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

Huh - don't remember that one at all! Not bad at all.

The vocal effect is closer to like a Zapp synth talkbox thing, right? Seems like it was in circulation a lot in that era, most obviously with Roger Troutman coming back to sing the "California Love" hook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dY4KjMdMVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Obkkxng-0g

SR-71 is 2000, but not a bad song. The Marvelous 3 one never really hit home with me, okay hook but seemed kinda by-the-numbers.

idk they both seem pretty damn by-the-numbers!

71 and 3, to be precise

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0yYCqkt0VE

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

Nine Days and "Is Anybody Home" are also 2000! Although feel-wise, they're there. Stroke 9 pretty much qualifies I think.

Once again, I plug: Defend The Indefensible: "Absolutely (Story of A Girl)" by Nine Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKtUrS6QTOo

Dude EVERYONE knows the late 90's lasted til like 2002

hahaha, yeah, yeah, I know. There was a strong case made on the "song that represents the end of the 90s" thread (I think?) that there should be a "transitional period" covering like 98 or 99 to 02 as kind of its own thing, sonically and aesthetically. I pretty much buy that, it's an era without its name in both pop and rock and as I think I said before it has some weird parallels to the post-Cannibals, Positive Vibes era.

here is how it breaks down in my mind:

The 90's - 1988-1997
The Late 90's - 1998-2002
The 2000's - 2002-2010, etc.

I think I've assembled this list of threads before, recently, but it bears repeating, as I believe one of ILX's signature projects in 2012 is hashing out a new discourse of Late 90s Radio Rock Studies:

The song that represents the END of the 90s

^^^ transitional period gets put forth, discussed

Modern Rock #1 Hits of 2000
Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1999

^^^ similar topics get worked over, particularly with regard to what pop-rock records sounded like in this era - it's a certain, very distinctive production aesthetic that kind of creeped in somewhere between 96 and 99 and made everything almost totally unlistenable, simultaneously polished and crunchy with lots of goofy crap going on in the background. see also the languishing:

top 100 production tricks of the 90s

btw, I totally dig "It's Saturday," but I'm a Marcy Playground stan: Marcy Playground: Classic or dud?

Also why do ALL MODERN ROCK VIDEOS from this era have the band playing in a really crowded room w/ everyone else *totally rawking out*?

meanwhile, just now realizing how many damned singles Collective Soul put out between '95 and '00...pretty sure at least 2/3 of them qualify for this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQ2TIul8pI

THEY SAY MISERY LOVES COMPANY
WE CAN START A COMPANY AND MAKE MISERY

Dude EVERYONE knows the late 90's lasted til like 2002

mid-98 until 2001 was def its own separate era of pop culture.. however that doesn't mean you can simply lump all of this together as "part of the 90's"

"is anybody home" (the video and single) was 2000 but the prior single from that album "one man army" was late 1999 (although the album was '99 so technically both songs are 90s)

confession: I owned the CD single of "Is Anybody Home?" It really is a good fit for this thread I think. Nowhere near the exposure/buzz that "Clumsy" and "Superman's Dead" had. Maybe it was a weaker song or maybe it's once again that shift in modern rock radio.

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

"This sounds like a Pepsi commercial" - my friend, at the time

See also: "Precious Declaration" and "Tremble For My Beloved." "Heavy" and "Run" were maybe high-profile enough that they live on in the, uh, collective memory, even if I haven't heard either one in eons.

xxp really?? I always thought "Is Anybody Home?" was their huge hit

nah it's at most their 5th biggest US hit, and US radio only remembers 3 or 4 of their songs

god, all i remember about Collective Soul is "Shine."

sometimes i'm glad i hid under a rock after 96 or so.

Rusty - "Groovy Dead"

This song rocks! What happened to them?!

Also "Hitchhiker Joe" by the Rugburns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W88bat_dkm8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5x_ikFpqz0

Hitchhiker Joe is so goddamn catchy. Now that I hear it again, it may be singlehandedly responsible for Fountains of Wayne.

Do most Americans remember Big Wreck? They were big in Canada and I was surprised to learn that some of their songs were modest hits in the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuhzlSQovxc

Ahh, it looks like they were mentioned earlier.

Wow, Hitchhiker Joe...don't think I've ever heard that before, pretty damned catchy!

(It's '94, though, and very much an early 90s sound IMO - compare to, e.g., "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick - Classic or Dud? - which I think is sorta pushing it...what's the consensus?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVg5_gCeBRQ

Sprung Monkey - Get 'Em Outta Here (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjBwe6IL10o

Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar (1998/99, followup to "6 Underground")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX5qtSzcZ0A

Luscious Jackson - Ladyfingers (1999, an album after "Naked Eye")

weirdly, that last one sends my brain directly to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM4uwLTiDPU

Lisa Loeb - I Do (1997 - still hear this from time to time)

"I Do" had a surprisingly long shelf life--I still hear it in grocery stores and casual dining restaurants.

Yeah, it's definitely a grocery store song - - weird. Peaked at #17 on Billboard...but it got to #3 on the "Adult Top 40" chart which might be a secret gateway into grocery store heaven.

o wow i didn't know it was that big a hit initially, i just remember it as a 'failed followup' i actually liked, always thought she was a fox. still hear it on occasion on magic 102, it's definitely in that recurrent top 40 that's made its way onto adult contemporary where it will stay in the playlists until it's simply outdated. btw pfork gave that loeb album an 8.8 - http://web.archive.org/web/20010707042005/pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/l/loeb_lisa/firecracker.shtml

I'd heard the poppy single "I Do" on the radio, but I couldn't make myself get the album. It's kind of like how Bailey can't get too close to the booze on "Party of Five," lest he relapse into his alcoholism.

hahahaha this has to be some clever hack of archive.org

And so I was talking to Beverly on the phone tonight. I casually mentioned that I'd gotten the new Lisa Loeb CD, and as far as I could tell, no eyebrows were raised. She doesn't know about me and Lisa, about what we used to have. I hung up the phone and turned on the TV and caught the tail end of "I Do" on VH-1... the part where she's squirming around on pink shag carpeting, not wearing any pants.

Here we go again.

woah i had totally forgotten about this one, five years before 'i'll be there for you' and technically a bigger hit (#14 vs #17). this isn't bad, second tier crowded house - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmjQVoHrXe0

Hey guys, remember when Seven Mary Three went Country Rock?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUGXzs5E7kM

No!

The playlist is really giving me more time with ones that I probably checked out when they first got shoutouts in this thread but which I didn't really absorb - and man. "Hopeless" is pretty great. The R&B version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" though is... O_o

Ha, I'm sure I said this upthread, but it's the first version I ever heard! It was totally trying to capitalize on the success of the Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly" earlier that year and improbably got played on the r&b station here all that fall. I remember my cousin had the cassinle which in no way indicated they were white ladies. Wasn't until I tracked the video down on youtube that I even realized this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6bHXjWZjtY

Guster in general. Added that and "Airport Song," which I had utterly and totally forgotten about until just now. At the time I thought it was pretty cool!

woah i had totally forgotten about this one, five years before 'i'll be there for you' and technically a bigger hit (#14 vs #17).

yeah "I'll Be There For You"'s US chart placing was a victim of Billboard's antiquated calculation method still in use at that time that combined radio airplay and physical sales of a single to determine popularity. IBTFY wasn't available as a single (or even their album until it was added to later pressings), and achieved the #17 placement on radio airplay alone.

(Billboard's charting algorithm still a mess today but that's a subject for another time and place).