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUNWhKq80_s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-DmFtryFY

wow, never heard that before in my life. #1 on Mainstream Rock, as was "Without You"! Actually based on chart placement they have a lot of contenders for this thread, from that greatest hits album and the one Gary Cherone record. "Humans Being" and "Fire In The Hole" were also top-ten Mainstream Rock and "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "One I Want" made #12 and #27 respectively. What stations were playing this stuff though?

There was an Active Rock station in my area that played it a lot. (Not sure if that format exists anymore.) Another popular station in my area was splitting 2/3's classic rock with 1/3 dad-friendly '90s rock bands like Alice In Chains, Tom Petty etc.

I definitely heard this song a lot on the radio within the months after VH appeared at the VMAs with Roth but the song was not an MTV hit.

tasmin archer sleeping satellite

'96 was one of the last years geezers made a big impact on Album/Mainstream (Soon to be rebranded "Active") Rock Radio. Plus, Roth getting back together w/VH was a Big Deal--I remember the evening DJ in Houston taking listener calls on air all night when the news broke.

Speaking of reunions, this might of been one of--if not the last old dude (or old dude not named "Ozzy") radio jam before the Nu Metal takeover of late '98.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnxz6yXRJL0

Page/Plant: "Most High"

^^ENGINEERED BY STEVE ALBINI

Just updated the Spotify playlist with stuff mentioned in the last couple years, plus a nice handful of tracks that have finally showed up on there. For my own reference, these are still missing:

LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest"
Little T and One Track Mike, "Shaniqua" (2001)
B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem)
Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"
Forest For The Trees, "Dream"
Sun-60, "C'mon Kiss Me"
Amateur Lovers, "Consolation Prize"
Sylk-E. Fyne, "Romeo & Juliet"
Sylk-E. Fyne, "Keep It Real"
Chopper One, "Punk Named Josh"
Carnival Art, [?]
Yvette Michele, "I'm Not Feelin You"
INXS, "Elegantly Wasted"
Patti Rothberg, "Inside"
Asante "Look What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"
Dayna Manning, "My Addiction"
Fluorescein, "Cathy's On Crank"
Memory Dean, "So Complicated"
Billy Crawford, "Urgently In Love"
Janet Jackson, "Runaway"
Drivin n Cryin, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"

That link again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpHWiiaC4Ow

Everclear - The Swing, a So Much For The Afterglow afterthought that saw the light of day on the Scream 2 soundtrack. My station played it approximately twice, for some reason (it was not a single).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yqls1UvU6oI

96 was one of the last years geezers made a big impact on Album/Mainstream (Soon to be rebranded "Active") Rock Radio.

I mean, Dave Grohl, whose band has the current #4 song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, is the same age that Robert Plant was in 1996.

cf. Marilyn Manson, who has the #5 song

Local H: Bound to the Floor

Love Spit Love - How Soon Is Now

Does anyone remember this? Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs fronted this band and had a radio hit with the Smiths cover.

Opening theme to Charmed! How could anyone forget? :)

I mean, Dave Grohl, whose band has the current #4 song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, is the same age that Robert Plant was in 1996.

Then swap out "Geezers" with "Classic Rock Artists Whose Careers Began In The '60s To Mid-'70s". Besides Group, there's also RHCP, who are now mostly in same ballpark, age-wise, as the Stones circa Bridges To Babylon, which kicked up a little noise on AOR in '97-8.

"Grohl", Stupid Phone.

Also: That LSL cover of "HSN?" was quite witchy, as it was recorded for and first appeared on the covers-heavy soundtrack to The Craft.

Of course, there are exceptions to my Classic Rock Rule.

Aerosmith spun a few AOR radio hits off 1997's Nine Lives before "Pink" actually crossed over to Top 40 late in the year. I actually heard the radio premiere of this, the first single, early that year. It was supposedly a 'Satellite Transmission' prefaced by a mayday recording of Steven Tyler crashing a spaceship on the "Planet Fallopia" (or some other equally dopey entendre).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BaVSjFWZbY

Aerosmith: "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)"

Sammy Hagar relaunched himself as a liquor impresario and Kid Rock's Dad or Grampa in '98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKUPj1UfR0

Sammy Hagar: "Mas Tequila"

And then there's the Stones...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0ZM6HWj4s

The Rolling Stones: "Flip The Switch"

In the mid to late 90s, between the ages of 11 and 14, I made a series of VHS tapes featuring all the songs I liked on Musique plus and Much Music. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of tracks from Local H's As Good as Dead on them… Some memories are best repressed forever.

some dude gave us "Mas Tequila" upthread, and I can't believe that "Bound For The Floor" is really forgotten.... but y'all have reminded me to add "Eddie Vedder" to the playlist along with "Flip the Switch" which I'm not sure I've ever heard before. I had a friend who repped for Bridges to Babylon for about... a week I think.

I got Nine Lives as a castoff from the same guy and I remembered "Falling In Love" being a little more exciting than it now seems. Something really doughy and sluggish about it despite the horns and other signifiers of energy and fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU

Powerman 5000 - When Worlds Collide

(can't imagine anyone who's ever heard this mess has forgotten it, but it had a pretty brief moment in radio rotation and it's another one where the entire genre is sort of out in the cold right now)

^ an ice hockey dressing room smash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kXiLeBXzG4

Jamiroquai - Alright. Third single off the album led by "Virtual Insanity." I remember it, like "Cosmic Girl," getting at least token airplay (maybe even with more of a 'rock' remix? can't find any proof of that existing)... and then it was gone. I suspect they're thought of as one-hit wonders in the US even though "Canned Heat" topped the dance charts and the video was around for a minute.

Surprised to realize Metallica hasn't come up here yet. Between Load (1996), Reload (1997), Garage Inc. (1997) and S&M (1999), they were constantly pushing new product (twelve singles!) in the late 90s, a period capped off in 2000 with substantial hit "I Disappear" off the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack. I won't list them all, and a few of them like "Fuel," "Until It Sleeps" and their cover of "Turn The Page" are surely not forgotten... but when was the last time you heard Mainstream Rock chart-topper "No-Leaf Clover" or the covers of "Die, Die My Darling" and "Whiskey in the Jar"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd9ohpDDCRU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boanuwUMNNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTqxn6KCNs

I don't know if The Tuesdays ever made an appearance on US radio in the late 90s, but they come off as a rigorous attempt to craft a Bangles for that era--something that 1997 probably wasn't looking for, but I still think its kind of a shame that they never had more of a career. I had pretty much forgotten about them until I found their self-titled (and only?) album among my CDs a few weeks ago. On the whole, its a bit too ballad-heavy, but in their better moments, they come up with some irresistible sugar-rush pop songs like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljV0KM5zZOk

Doesn't ring any bells with me. It's nice though! The Beatlesy backing vocals are cute. Agreed that it doesn't really feel like a US pop single in 1997. Maybe countrify it more and you have a viable Dixie Chicks alternative, or make it a lot poppier and glossier, and the positive-vibes message would get you into a Vitamin C kind of space.

Stretch Princess, whose s/t album came out in 1998 and who had songs featured in She's All That, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Buffy and Smallville, were a British three-piece who glenn mcdonald perfectly describes "sound like an extremely meticulous pop archivist has gone through the catalogs of 'til tuesday, Sarge, the Sundays, the Bangles, the Rose Chronicles, Grace Pool, the Cranberries, Veruca Salt, Emm Gryner, the Go-Go's, Paula Cole, Lush, the Primitives and Marry Me Jane, extracting only the purest moments of glossy melodic passion. I don't know if they did anything on US radio, but their soundtrack credentials are as late 90s as they come. "Sorry" (the one from Teaching Mrs. Tingle) was my fave, but if this is anything close to the kind of thing you like, I strongly recommend the full album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OqzWDsNthM

No memory of that on US radio myself, but you're on the money with the soundtrack lineup. To my ears, the sound is just little bit of a throwback to a couple years before in terms of grunge/post-grunge guitar and vocals; it doesn't quite sound like what I was hearing in 1998.

I had a friend in high school who saw Stretch Princess open for...I want to say Creed (back when Creed still toured clubs), and was raving about them the next morning in gym class.

Hmmm, plausible - they were on the same label (Wind-Up) it seems.

I'm doubting that Creed story now. I genuinely don't remember the headliner was.

ANYWAY, no track to share. I've got a rental car this week that doesn't have a CD player. So I've been listening to the area Alt. Rock station and they just played the discussed upthread Flys: "Got You Where I Want You", which was unexpected to say the least.

man "me wise magic" sucks, huh

was roth going for early scott weiland on the verses?

i think i voted for that song in the vh poll

the chorus has at least something headsticky to it but the verses are sludge, and the intro sounds like a frightening harbinger of "kryptonite" by 3 doors down before then going into an incredibly awkward portamento transition. also i can't shake the suspicion that "me wise magic" is dave's idea of voodoo-shaman talk or jamaican patois or some other area i really don't want him troping into. an event reunion single that feels much more like the last gasps of a dino-rock act before breaking up. maybe serious VH heads dig eddie's solos though?

really pleased to see yvette michele mentioned here. the single that i remember more vividly, besides the funkmaster flex mixtape favorite 'everyday & everynight' (which is also awesome), was 'dj keep playin' (get your music on)': https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IGXsXU79RRE that was a full force production too, iirc.

her whole album was really good and one of the only r+b records i liked from that era.

I loved and still do love that first Stretch Princess album. Went through a period in 1998/99 where it was chiefly all I'd listen to for days at a time.

xp "Me Wise Magic" is insane and shouldn't exist

but i actually came here to post this lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTESaoSU_8

do you actually remember it??

not at all

oh great now i have "meeeee wise magic" stuck in my head again

don't fight it. that 9/8 intro mmm

I loved that Reply All podcast but did not at all imagine Evan Olson as a Neil Patrick Harris clone

the evan olson song is a flight of conchords thing right

Oh my God, this was such a ride!
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx/158-the-case-of-the-missing-hit for those that haven't heard it

yeah it's wild! i wish they'd followed up with more of their sources once they reached the conclusion. but super entertaining listening.

pretty entertaining detective story (i h8 podcasts and managed to make it through), but with the reveal of what the song was it's clear that the extent to which the song had been 'erased from existence' or 'scrubbed from the internet' or however they kept putting it was quite a big exaggeration. it may have seemed that way initially when the song's lyrics were apparently ungooglable, but the track (w/ its parent album) seems to have been on youtube and digital download stores for a decade now, probably much longer?

searching thru radio & records issues from the time shows it got some play at a handful of top 40, hot ac and (to a lesser extent) alternative stations, but never secured enough play to crack even the bottom of those formats' charts. the track got mentioned in billboard's heatseekers column, which was meant to highlight music breaking regionally, before the album's originally planned release. it's unclear when it actually came out, because i don't think it ever ended up making even the heatseekers chart, but at least it did get released! like, here's billboard's amusingly hyperbolic review of the followup single that probably ended up getting played by approximately zero stations.

as the sources interviewed in the podcast said, it seems to have been quite a common fate for artists scooped up while the industry bubble was at its largest. it's no surprise that many of them ended up pretending to be undiscovered talent on american idol a few years later.

on a related note: this is from the early rather than late 90s, but what strikes me about it is that it actually charted on billboard, but i'm not sure if it actually ever came out. it's "let's get into something sexy" by erik hicks, which got just enough airplay to hit the bottom rungs of billboard's chart for the rhythmic top 40 format for two weeks (and the hot 100 airplay chart for one week).

finding this song + him on discogs reveals ZERO releases by this artist other than this one song on a promo cd. (however he does have numerous production, writing and session credits on other artists' releases.) so despite getting some minor (but not negligible) airplay, he never got to put an album out, and it's possible the single never got released to retail either. googling the song leads to a small number of hits, including forum posts from collectors struggling to find it. it's not even on youtube (tho apparently another recording of the same song is??). TRULY erased!

i recall having seen a couple other similar examples but i think they were country artists so there's no way in hell i'll remember them

actually just to be a horrible contrarian i'm going to put my tin foil hat on and insist that those podcast people actually knew of evan olson's tune all this time and just concocted this whole saga/detective story knowing it would be excellent podcast material. the rolling stone folks suspecting a viral marketing hoax were onto something!!

Somehow youtube algorithm recommended me to listen to Eve 6 after almost two decades of forgetting about them.

“Inside out” and “leech” were sort of popular on alt radio. Does anyone remembers them at all? The Leech video doesn’t even have 1M views so I guess not. Inside Out is definitely more popular with 18M views.

https://youtu.be/TB_g3KYs2QM

Oddly enough I think Leech is the catchier song despite being less popular.

"inside out" was very big, "leech" not so much so.

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

their faked-up versions of the song (tho delightful imo) also may have muddied the waters by losing all the sonic tags of a '99-era would-be hit, which the song undoubtedly shares with half the playlist.

man that fake U2 chorus tho. not a lot of people out there going that directly for bono's gold. tho i think it helped me realize how much collective soul wanted to be in that space (see: the guitars and drums in "heavy," now seems very obvious to me as an attempt to pump the Achtung Baby sound up to late 90s compression and attack standards).

Is there a comparable thread somewhere for obscure '80s hits? I keep coming across these older songs whose artists and titles make me shrug but as soon as I hear them I'm like 'ohhhhhh yeah!'. It's like stumbling upon a Riunite commercial on YT.

as far as this "series" goes, i've only made the late 90s and early 00s one (and really should launch the late 00s one) but i would not be surprised if there's some other thread that fills this role for the 80s!

Does anybody remember this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRC-X0twti0

I only really know of it because I googled music videos directed by McG, and MAYBE I heard back in the day, but I came across it again inspired by that Evan Olson song by going through old Mainstream Radio Promo CD playlists from that era on Discogs and finding songs that didn't show up on Lyrics Websites. However, lyrics were posted for this in a Yahoo Answers question.

wow, no, never heard this before but WHAT a time capsule. the main guitar thing in the verse sounds almost like a slowed-down sample of "Scar Tissue" and that video is like typical McG aesthetic crossed with "Steal My Sunshine" framing/editing. plus random turntable scratches.... the hyper-saturated blue track jacket versus bleached blonde hair.... just needs Supercat dropping in halfway through. total 1998-2001 interzone pop-rock.

not on Spotify tho

yeah, never heard that before, but it's an impossibly perfect example of the genus

for posterity in case of bum youtube link, we are discussing "Destiny" by "Mister Jones."

Been thinking a bit about this one lately, John Squires' Britpop move from '97.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVzUFNWIYM0

Seahorses: "Love Is The Law"

The album version had a long jam at the end.

John Squire, that is.

"Love Is The Law" actually racked up some decent Alt-Rock airplay for a month or so that summer. This follow-up, while having a much splashier video, didn't fare as well, although I do remember hearing it (alongside loads of other forgotten also-rans) on Muzaks at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv3J4HTThpQ

Seahorses: "Blinded By The Sun"

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

I think the issue was that the song is called "So Much Better," and those words don't actually exist in the lyrics. So if all you have is the lyrics and they're not on online anywhere, it's hard to get to the title/artist.

(But yeah, the song was out there, so it's not like it had totally vanished.)

That “Destiny” song is surprisingly good

(canceled on arrival, tho, for the f’d-up shot in which the “fat chick” twirls around and turns “hot”)

This thread has made me search for the tracklists on the Now! that’s what I call music compilations from Mexico. We only had 8 of them, but the selections we’re a tad weirder than those from US/UK. I’ve no idea what parameter they used to pick these songs since: a) some of them weren’t billboard top singles in Mexico or anywhere else? b) to the point you never really heard them on the radio, c) not even big hits on mtv that I’m aware of.

Let me point some examples after the break.

Apologies for the format, I’m copy/pasting from Discogs. Apparently the Mexican version of Now went all the way to 10, I lost track after Vol. 6 since there was a 2 year gap between 6 and 7 and they lost me. At any rate here are the 10 comps if you’re interested, some songs I can’t even recognize, overall I like the variety in every one of these.

https://www.discogs.com/es/label/1764152-Now-Thats-What-I-Call-Music!-7

Please take a look at least until Vol. 6 - which is the final volume of the 90’s - Lots of songs in there that could fit in this thread.

Ugh didn’t copy paste properly.

Anyhoo click on the link, you’ll find them there.

Ha, first one has Duran Duran's version of White Lines.

The Cranberries Free To Decide 3:52
–George Michael Fastlove 4:52
–Bryan Adams The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You 3:24
–Def Leppard Slang 2:36
–Everything But The Girl Wrong 6:40
–Fool's Garden Lemon Three 3:09
–Pet Shop Boys Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) 4:03
–The Cardigans Love Fool 3:15
–Larry Mullen And Adam Clayton Theme From Mission: Impossible 3:27
–Bon Jovi These Days 4:30
–Queen You Don't Fool Me 3:14
–Melissa Etheridge I Want To Come Over 5:25
–The Cure Mint Car 3:30
–Babylon Zoo Spaceman 4:00
–Pulp Disco 2000 4:32
–Sting Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot 4:29
–Shaggy Boombastic 3:47
–Gin Blossoms Follow You Down 3:45
–Roxette June Afternoon 4:11

Just copy-pasting Vol. 3 in here as an example. Vol. 3 was released in 1996 and I was 11 and it was the first cd I ever bought in my life.

Pains me to say these were actually the first songs I heard from almost every act in here... this includes “legacy” acts such as The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Def Leppard, George Michael and even Queen.

It annoys me nowadays, but at the time, “lemon tree” was the most fun cut in here for me. I had a thing with my cousin were we would rewind the song over and over again to hear the intro and act as we were the ones shattering the glass. The Paul McCartney-esque sing along quality to it also made it a maddeningly catchy song.

Songs I loved and still do: Lovefool, Follow You Down, Disco 2000, Boombastic and Wrong.

Songs I found weird, in a bad way: Spaceman

Songs I found weird, but in a good way: Se a Vida E and Fastlove.

Songs in here I found lame and still do: Songs by Roxette, Sting, Melissa Etheridge and Bon Jovi which have dull titles I wont even type.

Xpost:

As in Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines!? I had Vol. 1 but I must have blocked that memory from my head. I feel like this is the first time I learn about this.

I need to listen to this right away. Brb

That was terrible. I must have blocked that memory from my head on purpose.

I’ve now discovered that Duran Duran has a covers record. Is it worth listening to any of it, or are the results as ghastly as that “white lines” cover?

White Lines and the parent LP are mainstays of "worse record" lists.

Seahorses are a great pick! Kinda surprised they never came up before, I've always had them in my general 90s alt-rock playlist. I believe my station played "Love is the Law" exactly twice - once for me to go "ooh what is that?" and another time for me to tape it. cool riff, lyrics were fun to sing along to at the time. now strikes me as a little bit sluggish and overstuffed.

"Blinded by the Sun" is new to me. man, what a 1997 video. i wonder how many other Britpop acts had serious attempts to market them in the US before it became obvious circa Be Here Now that the American pop audience at large wasn't actually here for the genre, just "Wonderwall" and to a lesser extent "Champagne Supernova."

Wow, I'd forgotten about "Lemon Tree!" I think that similarly got exactly one week of one play per day before getting abandoned. Would not have guessed the band hailed from Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. Moka, that Volume III list is otherwise a fascinating mix of pretty big, popular songs that have nonetheless faded from the collective memory ("Fastlove") and shit I've never heard of in my life from massive massive artists. Fascinating.

xp I had "Leech" by Eve 6 on a mixtape in high school. I've only maybe heard it once in the past 10 years but I probably know about half of the lyrics.

Re: Evan Olson, my first thought was that Reply All should have hit up ILM with a Song ID thread.

I listened to that podcast — it was entertaining enough, but I agree with whomever above said that the whole “call Xgau and everyone else under the sun” thing, before they suddenly “had the idea” to search Facebook, seemed like a fake out.

https://www.facebook.com/nealobermeyer/posts/10105397416710613

"When I did my study abroad in England in 97-98, there was this amazing song I would frequently hear in McDonald’s, grocery stores, etc. and none of my native English friends I was with ever knew who or what it was. In the ensuing 22 years, I’ve done everything I could think of to try to find this song — I’ve bought pretty much every Now compilation from 1995-1998 in the hopes it would be there; I’ve downloaded singles charts looking for songs I didn’t know, in the hopes that it could be uncovered that way. It wasn’t until recently, when listening to the SiriusXM 90s on 9 channel, that it occurred to me that *there are surely UK 90s web radio stations!* So the past two days, I’ve started listening to four different 90s-specific web radio stations based in the UK. While I wouldn’t expect to find this long-lost song in the first 36 hours, it is blowing my mind how all four of these stations seem committed to playing Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” approximately once an hour.

EDIT: I initially intended this post as essentially nothing more than a shaggy dog story leading to my befuddlement at UK web radio’s fascination with Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing.” I didn’t intend it as a call for assistance, because I don’t remember enough details about the song in question to be able to realistically enlist anyone’s help. I’ll know the song when I hear it, and I really do hope to hear it again someday, but I just don’t remember enough to be able to put anyone else on the job. However, that hasn’t stopped many of you from wanting to be helpful; I think you’re most likely wasting your time, but I appreciate your desire to help solve this mystery. So in the interest of minimizing your wasted time, here’s everything I can think of that could possibly narrow it down:

1. I heard the song multiple times within the 1997-1998 academic year. The only time I can precisely pinpoint would be March of 1998, because I remember asking a friend in McDonald’s over Easter break if she knew the song (she did not).

2. This was not a well-known song; I asked multiple native British people (some English, at least one Welsh) if they knew the song as we would hear it playing (they did not). However, it was mainstream enough to be played in stores, and that’s the one thing that gives me hope I can someday find it.

3. From what I remember, I’d say the song is around 120 bpm; I’d consider it on the slow end of something that could be considered electronic dance music.

4. I would classify it as dance-pop but with a somewhat spooky sound. The best sonic connections I can draw to this would be the tempo, sparse production and soulful vocal stylings of Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You.” The Disclosure song “Holding On” featuring Gregory Porter also reminds me of it. When I first heard Gregory Porter’s voice, I was hopeful it was him, but he didn’t release music until 2010, so it’s not him.

5. In about five minutes last night, I put together a really quick sketch of what I remember of the vocal melody, which I shared in a few threads below. I am not going to share that here, because I think that whatever random synthesizer I chose to capture the vocal melody has set people on the wrong path. That audio clip was really just intended to capture the tempo and vocal melody line — nothing more. If you look for that audio clip in the comments below, please listen with that framing.
6. If you find it, I’ll offer you your choice of a high-five or a hug when it’s safe to do so. I need to keep the prize pretty worthless because I don’t want to entice people into wasting their time. I’ve spent 22 years on this, and I know what it sounds like!"

(Copied from a shared facebook post).
The audio clip is this, but bare in mind it's just the melody, which is male vocals

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AIc4%2DT8gbtwUfNU&cid=48D95192749E505F&id=48D95192749E505F%2114325&parId=48D95192749E505F%21469&o=OneUp

He doesn't remember any of the lyrics?

No, guess not. I used to listen to 90s UK web radio and never heard that Michael Bolton song either

now resolved!

What was it? It sounded very vaguely familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwxpMIEZ9fg

^ Roy Davis Jr ft Peven Everett - Gabriel (Live Garage Version)

I’ve been reading a book mentioned in the “Good Books About Music” thread, by the drummer of the band Semisonic, about his experiences in the music biz. (The only Semisonic song that I’ve ever been familiar with is “Closing Time,” which I’m not a fan of).

The drummer writes at length about the band’s first single, “Down in Flames,” which was chosen by the head of their label; they didn’t agree that it was a good single choice, but were advised not to question this guy’s judgment. It was pushed to radio, with very little success; MTV also buried the video, because of its prominent “fire” imagery (this was right after a kid set a fire, allegedly under the influence of Beavis and Butt-head). Anyway, it’s a pretty decent song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1BHPX0Vwto&app=desktop

This is the book, btw. I don’t super recommend it — most of the details are pretty pro forma — but it’s a good, light insomnia read.

Kinda disturbed at how a song like Jars of Clay - Flood has 5M views on youtube and Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are which is a stupid awesome song only has 288k. I thought Geggy Tah was way more popular than that.

I mean I guess Jars of Clay is popular because it has some Christian push or something but still, how does 'whoever you are' not have at least 1M views?

The second version that comes up in a search is an audio-only upload from 9 yrs. ago with 149K views. (I agree the official video upload should get more “traffic,” tho)

Wait — 149k is less than 288k. Sorry, I’m tired, hitting the sack

interesting pairing!

the christian rock thing helped the big Jars of Clay album go platinum, which already means a lot more people who would have been spinning the disc (and, maybe, *not* spinning a lot of other discs? so they really get to know and remember the songs?) in the mid-90s. i can't seem to find a sales number for geggy tah's /sacred cow/ but i'd be surprised if it even went gold. they had one single, received as an alt-novelty, which got to #16 on Modern Rock. i also feel like i've been at parties or karaoke nights where "whoever you are" gets played and a lower-than-i'd-expect percentage of millennials go "oh, THIS song!" it kinda just came and went after a few weeks, i think. i suspect even many people who bought the album didn't keep it long, as there's not a lot that really sounds like "whoever you are." anecdotally, iirc i got mine from the used bin not long after the song's heyday....

another comparison for Jars of Clay - the (sorta christian-feeling) "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla, which peaked at a similar #15 on Modern Rock, but had a *much* longer presence on radio that year, and sold to non-christians who dug its soft/loud dynamics, giant hook, and bono-esque aspirations to profundity. spotify numbers:

Geggy Tah, "Whoever You Are" - 1.8 mil
Jars of Clay, "Flood" - 6.5 mil
Dishwalla, "Counting Blue Cars" - 23 mil

more surprising to me: Geggy Tah have another song, "Holly Oak," from another album, with 900k spotify listens. never heard of it, but the rest of their material is down at like 35K, so it must be on some playlist or a not-super-popular soundtrack, or something.

Doc, "Counting Blue Cars" went #15 on the Hot 100, and was #1 with a bullet on Modern Rock. It was inescapable that summer. #DishwallaTruther

I’m awake again, and clear on how numbers work.

Didn’t realize the Geggy Tah guy was such an accomplished producer.

oh oops, was misreading/misremembering. yeah CBC is objectively a much bigger hit.

Asked Siri to play "Flowers" by The New Radicals (thanks to all the NR talk going on today) and its the Apple Music algorithm selected this song to play afterwards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xejQogXzrPw

I couldn't tell you a single other thing about Toad the Wet Sprocket--I think they may have had one or two bigger hits?--but I remember liking this one despite it not getting a whole lot of airplay. Anyway, good job Siri!

pride and joy of santa barbara california

Yeah I'm not too familiar with this one. "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" are probably their best known songs, though they had a few other modest hits as well.

lol is that Monica

Friends soundtrack

I remember that one. Didn't know what the lead singer looked like - much more wholesome/clean cut look than most alternative acts.

wow, "Good Intentions" is quite pretty! slightly outside of scope here (1995) but totally fascinating to me. Toad the Wet Sprocket was a name I saw many times when browsing through the used CD bins, but I never actually knew what they sounded like. Would have guessed something harder-edged and "alternative," but in hindsight it seems like a perfect name for a "college rock about halfway between REM and Gin Blossoms" type of band. nice to finally learn that.

Dionne Farris opened for Bryan Ferry in 1995. She performed a 13-minute version of "I Know."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, September 9, 2007 5:18 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

ah man

Sheryl Crow has a few qualifying songs here, I think --- at the least, her cover of "Sweet Child o' Mine" off the Big Daddy soundtrack, and arguably all of the Globe Sessions singles: "My Favorite Mistake," "Anything But Down," and one I've never ever heard called "There Goes The Neighborhood." This was basically a flop period for her between the total radio/MTV ubiquity of the s/t, and the poppy comeback of "Soak up the Sun" a few years later. Maybe some of these still crop up in certain playlists/contexts, but for me they are hazy memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CowwMR1hDPM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmIlUKo4dQc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJqmyOeOnWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOw-ak2aJS8

And, not a single, but I could swear "Superstar" off the self-titled album got some half-hearted airplay towards the end of that release cycle. Implanted memory?

I feel like I definitely still hear My Favorite Mistake from time to time, but not really the other covers.

Though speaking of covers from the Big Daddy soundtrack, I also remember radio playing Shawn Mullins cover of George Harrison's What is Life at around this time, and that's certainly been forgotten.

Though looking at the charts it also might be a case of Sheryl Crow in this era still being a pretty big deal in Canada.

Yes, in Toronto, video/radio pIayed My Favorite Mistake a lot (even recently), There Goes the Neighborhood occasionally, and Anything But Down at least once.
Mildly successful cover versions of well-known songs don't tend to be revived very much, or remembered.

i sang "anything but down" at karaoke the other week, went over well

arguably all of the Globe Sessions singles: "My Favorite Mistake,"

SOMEBODY is not listening to light rock stations

"my favorite mistake" was a top 10 airplay hit and tbh was probably bigger than "soak up the sun"

Yeah, MFM is one of maybe four Sheryl songs I can count on hearing if stuck in a situation with a light rock/adult contemporary station playing all day.

It's a constant on in-store audio networks too.

this is reassuring lol cuz I partly loved "My Favorite Mistake" because no one much mentioned it at the time, therefore it felt like MY Shery Crow single.

TGS her best album imo

wow clearly i was way off about MFM! i personally have heard Soak Up The Sun wayyyy more times, but mostly thru retail/restaurant playlists I think.

Checking Spotify, I see MFM should be in her Top 10, but isn't for some reason. Surprised to see it would be at the near-bottom of that list (only 16 mil spins).

SUTS is her third-biggest on Spotify, after "All I Wanna Do" and "If It Makes You Happy".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVWGKg-r1c

Tracy Bonham: "The One", her follow-up to "Mother Mother"

Which I see now was posted (and linkrotted) back in '12, so here's the follow-up to that, "Sharks Can't Sleep"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVl6ZzScxqk

For whatever reason, whenever Bonham comes up, I have to go look up "Mother, Mother" and try to remember what it sounds like. I think I started listening to alt-rock radio just a couple months after its moment in the sun.

"Sharks Can't Sleep" is pretty cool, SUCH a 1996 sound... that midtempo chug with the moody, kinda watery guitar figure on the verse, the pounding A A A A, B B B B chorus, and the little dip into 60s studio effects 2/3 of the way through. Does feel more like an album track, maybe even a good album-closer, than a single.

"The One" on the other hand feels a bit weighed-down by the post-grunge trappings. I can imagine a bouncier, power-poppier version of that chorus working better... fill out the space with backing vocals or a bit of keyboard or horns or something, rather than with that pummeling wall of distorted guitars.

I'm not sure if I've ever heard that before but if you played me the first 15 seconds I would've assumed it was Blur

(Sharks Can't Sleep, I mean)

Could Ben Folds Five's "Song for the Dumped" drift into this category long-term? Hard to imagine any teens glued to alt-rock radio at the time not remembering it, but has it had any shelf life at all? Can't remember hearing it anywhere in the wild in twenty years.

"Battle of Who Could Care Less" almost certainly qualifies. "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" also was apparently a single, with a music video, but I don't honestly believe that got on the radio and stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gBCdP7AfTE

Bush - Cold Contagious. Third US single off Razorblade Suitcase, and the gas was out of the hype tank. In my memory, the radio kept playing "Swallowed" and the Sixteen Stone singles, and quickly ignored this. It's a slow burn (or a slog if you're not 100% on board with grunge aesthetics), even in this four-minute edit of the six-minute album version. ("Greedy Fly," the second single, did much better on paper, and is probably not as forgotten, but still has to be one of their most obscure hits.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8TrkCObypE

Bush - Letting the Cables Sleep. This is a 2000 single from their '99 album, the one where they explored "electronica." In this case this means an OK Computer type sound, which I think is a more interesting fit for Gavin's voice and songwriting than the cluttered and exhausting "Chemicals Between Us." I always kinda liked it, and even put it on a mix CD once!

An aside: I know the 90s are back (and stuff), but are the kids really listening to Bush?

they're listening to kate bush instead

Bush was really fucked when they ran out of Nirvana albums to bite.

My friend has been doing a series on his blog which may be of interest here: writing up the songs from the Album & Modern Rock charts that _didn't_ cross over Pop.

https://vjbigsuit.wordpress.com/2022/02/14/fools-gold-vol-1-ready-for-a-good-time/

oh, that's fun! good method for digging up stuff in this zone. and would be an amazing resource for an equivalent thread on the early 90s (which is way further from my wheelhouse).

lol there's a Bush-knockoff BritGrunge band called Addict covered in the first entry!

I remember "Letting the Cables Sleep". I think my older brother also put it on a mix CD at the time circa 2000.

my other half put Addict - Monster Side on one of his first mixtapes for me. not heard it for 20+ years!

thanks for the blog link, enjoying this project!

razorblade suitcase is alright

"Monster Side," wow... yeah, haven't heard or thought about it in 20+ years, but every second of it was familiar.

More Brit Nerf Grunge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQTqX11zNjU

Feeder: "Cement"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc1ljqKNEMk

Feeder: "High"

The latter track popped up on the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack.

Dionne Farris opened for Bryan Ferry in 1995. She performed a 13-minute version of "I Know."

That song is an absolute banger.

Self-XP Wow, reading Feeder's wiki--didn't know they were one of those Status Quo-style 'huge at home, barely known in the US bands'. 11 Albums!

25 Top 75 singles!

Who knew?

Only two of the original band members are left at this point?

Yeah, the drummer died in 2002.

I've always wondered, at what point does a band simply become a group of musicians operating under a name, a la most sports teams? Is it like the ship of Theseus? A friend of mine back in college once saw Herman's Hermits . . . without Herman.

it's from 2000 but "Shaniqua" by Little T & One Track Mike seemed like such a huge track when it came out, now I find that basically no one remembers it

I remember it! I saw the video on late-night MTV once, and never again. It stuck in my head for some reason.

that stuff was like its own distinct genre, like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgBYdsKqCsM

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXzphHiHD8

I remember Bad Ronald debuting on MTV and thinking "wow, I guess anyone can be in a band now"

^^Did this start with Beck, or G.Love, or even Sublime?

Seems like the biggest hits of this style were "Hooch" by Everything, "Better Days" by Citizen King, and I guess "Steal My Sunshine" by Len. Good-timey Alternative Hip Hop Rock?

Sugar Ray probably fits in there somewhere too.

Beastie Boys possibly the year zero, and later on Gym Class Heroes ran with it all the way to the bank.

On a different tip, I'm not sure if this ever broke out of the "Alternative Station Sunday Night 'College Music' Show" circuit, but I did hear this on the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6pc-tWwccU

Drugstore (featuring Thom Yorke): "El President"

I had never heard “Shaniqua,” Scapegoat Wax, or Bad Ronald (the last one is pretty great).

In addition to the other artists mentioned, this mini-genre seems kind of Bloodhound Gang–adjacent

i remember "shaniqua" but it seemed like one of those songs you would only encounter on mtv and nowhere else

^^Did this start with Beck, or G.Love, or even Sublime?

Seems like the biggest hits of this style were "Hooch" by Everything, "Better Days" by Citizen King, and I guess "Steal My Sunshine" by Len. Good-timey Alternative Hip Hop Rock?

yes, yes, and yes, maybe even "Summer Girls" as well. it's definitely Beastie Boys adjacent, like what if the Licensed to Ill Beasties made Hello Nasty

personally I could not get that "I've been waiting all day for that Bad Ronald" line out of my head. what does it mean

if nothing else these videos seem like they were a lot of fun to make!! always amused by the constant dancing and fist pumping regardless of what the music is doing which suggests they had no idea what the video was gonna look like when they were filming it

Oh I made a playlist a while back that I posted elsewhere on here that's very much stuff all in that vibe:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1TF61rLJ7HQPgpFMHfblPA

Just added Bad Ronald in there as it fits. Shaniqua is a bit too funky and hip hop for the overall vibe of the playlist.

That link just leads to the track, can you link the playlist? Thx

Whoops:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/29OSMeThq1N86C0P7cBSxi?si=5eacf817e5b34eee

amusingly this tweet just went viral a couple days ago

back when life was great pic.twitter.com/KFoeHSybht

— ༺☆ 𝔪𝔦𝔪𝔦 ☆༻ (@plvnetmimi) June 27, 2022

fun to see people discover it for the first time. it was all over the place when I was a kid. never understood any of the MJ references though, in fact I didn't even know it was an MJ song until I was like, 19. you know what, it doesn't suck

awww yeah that playlist looks awesome, gonna start listening to it now

I loved "Legend of a Cowgirl" so much when I was a kid. when I finally caught the video I was obsessed with her. though not enough to buy the CD apparently lol

"Soft Serve" is such a great SC pick. the chorus (is it really a chorus?) with the bass like a half step behind the vocals is a really great embodiment of what made this stuff so endearing. its all so chill

"Pinch Me" is also classic, imo that's the tune that should've made them stars, it's so perfectly constructed

Robert Pollard was ahead of the times:

“Three years ago I thought Alien Ant Farm was the worst it could get. Now I look back nostalgically on Alien Ant Farm”

first time hearing “Shaniqua”, but it screams Eminem to me first and foremost - which makes sense for a 2001 track.

feel like Black Grape belongs in that playlist, after all Madchester was sort of a spiritual successor to all this stuff. Get Higher or In the Name of the Father perhaps

oh wow I didn't know there was a version of "Fly" without Super Cat. its a lot worse!!

yeah :( and somehow both versions were on the album

The bridge in the Super Cat-less version is especially bad. I thought there would be some solo or something to fill it out but nope, nothing

ok one more thing about Bad Ronald I clearly remember Carson Daly saying something like "kids, this is like Sesame Street on crack!" which is still very very funny to me

belated response to the last revive: good inclusions, Grisso! and wow at Feeder's UK success. never ever would have guessed. also never ever heard "Cement" before, but it pairs amazingly with "High"; together, they cover some key bases of alt-rock as it stood by '97. obviously "High" is derived very much from the Pumpkins (I WILL), but it's a good bit and a good use of it imho. Soccer Mommy's "Circle the Drain" in turn updates "High" for a new generation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTc1w32Vbeo

MarkoP, that playlist is a GREAT encapsulation of this micro-interzone-subgenre. also agreed about "Soft Serve" being a great Soul Coughing pick! probably Doughty's best version of this basic song type, it pops into my head a lot, mainly when ordering soft-serv. Bad Ronald has definitely gotten some love (?) upthread, and Hello Allison on 50 Memorable Songs Of The Late 1990s That Apparently Only You Remember, Even Though They Were Totally On The Radio And Stuff .

there's probably a lot of stuff from around 2000-2002 that fits this bubble, even as it was getting pushed off the dial by nu-metal, pop-punk, et al., and as the Sublime and Beck affectations passed their sell-by date. i feel like you already have basically all the acts i'd suggest... maybe "Prisoner" or another downtempo 311 number? and Dynamite Hack's dumb cover of "Boyz-n-the-Hood." "Everyday is a Winding Road" might also qualify, and surely Collective Soul or late 90s U2 did something with a drum loop or a vaguely scratchy sample... also i think of David Garza "Disco Ball World" and Alana Davis "32 Flavors," though neither has as much "rock band" DNA. finally: Bicycle has this sound all over their debut album but not so much on their would-be hit "Electrolux" - check out "68" and "Daisydunes.com," now apparently retitled just "Daisydunes."

surely Collective Soul or late 90s U2 did something with a drum loop or a vaguely scratchy sample

Well, U2 had Pop, which was very loopy, a lot of digital chicanery going on. This got some minor airplay as an album cut and was maybe the best track on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=199bc_xIv5Y

"Do You Feel Love?"

...and of "Discotheque" was huge for about three weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpvF7Qq9svk

As for Collective Soul, they smartly combined looping and live drums on "Precious Declaration" in '97:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFebAtN7hhk

And they must have heard Pop afterwards, explaining this groove move in '99:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjTnYSlXQMM

"Heavy"

Feeder's album from this year starts off sort of semi channelling Simple Minds ish. Which is actually a first for them I think.

From Pop there's also the very loop-y "Mofo" and the backwards hi-hats of "Miami". Neither a proper single (although "Mofo" had requisite remix 12"s).

I guess the big diff, listening back to those, is that U2 and their disciples Collective Soul were both reaching more directly for rave/club music than for the SoCal stoner-skater-hip-hop fusion of these other acts. Another playlist could really track this whole, like, post-INXS axis, shading into the "electronics" fusion attempts recently mentioned in connection with Bush.

The opening of CS's "Listen" keeps making me think it should fit in here too. Just needed a pinch of fake vinyl noise to make the guitar-and-drum bit sound like a sampled loop.

"Run" is another Collective Soul song that's got a drum loop going on throughout it.

God, I hated Discotheque when it came out. Felt like it was played all the time on the radio. I still hate it now, it encapsulates so much of what I detest about 1998-99 chart music.

Oh yeah. My local Alt-Rock station had a strict 'no repeats' policy during DJ shifts that they broke for "Discotheque"--I swear they played it every hour for two or three weeks.

I feel I should also mention here that I was one of the ten people who saw the ABC PopMart TV special when it aired.

The Apollo 100 thread reminded me of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GHN1Mu6VG0

Apollo 440: "Stop The Rock" (a summer '99 release that may have had more impact in 2000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmw94O9OWRE

Fatboy Slim: "Going Out of My Head"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_UCgMaHYQ

Death In Vegas: "Dirt"

Last 3 posts brought to you in part by MTV's AMP and new Diet Mountain Dew.

I remember hearing Bachelor Girl's "Buses and Trains" on the radio back in 1998, but I'm surprised to find it only got to number 65 in the UK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJJKXt3tczw

Stop the Rock was pretty well known in meme circles and sites like YTMND in the 2000s.

Also, I don't think I've heard Ace of Base's "Love is a Flower" since... also 1998, in fact it was released a few weeks before "Buses and Trains":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdc_6YvJfFo

I remember liking it - the lyrics are drivel but the verse has an odd structure. It goes to the chorus one line before you expect. I also remember feeling slightly surprised that Ace of Base were still a thing.

Bizarrely it was released in the United States as... a different song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkSdP1-GY9s

The lyrics make more sense (they were written by Mike Chapman) but it's not as good. This is the thing about actually living through 1998. I can remember 1998! I have no idea what I did in 2012, but I can remember 1998. I really have no idea what I did in 2012.

Haven't listened to that Death in Vegas track for years! think my pal put it on a tape for me.

I liked Ace of Base but hated that song. Was on Radio 2 forever and ever.

So here's me trying to catch the differences between Canada and the United States in that time period. Particularly where I remember stuff getting a bit of airplay in Canada, but apparently not enough to have a charting position listed on the single's Wikipedia page, but also nothing listed for the United States either:

Did the Spice Girls solo material get any airplay in the United States? I particularly remember seeing Melanie C's "Going Down" and "Never Be The Same Again" getting some play on MuchMusic, and a little bit of play of Melanie B's "I Want You Back" and her cover of "Word Up". Geri Halliwell's singles seemed to fair a lot better, particularly "Look at Me", "Mi Chico Latino", and her cover of "It's Raining Men". Zero recollection of Emma Bunton or Victoria Beckham's solo stuff making any bit of dent over here though.

I dug all three of "Stop the Rock," "Going Out Of My Head," and especially "Dirt." The video of that one really impressed/freaked me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QWJm5cY60c

I don't think I saw it on TV much, maybe on some early realplayer-type online streaming service like Launch.com... not sure when that would have been though.

"Stop the Rock" I think I saw on MTV2 circa fall 2000. A tasty big-beat obscurity in the USA, a top 10 hit in the UK.

And yeah, meme references checks out for "Stop the Rock" -- someone made a video of it attached to the rolling boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was worth a giggle iirc.

I particularly remember seeing Melanie C's "Going Down" and "Never Be The Same Again" getting some play on MuchMusic, and a little bit of play of Melanie B's "I Want You Back" and her cover of "Word Up". Geri Halliwell's singles seemed to fair a lot better, particularly "Look at Me", "Mi Chico Latino", and her cover of "It's Raining Men".

I remember some modest controversy over the double entendre of "Going Down", and "Look At Me" got some TRL action, but I think that was it. When America was done with the Spice Girls, they were _done_.

Mr Icon mentioned them up the page, but Sugar Ray's "Every Morning" seemed to be on the radio all the time when it came out. It got to number ten in the UK. I'm not going to link to the video because I hated that song, everything about it. The smugness. I hated the smugness. It embodies a certain time and place and it can't exist outside that context.

My memory also throws Barenaked Ladies' "One Week" at me. That got to number five. The two songs came out within a few months of each other in early 1999. I think of it as the "something something something samurai" song.

I remember Mel C's "Northern Star" getting a lot of airplay. I've always associated it with darkness, rain, and the cold. I realise now that must be because it came out in November 1999, which probably explains why. Pre-millennial tension and all that. Bad weather. It got to number 5. Didn't chart in the US at all. The parent album got good reviews and sold a couple of million, but only reached 108 in the US. My recollection is that Geri Halliwell's solo singles were inexplicably popular, despite being naff, but she was likeable enough so it was hard to be annoyed with her.

Looking at the "Goin' Down" video and realizing it could have been where Miley Cyrus got all of her edgy schtick from...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn7OS2K-hwI

Dirt, Going Out of My Head, Stop the Rock... All very much in my territory, these. STR is great but along with Lost in Space marks a point where they kept peddling novelties, soundtrack remixes etc. - not a criticism, and after all they beat Scooter to Quo-rave territory by a decade, but it ended up spelling a commercial dead end for them here in the UK after 2000.

Both the Geri and Mel C albums try a bit of everything but they come across in different ways. Mel C was I think going the 'Robbie route'* and trying a lot of 'credible' (in a Radio 1 way) things hoping certain ones will stick (influences incl. Garbage, noise pop, Britpop, TLC, Ray of Light), plus there was her V99 performance and NME being relentlessly ruthless to her throughout 99-00 for Daring To Touch Their Music. But after an infamous false start (Goin' Down), the album took off here in 2000 after some of its less typical tracks - the gorgeous Left Eye collab, a noisy Ibiza trance remix of the title track - really took off. She had a good year. Geri's album other hand is eclectic in the way Spiceworld was. A general variety show feel, brash and all quite pastichey and lighthearted-seeming in hindsight (although still careful enough to ensure all its diversions - Shirley Bassey-ishness, Latin pop, the big disco golden ring - were going to make her a success. And there's also the matter of the former of those, Look at Me, being intended as a total Event single).

*maybe before Robbie himself even had. His most realised Big Tent-ish move isn't until Sing When You're Winning (summer 2000).

Geri is a terrible singer but a great pop star. "Look At Me" is an incredible piece of provocation, it's her doubling down on everything that she was hated for and embracing it whole-heartedly.

Mel C's solo stuff made me think there was literally something wrong with me because she was supposedly "the good singer" in the Spice Girls, and I found her yowling unbearable. and I like yowling!

Yeah can't stand Mel C's voice either, Emma was the best singer and had imo the best solo single ("Maybe") but that didn't seem to equate to much chart success on either side of the Atlantic.

here's the forgotten big beat hit (though not much of a hit) missing from the list above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IWl77o3l50

Going back to MarkoP's post-Beck/Cake/Sublime Spirit of 96 playlist: could the transition from the verse to the chorus of Kid Rock "Cowboy" be marked as some kind of end point for the genre? The moment the big (sampled?) drum fill kicks in, Kid lapses from chilled-out woozy summer vibes into sub-Aerosmith rawkin' and the spell is broken.

(I guess "All Summer Long" could be sort of a belated return back to this sound/style.)

Also, Kid-adjacent, I'd also consider ICP's "Another Love Song," which actually samples Beck's "Jack-Ass" to cast a backyard-party haze over their misogynistic murder fantasies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABBPdf5SwJA

Linda Perry: "Fill Me Up"

#onethread

Huh! Never knew that existed. It's... Huh. I don't hate the performance and I kinda like the sound, but the song itself isn't landing with me tbh.

Earned some modest airplay late summer/early fall '96. Kind of interesting in how it tries to sell that it's the "What's Up" lady, but with every edge softened, which kind of misses the point of what people who like that song like about it.

I didn't know until I heard Pink talking about it on Howard Stern a couple days ago, but she's the reason Linda Perry came out of semi-retirement. Pink was a huge fan and went looking for her to do some writing/producing. And now she won't go away lol

My daughter used the expression "I'm living a lie" this morning and it inexplicably thrust this song into my head that seems to have left very little lasting footprint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0aiREnTsc

"What do you do when you feel like you're living a lie?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k67uejNr9FA

Courtesy of Lithium Deep Cuts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqeT9ooYKnM

Jimmie's Chicken Shack: "High", a Godsmack-y Hard Rock song preparing absolutely no one for their next album's Blink-182/Lit-move lead single "Do Right":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsttsAHkZvw

^Mentioned upthread by some dude. The video is...something else (as you can see, MTV2 actually aired it with the intro interview bit w/the ex-girlfriend, which was eventually edited out for regular MTV after an airing or two)

def remember "Do Right." "High" is tickling some memory bone but nothing specific. I guess they were early Korn adopters? Kind of an awkward fit with the bright colorful video. Not sure they should have agreed to the "actual chicken shack" video concept.

Apparently they are still active and released their most recent album in 2022??

Early Korn Adopters is my new band name, thanks doc

The Soundtrack To Our Lives - Instant Repeater '99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI6tk-3ADdg