Memories of the Top Songs of the 1990s - Part 3

Here is part 3 of 4 of this crazy list. Kudos to Galoot and Princess Slea for actually completing it!

51. Tupac (featuring Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) “California Love”
52. Sugar Ray “Fly”

53. Naughty by Nature “O.P.P.” - Every school dance. EVERY.

54. Joan Osborne “One of Us” - My Harmony professor, Dr. Hirt, was out sick for a week or so my freshman year in college. When he returned, he entered the classroom all bubbly and carrying a video tape, "I watched a lot of TV last week and saw this video. I started noticing different stuff about its harmonic structure and wanted to share it with you!" He stuck the tape in the player and turned on the television. Joan Osborne, nose-ring and all, appeared on the screen and Dr. Hirt began explaining the chord progressions being used, "It's a very simplistic song really," running over to the piano to demonstrate time to time. "But wait, then you get to the bridge and something very interesting happens! Listen to that dissonance! It's the most interesting thing in the whole song!"

55. Fiona Apple “Criminal” - I lost track of how many times I saw this video the summer it was popular. I kept wanting to throw all the people in the video in the shower and yell at them to get clean.

56. L.L. Cool J “Mama Said Knock You Out” - When I saw LL do this song on MTV's Unplugged I wondered "WTF is up with all the deo under his arm??" Apparently, so did the rest of the country.

57. Jay-Z featuring Amil and Ja Rule “Can I Get A…”

58. Sophie B. Hawkins “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover” - Anne and I chose this as one of our anthem songs about whatever guy we were crushed on in high school. Forget the lesbian undertones to the song, it was all about that teenage longing for that guy you know you will never be able to date.

59. Weezer “Buddy Holly” - "What's with these homies dissing my girl? Why do they gotta front??" This came on the radio on my way to the Snowflake Semi-Formal with Sean my senior year. As he sang the opening verse, I realized I never knew the words until then.

60. Bell Biv DeVoe “Poison” - There was some dance step that my friends and I would do to this song. It probably was in the video to the song, but I don't recall.

61. Sheryl Crow “All I Wanna Do”

62. Live “I Alone” - I lived for this song and all of "Throwing Copper" my senior year.

63. The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy “Mo Money Mo Problems” - Every night around 1am, the girls who lived in the dorm room next to mine at Buff State would play this song. It drove me nuts. The saving grace was that I was at a house party a few weeks after the nightly barrage started and when this song came on, I knew what it was and could dance along with it. Then one guy started dancing in an uber-suggestive manner and another guy told him to cool it off. I couldn't figure out what the problem was until the guy who invited me to the party asked me to come to their Bible study. I pleaded off, saying it wasn't really my thing but he kept pressing the issue. Then it dawned on me that I was at a Christian house party. I took off soon after.

64. The Presidents of the United States of America “Peaches” - I always thought it was funny that my mom liked this song. She loves peaches. My favorite memory of this song is driving through New Brunswick with my parents and grandmother back in 2003. This song came on the radio and my mom and I started singing along.

65. Digital Underground “The Humpty Dance” - While visiting some relatives, I took a walk with my cousin, Shawn, and his friend, Brian. We walked around their suburban neighborhood with a ghetto blaster and a mix tape of different rap songs. Shawn and Brian cracked up over the line "I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom."

66. Edwin McCain “I’ll Be” - This makes me want to stick my head in an oven.

67. Deee-Lite “Groove Is In The Heart” - In 8th grade, they created this thing called "Lunch Base" at my Junior High. You got 20 minutes to eat and then 20 minutes to go to the gym, the library, to a club meeting, or to your homeroom. I would end up in homeroom a lot because there was a tape player there. I took pleasure in annoying the preps by playing a small mix tape that included this song, 10,000 Maniacs' "Trouble," and B-52's "Roam."

68. Will Smith “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” - My roommate, junior year, loved this song. I thought she had poor taste in music and decided this song must be crap because of that.

69. Korn “Freak on a Leash” - My roommate in the first apartment I lived in was a Korn fan. She particularly liked to play their stuff LOUD while cleaning the house. Since cleaning wasn't something she did often, I wasn't assaulted by this music much.

70. Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” - We played it on WBWC. I never figured out how it fit, and didn't really care.

71. Arrested Development “Tennessee”

72. Barenaked Ladies “One Week” - My boyfriend and I jumped all over this song when we heard it for the first time. It was the coolest song ever! It mentioned sushi, X-Files, Sailor Moon (cuz that cartoon has the BOOM anime babes!), and Akira Kurasawa!

73. Marcy Playground “Sex and Candy” - Still hate this song, which is unfortunate because Matt loved it when it came out. You knew I was in love if I was willing to put up with him listening to this song all the time.

74. Cher “Believe” - How fitting that the first time, and second, and third time I heard this song I was in a gay bar called The Interbelt in Akron, OH. I couldn't fathom why the DJ couldn't find another song to play. My friend, Karen, just rolled her eyes when I asked that question.

75. Kris Kross “Jump” - I think some kids actually came to school with their pants on backwards. This song was quite popular on the Top 5 at 9 on 98PXY. Then again, most gimmicky rap songs were popular on that show.