Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1994

loser is better than absolutely nothing.

clearly

"Into Your Arms" is nice but i remember when that and "Mrs. Robinson" were their biggest songs the Lemonheads got dissed a lot as a 'cover band'

incidentally if you google Lemonheads and 'cover band' there have apparently been several Lemonheads cover bands over the years, which is just mind boggling

voted "Loser"

I was super dismissive of "Loser" when it first came out (it seemed like there were a lot of "look how dumb we are" minor alt-rock hits coming out around then, a la Butt Trumpet and Dead-Eye Dick), but I heard someone playing the album and I totally changed my tune on Beck in general (doubly so after I heard One Foot In The Grave and Stereopathetic Soul Manure). I subsequently reassessed the song as not too bad (although still among the lesser songs on that album).

Man, I'm gonna listen to some fuckin' Mellow Gold now!

yeah a lot of the kids who were heavy into Dookie and the first Weezer repped hard for Mellow Gold but i didn't check for it until after Odelay. there really was kind of a hard shift to a SoCal-heavy alt-rock world around '94, huh.

http://www.radiohitlist.com/KROQ/KROQ-1994.htm

very few duds on this list...at least in the top 50

and three Bad Religion tracks!

that's right, "Yellow Ledbetter" and the Cowboy Junkies version of "Sweet Jane" didn't really become a radio staples until '94, even though both were years old by then

thank Oliver Stone.

nah Natural Born Killers came out in '95, "Sweet Jane" had been on the radio a lot for a year or two already by then

My first reactions to these songs:

Lemonheads, "Into Your Arms" - Where's Juliana?
Pearl Jam, "Daughter" - What do you mean you don't have the CD? The vinyl is right here already.
Gin Blossoms, "Found Out About You" - Why would she put this as the first song on this mixtape?
Nirvana, "All Apologies" - Well, it's better than Something In the Way, at least.
Beck, "Loser" - is this on the right speed?
Crash Test Dummies, "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" - From the name, I was expecting some a bit more metal.
Tori Amos, "God" - She is so deep.
Green Day, "Longview" - I can't believe this is on MTV.
Offspring, "Come Out and Play" - I am officially old (said at age 20.)
Green Day, "Basket Case" - Was this originally on Lookout too?
REM, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" - Dude, I remember that Dan Rather thing when it first happened!
Cranberries, "Zombie" - Welp, I guess Irish songstresses will be the sound of the 90s.

lol killer post

Crash Test Dummies first few albums are actually really solid. They do a nifty cover of The Replacements "Androgynous"! And a song about Superman! But, yeah, "Mmmm" became annoying after too much airplay.

They do a nifty cover of The Replacements "Androgynous"!

I just got a stabbing pain in my abdomen by imagining this.

Thank you for just reminding me that I actually have listened to those early Crash Test Dummies albums. Pretty sure my brain would've continued blocking that info out otherwise.

Basket Case

Top 5:
"Basket Case"
"All Apologies"
"Loser"
"What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
"Found Out About You"

^^^ the plain and simple truth that has not been spoken enough itt

xpost

Basket Case is still the catchiest shit ever. In retrospect it's not hard to see how a band that could put tracks like that together would still be around, but who would have foreseen five more top 10 albums and two #1's in the 2000s...

At the time I thought Green Day was going to be another catchy pop-punk band that was going to flare up on the radar and then go away a la K's Choice. I do like them but in the back of my mind I still feel that way, so it's perpetually mind-boggling to me to see (for example) posters for the American Idiot touring show all over major marquees in town.

― I'M THAT POSTA, AAAAAAAAAH (DJP), Monday, May 21, 2012 10:45 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i just noticed how weird this post is, i assume he's confusing K's Choice with someone else?

you've been here how long and you're just now noticing that I'm weird?

to be fair, Dan, your line describes 95 percent of posters.

I was originally going to say They Eat Their Own but I figured no one but me remembers them.

This is definitely my favourite shreds of all time - was crying the first time i saw it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1IhhdsKXAQ

i'm just saying "Not Addict" was a downtempo song that broke 2+ years after Green Day's first hits, so i assume you meant a band other than K's Choice?

the Dummies have a song that alludes to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrick" and another about wanting to be David Byrne, both of which were impossibly cool things when one is 19.

i'm just saying "Not Addict" was a downtempo song that broke 2+ years after Green Day's first hits, so i assume you meant a band other than K's Choice?

I did not mean that at the time I was literally thinking "this band is going to follow the trajectory arc of this band that doesn't exist yet", I meant that at the time I thought people would play "Longview" for a while and call it a day, and then I gave an example of a band where that actually happened. I was not trying to say that Green Day was going to follow in the footsteps of K's Choice.

Tori Amos, "God"
Morrissey, "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"
Counting Crows, "Einstein on the Beach"

I have no memory of any of these getting played on the radio or on MTV.. I would guess they all quickly peaked at #1 and then fell off the charts soon afterwards. (I know "God" was a buzzclip or something but still I've never seen the video.)

I figured "Round Here" would've placed instead.

"Einstein On The Beach" did not have a video. "God" was i think a buzzclip or a 'breakthrough video' or at least was in a lot of MTV promos when it first came out? "The More You Ignore Me" at least got played on 120 Minutes.

oh right you said it was a buzzclip

i heard einstein and mozz plenty on a local station, which admittedly was alt as fuck, but "God" never

they were bigger on "past the mission"

"God" was a real quick flash in the pan of 'Tori's back! and this is more alt and guitar-y than the first album!' before "Cornflake Girl" replaced it on playlists

xpost

also not to labor the point but timeline aside it was the phrase "catchy pop-punk band... a la K's Choice" that i was raising an eyebrow at

too late, point labored

shit

ahh Toad the Wet Sprocket, with one of the last of the jangle-pop #1's.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, May 21, 2012 9:40 AM (Yesterday)

i know very little about this kind of music from this period, but i love jangle-pop and this! more jangle-pop please

yeah "Fall Down" rules

"Found Out About You" is jangly

I have very little perspective on how much radio/MTV play "God" received because it was roughly concurrent with my listening to Under The Pink a bazillion times.

My college station was playing this in 1993, three years before "Not An Addict" and a year before "Longview," so there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfTf2bURI9I

"Into Your Arms" is like "There She Goes part 2" except less awesome

ok, i had no idea K's Choice existed before "Not An Addict"

Weren't they bigger in the UK? I was also totally unfamiliar with them before "Addict".

1994 modern rock singles POX+2:

Mazzy Star "Fade Into You"
Ween "Freedom of 76"
Beastie Boys "Sure Shot"
Nirvana "Verse Chorus Verse" (I think this counts)
Gin Blossoms "Found Out About You"
Dinosaur Jr "Feel The Pain"
Liz Phair "Supernova"
Weezer "Undone The Sweater Song"
Green Day "When I Come Around"
Portishead "Sour Times"
Jawbox "Savory"
Jeff Buckley "Last Goodbye"

my college radio station played "God" and "The More You Ignore Me" around the clock; I would guess that by 1994 Billboard and college radio stations finally achieved something close to parity.

I actually heard "God" more than any Amos single before or since.

Wasn't K's Choice also, like, Belgian?

itt alfred muddies the waters again by talking about college stations when everyone else is talking about commercial alt stations

Not on purpose -- I missed the distinction. If that's the case, then, yeah, Counting Crows and Moz def played (never heard "God").