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

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).

Tracy Bonham - "Mother Mother"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0GgLKUU_I

Prophetically, the album this was from also included a song called "One Hit Wonder"

Haha google and I just talked abt this song last weekend

Google=goole.

ok i'm bout to drop a ton of these on you:

Huffamoose - "Wait"
Mack 10 - "Backyard Boogie"
Goldfinger - "This Lonely Place"
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - "Blue On Black"
Mya f/ Silkk The Shocker - "Movin' On"
Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"
Playa - "Cheers 2 U"
Lenny Kravitz - "If You Can't Say No"
DJ Quik f/ El Debarge and 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand"
Raphael Saadiq f/ Q-Tip - "Get Involved"
Mystikal and Outkast - "Neck Uv Da Woods"
Rah Digga - "Break Fool"
Lit - "Zip-Lock"
Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "Do Right"
Juvenile - "U Understand"
Sammy Hagar - "Mas Tequila"
Naughty By Nature f/ Zhane - "Jamboree"
Our Lady Peace - "One Man Army"
Sugar Ray - "Falls Apart"
Chris Cornell - "Can't Change Me"

Dammmmmn, quite a list there!

"If You Can't Say No" really captures the feel of this thread for me...got a lot of airplay at the time, I totally remember it, could sing the chorus as soon as I saw the title, but never liked it, haven't heard it since 1999 for sure. "Fly Away" really blotted out the other stuff from that album. Remember "Black Velveteen"? Only heard that a couple times, think it might have been bigger in Europe maybe.

"Falls Apart" and "Zip-Loc" maybe too big of hits to count? But then, I guess they don't really get played much anymore.

Ugh, "Blue On Black."

"Can't Change Me" reminds me of Soundgarden's "Bleed Together," which was the bonus song added to liven up the greatest-hits CD, and got a decent amount of alt-rock airplay IIRC.

Just updated the playlist with all of the above, except Spotify duckers "Bleed Together" and "Can't Change Me," I think. Also threw in Our Lady Peace, "Starseed," which I always liked. It's from '94 originally but I never heard it on the radio until the Armageddon soundtrack, for which it was ostensibly remixed. Anyway, Our Lady Peace seem to be kind of essential to our mix here.

(Golfinger's career also tracks this pretty well - - - I was tempted to also add "Mable (She's The Bomb)" but couldn't be sure how lost and forgotten that one is.)

"Blue on Black" was the #1 Mainstream Rock Track for 1998 in Billboard.

Yeah, I was wondering about that one.

"Blue On Black" is still huge and gets tons of recurrent plays, it just felt like the kind of thing that would be considered 'forgotten' on ilx

"Starseed" was a pretty sizable hit in '95, definitely more remembered than most of their singles from the actual late '90s

Wait, really? "Superman's Dead" and "Clumsy" were HUGE where I was at. I know "Naveed" got some play back in the day but "Starseed" was totally new to me when Armageddon dropped.

DJ Quik f/ El Debarge and 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand"

I discovered it a few months ago and loved it.

i said "most" not "all" -- the Clumsy singles were definitely bigger but "Starseed" was much more popular than "Naveed"

Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"

I was a Crowded House fan but this one was one of the first examples of which I was aware of how aging singer-songwriters got hip by adding drum loops and scratching and weird post-Froom sounds: the late nineties/2000's equivalent of McCartney using Linn drums and synclaviers.

Yo I totally remember that Jimmie's Chicken Shack single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAez4hlV-Fo

Mxpx - I'm OK, You're OK

not sure how heavily played this was on the radio, as opposed to The Box, but I dug it. Anyway, I feel Mxpx fit the vibe of the thread enough to merit more than just one song in the playlist. Amazingly, the video isn't on Youtube. The gimmick is that a snow globe keeps getting passed from one character to another through a series of unlikely coincidences and run-ins...and the band is playing inside the snow globe! Whee!

Have we talked about Cadlebox?

Banditos by the Refreshments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmujs348H5o