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

I loved that Reply All podcast but did not at all imagine Evan Olson as a Neil Patrick Harris clone

the evan olson song is a flight of conchords thing right

Oh my God, this was such a ride!
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx/158-the-case-of-the-missing-hit for those that haven't heard it

yeah it's wild! i wish they'd followed up with more of their sources once they reached the conclusion. but super entertaining listening.

pretty entertaining detective story (i h8 podcasts and managed to make it through), but with the reveal of what the song was it's clear that the extent to which the song had been 'erased from existence' or 'scrubbed from the internet' or however they kept putting it was quite a big exaggeration. it may have seemed that way initially when the song's lyrics were apparently ungooglable, but the track (w/ its parent album) seems to have been on youtube and digital download stores for a decade now, probably much longer?

searching thru radio & records issues from the time shows it got some play at a handful of top 40, hot ac and (to a lesser extent) alternative stations, but never secured enough play to crack even the bottom of those formats' charts. the track got mentioned in billboard's heatseekers column, which was meant to highlight music breaking regionally, before the album's originally planned release. it's unclear when it actually came out, because i don't think it ever ended up making even the heatseekers chart, but at least it did get released! like, here's billboard's amusingly hyperbolic review of the followup single that probably ended up getting played by approximately zero stations.

as the sources interviewed in the podcast said, it seems to have been quite a common fate for artists scooped up while the industry bubble was at its largest. it's no surprise that many of them ended up pretending to be undiscovered talent on american idol a few years later.

on a related note: this is from the early rather than late 90s, but what strikes me about it is that it actually charted on billboard, but i'm not sure if it actually ever came out. it's "let's get into something sexy" by erik hicks, which got just enough airplay to hit the bottom rungs of billboard's chart for the rhythmic top 40 format for two weeks (and the hot 100 airplay chart for one week).

finding this song + him on discogs reveals ZERO releases by this artist other than this one song on a promo cd. (however he does have numerous production, writing and session credits on other artists' releases.) so despite getting some minor (but not negligible) airplay, he never got to put an album out, and it's possible the single never got released to retail either. googling the song leads to a small number of hits, including forum posts from collectors struggling to find it. it's not even on youtube (tho apparently another recording of the same song is??). TRULY erased!

i recall having seen a couple other similar examples but i think they were country artists so there's no way in hell i'll remember them

actually just to be a horrible contrarian i'm going to put my tin foil hat on and insist that those podcast people actually knew of evan olson's tune all this time and just concocted this whole saga/detective story knowing it would be excellent podcast material. the rolling stone folks suspecting a viral marketing hoax were onto something!!

Somehow youtube algorithm recommended me to listen to Eve 6 after almost two decades of forgetting about them.

“Inside out” and “leech” were sort of popular on alt radio. Does anyone remembers them at all? The Leech video doesn’t even have 1M views so I guess not. Inside Out is definitely more popular with 18M views.

https://youtu.be/TB_g3KYs2QM

Oddly enough I think Leech is the catchier song despite being less popular.

"inside out" was very big, "leech" not so much so.

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

their faked-up versions of the song (tho delightful imo) also may have muddied the waters by losing all the sonic tags of a '99-era would-be hit, which the song undoubtedly shares with half the playlist.

man that fake U2 chorus tho. not a lot of people out there going that directly for bono's gold. tho i think it helped me realize how much collective soul wanted to be in that space (see: the guitars and drums in "heavy," now seems very obvious to me as an attempt to pump the Achtung Baby sound up to late 90s compression and attack standards).

Is there a comparable thread somewhere for obscure '80s hits? I keep coming across these older songs whose artists and titles make me shrug but as soon as I hear them I'm like 'ohhhhhh yeah!'. It's like stumbling upon a Riunite commercial on YT.

as far as this "series" goes, i've only made the late 90s and early 00s one (and really should launch the late 00s one) but i would not be surprised if there's some other thread that fills this role for the 80s!

Does anybody remember this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRC-X0twti0

I only really know of it because I googled music videos directed by McG, and MAYBE I heard back in the day, but I came across it again inspired by that Evan Olson song by going through old Mainstream Radio Promo CD playlists from that era on Discogs and finding songs that didn't show up on Lyrics Websites. However, lyrics were posted for this in a Yahoo Answers question.

wow, no, never heard this before but WHAT a time capsule. the main guitar thing in the verse sounds almost like a slowed-down sample of "Scar Tissue" and that video is like typical McG aesthetic crossed with "Steal My Sunshine" framing/editing. plus random turntable scratches.... the hyper-saturated blue track jacket versus bleached blonde hair.... just needs Supercat dropping in halfway through. total 1998-2001 interzone pop-rock.

not on Spotify tho

yeah, never heard that before, but it's an impossibly perfect example of the genus

for posterity in case of bum youtube link, we are discussing "Destiny" by "Mister Jones."

Been thinking a bit about this one lately, John Squires' Britpop move from '97.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVzUFNWIYM0

Seahorses: "Love Is The Law"

The album version had a long jam at the end.

John Squire, that is.

"Love Is The Law" actually racked up some decent Alt-Rock airplay for a month or so that summer. This follow-up, while having a much splashier video, didn't fare as well, although I do remember hearing it (alongside loads of other forgotten also-rans) on Muzaks at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv3J4HTThpQ

Seahorses: "Blinded By The Sun"

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

I think the issue was that the song is called "So Much Better," and those words don't actually exist in the lyrics. So if all you have is the lyrics and they're not on online anywhere, it's hard to get to the title/artist.

(But yeah, the song was out there, so it's not like it had totally vanished.)

That “Destiny” song is surprisingly good

(canceled on arrival, tho, for the f’d-up shot in which the “fat chick” twirls around and turns “hot”)

This thread has made me search for the tracklists on the Now! that’s what I call music compilations from Mexico. We only had 8 of them, but the selections we’re a tad weirder than those from US/UK. I’ve no idea what parameter they used to pick these songs since: a) some of them weren’t billboard top singles in Mexico or anywhere else? b) to the point you never really heard them on the radio, c) not even big hits on mtv that I’m aware of.

Let me point some examples after the break.

Apologies for the format, I’m copy/pasting from Discogs. Apparently the Mexican version of Now went all the way to 10, I lost track after Vol. 6 since there was a 2 year gap between 6 and 7 and they lost me. At any rate here are the 10 comps if you’re interested, some songs I can’t even recognize, overall I like the variety in every one of these.

https://www.discogs.com/es/label/1764152-Now-Thats-What-I-Call-Music!-7

Please take a look at least until Vol. 6 - which is the final volume of the 90’s - Lots of songs in there that could fit in this thread.

Ugh didn’t copy paste properly.

Anyhoo click on the link, you’ll find them there.

Ha, first one has Duran Duran's version of White Lines.

The Cranberries Free To Decide 3:52
–George Michael Fastlove 4:52
–Bryan Adams The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You 3:24
–Def Leppard Slang 2:36
–Everything But The Girl Wrong 6:40
–Fool's Garden Lemon Three 3:09
–Pet Shop Boys Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) 4:03
–The Cardigans Love Fool 3:15
–Larry Mullen And Adam Clayton Theme From Mission: Impossible 3:27
–Bon Jovi These Days 4:30
–Queen You Don't Fool Me 3:14
–Melissa Etheridge I Want To Come Over 5:25
–The Cure Mint Car 3:30
–Babylon Zoo Spaceman 4:00
–Pulp Disco 2000 4:32
–Sting Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot 4:29
–Shaggy Boombastic 3:47
–Gin Blossoms Follow You Down 3:45
–Roxette June Afternoon 4:11

Just copy-pasting Vol. 3 in here as an example. Vol. 3 was released in 1996 and I was 11 and it was the first cd I ever bought in my life.

Pains me to say these were actually the first songs I heard from almost every act in here... this includes “legacy” acts such as The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Def Leppard, George Michael and even Queen.

It annoys me nowadays, but at the time, “lemon tree” was the most fun cut in here for me. I had a thing with my cousin were we would rewind the song over and over again to hear the intro and act as we were the ones shattering the glass. The Paul McCartney-esque sing along quality to it also made it a maddeningly catchy song.

Songs I loved and still do: Lovefool, Follow You Down, Disco 2000, Boombastic and Wrong.

Songs I found weird, in a bad way: Spaceman

Songs I found weird, but in a good way: Se a Vida E and Fastlove.

Songs in here I found lame and still do: Songs by Roxette, Sting, Melissa Etheridge and Bon Jovi which have dull titles I wont even type.

Xpost:

As in Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines!? I had Vol. 1 but I must have blocked that memory from my head. I feel like this is the first time I learn about this.

I need to listen to this right away. Brb

That was terrible. I must have blocked that memory from my head on purpose.

I’ve now discovered that Duran Duran has a covers record. Is it worth listening to any of it, or are the results as ghastly as that “white lines” cover?

White Lines and the parent LP are mainstays of "worse record" lists.

Seahorses are a great pick! Kinda surprised they never came up before, I've always had them in my general 90s alt-rock playlist. I believe my station played "Love is the Law" exactly twice - once for me to go "ooh what is that?" and another time for me to tape it. cool riff, lyrics were fun to sing along to at the time. now strikes me as a little bit sluggish and overstuffed.

"Blinded by the Sun" is new to me. man, what a 1997 video. i wonder how many other Britpop acts had serious attempts to market them in the US before it became obvious circa Be Here Now that the American pop audience at large wasn't actually here for the genre, just "Wonderwall" and to a lesser extent "Champagne Supernova."

Wow, I'd forgotten about "Lemon Tree!" I think that similarly got exactly one week of one play per day before getting abandoned. Would not have guessed the band hailed from Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. Moka, that Volume III list is otherwise a fascinating mix of pretty big, popular songs that have nonetheless faded from the collective memory ("Fastlove") and shit I've never heard of in my life from massive massive artists. Fascinating.

xp I had "Leech" by Eve 6 on a mixtape in high school. I've only maybe heard it once in the past 10 years but I probably know about half of the lyrics.

Re: Evan Olson, my first thought was that Reply All should have hit up ILM with a Song ID thread.

I listened to that podcast — it was entertaining enough, but I agree with whomever above said that the whole “call Xgau and everyone else under the sun” thing, before they suddenly “had the idea” to search Facebook, seemed like a fake out.

https://www.facebook.com/nealobermeyer/posts/10105397416710613

"When I did my study abroad in England in 97-98, there was this amazing song I would frequently hear in McDonald’s, grocery stores, etc. and none of my native English friends I was with ever knew who or what it was. In the ensuing 22 years, I’ve done everything I could think of to try to find this song — I’ve bought pretty much every Now compilation from 1995-1998 in the hopes it would be there; I’ve downloaded singles charts looking for songs I didn’t know, in the hopes that it could be uncovered that way. It wasn’t until recently, when listening to the SiriusXM 90s on 9 channel, that it occurred to me that *there are surely UK 90s web radio stations!* So the past two days, I’ve started listening to four different 90s-specific web radio stations based in the UK. While I wouldn’t expect to find this long-lost song in the first 36 hours, it is blowing my mind how all four of these stations seem committed to playing Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” approximately once an hour.

EDIT: I initially intended this post as essentially nothing more than a shaggy dog story leading to my befuddlement at UK web radio’s fascination with Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing.” I didn’t intend it as a call for assistance, because I don’t remember enough details about the song in question to be able to realistically enlist anyone’s help. I’ll know the song when I hear it, and I really do hope to hear it again someday, but I just don’t remember enough to be able to put anyone else on the job. However, that hasn’t stopped many of you from wanting to be helpful; I think you’re most likely wasting your time, but I appreciate your desire to help solve this mystery. So in the interest of minimizing your wasted time, here’s everything I can think of that could possibly narrow it down:

1. I heard the song multiple times within the 1997-1998 academic year. The only time I can precisely pinpoint would be March of 1998, because I remember asking a friend in McDonald’s over Easter break if she knew the song (she did not).

2. This was not a well-known song; I asked multiple native British people (some English, at least one Welsh) if they knew the song as we would hear it playing (they did not). However, it was mainstream enough to be played in stores, and that’s the one thing that gives me hope I can someday find it.

3. From what I remember, I’d say the song is around 120 bpm; I’d consider it on the slow end of something that could be considered electronic dance music.

4. I would classify it as dance-pop but with a somewhat spooky sound. The best sonic connections I can draw to this would be the tempo, sparse production and soulful vocal stylings of Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You.” The Disclosure song “Holding On” featuring Gregory Porter also reminds me of it. When I first heard Gregory Porter’s voice, I was hopeful it was him, but he didn’t release music until 2010, so it’s not him.

5. In about five minutes last night, I put together a really quick sketch of what I remember of the vocal melody, which I shared in a few threads below. I am not going to share that here, because I think that whatever random synthesizer I chose to capture the vocal melody has set people on the wrong path. That audio clip was really just intended to capture the tempo and vocal melody line — nothing more. If you look for that audio clip in the comments below, please listen with that framing.
6. If you find it, I’ll offer you your choice of a high-five or a hug when it’s safe to do so. I need to keep the prize pretty worthless because I don’t want to entice people into wasting their time. I’ve spent 22 years on this, and I know what it sounds like!"

(Copied from a shared facebook post).
The audio clip is this, but bare in mind it's just the melody, which is male vocals

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AIc4%2DT8gbtwUfNU&cid=48D95192749E505F&id=48D95192749E505F%2114325&parId=48D95192749E505F%21469&o=OneUp

He doesn't remember any of the lyrics?

No, guess not. I used to listen to 90s UK web radio and never heard that Michael Bolton song either

now resolved!

What was it? It sounded very vaguely familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwxpMIEZ9fg

^ Roy Davis Jr ft Peven Everett - Gabriel (Live Garage Version)

I’ve been reading a book mentioned in the “Good Books About Music” thread, by the drummer of the band Semisonic, about his experiences in the music biz. (The only Semisonic song that I’ve ever been familiar with is “Closing Time,” which I’m not a fan of).

The drummer writes at length about the band’s first single, “Down in Flames,” which was chosen by the head of their label; they didn’t agree that it was a good single choice, but were advised not to question this guy’s judgment. It was pushed to radio, with very little success; MTV also buried the video, because of its prominent “fire” imagery (this was right after a kid set a fire, allegedly under the influence of Beavis and Butt-head). Anyway, it’s a pretty decent song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1BHPX0Vwto&app=desktop

This is the book, btw. I don’t super recommend it — most of the details are pretty pro forma — but it’s a good, light insomnia read.

Kinda disturbed at how a song like Jars of Clay - Flood has 5M views on youtube and Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are which is a stupid awesome song only has 288k. I thought Geggy Tah was way more popular than that.

I mean I guess Jars of Clay is popular because it has some Christian push or something but still, how does 'whoever you are' not have at least 1M views?

The second version that comes up in a search is an audio-only upload from 9 yrs. ago with 149K views. (I agree the official video upload should get more “traffic,” tho)

Wait — 149k is less than 288k. Sorry, I’m tired, hitting the sack

interesting pairing!

the christian rock thing helped the big Jars of Clay album go platinum, which already means a lot more people who would have been spinning the disc (and, maybe, *not* spinning a lot of other discs? so they really get to know and remember the songs?) in the mid-90s. i can't seem to find a sales number for geggy tah's /sacred cow/ but i'd be surprised if it even went gold. they had one single, received as an alt-novelty, which got to #16 on Modern Rock. i also feel like i've been at parties or karaoke nights where "whoever you are" gets played and a lower-than-i'd-expect percentage of millennials go "oh, THIS song!" it kinda just came and went after a few weeks, i think. i suspect even many people who bought the album didn't keep it long, as there's not a lot that really sounds like "whoever you are." anecdotally, iirc i got mine from the used bin not long after the song's heyday....

another comparison for Jars of Clay - the (sorta christian-feeling) "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla, which peaked at a similar #15 on Modern Rock, but had a *much* longer presence on radio that year, and sold to non-christians who dug its soft/loud dynamics, giant hook, and bono-esque aspirations to profundity. spotify numbers:

Geggy Tah, "Whoever You Are" - 1.8 mil
Jars of Clay, "Flood" - 6.5 mil
Dishwalla, "Counting Blue Cars" - 23 mil

more surprising to me: Geggy Tah have another song, "Holly Oak," from another album, with 900k spotify listens. never heard of it, but the rest of their material is down at like 35K, so it must be on some playlist or a not-super-popular soundtrack, or something.