Memories of the Top Songs of the 1990s - Part 1

And You Know What Else did this crazy/fabulous post of her memories of the various songs that were featured on VH-1's The Best Songs of the 1990s. As I read, the itch to meme it up came upon me. As I started to write, though, I realized that it would to be a four-part entry. If there's no entry it's because I had nothing worthwhile in terms of a memory or feeling about the song.

Here's songs 1-25:

01. Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – I read about this song before I heard it. A friend of mine wrote me a letter about seeing the video for the first time and how it reminded him of the scene at a college near Toronto. It was like a mild epiphany when I finally saw the video on MTV. I knew that everything was about to change in the music world.

02. U2 “One” – I fully embraced all of “Achtung, Baby” a couple years after it was released. This was just one of the songs my friends and I would listen to as we drove around town

03. Backstreet Boys “I Want It That Way” – My foray back into guilty pleasures solidified when this song came out. I would drive Matt nuts singing along with it, with an ironic gleam in my eye.

04. Whitney Houston “I Will Always Love You” – I have hazy memories of being pelted continuously with this song by the radio. The horror! The horror!

05. Madonna “Vogue” – I was fascinated by the dance moves in the video and wondered just how they managed to do some of them.

06. Sir Mix-A-Lot “Baby Got Back” – Who didn’t know all the words to this diddy? I would sing along in my room, keeping an ear out for my parents in case they decided to peak in and be aghast at that awful rap music.

07. Britney Spears “…Baby One More Time” – Pop music wrapped up in a school girl’s uniform. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.

08. TLC “Waterfalls” – This video was constantly on MTV. I watched it once and then flipped the channel every time it was on there after.

9. R.E.M. “Losing My Religion” – My 8th grade English teacher was pretty cool. He also was an R.E.M. fan. He brought in “Out of Time” for us to listen to one week, and played different songs to show how the band used the lyrics to depict emotion. This was also the first time anyone bother to explain what the term “Losing My Religion” meant.

10. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U” – “What’s with this woman with a shaved head??” was my main thought. Then I promptly got sick of the song.

11. Pearl Jam “Jeremy” – My friends, Krista and Ben, went to see Pearl Jam at the Rochester War Memorial on April 7, 1994. After performing “Jeremy,” Eddie Vedder said “Living is the best revenge.” The next day, Kurt Cobain’s body would be found after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. That impacted me in a large way.

12. Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know” – My friend, Shannon, told me about Alanis right about the time the album was coming out. Working at our high school’s radio station did have its benefits since we got to listen to music before it was in stores. I later bought this album at the now-defunct Lechmere’s and wore it out for the next year.

13. Dr. Dre (featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg) “Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang” – I have no recollection of hearing this song until sometime after I discovered Y2Khai.

14. Mariah Carey “Vision of Love” – Junior High School dances. In particular, the one that happened sometime in the winter of 1991. My friend, Anne, had danced with a guy she kind of liked named Tom. The next day we went on a trip with our girl scout troop and we kept laughing about this song and her dancing with Tom.

15. Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge” – With Nirvana blowing up all over the place in 1991, RHCP added another dimension to the alternative-music movement. I would wait patiently by my radio for this song to play, so I could hit record on my cassette player. This album later became one of those pinnacle albums of my youth.

16. MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This” – “Rad! A rap song I like!” That would be my first take on this song in junior high. God Bless MC Hammer and his crazy dance moves. They helped my friends and I make it through several school dances.

17. Destiny’s Child “Say My Name”

18. Metallica “Enter Sandman” - My first ROCK concert was going to see Faith No More, Metallica, and Guns N Roses. I bought Metallica's Black album the same day I bought Blood Sugar Sex Magic. I wasn't a huge heavy metal fan, but that album was sharp.

19. Beastie Boys “Sabotage” - This is one of my favorite Beastie Boys songs. The guy who co-hosted the Metal show on WIRQ was a huge Beasties-fan and managed to sneak a tape recorder into their concert at the Rochester War Memorial by sealing it in a pop-tart wrapper and putting in the pop-tart box. After the concert, he had his mom transfer the concert from cassette to cd. This was the first time I had ever heard of an average person burning music to disc (this was around 1994-95).

20. Hanson “MMMBop” - I will admit that I liked this song the first few times I heard it. In fact, when we got the single in at WBWC, I put it on repeat in the station office and literally jumped around the room with the guy who did the Dave Matthews Band marathon every summer. Silly pop music calls for silly actions.

21. Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On” - On one of his visits to Rochester to spend time with Matt, Jai Senn invented alternate lyrics to this gem in September 1998. It went something like "Once more... we slay the goat!" I think he said it was a kind of tribute to Baal. Something about Celine Dion being that close to the devil? Well, we had a lot of fun driving around singing this.

22. Beck “Loser” - When the EP for this new artist arrived at WIRQ, everyone went nuts. First of all, we got to use our mad Spanish skillz to translate the chorus and then the quintessential my-job-sucks tune of "Soul Sucking Jerk."

23. Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue “Whatta Man” - There must have been a school dance or five that included this song.

24. House of Pain “Jump Around” - My air shift on WIRQ fell on Saint Patrick's Day in 1994. I got permission to do an all St. Paddy's day/Irish songs show. My friend, Anne, lent me this disc so I could play "Jump Around." Another school dance staple.

25. Soundgarden “Black Hole Sun” While everyone melted away in the video, I melted at home. I have dim memories of it being a hot summer.