100 Greatest Songs of the 90s: The Overlooked

Re: Third Eye Blind as a one hit wonder. After further consultation it has been determined that Third Eye Blind is best referred to as a two hit wonder. Honestly, when I wrote that part all I could remember about the band was that they were from New Orleans and would always play at Jazz Fest. It wasn’t until today that I realized that was Better Than Ezra and not Third Eye Blind. So yes, they had more than one hit while being completely generic in the process.

Moving on, it’s clear that VH1 had some rather bizarre definition of “Greatest” in mind as they put together this list. Not sure what the criteria was or how it was put together but there are some incredible misses here. All of these songs are better and more relevant than Nelson. I’ll put them in categories.

The How In The Hell Can You Discuss the 90s Without These Acts Category:

Dave Matthews Band “What Would You Say”: Weren’t they the biggest act of the entire decade? Probably the only post grunge band that could legitimately sell out football stadiums and a good band to boot. I have my issues with them (basically my hatred of anything popular) but I bought their disc about one hour after hearing this song. Within a week I was ordering t-shirts through their fan club.

Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”: You could also go with “Tonight, Tonight” here if you wanted to focus more on the video. One of the most influential bands of the mid 90s and the best band ever out of Chicago. No idea why they were overlooked.

Tori Amos “Silent All These Years”: So they included Lilith Fair acts like Paula Cole and Joan Osborne but forgot to add in the most noteworthy of the bunch? Yes, I do own Tori discs but this song and video also signaled the end of hair metal and the dawning of a new age in music. MTV went from playing Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” to showing Tori rolling around in a box. Not having this on the list is a freaking crime.

Boyz II Men “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday”: This single holds the record for longest time at the top of the charts. On that fact alone it should be included. It also shows that not all boy bands were crap (though calling them a boy band is really a misnomer.)

Jeff Buckley “Last Goodbye”: I know I’m biased here but give me a break. When VH1 listed the greatest albums of all time Grace made the top 50. This song was a legit hit and Jeff was one of the best talents we never got to hear.

Guns N Roses “Don’t Cry”: You can’t talk about the early 90s without including GNR. Of all the insane videos they produced this is probably the coolest with imagery that is bizarre yet almost comprehensible. Bonus points for having Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon singing with Axl on the rooftop. If they had included the Bee Girl it would have been the greatest video ever.

The Replace One Song On The List With This One Category:

Jesus Jones “Right Here, Right Now”: Much more important than EMF’s “Unbelievable”.

Sarah McLachlan “Possession”: Easily Sarah’s best song. A dark, haunting song about obsessive love based on the fact that Sarah was being stalked at the time. Completely broke her into the American market.

Others That Were Clearly Missed:
Nine Inch Nails “Closer”: Great, disturbing video. Brought the word “industrial” into play when discussing music. Made you wonder what was shown during the slides that said “scene deleted”

Faith No More “Epic”: Another forgotten pre-grunge great. People were really upset at the fish flopping on the ground.

Suzanne Vega “99.9 Fahrenheit Degrees”: Mainly because you never would have expected this from the same person who sang Luka.

Belly “Feed the Tree”: Yeah, I have a crush on Tanya Donnelly.

10,000 Maniacs “These Are Days”: Made Natalie Merchant a star.

They Might Be Giants “Birdhouse In Your Soul”: Bonus points for being used in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.

4 Non Blondes “What’s Up”: Not a good song mind you but given all the other one hit wonders that were included you would think this would make the cut.

Len “Steal My Sunshine”: I just really, really like this song.

And my choice for the most important yet overlooked song of the decade:
Nirvana “Come As You Are”: People always have and always will talk about Smells Like Teen Spirit as being the song that killed hair metal. In a lot of ways it is true, that song was a big hit in a direction that didn’t match up with Motley Crue or Poison or Bon Jovi and it differed from GNR or Metallica as well. But that really wasn’t the first of its kind. Alice in Chains and Faith No More both had similar hits in the same time frame. In my mind, Come As You Are is the most important song. Hair metal died with the opening bass riff of this song.

Imagine watching the world premiere of this video. Here is the second song from the new big band. Most people would expect failure and Nirvana to be remembered as a one hit wonder. And when it starts you are greeted to a bass line and an image of a gun floating underwater. The image of the band distorted by water, never quite being able to make out their features. A dog with one of those satellite collars hobbling down a flight of stairs. Kurt Cobain swinging madly from a chandelier. All to a chorus of “I swear that I don’t have a gun.” At the time I had never seen anything like it before. And then there is the ending.

As the last peals of the guitar fade out you see the three band members lying outside with the camera lying on the ground. Kurt crawls towards the camera, leans in, kisses the lens, and then slowly crawls back and collapses. That is the exact moment that everything changed.

Smells Like Teen Spirit is about wanting to cause a riot. It’s about being young and angry. Lots of bands can write songs about that. Come As You Are ends with the lead singer showing in one brief moment just how vulnerable and how human he is. None of the 80s bands had anything that could counter that image. That was Kurt’s genius and what led to his demise. He wasn’t a rock god with a prefab image. He showed the world precisely who he is as flawed and as exposed as that may be. As an 18 year old kid watching that video all I thought was this guy knows what I’m thinking.

Anything else that I missed? What other songs need to be remembered?