What is THE best song from the 1990s?

18 or 1990's?

^^^ just making sure.

Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger (1996)

Macarena.

/thread

Portishead - Strangers

I can’t pick just one, OP! This is hard.

I may change my mind tomorrow.

Weezer's "Buddy Holly"

Losing My Religion

No Diggity

Seal

umyeyeh

Creep by TLC

groovy love child

R14, battle of the Creeps.

R16 There is also Creep by Stone Temple Pilots.

I know everyone would like to pretend otherwise, but no song encapsulates the '90s as well as...

Money's my passion, always in fashion

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

You'll never live like common people

You'll never do whatever common people do

You'll never fail like common people

You'll never watch your life slide out of view

and then dance and drink and screw

because there's nothing else to do

love in the nine-tays is paranoid

I second R10 Losing My Religion by REM

Song 2.

infrared semen move through the night

This song from the movie Orlando. Reminds me of my childhood seeing weird shit on the Independent Film Channel, which now only shows sitcom reruns.

“Jeremy”

The song that played over the end credits of Scream

When we all still loved Madge:

Maybe not the best, but among the most fun.

guhl powuh

This is it for me. I think it's one of the best rock songs ever written, for that matter.

Pulp's Disco 2000 (1995)

A friend in neeeed is a friend indeeeed.

R13 is a song that could not have existed before or after the '90s.

r35 I know. I love the synth strings in the background. It gives it a wistful quality that makes one yearn for the 90s. David Morales did a remix highlighting the strings.

A late 90s techno classic that makes use of that wistful chord. I always pictured Cher singing this in my head.

"Don't Speak" by No Doubt. I bought the entire "Tragic Kindom" CD because of this song.

Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden

(Or Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots)

I'm in my forties and don't think much about the nineties. My life is so much better than it was back then. Stop living in the past DLers. Learn to appreciate the present and look forward to the future.

r40 the best song from the 2010s wouldn't make the list of the top 100 best 90s songs.

Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)

R40 you can stay in your way and move along, and let us reminisce of the good old days.

I really loved these boyz.

r40 here. Stop living in the past. It won't do you a damn bit of good.

R40 & R44 = a schizo troll and she's been avoiding her traumatic past with the help of risperidone and vodka.

Here's a song for you!

This song sort of signals the end of the 90's and is extremely nostalgic because it also signaled the end of my adolescence/early adulthood. Things were never really the same again after it. I would graduate college a couple of years....and 9/11 was just around the corner. Goodbye innocence.

*Vogue by Madonna, and its companion chic music video. :-)

Macy Gray - I Try

R47 That was my first choice but decided to go grunge. SLTS was already taken so I went with Black Hole Sun. Vogue is easily superior to any song of the past ten years.

Y’all.

I want to add to my list:

Mysterious Ways One

Your fave could NEVER.

Common People

74-75

R563 I thought I was the only one who still remembers this song. I have the album on vinyl.

Good call from R30. KLF was iconic.

Sued- Animal Nitrate, a dirty little song that sums up the best of VERY EARLY brit pop.

Justified and Ancient feels both very much of its time but also timeless and from another planet. I love it.

This.

R40- I’m 48. You slept through a fun decade. AIDS still loomed but I had a great time. I came out in 93!

From 1990, The Pet Shop Boys began the decade with perhaps their best song, Being Boring.

Tell The Truth

Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack, 1991. Fatboy Slim created Right Here, Right Now in honour of it.

Smooth - Santana & Rob Thomas

Agree on Pulp and Massive Attack. But for us gay boys in 1990s NYC, there was this (and only this, no movie soundtrack remakes).

Why, this one of course, silly!

These will probably illicit an eye roll or two but I loved them then and still love them now ❤️:

Closing Time - Semisonic

Stay - Lisa Loeb

Crash Into Me - Dave Mathews Band

Barely Breathing - Duncan Sheik

Journey Agent is my favourite PNAU song. Would love to know what you think.

How,do you say …

For me, it’s Linger - The Cranberries

Yummy

Bow down Bitches...

I have a tie:

Regret by New Order

Lovin' Arms by Darden Smith

En Vogue

The 90s were such a fantastic time for music. You had big bands from the 80s like Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Guns n Roses, Skid Row carving out their new sounds. Bowie too of course experimenting with new sounds.

Progressive rock like Nine Inch Nails and TOOL. Grunge: Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden.

The euro 90s dance music was fantastic. For hip hop you had NWA, Tupac, Public Enemy. Music videos were groundbreaking and tackled societal issues (Pearl Jam "Jeremy").

Here is my vote. Everyone plays November Rain but for me its this song:

Save Me - Aimee Mann

That's a great song, r70. I always loved Everything Zen and wondered why Bush weren't more successful. Could it have had something to do with Dubya and the resurgence of the Bush surname on the global stage?

The Magnolia soundtrack was brilliant, r75.

Superman’s Song

Canadian here. The band The Tea Party were massive here on the radio in the 90s (no relation to the political party, the name is from alice in wonderland). Great live band and they play their own middle eastern instruments.

Nothing beats this live version of Creep. R16

Lisa Stansfeld

Karma Police > Creep

Aerosmith's Crazy and Cryin' both hold up. I'd pick Crazy out of the two. I think Nirvana's best song is actually Heart-Shaped Box.

I.G.Y. Donald Fagan

From Bon Jovi's last good album, "These Days", in 1995. The whole album is a bit darker in tone/lyrics. Some of their best work.

All of MTVs unplugged series were great. I wish they were brought back.

Maybe not the "best", but for me, the one that screams "NINETIES!" like no other:

Being an L.A. boy, I gotta go with local faves Concrete Blonde.

R86 Thank you for bringing that one back!

Always liked it :)

Concrete Blonde holds up 👍

Love Caroline by Concrete Blonde

Losing My Religion by R.E.M

Firestahtah

Most definitely Amy Grant’s Baby Baby.

The Go-Go's two released tunes of the 90s (the other being the "Cool jerk 90" video) best showcase the fashion, special effects & trends of the decade. They managed to get every 80s fashion, special effects & decor trend in their video "Head Over Heels" video.

The honorable mention =

Remember all of these 80s trends put into one single snapshot?

This one.

I definitely think Smells Like Teen Spirit is the greatest alternative rock song of the 90s because of its impact, but it's not my favorite Nirvana song. I think Aneurysm is my favorite Nirvana song.

Those 90s music videos that look like they were filmed inside a cheese grater tunnel

STP - Interstate Love Song

Bittersweet Symphony

I Wanna Sex You Up—Color Me Badd

Agree with R20, R98. Here's Rick Beato's take on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and a musical dissection of it.

I always loved this one.

This smacks the shit out of 90s pop tarts.

r106 I was just about to post Ready to Go by them.

Spin Spin Sugar (Armands Dark Garage Mix) by Sneaker Pimps

R40 Never heard that song but it sounds lame AF.

"One Sweet Day" - Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men

Eins Zwei Polizei

If You Tolerate This - Manic Street Preachers

Right Here Right Now - Jesus Jones

I remember when tv showings of that video came with a warning. ^^^ Granted it was terrestrial tv channels in UK & Ireland.

R114 in response to R112.

Lateralus by Tool

^^wrong decade. I will now go into hiding in shame for my mistake.

Your Woman

This one.

[quote] Smooth - Santana & Rob Thomas

I had a friend in college who did the world's most accurate (and unexpected) Julie Andrews imitations, and his funniest shtick was to sing this song exactly like she would (with perfectly clear diction).

"Give me your heart, and make it real, or else forget about it!"

Great underrated song and fun video directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. With several cameos from Boogie Nights actors.

R116 - take my TOOL upvote

Crush

Thread CLOSED!

Gunter glieben glauben globen.

Dreamer - Livin' Joy

Semi Charmed Life

The Way - Fastball

God , he was so hot r127.

R128, yes, I love that song. I know every word. I think that’s the only song by them I know

Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You

Nothing Compares 2 U

Fake Plastic Trees.

Fiona X!

Virtual Insanity!

Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand

Hey, R104, thanks for the link! I found that guy's channel so interesting. He sure knows music- and from all eras!

Aphex Twin -- Windowlicker

I always loved Waterfalls by TLC.

Bombastic but utterly amazing

When song videos mattered. Cindy, Naomi, Linda, Christy!

That video is one of the best ever made R140

Everything! There will never ever be music again like the 80s and 90s. Decades from another dimension altogether.

This is impossible...music in the 90s was so FUCKING good. I mean...every goddamn genre excelled.

TLC - No Scrubs but ONLY with the rap.

Malibu by Hole

Ridiculous video, but I just love this song.

Another bad video for a great song.

I Don’t Want To Fight

Jeff Buckley's mournful cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" made it the millennial standard it is today. Every subsequent version is a rehash of Buckley's.

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie

Oh that Liam

R138 ever heard McCartney’s Waterfalls “ from the ‘80’s? Just a fun fact that he wrote a song with some similarities to the one at your post. But I don’t think he sued anyone.

Natural One by Folk Implosion is on my shortlist.

Get What You Give……New Radicals

Seven minutes of heaven

Have to agree with a lot others here. So many great songs...

Losing My Religion, Creep, Nothing Compares 2 u, Ray Of Light, Machinehead,

I'll go with this one since I didn't see it posted.

Days go by and hypnotized...

Tubthumping by Chumbawamba

Some Canadiana

From the OJ trial to Nancy getting whacked in the leg the whole decade was =

Black Box - I Don't Know Anybody Else

R148 Buckley's version is a riff of off John Cale's (far better and more aptly restrained) re-arrangement. Cale is to credit/blame for the song's ubiquity today.

WITH ONE LOOK - 1993 - STREISAND

It's Smells Like Teen Spirit, like someone else said. It marked the end of an era.

Closing Time by Semisonic.

This song arrived just as the calendar page turned from the 80s to the 90s and I think it straddles the line between the two and ushers in the new decade just perfectly:

Soul II Soul - Keep On Movin'

Groove Theory - Tell Me

R128 Nailed it. Of all these tracks linked above, that Fastball song, The Way, places me back to that decade.

Strangely I don’t remember anything about the band itself. But I remember that song played on a heavy rotation on VH1 or MTV and also on the radio.

I’m surprised now to find that it’s based on a sad news story. The video is clever, with its light saturation and the creepy/cool dancers that sort of hide and then burst out of a camper. And the vintage costumes, black & white inserts. It’s pretty awesome.

Bittersweet Symphony. The Verve. Hands down.

Juanita Kiteless

When love takes over

No Ordinary Love by Sade

Work That Magic (1991) Donna Summer - an overlooked gem

Don't know if it's the best, but it's my favorite song of the 90s.

Most underrated artist of the 90s.

This song never, ever gets old. The lyrics just ring true for anyone's who has ever gone through a break up. So, everyone.

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In the Heart

We're going to dance, we're going to dance

We're going to dance and have some fun ....

Interstate Love Story by Stone Temple Pilots.

Sarah Mclachlan:

So many already voted for "Losing My Religion," I'll go with "Save the Best for Last."

4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"

My favorite songs of the 1990s: Madonna opened up the 1990s with Vogue and ended the decade with Ray of Light

Barenaked Ladies - "What A Good Boy"

Enigma - Sadeness part 1

Garbage "Stupid Girl"

"Sour Girl" - Stone Temple Pilots

The Boy Is Mine- Brandy & Monica

R186 Such a cool song. So glad you mentioned it.

Pet Shop Boys - New York City Boy

There are so many. Impossible to decide. To the ones already mentioned I'd like to add...

R1 1890: the sample for this song.

Tupac and Dr Dre - California Love

Right now by Van Halen

Toni Braxton - Another Sad Love Song

Whitney Houston embodied the 1990s. She was at her peak.

I will Always Love you from The Bodyguard

Michael Jackson - Remember the Time

Starring MJ, Iman, Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson

The best song off of the best album: "Fast Love" from "Older"

Kelly Watch The Stars - Air

Cool video too.

My fart will go on. Poopy Goldberg.

Moby - Into the Blue (1995)

Kiss from a Rose

Fuck Wit Dre Day

Imagine writing out an entire diss track to your childhood best friend over an argument and then your childhood best friend dies from AIDS before you make your peace.

90s most tragic record.

Easy: Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love

This beat right here though. Hands done one of hip hops finest moments.

Snitches will get fucked up.

R178, I hated STP and remember openly mocking them as another wannabe Pearl Jam/Nirvana band that had no originality. I just loathed them in high school.

Then they released Interstate Love Song and fuck it if I didn't totally change my mind.

I loved - and still love - that song.

The 90s Billie Ellish. But way sexier and more interesting. Brilliant song.

The Cure - Friday I'm In Love (1992)

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

" Beautiful Night" -- Paul McCartney

" Beautiful Night" -- Paul McCartney

" Beautiful Night" -- Paul McCartney

R206 Well, you were right in your younger days. They were a poser "grunge" band.

R181 The name of the thread is the best, not the worst song of the 90s.

nothing quite captures the essence of the 90s like Concrete Blonde

So many wonderful 90s memories

r216

Boy, I miss when I was a baby gay watching MTV.

R230 Fuck yeah, that The Breeders song rules.

o be real, though, the 90s was the era of shitty but playful and experimental music... young or old, you had a soundtrack to your life and cliques, Not as uniform subculture driven or isolated to region as the late 70s and 80s. For many, it was the rise of the 80s; acts like rem, 10k maniacs, u2, depeche mode, the smiths, kd lang and the reclines, etc becoming massive in the 90s.

Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather

Tell me boy…

One of my faves - how can you talk about "THE best" song? Music is a matter of taste.

I liked the early 90s best, there was a positive vibe in the world and this type of music reflected that, here in England especially.

If this doesn't knock you back to the 90s, nothing does

Mylène Farmer - Désenchantée

Newsies: Seize the Day (What "grease lightning" was to babydykes in the late 70s to 80s, this became their anthem.)

If I could only pick 1, im with r14

R241 Why would this be a babydykes anthem?

r243 more the baby butchies; collective bonding, social, cheesy, something universally popular in its day and to annoy the fuck out of everyone else. Styles from the film were adopted into the culture... though it wasn't as if 20s/30s wasn't already within the culture.

ou get the same thing with babybutch fetishes for boy bands and pussy magnet rappers in how they start to develop their sense of style and attract str8'ish girls that are only going to hurt them in the end.

It's akin to the sheer amount of babyfags you can find voguing... it's not an entirely conscious obsession, even if most around them can see them behind their closets transparently. You do get some actual breeders in the mix just to break the stereotypes and cause more drama, too. Like with the popularity of tween/teen girls that roleplay anime slash/bishonen/yaoi (gay) stories.

str8 people got the village people, so it evens out.

Better than Nothing Compares to You in MHO

r245

Uncle Tupelo - “Graveyard Shift"

Gus Gus - Polyesterday

Pale Saints - A Thousand Stars Burst Open

Throwing Muses - Freeloader

Juliana Hatfield - Make It Home

Belly - Thief

Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song

Jane Siberry - It Can't Rain All the Time

Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

Melissa Ferrick – Taking A Liking

judybats - my dead friend

Horse - Shake This Mountain

Kinnie Starr

Butt Trumpet - I'm Ugly And I Don't Know Why

A forgotten early 90s gem.

Matthew Sweet - Sick of Myself

Soul Coughing - Circles

Red House Painters - 24

Hounds of Winter, Sting

Bill Nye - "The Faster You Push Me"

Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus

Strange Fruit - No White Clouds

Juliette Lewis - Hardly Wait

Bjork - Big Time Sensuality

Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole

Peter Gabriel & Deep Forest - While the Earth sleeps

Baka Beyond - Mbé

Dolly Parton & Altan

The Posies - Going Going Gone

Dinosaur Jr. - Turnip Farm

Babes in Toyland - Bruise Violet

Mazzy Star - Ghost Highway

Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night

Chocolate Starfish - All Over Me

Candlebox - Can't Give In

Frente - Cuscatlan

Paul Westerberg- A Star Is Bored

Victoria Williams - Crazy Mary

Heather Eatman - half of a woman

MudHoney

Silverchair - Stoned

Rugburns - Suburbia

Jesus and Mary Chain - Penetration

Love Spit Love - Am I Wrong

This.

Eve's Plum - Eye

Moonpools & Caterpillars - Hear

Changing Faces - We Got It Goin' On

Seven Year Bitch - The Scratch

Madder Rose - Ultra Anxiety

Head Candy - Mona Lisa Overdrive

Graeme Revell

Toad The Wet Sprocket - Come Down

(members reformed into the band "lapdog" better sound but not as much fanfare)

Better Than Ezra - Circle Of Friends

Elastica - 2:1

(london) suede - trash

James - Laid

Curve - Nowhere

I vote for this song. It’s irresistible and fun to sing.

Genitorturers - Lecher Bitch

Stabbing Westward - Save Yourself

Remy Zero - Save Me

Shawn Mullins - Lullaby

Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home

Marry me Jane- You didn't kiss Me

Ben Folds - Theres Always Someone Cooler Than You

Type O Negative

Slipknot - Wait And Bleed

SuperDeluxe - Farrah Fawcett

(gained popularity in and around Seattle but never quite broke through the rest of the market)

Vicent Gallo - A Somewhere Place

Imperial Teen: Water Boy

"99 Luftballons"

Anet Ducharme - Tortured

Alanis Morissette - Uninvited

Craig Armstrong | Let's Go Out Tonight

Neneh Cherry "Twisted Mess"

Gomez - Tijuana Lady

Cannonball by The Breeders

mojave 3 - mercy

Rooster, Alice in Chains

Bulls on Parade, Rage Against the Machine

Mercury Rev - Holes

The Distance, Cake

Elliott Smith - Because

Moloko - Sing It Back

Rufus Wainwright "Instant Pleasure"

Beth Orton - Stolen Car

Aimee Mann - Driving Sideways

Connected, Stereo MCs

Hook, Blues Traveler

MMMBop, Hanson

Chantal Kreviazuk - Feels Like Home

(it's maintained over a decade of being put on random tv and film soundtracks.)

Suicide Blonde, INXS

Placebo - Every You Every Me

The Man Woo Sold the World, Nirvana

Where Did You Sleep Last Night, NIrvana

Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me

Anouk

Sparklehorse - Sad & Beautiful world

Our Lady Peace

Salt 'N Pepa - None Of Your Business (Barb Wire, 1996)

Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand

Superchunk

Tarnation- Two Wrongs Won't Make Things Right

Cowboy Junkies

Ass Ponys Mr. Superlove

lil' kim

Republica - Ready to Go

OMG, so so many. I just caught this on YouTube after watching her sing at Lisa Marie's funeral service. Uninvited = Alanis Morrisette I love a haunting vibe in music. My favorite performance 1999 Grammys.

Wanna add The Best by Tina Turner live performances.

I second R38, and very special to me is this one

I had pretty much given up on popular music by 1990, listening mainly to classical since starting to buy CDs in 1986. Then in 1990, Capitol Records started releasing the Beach Boys' albums on CD, including my favorites, Pet Sounds, Today, and Summer Days. Then in 1991, ABKCO Records released the Phil Spector box set Back to Mono, which included my favorite girl group songs from the Crystals and the Ronettes. Bach and Beethoven took a back seat to the beach and "Be My Baby."

And then, in 1993, Capitol Records released the Good Vibrations box set, on disc two of which they assembled what probably would have been the Beach Boys' Smile album, had it been released on schedule in 1966. And that's where you'll find my "THE best song from the 1990s," the suite of tracks that comprise the first complete commercially released version of "Heroes and Villains."

1999!!! So HOT!!!

"I want to hold the hand inside you..."

Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart

Jennifer Paige- crush

Teen Spirit

You get what you give by the New Radicals

Losing My Religion.

Could hardly believe it when this 30-year old song came over the MuZak in Walmart a few days ago. .. And I think they were actually playing one of the extended mixes, because it seemed to go on forever .. lol.

Haddaway - What is Love (1993)

Naked Eye by Luscious Jackson

Loved this

R390, I was just about to post the same.....but then I remembered the song that began a mainstream media movement, made me a major fan of the artist, and impelled me to concerts from Philly to NYC to Montreal.

The moves! The joy! The leather trou!

Ricky Martin's "La Copa De La Vida."

(R393) Meant to include that this song is from the brilliant Grammy-winning album "Vuelve," every song an absolute gem.

Sarah Mclaughlin released some great tunes in the 90s

Stay by Eternal was a serious Bop

Man, oh man, do I love this thread. So many I would’ve posted are already here. Naked Eye!

Folk Implosion , from Kids is not on Spotify last I checked.

Richard Marx Hazard (Part One)! I’ve been waiting all these years for Part Two.

I just posted Hey, Pretty… now I’m thinking it came out after 1999. Sorry.

Kula Shaker

1000 Oceans

Thank You

Natalie Merchant — especially her album Ophelia

You is kind, you is generous

You is baking a shit pie?

dreams dignity mix

Paula Cole- I Don't Want To Wait

All around the world by Lisa Stanfield

Been around the world and Iiiiiiiiiiiiiii

I still have I love You by Donna Summer on my Playlist.

OMG. All Around The World takes me back. That is the Mickey's Weho soundtrack

Ricky Martin made my pinga get hard.

I know, you bitches! I didn’t read through the whole string and it’s probably been mentioned.

R406, I hate that song so much! It's played on a loop at a casino I frequent. STHU!

For the LS fans

All Around The World is from the 80s, not 90s.

R415 1989

Affection is STILL a good record.

Haddaway- What Is Love

Yeah I came here knowing it was 99.99% likely my answer had already been posted multiple times and...it has.

It's Haddaway - What Is Love, as R417 and many others have said. Obviously.

Oasis-- " Wonderwall'

Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve