Post by a Nick O! on Apr 25, 2009 17:27:59 GMT -4
These have become progressively more and more tedious to make. 
No matter. I finished off 1996 recently and then I've only got 1997 left before my year-end charts from 1998 on forward still hold up to this day. In 1998 I began my notorious official 256 cut-off, so starting there, I'll just post my Top 100 singles of each year until a stopping date to be determined. Perhaps until the year they can be found here in the archives. Without further ado...
NICK’S TOP 200 SONGS OF 1995
(Extended and Remastered)
March 18, 2009
01. Green Day “When I Come Around” (1994: #131)
(I was obsessed with Green Day in 1995. Really back from when I saw the "Basket Case" video on MTV in the summer of '94, but I couldn't muster the courage to sneak an album called Dookie into my parents house until February '95.)
02. Nine Inch Nails “Closer” (1994: #25)
(Still an undeniable mammoth of a single on my chart through the whole year.)
03. The Cranberries “Zombie” (1994: #69)
04. Green Day “Basket Case” (1994: #83)
05. Madonna “Take a Bow”
(Such a beautiful song and video. The video was sexy, too, with Madonna rolling around on the bed in lingerie (
) during the entire third chorus, I believe it is. It's no coincidence that she pulls the bed sheet up over her right at the end of the chorus, at "the show is over, say goodbye." 
)
06. R.E.M. “Strange Currencies”
(One of the most beautiful R.E.M. songs ever.)
07. The Offspring “Gotta Get Away”
08. Live “Lightning Crashes”
09. Nine Inch Nails “Hurt”
10. Weezer “Buddy Holly”
(I have Spike Jonze to thank, because the Happy Days-themed video got me interested in the show.)
11. Skee-Lo “I Wish”
(For how much of a beloved smash this was on MTV and my pop radio stations, I cannot believe that not only was this not a huge Top 5 smash hit, but apparently it only topped out at #53.)
12. Foo Fighters “This Is a Call”
(The first Foo Fighters album came out on my birthday and I bought it 4 days later. I was always curious why they never made a music video for this, though I have a theory.)
13. Coolio featuring L.V. “Gangsta’s Paradise”
(This was the hip hop song of 1995. It was everywhere.)
14. Nirvana “The Man Who Sold the World”
(Hot David Bowie remake!
)
15. Red Hot Chili Peppers “Warped”
(To this day, one of my favorite songs and music videos, let alone Chili Peppers songs/videos. Criminally underrated.)
16. Nine Inch Nails “March of the Pigs”
(Admittedly slept on this song until after "Closer" blew up for them. Hey, I was 12 when "March" came out. Sue me.)
17. Green Day “Longview” (1994: #17)
(See above, but replace "Closer" with "Basket Case.")
18. Green Day “Welcome to Paradise” (1994: #112)
(If this had a video, even if it was just the studio version played over a live performance, why the hell didn't MTV ever play it, once "Basket Case" had run its course?)
19. White Zombie “More Human Than Human”
(Like a lot of Zombie fans, if not most, didn't get into them until this blew them up. My brother got me into this.)
20. Matthew Sweet “Sick of Myself”
(First exposure to Matthew Sweet. Bought 100% Fun and even a "Sick of Myself" t-shirt from this sporting goods store that inexplicably had the coolest, rarest band t-shirts I had ever seen. Damn, that place was awesome while it lasted.)
21. Gin Blossoms “Til I Hear It From You”
(The best song the Gin Blossoms ever recorded. Too bad its run had to be split over two years, otherwise it'd be in the Top 5.)
22. Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know”
(I was one of the first people I knew that championed this song. "Hand in My Pocket" was fine, but then the masses latched hard onto "Ironic" and ruined her for me for the next 3 years.)
23. Beastie Boys “Sure Shot” (1994: #44)
24. The Offspring “Self Esteem” (1994: #64)
(These two were extremely close friends on my chart; I can't think of one of these videos without thinking about the other one, but that's because they were simultaneous MTV Buzz Clips, more than anything.)
25. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fly from Heaven”
(Cruelly overlooked third single from Dulcinea.)
26. R.E.M. “Bang and Blame” (1994: #130)
27. Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song” (1994: #146)
28. The Rembrandts “I’ll Be There for You”
29. Veruca Salt “Seether” (1994: #108)
30. Madonna “Bedtime Story”
(Cruelly overlooked Bjork-penned third single from Bedtime Stories, with an amazing video that MTV thankfully showed a bunch.)
31. Foo Fighters “I’ll Stick Around”
(Ultimately a better song than "This Is a Call," but the former had a longer time to impact the chart. The video for this was absolutely fantastic and is still among my favorites.)
32. The Offspring “Come Out and Play” (1994: #13)
33. Nirvana “About a Girl (Unplugged)” (1994: #113)
34. Madonna “Secret” (1994: #37)
35. Bush “Comedown”
(The best song Bush ever did. If not for being split over two years, this would definitely be in the Top 10 if not Top 5.)
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers “My Friends”
(A bigger hit nationwide than "Warped," of course, but still an underrated Chili Peppers single. Yet another amazing video in a year full of them.)
37. TLC “Red Light Special”
(I'll always remember that this video appropriately debuted on MTV on Valentine's Day.)
38. Seal “Kiss from a Rose”
(Thank god for Batman Forever for exposing the masses to this gorgeous song.)
39. R.E.M. “Crush with Eyeliner”
(A totally underrated R.E.M. song with a cool video, consisting of a group of Japanese teenagers hanging out with a camera and lip-synching to this. From what I remember, it would seem R.E.M. just gave these kids a camera and told them to film a video for this song. I seem to recall somebody wearing a "sad tomato" t-shirt, based on the lyric in the song, and how my brother and I both wanted one.)
40. TLC “Creep” (1994: #141)
41. U2 “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”
(It felt great to have an amazing new U2 single after almost two years away.)
42. Paula Abdul “My Love Is for Real”
(It felt even better to have a new Paula Abdul album finally come out, lackluster though it may have been, after waiting for 3 years and that I would be aware of it from the get-go, as opposed to her previous two albums, when I wasn't fully aware and obsessed with pop music just yet. This was a killer single, though.)
43. Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994: #116)
44. Violent Femmes “Add It Up”
45. Violent Femmes “Blister in the Sun”
(Wasn't aware of the Violent Femmes until 1995. I got their debut album that summer and played it the whole rest of the year and beyond.)
46. Sponge “Molly”
(Along with "Plowed," which I was aware of, but didn't get to hear until the end of the year, this was Sponge's other absolutely phenomenal song.)
47. Green Day “Geek Stink Breath”
(Like the Chili Peppers' "Warped," this was a cruelly underrated lead single that was given up on too soon. F**k "Brain Stew," this was where it was at.)
48. Green Day “J.A.R.”
(A seamless stopgap between "She" and "Geek Stink Breath.")
49. Better Than Ezra “In the Blood”
("Good" was fine, but this second single was way better.)
50. Hole “Violet”
51. Dave Matthews Band “What Would You Say”
(A very fine introduction to the masses.)
52. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Something’s Always Wrong” (1994: #82)
53. R.E.M. “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” (1994: #54)
54. Boyz II Men “On Bended Knee” (1994: #80)
55. Collective Soul “December”
56. Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson “Scream”
(Finally, a duet between these two, inevitably overhyped though it may have been.)
57. Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love to You” (1994: #3)
58. PJ Harvey “Down by the Water”
(The bass rumble throughout this song is astonishing. Too bad all her songs aren't this good.)
59. Dick Dale & His Del-Tones “Misirlou”
(Yes, solely because it appeared in Pulp Fiction, whose soundtrack my brother and I avidly listened to a good half a year before we secretly got to see (rent?) the violent and profane rated R movie the next year.)
60. Janet Jackson “You Want This” (1994: #63)
61. Bon Jovi “Always” (1994: #100)
62. Matthew Sweet “We’re the Same”
(If I recall correctly, in the video, Matthew played a '70's era manager of an all-girl band that lip-synched this song.)
63. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Good Intentions”
64. Tripping Daisy “I Got a Girl”
(Fun song, that in 2009, when you get right down to it, is not that far removed from a silly Puddle of Mudd song, sans alpha-jerk machismo. 
)
65. Real McCoy “Another Night” (1994: #94)
66. Urge Overkill “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” (1994: #135)
(Hot Neil Diamond remake!)
67. Bush “Everything Zen”
68. Bush “Little Things”
69. Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”
70. Violent Femmes “Kiss Off”
71. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”
72. Boyz II Men “Water Runs Dry”
73. Letters to Cleo “Here and Now”
(Such a good song.)
74. Filter “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
75. Nine Inch Nails “Ruiner”
(Hot album cut.)
76. Goo Goo Dolls “Name”
77. Nirvana “Dumb” (1994: #111)
78. Weezer “Undone - The Sweater Song” (1994: #149)
79. The Presidents of the United States of America “Lump”
80. Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You”
(Such a shame that he was a one-hit wonder. Though, I kind of doubt his other songs were all wonderfully enhanced by vibraphone and fuzzed-out guitar.)
81. Live “All Over You”
82. Ini Kamoze “Here Comes the Hotstepper”
83. Soul Asylum “Misery”
84. The Cranberries “Ode to My Family”
85. Madonna “Survival”
(Hot album cut.)
86. Madonna “Human Nature”
(Video had Madonna all dressed up, alternately in a full-body black vinyl dominatrix outfit and a black vinyl bikini with matching gloves that went up to her elbows. Mostly her dark hair was in cornrows, but in some shots, her entire face was obscured by thin black vinyl (or whatever substance) and at the end of the video the back of her hair was teased out into an afro puff. Anyway, save the face covering and afro puff, she was still sexy in this video too.)
87. Alice in Chains “Would?”
(I didn't actually hear this song until 1995, when I bought Dirt.)
88. Madonna “You’ll See”
(First single from her ballads collection Something to Remember. The video was a sequel to "Take a Bow.")
89. Live “I Alone” (1994: #138)
90. 4 P.M. “Sukiyaki”
(Hot Kyu Sakamoto by way of A Taste of Honey remake!)
91. Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”
(Another song screwed by its life beyond 1995.)
92. The Murmurs “You Suck” (1994: #136)
93. Better Than Ezra “Good”
94. Alanis Morissette “Hand in My Pocket”
95. Boyz II Men “Thank You”
(Uptempo Boyz II Men songs just started sounding forced and clumsy at this point. Is it any wonder that it peaked way lower than the 2 ballads before it and the one after?)
96. Hole “Doll Parts”
97. Alice in Chains “Grind”
98. Mariah Carey “Fantasy”
99. Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men “One Sweet Day”
100. Real McCoy “Run Away”
101. Michael Jackson “You Are Not Alone”
(First video, besides "Childhood," with his new shorter haircut, which just looked weird. Not to mention how weird the white body of a black man looked, half naked with Lisa Marie Presley. Song written by R. Kelly, foreshadowing dreck like "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Gotham City.")
102. David Bowie “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”
(First Bowie song I knowingly heard.)
103. Dave Matthews Band “Ants Marching”
104. Hootie & the Blowfish “Only Wanna Be with You”
105. Prince “I Hate U”
(Lyrically, a fairly ridiculous song, the premise being Prince's lover on trial for infidelity. Funniest, most absurd lyric: "Close your eyes/And I'm gon' cover yo' ass with this sheet.")
106. Rage Against the Machine “Freedom”
(Didn't start getting into Rage until 1995, this being the video I remember on MTV from early 1994.)
107. Jane’s Addiction “Been Caught Stealing”
(Similarly, if significantly less so, I didn't start getting into Jane's Addiction and their most popular MTV hit until 1995 either.)
108. Deadeye Dick “New Age Girl”
109. Candlebox “Simple Lessons”
110. Green Day “She”
111. The Offspring “Nitro (Youth Energy)”
(Hot album cut.)
112. Madonna “Forbidden Love”
(Hot album cut.)
113. The Offspring “Bad Habit”
(Hot album cut. The a cappella swearing in the bridge was out of control and titillated my friends and me...y'know...being 13-14 and all.)
114. The Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly”
115. Elton John “Believe”
116. Green Day “Burnout”
(Hot album cut.)
117. Nine Inch Nails “Mr. Self Destruct”
(Hot album cut.)
118. Oasis “Morning Glory”
(Like its contemporaries "Warped" and "Geek Stink Breath," this lead single, also from a hotly anticipated "sophomore" album, was unfairly overlooked. I guess music directors were champing at the bit to pull the trigger on "Wonderwall" or something.)
119. Radiohead “Just”
(Cruelly overlooked second single from The Bends.)
120. Oasis “Live Forever”
(This was a really cool song no matter what, but one year after Kurt Cobain's death, I remember being excited seeing the video and noticing a couple quick cuts of a framed picture of Kurt (among many others), on the wall behind Liam.)
121. Nine Inch Nails “Piggy”
(Disappointed that the follow-up to "Closer" didn't have a music video. And for that matter, that "Hurt" was just a live performance.)
122. Ace of Base “Beautiful Life”
(A fine comeback single, but it almost seemed that, even one year later, the landscape had changed too much for Ace of Base to ever recapture the glory of their previous album. Not surprisingly, none of The Bridge's singles matched the peak of even the 4th single from The Sign.)
123. K-Ci Hailey “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”
(Hot Bobby Womack remake!)
124. Stone Temple Pilots “Dancing Days”
(Hot Led Zeppelin remake!)
125. Take That “Back for Good”
126. Soundgarden “Fell on Black Days”
127. Soundgarden “The Day I Tried to Live”
128. Green Day “Having a Blast”
(Hot album cut.)
129. Stone Temple Pilots “Unglued”
130. Dr. Dre “Keep Their Heads Ringin’”
(From the Friday soundtrack, a movie I didn't see until 2 years later.)
131. Toadies “Possum Kingdom”
132. Hootie & the Blowfish “Let Her Cry”
133. Collective Soul “The World I Know”
134. TLC “Waterfalls”
(No doubt this was a fine song, but I wasn't particularly big on it, certainly nowhere near as big on it as America was. I actually consider it my least favorite of the 4 CrazySexyCool singles.)
135. Primus “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”
(The video was great because the three of them were dressed up like cowboys in the style of those robotic plastic-looking, battery-operated people Duracell used in their recent commercials at the time.)
136. Martin Page “In the House of Stone and Light”
(Co-wrote huge hits for Heart, Go West, and Starship, among many others.)
137. Green Day “Chump”
(Hot album cut.)
138. Green Day “Pulling Teeth”
(Hot album cut.)
139. Blind Melon “Galaxie”
(Sadly, Shannon Hoon overdosed that fall, and right about the same time this single fell off the chart. And unfortunately, the better second single "Toes Across the Floor" didn't even make a dent.
)
140. Rollins Band “Liar”
(Remember the video from the summer of '94, but didn't hear it regularly or get into it until '95.)
141. Madonna “I Want You”
(Promoted as some kind of a single off the Marvin Gaye tribute album that fall, with a video on MTV during a half-hour special that was rerun a few times. Also appeared on her Something to Remember collection a month later, but somehow this didn't get the promotion or attention it deserved, for as good as it was.)
142. Chris Isaak “Somebody’s Crying”
(Obviously I liked this song at the time, or else it wouldn't be here, but I appreciate it way more now.)
143. Juliana Hatfield “Universal Heart-Beat”
(Always thought this one should've crossed over to Pop radio.)
144. Adina Howard “Freak Like Me”
145. Soundgarden “My Wave”
146. Natalie Merchant “Carnival”
147. Mazzy Star “Fade Into You” (1994: #98)
148. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fall Down” (1994: #61)
149. Stone Temple Pilots “Meatplow”
(Hot album cut.)
150. Aaron Hall “I Miss You” (1994: #95)
151. Live “White, Discussion”
(Curious song title.)
152. White Zombie “Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)”
(Sadly overlooked follow-up to "More Human Than Human.")
153. Snoop Doggy Dogg “Murder Was the Case (Remix)” (1994: #115)
154. Ace of Base “Living in Danger” (1994: #73)
155. Changing Faces “Stroke You Up” (1994: #107)
156. Sting “When We Dance” (1994: #126)
157. Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do” (1994: #110)
158. Tom Petty “You Wreck Me”
159. Tom Petty “It’s Good to Be King”
160. Lenny Kravitz “Rock and Roll Is Dead”
(Always thought Circus bombed unfairly, based on hearing its 3 quality singles.)
161. Jade “Every Day of the Week”
162. Montell Jordan “This Is How We Do It”
(Was Montell aware while recording this that it was kind of a novelty song?)
163. Bush “Glycerine”
(Didn't love this as much as America did, though, obviously it'll place much higher on the chart for '96.)
164. Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees”
(I kind of overlooked this while it was out.)
165. Green Day “Sassafras Roots”
(Hot album cut.)
166. The Notorious B.I.G. “Big Poppa”
167. The Cranberries “Ridiculous Thoughts”
168. Elastica “Connection”
169. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “1st of tha Month”
170. Stone Temple Pilots “Still Remains” (1994: #72)
(Hot album cut.)
171. Stone Temple Pilots “The Lounge Fly”
(Hot album cut.)
172. Stone Temple Pilots “Pretty Penny”
173. Stone Temple Pilots “Silvergun Superman”
(Hot album cut.)
174. Veruca Salt “All Hail Me”
(Didn't realize this was the third single/video from American Thighs and that I was never aware of "Number One Blind" in between.)
175. Paula Abdul “Crazy Cool”
176. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories “Do You Sleep?”
(I enjoyed this way more than "Stay" the previous year.)
177. Stone Temple Pilots “Army Ants”
(Hot album cut.)
178. Janet Jackson “Runaway”
(The song was kind of corny and the video was horrendous. Thus began the long slow decline of my major crush on Janet.)
179. Freedy Johnston “Bad Reputation”
180. Green Day “Coming Clean”
(Hot album cut.)
181. Green Day “Emenius Sleepus”
(Hot album cut.)
182. Green Day “In the End”
(Hot album cut. These three were so short, all under two minutes, that I always just ran 'em together.)
183. Green Day “F.O.D./All by Myself”
(Hot album cut. And then there was just this one more song after those three and then the album was over.)
184. Stone Temple Pilots “Kitchenware & Candybars/My Second Album (12 Gracious Melodies)”
(Hot album cut.)
185. The Beatles “Free as a Bird”
186. Aerosmith “Blind Man” (1994: #191)
187. Warren G “Do You See” (1994: #140)
188. Sheryl Crow “D’yer Mak’er”
(Hot Led Zeppelin remake!)
189. Hum “Stars”
(When Beavis and Butt-head watched this video, after the first "She thinks she missed the train to Mars/She's out back counting stars" and the heavy, sustained following riff, they assumed the song was already over and changed the channel.)
190. Whitney Houston “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)”
191. The Human League “Tell Me When”
(First exposure to the Human League.)
192. Sophie B. Hawkins “As I Lay Me Down”
(Terribly overrated song.)
193. Hootie & the Blowfish “Hold My Hand”
(See above.)
194. Liz Phair “Super-nova” (1994: #197)
195. Alanis Morissette “All I Really Want”
196. Milla “Gentleman Who Fell”
197. Donnie Farris “I Know”
(See #'s 192 and 193.)
198. Elastica “Car Song”
199. Heather Nova “Walk This World”
200. Jon B. featuring Babyface “Someone to Love”
Top 25 Albums Heard in 1995: (Rankings in red are albums that count as '95 releases.)
---- 01. Green Day - Dookie
01. 02. Madonna - Bedtime Stories
02. 03. R.E.M. - Monster
---- 04. The Offspring - Smash
---- 05. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
---- 06. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
03. 07. Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute
---- 08. Violent Femmes
04. 09. Foo Fighters
---- 10. Alice in Chains - Dirt
05. 11. Live - Throwing Copper
---- 12. Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
---- 13. Depeche Mode - Violator
06. 14. Green Day - Insomniac
07. 15. The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
08. 16. Matthew Sweet - 100% Fun
09. 17. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
10. 18. Veruca Salt - American Thighs
---- 19. The Crow soundtrack
---- 20. Nirvana - Bleach
---- 21. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
---- 22. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
---- 23. Weezer
11. 24. Boyz II Men - II
12. 25. Bush - Sixteen Stone
No matter. I finished off 1996 recently and then I've only got 1997 left before my year-end charts from 1998 on forward still hold up to this day. In 1998 I began my notorious official 256 cut-off, so starting there, I'll just post my Top 100 singles of each year until a stopping date to be determined. Perhaps until the year they can be found here in the archives. Without further ado...NICK’S TOP 200 SONGS OF 1995
(Extended and Remastered)
March 18, 2009
01. Green Day “When I Come Around” (1994: #131)
(I was obsessed with Green Day in 1995. Really back from when I saw the "Basket Case" video on MTV in the summer of '94, but I couldn't muster the courage to sneak an album called Dookie into my parents house until February '95.
)02. Nine Inch Nails “Closer” (1994: #25)
(Still an undeniable mammoth of a single on my chart through the whole year.)
03. The Cranberries “Zombie” (1994: #69)
04. Green Day “Basket Case” (1994: #83)
05. Madonna “Take a Bow”
(Such a beautiful song and video. The video was sexy, too, with Madonna rolling around on the bed in lingerie (
) during the entire third chorus, I believe it is. It's no coincidence that she pulls the bed sheet up over her right at the end of the chorus, at "the show is over, say goodbye." 
)06. R.E.M. “Strange Currencies”
(One of the most beautiful R.E.M. songs ever.)
07. The Offspring “Gotta Get Away”
08. Live “Lightning Crashes”
09. Nine Inch Nails “Hurt”
10. Weezer “Buddy Holly”
(I have Spike Jonze to thank, because the Happy Days-themed video got me interested in the show.)
11. Skee-Lo “I Wish”
(For how much of a beloved smash this was on MTV and my pop radio stations, I cannot believe that not only was this not a huge Top 5 smash hit, but apparently it only topped out at #53.)
12. Foo Fighters “This Is a Call”
(The first Foo Fighters album came out on my birthday and I bought it 4 days later. I was always curious why they never made a music video for this, though I have a theory.)
13. Coolio featuring L.V. “Gangsta’s Paradise”
(This was the hip hop song of 1995. It was everywhere.)
14. Nirvana “The Man Who Sold the World”
(Hot David Bowie remake!
)15. Red Hot Chili Peppers “Warped”
(To this day, one of my favorite songs and music videos, let alone Chili Peppers songs/videos. Criminally underrated.)
16. Nine Inch Nails “March of the Pigs”
(Admittedly slept on this song until after "Closer" blew up for them. Hey, I was 12 when "March" came out. Sue me.)
17. Green Day “Longview” (1994: #17)
(See above, but replace "Closer" with "Basket Case.")
18. Green Day “Welcome to Paradise” (1994: #112)
(If this had a video, even if it was just the studio version played over a live performance, why the hell didn't MTV ever play it, once "Basket Case" had run its course?)
19. White Zombie “More Human Than Human”
(Like a lot of Zombie fans, if not most, didn't get into them until this blew them up. My brother got me into this.)
20. Matthew Sweet “Sick of Myself”
(First exposure to Matthew Sweet. Bought 100% Fun and even a "Sick of Myself" t-shirt from this sporting goods store that inexplicably had the coolest, rarest band t-shirts I had ever seen. Damn, that place was awesome while it lasted.)
21. Gin Blossoms “Til I Hear It From You”
(The best song the Gin Blossoms ever recorded. Too bad its run had to be split over two years, otherwise it'd be in the Top 5.)
22. Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know”
(I was one of the first people I knew that championed this song. "Hand in My Pocket" was fine, but then the masses latched hard onto "Ironic" and ruined her for me for the next 3 years.)
23. Beastie Boys “Sure Shot” (1994: #44)
24. The Offspring “Self Esteem” (1994: #64)
(These two were extremely close friends on my chart; I can't think of one of these videos without thinking about the other one, but that's because they were simultaneous MTV Buzz Clips, more than anything.)
25. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fly from Heaven”
(Cruelly overlooked third single from Dulcinea.)
26. R.E.M. “Bang and Blame” (1994: #130)
27. Stone Temple Pilots “Interstate Love Song” (1994: #146)
28. The Rembrandts “I’ll Be There for You”
29. Veruca Salt “Seether” (1994: #108)
30. Madonna “Bedtime Story”
(Cruelly overlooked Bjork-penned third single from Bedtime Stories, with an amazing video that MTV thankfully showed a bunch.)
31. Foo Fighters “I’ll Stick Around”
(Ultimately a better song than "This Is a Call," but the former had a longer time to impact the chart. The video for this was absolutely fantastic and is still among my favorites.)
32. The Offspring “Come Out and Play” (1994: #13)
33. Nirvana “About a Girl (Unplugged)” (1994: #113)
34. Madonna “Secret” (1994: #37)
35. Bush “Comedown”
(The best song Bush ever did. If not for being split over two years, this would definitely be in the Top 10 if not Top 5.)
36. Red Hot Chili Peppers “My Friends”
(A bigger hit nationwide than "Warped," of course, but still an underrated Chili Peppers single. Yet another amazing video in a year full of them.)
37. TLC “Red Light Special”
(I'll always remember that this video appropriately debuted on MTV on Valentine's Day.)
38. Seal “Kiss from a Rose”
(Thank god for Batman Forever for exposing the masses to this gorgeous song.)
39. R.E.M. “Crush with Eyeliner”
(A totally underrated R.E.M. song with a cool video, consisting of a group of Japanese teenagers hanging out with a camera and lip-synching to this. From what I remember, it would seem R.E.M. just gave these kids a camera and told them to film a video for this song. I seem to recall somebody wearing a "sad tomato" t-shirt, based on the lyric in the song, and how my brother and I both wanted one.)
40. TLC “Creep” (1994: #141)
41. U2 “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”
(It felt great to have an amazing new U2 single after almost two years away.)
42. Paula Abdul “My Love Is for Real”
(It felt even better to have a new Paula Abdul album finally come out, lackluster though it may have been, after waiting for 3 years and that I would be aware of it from the get-go, as opposed to her previous two albums, when I wasn't fully aware and obsessed with pop music just yet. This was a killer single, though.)
43. Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994: #116)
44. Violent Femmes “Add It Up”
45. Violent Femmes “Blister in the Sun”
(Wasn't aware of the Violent Femmes until 1995. I got their debut album that summer and played it the whole rest of the year and beyond.)
46. Sponge “Molly”
(Along with "Plowed," which I was aware of, but didn't get to hear until the end of the year, this was Sponge's other absolutely phenomenal song.)
47. Green Day “Geek Stink Breath”
(Like the Chili Peppers' "Warped," this was a cruelly underrated lead single that was given up on too soon. F**k "Brain Stew," this was where it was at.)
48. Green Day “J.A.R.”
(A seamless stopgap between "She" and "Geek Stink Breath.")
49. Better Than Ezra “In the Blood”
("Good" was fine, but this second single was way better.)
50. Hole “Violet”
51. Dave Matthews Band “What Would You Say”
(A very fine introduction to the masses.)
52. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Something’s Always Wrong” (1994: #82)
53. R.E.M. “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” (1994: #54)
54. Boyz II Men “On Bended Knee” (1994: #80)
55. Collective Soul “December”
56. Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson “Scream”
(Finally, a duet between these two, inevitably overhyped though it may have been.)
57. Boyz II Men “I’ll Make Love to You” (1994: #3)
58. PJ Harvey “Down by the Water”
(The bass rumble throughout this song is astonishing. Too bad all her songs aren't this good.)
59. Dick Dale & His Del-Tones “Misirlou”
(Yes, solely because it appeared in Pulp Fiction, whose soundtrack my brother and I avidly listened to a good half a year before we secretly got to see (rent?) the violent and profane rated R movie the next year.)
60. Janet Jackson “You Want This” (1994: #63)
61. Bon Jovi “Always” (1994: #100)
62. Matthew Sweet “We’re the Same”
(If I recall correctly, in the video, Matthew played a '70's era manager of an all-girl band that lip-synched this song.)
63. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Good Intentions”
64. Tripping Daisy “I Got a Girl”
(Fun song, that in 2009, when you get right down to it, is not that far removed from a silly Puddle of Mudd song, sans alpha-jerk machismo.
)65. Real McCoy “Another Night” (1994: #94)
66. Urge Overkill “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” (1994: #135)
(Hot Neil Diamond remake!
)67. Bush “Everything Zen”
68. Bush “Little Things”
69. Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”
70. Violent Femmes “Kiss Off”
71. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “Thuggish Ruggish Bone”
72. Boyz II Men “Water Runs Dry”
73. Letters to Cleo “Here and Now”
(Such a good song.)
74. Filter “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
75. Nine Inch Nails “Ruiner”
(Hot album cut.)
76. Goo Goo Dolls “Name”
77. Nirvana “Dumb” (1994: #111)
78. Weezer “Undone - The Sweater Song” (1994: #149)
79. The Presidents of the United States of America “Lump”
80. Edwyn Collins “A Girl Like You”
(Such a shame that he was a one-hit wonder. Though, I kind of doubt his other songs were all wonderfully enhanced by vibraphone and fuzzed-out guitar.)
81. Live “All Over You”
82. Ini Kamoze “Here Comes the Hotstepper”
83. Soul Asylum “Misery”
84. The Cranberries “Ode to My Family”
85. Madonna “Survival”
(Hot album cut.)
86. Madonna “Human Nature”
(Video had Madonna all dressed up, alternately in a full-body black vinyl dominatrix outfit and a black vinyl bikini with matching gloves that went up to her elbows. Mostly her dark hair was in cornrows, but in some shots, her entire face was obscured by thin black vinyl (or whatever substance) and at the end of the video the back of her hair was teased out into an afro puff. Anyway, save the face covering and afro puff, she was still sexy in this video too.)
87. Alice in Chains “Would?”
(I didn't actually hear this song until 1995, when I bought Dirt.)
88. Madonna “You’ll See”
(First single from her ballads collection Something to Remember. The video was a sequel to "Take a Bow.")
89. Live “I Alone” (1994: #138)
90. 4 P.M. “Sukiyaki”
(Hot Kyu Sakamoto by way of A Taste of Honey remake!
)91. Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”
(Another song screwed by its life beyond 1995.)
92. The Murmurs “You Suck” (1994: #136)
93. Better Than Ezra “Good”
94. Alanis Morissette “Hand in My Pocket”
95. Boyz II Men “Thank You”
(Uptempo Boyz II Men songs just started sounding forced and clumsy at this point. Is it any wonder that it peaked way lower than the 2 ballads before it and the one after?)
96. Hole “Doll Parts”
97. Alice in Chains “Grind”
98. Mariah Carey “Fantasy”
99. Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men “One Sweet Day”
100. Real McCoy “Run Away”
101. Michael Jackson “You Are Not Alone”
(First video, besides "Childhood," with his new shorter haircut, which just looked weird. Not to mention how weird the white body of a black man looked, half naked with Lisa Marie Presley. Song written by R. Kelly, foreshadowing dreck like "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Gotham City.")
102. David Bowie “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”
(First Bowie song I knowingly heard.)
103. Dave Matthews Band “Ants Marching”
104. Hootie & the Blowfish “Only Wanna Be with You”
105. Prince “I Hate U”
(Lyrically, a fairly ridiculous song, the premise being Prince's lover on trial for infidelity. Funniest, most absurd lyric: "Close your eyes/And I'm gon' cover yo' ass with this sheet.")
106. Rage Against the Machine “Freedom”
(Didn't start getting into Rage until 1995, this being the video I remember on MTV from early 1994.)
107. Jane’s Addiction “Been Caught Stealing”
(Similarly, if significantly less so, I didn't start getting into Jane's Addiction and their most popular MTV hit until 1995 either.)
108. Deadeye Dick “New Age Girl”
109. Candlebox “Simple Lessons”
110. Green Day “She”
111. The Offspring “Nitro (Youth Energy)”
(Hot album cut.)
112. Madonna “Forbidden Love”
(Hot album cut.)
113. The Offspring “Bad Habit”
(Hot album cut. The a cappella swearing in the bridge was out of control and titillated my friends and me...y'know...being 13-14 and all.)
114. The Flaming Lips “She Don’t Use Jelly”
115. Elton John “Believe”
116. Green Day “Burnout”
(Hot album cut.)
117. Nine Inch Nails “Mr. Self Destruct”
(Hot album cut.)
118. Oasis “Morning Glory”
(Like its contemporaries "Warped" and "Geek Stink Breath," this lead single, also from a hotly anticipated "sophomore" album, was unfairly overlooked. I guess music directors were champing at the bit to pull the trigger on "Wonderwall" or something.)
119. Radiohead “Just”
(Cruelly overlooked second single from The Bends.)
120. Oasis “Live Forever”
(This was a really cool song no matter what, but one year after Kurt Cobain's death, I remember being excited seeing the video and noticing a couple quick cuts of a framed picture of Kurt (among many others), on the wall behind Liam.)
121. Nine Inch Nails “Piggy”
(Disappointed that the follow-up to "Closer" didn't have a music video. And for that matter, that "Hurt" was just a live performance.)
122. Ace of Base “Beautiful Life”
(A fine comeback single, but it almost seemed that, even one year later, the landscape had changed too much for Ace of Base to ever recapture the glory of their previous album. Not surprisingly, none of The Bridge's singles matched the peak of even the 4th single from The Sign.)
123. K-Ci Hailey “If You Think You’re Lonely Now”
(Hot Bobby Womack remake!
)124. Stone Temple Pilots “Dancing Days”
(Hot Led Zeppelin remake!
)125. Take That “Back for Good”
126. Soundgarden “Fell on Black Days”
127. Soundgarden “The Day I Tried to Live”
128. Green Day “Having a Blast”
(Hot album cut.)
129. Stone Temple Pilots “Unglued”
130. Dr. Dre “Keep Their Heads Ringin’”
(From the Friday soundtrack, a movie I didn't see until 2 years later.)
131. Toadies “Possum Kingdom”
132. Hootie & the Blowfish “Let Her Cry”
133. Collective Soul “The World I Know”
134. TLC “Waterfalls”
(No doubt this was a fine song, but I wasn't particularly big on it, certainly nowhere near as big on it as America was. I actually consider it my least favorite of the 4 CrazySexyCool singles.)
135. Primus “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”
(The video was great because the three of them were dressed up like cowboys in the style of those robotic plastic-looking, battery-operated people Duracell used in their recent commercials at the time.)
136. Martin Page “In the House of Stone and Light”
(Co-wrote huge hits for Heart, Go West, and Starship, among many others.)
137. Green Day “Chump”
(Hot album cut.)
138. Green Day “Pulling Teeth”
(Hot album cut.)
139. Blind Melon “Galaxie”
(Sadly, Shannon Hoon overdosed that fall, and right about the same time this single fell off the chart. And unfortunately, the better second single "Toes Across the Floor" didn't even make a dent.
)140. Rollins Band “Liar”
(Remember the video from the summer of '94, but didn't hear it regularly or get into it until '95.)
141. Madonna “I Want You”
(Promoted as some kind of a single off the Marvin Gaye tribute album that fall, with a video on MTV during a half-hour special that was rerun a few times. Also appeared on her Something to Remember collection a month later, but somehow this didn't get the promotion or attention it deserved, for as good as it was.)
142. Chris Isaak “Somebody’s Crying”
(Obviously I liked this song at the time, or else it wouldn't be here, but I appreciate it way more now.)
143. Juliana Hatfield “Universal Heart-Beat”
(Always thought this one should've crossed over to Pop radio.)
144. Adina Howard “Freak Like Me”
145. Soundgarden “My Wave”
146. Natalie Merchant “Carnival”
147. Mazzy Star “Fade Into You” (1994: #98)
148. Toad the Wet Sprocket “Fall Down” (1994: #61)
149. Stone Temple Pilots “Meatplow”
(Hot album cut.)
150. Aaron Hall “I Miss You” (1994: #95)
151. Live “White, Discussion”
(Curious song title.)
152. White Zombie “Electric Head, Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy)”
(Sadly overlooked follow-up to "More Human Than Human.")
153. Snoop Doggy Dogg “Murder Was the Case (Remix)” (1994: #115)
154. Ace of Base “Living in Danger” (1994: #73)
155. Changing Faces “Stroke You Up” (1994: #107)
156. Sting “When We Dance” (1994: #126)
157. Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do” (1994: #110)
158. Tom Petty “You Wreck Me”
159. Tom Petty “It’s Good to Be King”
160. Lenny Kravitz “Rock and Roll Is Dead”
(Always thought Circus bombed unfairly, based on hearing its 3 quality singles.)
161. Jade “Every Day of the Week”
162. Montell Jordan “This Is How We Do It”
(Was Montell aware while recording this that it was kind of a novelty song?
)163. Bush “Glycerine”
(Didn't love this as much as America did, though, obviously it'll place much higher on the chart for '96.)
164. Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees”
(I kind of overlooked this while it was out.)
165. Green Day “Sassafras Roots”
(Hot album cut.)
166. The Notorious B.I.G. “Big Poppa”
167. The Cranberries “Ridiculous Thoughts”
168. Elastica “Connection”
169. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony “1st of tha Month”
170. Stone Temple Pilots “Still Remains” (1994: #72)
(Hot album cut.)
171. Stone Temple Pilots “The Lounge Fly”
(Hot album cut.)
172. Stone Temple Pilots “Pretty Penny”
173. Stone Temple Pilots “Silvergun Superman”
(Hot album cut.)
174. Veruca Salt “All Hail Me”
(Didn't realize this was the third single/video from American Thighs and that I was never aware of "Number One Blind" in between.)
175. Paula Abdul “Crazy Cool”
176. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories “Do You Sleep?”
(I enjoyed this way more than "Stay" the previous year.)
177. Stone Temple Pilots “Army Ants”
(Hot album cut.)
178. Janet Jackson “Runaway”
(The song was kind of corny and the video was horrendous. Thus began the long slow decline of my major crush on Janet.
)179. Freedy Johnston “Bad Reputation”
180. Green Day “Coming Clean”
(Hot album cut.)
181. Green Day “Emenius Sleepus”
(Hot album cut.)
182. Green Day “In the End”
(Hot album cut. These three were so short, all under two minutes, that I always just ran 'em together.)
183. Green Day “F.O.D./All by Myself”
(Hot album cut. And then there was just this one more song after those three and then the album was over.)
184. Stone Temple Pilots “Kitchenware & Candybars/My Second Album (12 Gracious Melodies)”
(Hot album cut.)
185. The Beatles “Free as a Bird”
186. Aerosmith “Blind Man” (1994: #191)
187. Warren G “Do You See” (1994: #140)
188. Sheryl Crow “D’yer Mak’er”
(Hot Led Zeppelin remake!
)189. Hum “Stars”
(When Beavis and Butt-head watched this video, after the first "She thinks she missed the train to Mars/She's out back counting stars" and the heavy, sustained following riff, they assumed the song was already over and changed the channel.
)190. Whitney Houston “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)”
191. The Human League “Tell Me When”
(First exposure to the Human League.)
192. Sophie B. Hawkins “As I Lay Me Down”
(Terribly overrated song.)
193. Hootie & the Blowfish “Hold My Hand”
(See above.)
194. Liz Phair “Super-nova” (1994: #197)
195. Alanis Morissette “All I Really Want”
196. Milla “Gentleman Who Fell”
197. Donnie Farris “I Know”
(See #'s 192 and 193.)
198. Elastica “Car Song”
199. Heather Nova “Walk This World”
200. Jon B. featuring Babyface “Someone to Love”
Top 25 Albums Heard in 1995: (Rankings in red are albums that count as '95 releases.)
---- 01. Green Day - Dookie
01. 02. Madonna - Bedtime Stories
02. 03. R.E.M. - Monster
---- 04. The Offspring - Smash
---- 05. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
---- 06. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
03. 07. Red Hot Chili Peppers - One Hot Minute
---- 08. Violent Femmes
04. 09. Foo Fighters
---- 10. Alice in Chains - Dirt
05. 11. Live - Throwing Copper
---- 12. Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
---- 13. Depeche Mode - Violator
06. 14. Green Day - Insomniac
07. 15. The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
08. 16. Matthew Sweet - 100% Fun
09. 17. Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
10. 18. Veruca Salt - American Thighs
---- 19. The Crow soundtrack
---- 20. Nirvana - Bleach
---- 21. Dr. Dre - The Chronic
---- 22. Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
---- 23. Weezer
11. 24. Boyz II Men - II
12. 25. Bush - Sixteen Stone
