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

Youtube links: Toy-box, Weiland, Talk Show, Spacehog.

6. Billy Lawrence, "Come On" - Moderately catchy, moderately upbeat r&b. Has MC Lyte on it. Samples "Plug Tunin'."

7. Dionne Farris, "Hopeless" - Her of "A game of horseshooooooes!" fame. Laid-back, Al Green-ish nu-soul. Heavy on the Fender Rhodes. Great chorus.

Actually, "Hopeless" is rather tremendous. "Come On" is alright, but dispensable.

8. Blackstreet (feat Slash, Fishbone, & ODB), "Fix (Remix)" - Snippet of the video here. I've written about this before - as I said then, "ODB's guest rap is pretty solid, although as usual he's mostly just grumbling about nothing at all. Slash is pretty much tearing it up all through the song, which works way, way better than you would expect given that Blackstreet is normally a smooth-talking R&B combo. Unfortunately, for much of the big solo, the guitar is sort of buried underneath everything else, and for the rest of the big solo, there's nothing but the guitar. This change happens just as Slash runs out of ideas, so the song stumbles, rolls, and collapses to a halt. But as weird, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink collaborations go, this works pretty well."

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

(Love Jones! I remember co-workers talking enthusiastically about the Love Jones soundtrack in the early 90s.)

According to last.fm Warren G's "Smokin' Me Out" does not get enough love. Can I nominate that?

"Fixx" was so ridiculously crazy. What an awesome career suicide single that was.

10. Sparkle f/ R. Kelly - "Be Careful"
11. R. Kelly (f/ Sparkle?) - "When a Woman's Fed Up"

<a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYBmS8Hm5g>;Jimmy Ray - Are you Jimmy Ray</A>

And I wanted to find the video for "Shaniqua don't live here no mo'" or whatever but could not.

13. Big Wreck - "The Oaf"
14. Space Monkeys - "Sugar Cane"

both surprisingly awesome songs

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

"I'm Not Where It's At"--Del Amitri. Love that song. Still plays occasionally in the overhead speaker at my Publix supermarket for some reason. And "I Know" is a great song.

Big Wreck - "The Oaf" - YES!

KP & Envyi - Shorty Swing My Way

http://youtube.com/watch?v=24IgJanjcAo

I don't know if this is completely forgotten but it definitely isn't on the radio anymore.

official CARL MO POLL (ghosttown djs, big boi, pastor troy, slimm calhoun, k.p. & envyi)

So many memories!

18. B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem) from the Space Jam soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJj4cg9ZLdo

Lightning strikes, the court lights get dim
Supreme competition is ABOUT TO BEGIN!

Sorry, I didn't read that thread. Thanks for pointing that out.

along the "Hit 'Em High" lines:

19. Coolio - "It's All the Way Live (Now)"

especially perplexing is what the "now" is doing in the title, 'coz I don't remember it being in the chorus or anything.

20. Coolio - "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" You know you came of age in the late 90s if you know every word of this, but are still playing catchup on "Fantastic Voyage"

21. Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne" Have only very faint memories of this and Youtube is not helping. "I'm the big kahuna!"

the trackmasters remix of hit em high is over premo's just to get a rep beat

Oh shit I remember that Blackstreet/Slash video, awesome.

I specifically clicked on this thread to add "The Oaf", great fucking song. Good call Good Doc.

22. BEST BASSLINE EVAR + hihat shuffle + song about fucking in various locations + not a hell of a lot else = 112, "Anywhere"

23. BLAQUE- "808"
I wonder what happened to them. I always thought they'd be like, the new Destiny's child. They had some awesome music videos as well.

rev, after the beginning of that video, i couldn't get the idea of the whole video happening inside that woman's tit out of my head.

You know what's better than "808"? The "808" REMIX with the "Going Back to Cali" beat! (Not on youtube, unfortunately)

Whoah, the beat on that 112 track is super hot.

"Whisper Song", meet your daddy.

Magnapop-Open The Door

21. Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne" Have only very faint memories of this and Youtube is not helping. "I'm the big kahuna!"

yesssss from the Bulletproof soundtrack. "I got the whole shebang / I got the champagne / and the HA HA!!" "R U Ready" was also the hotness.

25. Playa - "Cheers 2 U" (so underrated)
26. Boyz II Men - "I Can't Let Her Go"
27. 98 Degrees - "Invisible Man"
28. Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
29. Westside Connection - "Bow Down"

30? That Gandharvas track about spring that I still hear every now and then.

31. Az Yet's cover of "Hard to Say I'm Sorry"

nice one, wasn't till years later I knew it was a Chicago cover. "Last Night" too

32. The Offspring - "All I Want" (the last alt-rock semi-hit to clock less than 2:00?)
33. Blink-182 - "Josie"

28. Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
29. Westside Connection - "Bow Down"

these are still in regular rotation round my place

I am so pissed off to be reminded of "Mungo City"

I downloaded Boyz II Men's "4 Seasons Of Loneliness" the other day, even weirder than I remembered.

Dr. Bill - good call on "All I Want." I always liked that one pretty well, much more than their later spree as a band alternating novelty singles with po-faced gnashing about death and bad neighborhoods. Actually, it makes a nice pair with "Josie" that way, since Blink-182 also started dipping overmuch into "mature" songs.....

"All I Want," however, was unfortunately chosen as theme music in the arcade game "Crazy Taxi" - I had a friend who nearly went insane trying to play some other game at the arcade and having his train of thought constantly drowned out by "YA YA YA YA YA!" I had a related problem trying to play the Elvis pinball machine, which was sort of music-themed and equally overpowered by the Offspring.

Good to know I'm not the only person in the world to remember the existence of Az Yet.

34. Mista, "Blackberry Molasses" (f/ a v. young Bobby Valentino)

35. DJ Taz "That's Right" (Not on u-toob, unfort.)

Soul Decision -- Faded

Dr. Bill's dead-on with "All I Want."

Local H's "All the Kids are Right"
Cowboy Mouth's wild "Jenny Says"
White Town's "Your Woman"
anything by that dog...I'll say "Never Say Never"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"

and Bic Runga's "Sway"

43. Better Than Ezra - "At the Stars"
44. Brian McKnight - "The Only One for Me"
45. Fastball - "Fire Escape" (great video too, not on YouTube for some reason)
46. Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"

47. Splender - I Think God Can Explain

48. Lauryn Hill, "The Sweetest Thing"

49. Monifah "Touch It"

Wow - I totally forgot "All The Kids Are Right." I didn't like it at all at the time, but I don't think I "got" it either. It's actually pretty funny!

"All the kids, they hold a grudge
Their minds are logged onto the Net
And all the kids, they hold a grudge
You failed them and they won't forget it
All your cred won't save you from the kids" - great stuff!

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