best song that reached #1 on airplay but was never allowed to chart on the billboard hot 100 1995-1998

Hating on "Fly" is kind of like..."You know what sucks? Summer"-level to me.

this one time 2 years ago I was getting in a car with some friends and I made a comment about the radio stations being the type that'd play 'fly' and then we turned on the radio and 'fly' was playing. amazing song, I hated it when I was a kid though.

Well, it's not even my favorite Sugar Ray single.

"Fly" is way more packed with great things than their other hits, which all have much fewer ideas by comparison.

great things like Supercat

Voted Lovefool - sure it's played out, but isn't everything on this list? (bar Fly, which I'm not sure I've ever heard on this side of the world)

Gwen always sounds like a farm animal being slaughtered when she tries to do ballads. Torn and Lovefool are both great though.

i remember seeing an interview w/the sugar ray guy on tv when this song came out. he said something like, "yeah we've been wanting to work with supercat for a long time." I mean, I also want to work with supercat.

― Dominique, Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM Bookmark

^^^one of my favorite ilm posts ever

'don't speak' was a better madonna ballad than anything madonna was actually managing at the time

In 8th grade art class we listened to top 40 radio all the time, and when "Torn" came on people made a big production of singing "frying bacon on the floor" instead of "lying naked on the floor."

Lovefool by a mile.

― a seminar on ass play for kids or something (Phil D.), Friday, September 24, 2010 7:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― johnny crunch, Friday, September 24, 2010 8:33 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

My friend who was attending Grand Valley State at the time told me aobut when the first MTV's Campus Invasion tour stopped there. The headliners were supposed to be KRS-One and Sugar Ray. Sugar Ray were already an hour and a half late to start their set--they had been driving around Grand Rapids all that time basically getting shitfaced--when they finally showed up backstage. Kicker: they only showed up to grab more beer, and then they went off again in their limo for another hour. KRS-One had to keep the crowd warmed up I think for a good three hours.

Gawd, Sugar Ray are a bunch of dickbags.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRYGm31e7TY

for me it's torn >>>> don't speak >>>> iris = lovefool > men in black = fly >> what the hell is this other one

Gwen always sounds like a farm animal being slaughtered when she tries to do ballads. Torn and Lovefool are both great though.

Thank god someone shares my opinion on this! Her singing in "Don't Speak" has always sound hella whiny and irritating to me, I basically can't stand the song, but no one else I know seems to feel the same way. I like her upbeat songs just fine.

oh wait "i'll be there for you" is the friend's theme song...destroy

underrated Aerosmith rehashes I have loved

lovefool

i just wanna fly tbh

^ good name

i remember seeing an interview w/the sugar ray guy on tv when this song came out. he said something like, "yeah we've been wanting to work with supercat for a long time." I mean, I also want to work with supercat.

― Dominique, Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM Bookmark

^^^one of my favorite ilm posts ever

― The Reverend, Friday, September 24, 2010 9:20 PM Bookmark

^^^ agreed, i think about this every time i hear the song

The two best things about Fly, besides working with Supercat:

1) the way each chorus goes from the kind of drunken, tuneless "dudes who can't sing trying to sing" of the first "Iiiiiiii" to the really pretty, open, lovely "Iiiiiii"s that follow - I don't know if anybody put any thought into this at the time but it's neat, adds a lot of interest.

2) that last "ALL AROUND THE WOOOORLD" buried in the final choruses - - - this is my favorite hook in the song and it doesn't come around 'til the very end, so you always have something to look forward to.

The song takes me back to the Summer of '97, and by that I mean when I hear it, I imagine myself linking FortuneCities jpegs to the picture frames in my dojo on Active Worlds, a weird kinda graphical IRC thing that I'm amazed to find is still online. I wonder if my dojo is still there!

2) that last "ALL AROUND THE WOOOORLD" buried in the final choruses - - - this is my favorite hook in the song and it doesn't come around 'til the very end, so you always have something to look forward to.

^^^yes!

also my other favorite thing is the funk-metal supercat bridge that would be super-overbearing if they did it the whole song but turns into this awesome tense, almost kinda heavy moment when you place it in the middle of a laidback song that sounds like margaritas

and the way it comes out of that is so unexpected! first with that filter supercat flemenco dissolve, then with that whisk and the live drums mixed to sound like to like a sampled breakbeat (is there any production that screams "90s!" more than this one? think not)

i almost want to poll supercat's interjections

any production trick*

the guitar hook is the most underrated thing about the song imo

^right, thoguh I'm not sure how Prince-ish it is, unless you're just talking about the guitar the dude is playing in the video maybe??? (you know what I am talking about?)

yeah, dude plays a http://www.edroman.com/guitars/other-images/cloudguitar.jpgin the video. nothin to do with the sound

btw, I love that basically every thread that even mentions "Fly" turns into me and the Reverend alternately going on about what a great song it is. OTM about the breezy return from the Supercat section, it's like a whole new song is starting up and it turns out to be a perfect one-minute pop song.

I really think there's a market for a thread that's just a tribute to 90s production flourishes, I started to suggest this on my "50 memorable songs of the late 90s" thread, I think when I was talking about "Hooch." Also on my Bicycle tribute thread that nobody else responded to. I think your simulated breakbeat might be edged out by "corny use of telephone filter on vocals."

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

I really think there's a market for a thread that's just a tribute to 90s production flourishes,

I was thinking of starting this this thread yesterday.

"men in black" or "torn". i HATE "lovefool"

hahahah we started ours simultaneously!

I kinda like all these songs, but the only ones I love are "lovefool" and "iris". Voted "iris" because I don't want the world to see me cuz I don't think that they'd understand.

'don't speak' was a better madonna ballad than anything madonna was actually managing at the time

― balls, Friday, September 24, 2010 9:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it came out like a year after "Take A Bow"!

I thought that was an actual J0rdan post for a second and got realllllly confused to see him suddenly taking the authoritative Madonna expert stance.

In the same moment I also felt great kinship for J0rdan because my real response was "Wait, the Rihanna song?!"

I thought that was an actual J0rdan post for a second and got realllllly confused to see him suddenly taking the authoritative Madonna expert stance.

lol

'take a bow' - 94
'dont speak' - 96
'you must love me' - 96

fair point

ugh, I don't know that I like most of these songs. I vote "Don't Speak" because that one I do like.

Iris should be destroyed. the most overwrought and un-Goo Goo Dolls moment in their history...

"don't speak" pretty much IS madonna's "you'll see" (which is a v.g. madonna ballad that was out at the same time)

lol i always forget "you must love me" exists in her discography though

oh shit! I'm confusing "Iris" with "Name"...

hahahahahahaha

really do love Name at any rate. altrock power ballad goodness.

― Fartbritz Sootzveti (Steve Shasta), Friday, September 24, 2010 6:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM. Name was much better, contained Goo Goo Doll's signature quality songwriting, and an ear catching acoustic riff.

"Iris" should be damned not only for not sounding anything like GGD (at least, at THAT point), but helping to bring in the short-lived era of 'alternapop acts playing mediocre songs with unnecessary OTT patched-in strings'.

more like forged signature quality songwriting

omg GGD in being influenced by Replacements shockah. mind blown.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b201792__i_The_Wendy_Williams_Show__i___If_Mark_McGrath_Stops_Talking_He_Will_Die.html

I saw this clip on the Soup last night and thought about this thread.

omg why does everyone like "don't speak" i feel like i'm taking crazy pills!

It's like up is down and down is up.

I saw "Lovefool" covered a year or so ago by some ATL hipster band. They also covered a NIN song. Not gonna name the band cos they suck.

Hahah i just watched "Fly" for the first time since it was on the Box in the late 90s. I don't think you could possibly create a music video that screamed LOS ANGELES more.

was sure OMC "How Bizarre" belonged in this club, but its #1 showing was only on the Mainstream chart, and no way was it quite as big as the monster hits in this poll, but still, i feel it's somehow not gotten its proper due in the pop historical imaginary.

it's a great fun song, i don't hear ppl talk about it or whatever but ppl seem to recognize it

I’d like “Torn” a lot better if it went “i don’t care, i had no luck. I don’t really give a fuck.” No, instead it’s “I don’t miss it all that MUCH” which barely even rhymes.

“Lovefool” is great.

Is “Iris” the “I Don’t Want the World to See Me” song? Man they play that a lot on the radio these days.

name >>>>> iris

XP Yeah, and it was a soundtrack song (City of Angels, a US RomCom remake of Wings of Desire...no, really) which didn't get a physical single release because they wanted to sell CDs of the soundtrack album (a common practice at the time, as evident with "Men In Black" and "Lovefool" also appearing in this poll).