50 Memorable Songs Of The Late 1990s That Apparently Only You Remember, Even Though They Were Totally On The Radio And Stuff

Youtube links: Toy-box, Weiland, Talk Show, Spacehog.

6. Billy Lawrence, "Come On" - Moderately catchy, moderately upbeat r&b. Has MC Lyte on it. Samples "Plug Tunin'."

7. Dionne Farris, "Hopeless" - Her of "A game of horseshooooooes!" fame. Laid-back, Al Green-ish nu-soul. Heavy on the Fender Rhodes. Great chorus.

Actually, "Hopeless" is rather tremendous. "Come On" is alright, but dispensable.

8. Blackstreet (feat Slash, Fishbone, & ODB), "Fix (Remix)" - Snippet of the video here. I've written about this before - as I said then, "ODB's guest rap is pretty solid, although as usual he's mostly just grumbling about nothing at all. Slash is pretty much tearing it up all through the song, which works way, way better than you would expect given that Blackstreet is normally a smooth-talking R&B combo. Unfortunately, for much of the big solo, the guitar is sort of buried underneath everything else, and for the rest of the big solo, there's nothing but the guitar. This change happens just as Slash runs out of ideas, so the song stumbles, rolls, and collapses to a halt. But as weird, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink collaborations go, this works pretty well."

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

(Love Jones! I remember co-workers talking enthusiastically about the Love Jones soundtrack in the early 90s.)

According to last.fm Warren G's "Smokin' Me Out" does not get enough love. Can I nominate that?

"Fixx" was so ridiculously crazy. What an awesome career suicide single that was.

10. Sparkle f/ R. Kelly - "Be Careful"
11. R. Kelly (f/ Sparkle?) - "When a Woman's Fed Up"

<a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcYBmS8Hm5g>;Jimmy Ray - Are you Jimmy Ray</A>

And I wanted to find the video for "Shaniqua don't live here no mo'" or whatever but could not.

13. Big Wreck - "The Oaf"
14. Space Monkeys - "Sugar Cane"

both surprisingly awesome songs

Dionne Farris opened for Bryan Ferry in 1995. She performed a 13-minute version of "I Know."

"I'm Not Where It's At"--Del Amitri. Love that song. Still plays occasionally in the overhead speaker at my Publix supermarket for some reason. And "I Know" is a great song.

Big Wreck - "The Oaf" - YES!

KP & Envyi - Shorty Swing My Way

http://youtube.com/watch?v=24IgJanjcAo

I don't know if this is completely forgotten but it definitely isn't on the radio anymore.

official CARL MO POLL (ghosttown djs, big boi, pastor troy, slimm calhoun, k.p. & envyi)

So many memories!

18. B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem) from the Space Jam soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJj4cg9ZLdo

Lightning strikes, the court lights get dim
Supreme competition is ABOUT TO BEGIN!

Sorry, I didn't read that thread. Thanks for pointing that out.

along the "Hit 'Em High" lines:

19. Coolio - "It's All the Way Live (Now)"

especially perplexing is what the "now" is doing in the title, 'coz I don't remember it being in the chorus or anything.

20. Coolio - "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" You know you came of age in the late 90s if you know every word of this, but are still playing catchup on "Fantastic Voyage"

21. Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne" Have only very faint memories of this and Youtube is not helping. "I'm the big kahuna!"

the trackmasters remix of hit em high is over premo's just to get a rep beat

Oh shit I remember that Blackstreet/Slash video, awesome.

I specifically clicked on this thread to add "The Oaf", great fucking song. Good call Good Doc.

22. BEST BASSLINE EVAR + hihat shuffle + song about fucking in various locations + not a hell of a lot else = 112, "Anywhere"

23. BLAQUE- "808"
I wonder what happened to them. I always thought they'd be like, the new Destiny's child. They had some awesome music videos as well.

rev, after the beginning of that video, i couldn't get the idea of the whole video happening inside that woman's tit out of my head.

You know what's better than "808"? The "808" REMIX with the "Going Back to Cali" beat! (Not on youtube, unfortunately)

Whoah, the beat on that 112 track is super hot.

"Whisper Song", meet your daddy.

Magnapop-Open The Door

21. Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne" Have only very faint memories of this and Youtube is not helping. "I'm the big kahuna!"

yesssss from the Bulletproof soundtrack. "I got the whole shebang / I got the champagne / and the HA HA!!" "R U Ready" was also the hotness.

25. Playa - "Cheers 2 U" (so underrated)
26. Boyz II Men - "I Can't Let Her Go"
27. 98 Degrees - "Invisible Man"
28. Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
29. Westside Connection - "Bow Down"

30? That Gandharvas track about spring that I still hear every now and then.

31. Az Yet's cover of "Hard to Say I'm Sorry"

nice one, wasn't till years later I knew it was a Chicago cover. "Last Night" too

32. The Offspring - "All I Want" (the last alt-rock semi-hit to clock less than 2:00?)
33. Blink-182 - "Josie"

28. Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
29. Westside Connection - "Bow Down"

these are still in regular rotation round my place

I am so pissed off to be reminded of "Mungo City"

I downloaded Boyz II Men's "4 Seasons Of Loneliness" the other day, even weirder than I remembered.

Dr. Bill - good call on "All I Want." I always liked that one pretty well, much more than their later spree as a band alternating novelty singles with po-faced gnashing about death and bad neighborhoods. Actually, it makes a nice pair with "Josie" that way, since Blink-182 also started dipping overmuch into "mature" songs.....

"All I Want," however, was unfortunately chosen as theme music in the arcade game "Crazy Taxi" - I had a friend who nearly went insane trying to play some other game at the arcade and having his train of thought constantly drowned out by "YA YA YA YA YA!" I had a related problem trying to play the Elvis pinball machine, which was sort of music-themed and equally overpowered by the Offspring.

Good to know I'm not the only person in the world to remember the existence of Az Yet.

34. Mista, "Blackberry Molasses" (f/ a v. young Bobby Valentino)

35. DJ Taz "That's Right" (Not on u-toob, unfort.)

Soul Decision -- Faded

Dr. Bill's dead-on with "All I Want."

Local H's "All the Kids are Right"
Cowboy Mouth's wild "Jenny Says"
White Town's "Your Woman"
anything by that dog...I'll say "Never Say Never"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"

and Bic Runga's "Sway"

43. Better Than Ezra - "At the Stars"
44. Brian McKnight - "The Only One for Me"
45. Fastball - "Fire Escape" (great video too, not on YouTube for some reason)
46. Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"

47. Splender - I Think God Can Explain

48. Lauryn Hill, "The Sweetest Thing"

49. Monifah "Touch It"

Wow - I totally forgot "All The Kids Are Right." I didn't like it at all at the time, but I don't think I "got" it either. It's actually pretty funny!

"All the kids, they hold a grudge
Their minds are logged onto the Net
And all the kids, they hold a grudge
You failed them and they won't forget it
All your cred won't save you from the kids" - great stuff!

Oh, and just to finish off the list -

50. (tie) Green Day, "Walking Contradiction" and "Hitchin' A Ride." This band went through a really weird period, career-wise, between Dookie and American Idiot - aside from the ridiculously huge hit in "Time of Your Life," they basically put out a small string of singles that I don't think most people remember at all, although almost all of them are pretty interesting and/or catchy. "Warning" is the best of these (but it's solidly 2000's); the worst is probably "Nice Guys Finish Last"; and "Brain Stew" is pretty good but also pretty well-remembered (start singing the guitar line at parties and see how many people jump right on board). So I pick out these two, which got moderate radio/video play at the time and then completely disappeared. They're pretty decent.

51. Dave Matthews Band, "Don't Drink The Water." This band's career really didn't require them to get a social-consciousness thing going on, but it plays way better than the Paul Simon Lite of "Stay (Wasting Time)" and is commendably weird and long for a first single of an unstoppable hit band. Plus you get Alanis Morissette on guest wailing, which she's good at, and also it makes the song serve as a nice time capsule of 1998. Plus I kinda like it when Dave does his boogey man voice. DON'T DRINK TEH WATERRRRRR!

52. Andreas Johnson: Glorious
(it still is)

I heard "Don't Drink the Water" on the radio recently and was blown away by how fucked up it still sounds...seriously, how creepy is that outro ("THERE'S BLOOD IN THE WATER!!!")? Scared the hell out of me as a kid, especially with that similarly unsettling vid (remember that kid holding DM's decapitated, singing head? Some pretty sick shit)

53. Forest For The Trees, "Dream" - I remember thinking this was really amazing and futuristic at the time. It hasn't held up quite so well.

54. David Garza, "Disco Ball World - This was really pretty good though. I eventually got the album from the cheapo bins and it has some other good cuts on it, although I can't remember any of them now.

I still fly the flag for Garza.

This got some play on Live 105 in SF back in '97 but it didn't chart nationally:

OMD, Walking on the Milky Way

i am a huge forest for the trees guy and it totally holds up for me. the album is not bad actually.

sun 60 c'mon kiss me

scarce "all sideways"

Everything, "Hooch," or possibly "Who Got The Hooch?" (Link to not the real video.) A very pleasant tune. It'd be nice to hear it without the gratuitous 90s-isms: fake telephone filter over background interjections... purty guitar mixed unfortunately high Uncle Kracker/Everlast style... ill-advised "funkiness"...and well, the phrase "Who got the <blank>," which has a "Got Milk?" quality that's really hard to get past.

They also had a song on a radio station promo CD I had - "St Lucia" I think. That one was really nice too. These guys would never be my favorite band, but I can imagine having nice memories to an outdoor evening party with this going on in the background.

Chris Cornell - Preaching The End Of The World

"consolation prize" by amateur lovers

dreadful

The Braids - Bohemian Rhapsody

Westerberg – Love Untold

Public Announcement - Body Bumpin' (Yippie-Yi-Yo)

^^^best song title of the decade

I am so pissed off to be reminded of "Mungo City"

― da croupier, Thursday, September 13, 2007 4:58 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I feel like this video is some kind of time capsule that could perfectly represent, but remain totally incomprehensible to future generations, the state of the late 90s in rock as far as I was concerned. Oh, for the days when I really could consume over-the-topness like this without a single note of irony! This shit seemed so cool.

Everything, "Hooch," or possibly "Who Got The Hooch?" (Link to not the real video.) A very pleasant tune. It'd be nice to hear it without the gratuitous 90s-isms: fake telephone filter over background interjections... purty guitar mixed unfortunately high Uncle Kracker/Everlast style... ill-advised "funkiness"...and well, the phrase "Who got the <blank>," which has a "Got Milk?" quality that's really hard to get past.

Oh god that was bad. A friend of mine from college was their tour manager so went to see them at Bowery Ballroom for free around 1997 ish. I had completely forgotten about them until just now.

wow i don't recognize a single song (and most of the groups) discussed on this thread.

They're all pretty good!

702 - steelo

i'm sad i don't remember more of these (i probably do but i'm at the library and can't listen to clips on youtube)

uh except for "hooch" which i'm pretty sure i never want to hear again

mr. president - coco jambo (dutch i think? got mild US radio play, LOVED it at the time)

ok i will go back to writing my paper after this post honest:

merril bainbridge - mouth
qkumba zoo - the child inside
loreena mckennitt - the mummer's dance
changing faces - g.h.e.t.t.o.u.t.

damn the only song I know on this thread is soulDecision

Tin Star - "Head" (not the original video) (1999)

I guess these guys were..."trip hop" or "electronica" or something. Great huge sound on this though.

And, I can't find a video or anything, but "Handslide" by Pushmonkey.

Hey, this Body Bumpin' Yippie Yi Yo has a pretty great hook. Not sure if it's enough to build a song around but it sure is smooth.

"bitter" by jill sobule

ace song, much better than her stupid hit

This band's career really didn't require them to get a social-consciousness thing going on

that thing had been going on from the beginning

Something For The People, "My Love Is the Shhh"

Sylk E Fyne, "Romeo & Juliet"

bomb..ass...puNANI

ha, "That's Right" by DJ Taz has shown up on the tubes

anybody remember an anti-lesbian r&b song called 'twistin' or something like that chorus: 'twistin the love of a man'
not the keith sweat song although iirc the singer sounded like him.

doesn't sound familiar

xp all i can find on the net is a smattering of people trying to find the song. had to be 95 or 96. oh well

speaking of Keith Sweat...

...Keith Sweat, "Nobody"

dude that's top 5 ks no way people it's forgotten (lol we old)

I have no idea what you just said other than "lol we old". Is that your special, archaic, old-folks language?

HOOCH@!!!

My brother and I have a lot of involved in-jokes re: this song, one involving some (real) Christmas special that had a zamboni driver named Schooch.

Forest for the Trees, too, and that follow-up single to the big Chumbawumba song ("do you suffer from long-term memory loss?")(this may be a US thing, who knows?)

"Hey Now Now," by Swirl 360 – memorable for being catchy in a Hanson-esque way. MOST memorable because after it was played on the local 'alternative' radio station, the DJ requested everyone call her station manager & tell him that they shouldn't have to play such stupid shit on their station.

xp haha top 5 keith sweat... gotcha

Why are Cleopatra no longer coming atch me, btw?

"Amnesia" by Chumbawamba is pretty great - the tropicaliesque "oooh ooh" bridge is a snooze, but the "do you suffer from long term memory loss" part has an almost ABBA-esque slam of overdubs...

Also sounds weirdly like a happy version of "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe."

OK, the ABBA thing might be a little over the top.

Everclear - One Hit Wonder

Their best post-Santa Monica single that's not "Father Of Mine," a perfectly compacted slab of their shiny shiny late 90s sound, and managing to check both the "cynical look at the phonies of the music industry" and "comforting advice for struggling teen" boxes. It's a good song!

Local H's "All the Kids are Right"

― kiss out the jams, Sunday, September 16, 2007 4:23 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You're a fucking cunt for reminding me of this song...

Allow me to retort...

Also, there's a 1990's grunge-pop thred floating around that swimming with this shit.

Is this what you wanted
Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar,
Is this what you wanted, man?
Dave lost his hairline
But you lost your cool, buddy
"Can't Drive 55"?
I'll never buy your lousy records again

Pop Grunge Pop
sub- grunge crap S&D
Rethinking the Grunge era
Post grunge mix

Rahzel - All I Know

Liquido - Narcotic

This one was a a huge hit in my city, I have no idea if it was as big on the whole country or anywhere else but this one kept being requested on the radio for more than a year. Nowadays few people remember it by name until I play it and they immediatly recognize the opening piano melody.

Someone finally posted a full video of the afore-discussed "Fix," so here it is:

"All right y'all!"

Moka - never heard, or heard of, that before... nice hook! The guy's "Gavin Rossdale with a keytar" thing doesn't really draw me in though...I can believe in this as a local hit.

I actually had no idea what the guys looked like because I had never seen the video before posting it here.
Shortly afterwards they released another hit single called 'play some rock' tho it never garnered the same sort of attention over here. Also has a very catchy keyboard melody:

More also-ran trip-hop: "Failure" by Skinny

Chopper One - Punk Named Josh

MxPx - Chick Magnet

also both good candidates for Punk-pop of the late 1990s was a good genre

Presidents of the United States of America - "Volcano" and "Mach 5":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXwzSPc0FoA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z02Y54Ce3U&feature=channel

Like most of the source album II these are pleasant and reasonably hooky, not quite up to the snuff of "Peaches" or "Lump" but not bad either.

Semisonic - If I Run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y4PibJUQdc

Album before "Closing Time," good use of the guy's voice and a much more distinctive sound than they'd have on their later hits...there are traces of the Beatles pastiche on "All About Chemistry" but here they sound almost Elephant Six-y with the watery guitars and all. One of the best post-grunge choruses, IMO.

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 9 September 2007 17:57 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 9 September 2007 17:57 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 9 September 2007 17:57 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

9. LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest" - Soundtrack contribution, LL Cool J rapping about how scary he would be if he was actually a mutant shark-man. "My hat is like a shark's fin!" Also written about at the page I linked above, and I'm having no luck at all tracking down the video, although I assure you it was a staple on The Box.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 9 September 2007 17:57 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Here is a link to the Deepest Bluest video: http://www.clip4e.com/play_ll_cool_j_deepest_bluest.htm

It is truly as amazing as Dr. Casino said. Plus, there's MORPHING in the video.

Carnival Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCCdZtrvf50&feature=related

When I saw Carnival Art in London they were giving out unused VHS tapes with this video on. About 20 people at the gig as I recall...

More also-ran trip-hop: "Failure" by Skinny

This has made my day because I had completely forgotten about it but as soon as I read the title I could hear it in my head.

Not quite sure where to draw the line of too obscure to mention on this thread. S'pose "token dance track on the Evening Session every night for a fortnight, sold approx. 3 copies, never heard of again" is probably not it and I should take my vague nostalgia for Deejay Punkroc or the Ecologist to This is the thread where we reminisce over not particularly good Evening Session bands from the late 90s or the big beat thread or somewhere

Dunno how memorable it really is, but I do rather fondly remember the UK Eurovision entry from 1999, "Say It Again", which was quite nice and surely much better than Charlotte Nilsson's winning song.

Yea Matt, I saw them on the saem (probably only) tour in Glasgow, there were about 15 people there tops.

Too weird for the mainstream, too mainstream for the weirdos (apart from me)!

I've mentioned the Thrumdrone record on other threads, it still stands up pretty well imho.

Too weird for the mainstream, too mainstream for the weirdos

XTC and Thomas Dolby. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g92vl5lsWVM

John Mellencamp - Just Another Day (aka "the Big Jim Picato song")

ha. that one and "fire escape" are pretty much the only ones i remember.

"fire escape" is pretty grebt though.

dopey, but grebt. nice hook.

Yeah, it's a nicely done song! A drag at karaoke though, it turns out there's a few too many repetitions of the chorus IIRC.

and now on youtube...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMyjjeSWak

"fire escape" came up on Pandora for me just yesterday!

Not on YouTube, but: 1,000 Clowns, "(Not The) Greatest Rapper."

From the comments for 1000 Clowns:

"i wonder how many chicks he picked up with that song?

I am thinking 0"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, July 15, 2006 3:59 PM Bookmark

Robbie Williams - "Millenium". Really great pop tune, I thought it was big but nobody really remembers it anymore. Was stunned to find out that he was like a multi-billionaire with a castle...I thought this was his debut. I guess in America we never really heard much of him.

Moxy Fruvous - "King of Spain". Fun and gimmicky, actually this band turned out to be pretty decent if a little grating.

Janet Jackson - "Runaway". I hear it a lot in grocery stores and the like. I'm not really a fan but the vocal overdubs in this song were incredible. I always thought the song sounded unfinished and could have been a lot better. I still enjoy it (believe it or not)

Merril Bainbridge - "Mouth". Remember this cute little aussie girl? Kind of what I called "Mom Rock", catchy and quirky, and very friendly. If you don't remember it's the one that goes "would it be so bad/if I could turn you on?" She had another single "Under the Water" that got stuck in my head for like 10 years. I also remember that she did a Pet Shop Boys cover that was pretty interesting. Wonder what happened to her...?

Little T and One Track Mike - "Shaniqua". Classic!! Looking back this tune was even more bizarre than I remembered! "She's busy milking her purple cow and talkin' to the Easter Bunny!" Really bizarre rhymes but altogether this came together quite well.

Bad Ronald - "Shoot the Shit". Saw it on MTV a few times, had no idea what to think. Catchy tune but the bad clearly wanted to have more of an edge. Somehow I may be the only one who remembers "Bad Ronald".

Aqua - "Doctor Jones". Yes, they DID have another single! If I recall correctly this was a #1 in their home country and generally very big in Europe. In fact, Aquarium technically had 7 singles! "Doctor Jones" is easily their best, one of the few perfect pop songs in existance (really!)

Doctor Casino - I do remember Everclear's "One Hit Wonder"...IMO it was the best single off that album, maybe because it actually kind of sounded different from the rest? I went back and listened to the Everclear disc I bought when I was 12 and wow do they recycle their chord progressions a lot. Sounds great when you're 12 though.

I also thought "Fire Escape" was pretty great. Just pure and perfect power-pop. Sadly the band wasn't really that great. They still kick around but from what I've heard never really made a good album.

"Millenium" is the only Robbie Williams song I know!

I think the reason you never hear it anymore is like "Will 2k," it has a built in expiration date. "Millenium" does get some play on adult contempo radio sometimes.

Samantha Mumba

Robin S - Show Me Love & Robyn S - Show Me Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia2OkrWNmzE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwaxy3KCfgQ

Robyn* ;)

Yvette Michele - I'm Not Feelin You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opgllgc_lOw

Horace Brown - One For the Money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB-VTA9nw2U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXbldxnQgy8

Jennifer Trynin, "Better Than Nothing"

She later wrote one of those "alternative rock, what was THAT about?" memoirs like the drummer from Semisonic

da croupier -- where the hell were you living in the 90's and why did this song show up on the radio?

Haha, the "Alternative" station in State College, PA actually played shit like Chavez' "The Guard Attacks" and Sebadoh's "The Ocean" as Buzz Tracks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHtVvq4I_S0&ob=av2e

Veruca Salt - "Shutterbug"

A friend had this on his tumblr the other day, couldn't remember how it went at ALL until I played it even though I owned the cassette and recognized the video from multiple views on 120 Minutes

Janet Jackson - "Runaway". I hear it a lot in grocery stores and the like. I'm not really a fan but the vocal overdubs in this song were incredible. I always thought the song sounded unfinished and could have been a lot better. I still enjoy it (believe it or not)

i am a fan and this has long been my favorite song by her

The Firm "Phone Tap"

Did Veruca Salt use those novelty tall dresses in another video, or am I just thinking of the novelty bungee cord harnesses in "Volcano Girls"?

wtf Nas Escobar? I'm so confused about what the name of this group was supposed to be... So I guess it's not The Firm..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM9zpTTZirk

32. The Offspring - "All I Want" (the last alt-rock semi-hit to clock less than 2:00?)

up until "United States Of Whatever" & "Fell In Love with A Girl"

"she's all i ever had" ricky martin

literally i think i am the only person on earth who remembers this song (including ricky martin) and i'm probably the only one who enjoys it too

I was just talking w/my friend on the phone and had to remind him Marcy Playground had a hit after "Sex and Candy" (albeit a smaller one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPWZZ4QaSQ0

Wasn't 'Coming up from behind' also sort of popular after appearing on the Cruel Intentions OST?

Aqua - "Doctor Jones". Yes, they DID have another single! If I recall correctly this was a #1 in their home country and generally very big in Europe. In fact, Aquarium technically had 7 singles! "Doctor Jones" is easily their best, one of the few perfect pop songs in existance (really!)

― frogbs

Also big in Latin America. Song got played almost as much as 'Barbie Girl' over here. Most people only remember the latter tho.

What about:

Janet Jackson - Got Till It's Gone

J Dilla on production credits, Joni Mitchell sample, charted ok on international charts and yet few people from my generation and downward seem to remember it at all.

Maybe I am totally wrong about this; they played "Doctor Jones" at my cousin's bat mitzvah and a lot of the teenage girls loved it!! They were even singing along to the "wake up now!" part!! When did this happen??

"Saint Joe" is a great one. I once started Marcy Playground: Classic or dud? in an attempt to raise awareness of his non-"Sex and Candy" material, but it...didn't really take.

Listening to "Doctor Jones" now - have DEFINITELY never heard this before but it ain't bad. Would love to hear a cover that liberates the chorus from the dinky club beat, which was never my favorite sound of the decade.

"St. Joe" had a video?! Sweet!!!

Wasn't 'Coming up from behind' also sort of popular after appearing on the Cruel Intentions OST?

Not sure. "St. Joe..." was a top ten Modern Rock Hit but didn't cross over like "Sex & Candy" did. I seem to recal "Poppies" & the lead single from the second lp "It's Saturday" getting airplay in my neck of the woods as well.

Lately I've been thinking alot about things pertaining to this thread subject because for the last 6 months, we've had a "Classic Alternative" station on the dial down here and I've been mentally noting huge songs that have escaped their net. For example, in the case of a group like Marcy Playground, we get stuck with their one big song.

yeah otm "St. Joe" won't ever get radio airplay again, unless ppl sign a petition or something...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoT7nTT8kLc

Still pissed off to be reminded of "Mungo City" every time this thread is revived

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2SRrUGW5Gw

INXS - Elegantly Wasted (not good, but I remember this getting tons of airplay for a short time and then totally vanishing from the record)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=053b3GKPzYU

Bif Naked - Daddy's Getting Married

Convinced Semisonic owe her a check for "Closing Time," or maybe it's just a really generic chord progression. But it don't get much grungier than this. Drowning dreams like puppies in ACIIIIID!

Anyone up in this bitch remember Patti Rothberg?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSt3ZPGJPg

Nope! Not a bad tune although sort of...generic maybe? Or that might just be the video doing that.

(She's cute though!)

came to put Sylk E Fyne but The Reverend beat me to it by three years.

"hot sex on a platter just to get you wet, youse about to get somethin you will never regret, and it's gonna be the bomb this is what i bet...yep"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDzX8OMgkjQ

Leah Andreone, "It's Alright It's OK."

Has "also-ran" written all over it, but almost as 90s post-grunge as you could get in one song - note punchy drums, gratuitous sitar, "adult" themes, and those absurd melismatic ululations. I only ever remembered the chorus, not sure how many times I actually heard this on the radio.

Two things I didn't know about "Romeo & Juliet"/Sylk E. Fyne:

• The dude on that song is Chill from Compton's Most Wanted
• She had a second single with Too Short that was pretty good

Ill Al Skratch "I'll Take Her/Where My Homiez"

Asante "Look at What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"

Veruca Salt "Volcano Girls"

I guess this is good place to ask this. I'm trying to identify a music video I saw in late 97. The song was a by a female singer and the video featured her on a motorbike chasing down a truck driver and then eventually hijacking the truck. It might be Canadian. I think I recall a lot of reds and browns in the color pallette. It might not even be that obscure of a song, and it's just that I only ever saw the video of it once.

Did some researching and found it myself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCCbQls7JLo

And yeah, I don't think anyone remembers this.

Veruca Salt "Volcano Girls"

I remember that well! I really liked Veruca Salt.

Feel like this is one not many people remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHGhYqAgwh4

Oh that's Vitamin C iirc

For years I've often confused Eve's Plumb, Plumtree and Plumb with each other.

oh man that patti rothberg song, remember tha fuckin 90s

did Geggy Tah have any lesser, follow-up singles?

oh man that patti rothberg song

That song was pretty big for awhile.

I haven't thought of this song in 17 years. It was number one on modern rock charts for 6 weeks(!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E39ckUBOrO0

er, mainstream rock

I sorta remember that one..

a co-worker of mine was OBSESSED with Brother Cane.

One of the most amazing (if you wanna call it that) things about Brother Cane was that this was their previous hit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4ggbuQtcYY

HARMONICA!!! COWBELL!!!

...and on that tip, let's go back a couple years to hang with CRY OF LOVE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INxliT-NrxA&ob=av2n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1vEONnGdPo&ob=av2e

All I remember about Cry Of Love is seeing their posters in Sam Goody/Musicland/Strawberries/etc but having no idea what they sounded like... until this moment actually.

it's pretty pathetic that i can't see youtubes at work and am actively trying to guess what songs people are posting. afaict Whiney's is probably Toad The Wet Sprocket?

Sarina Paris - Look At Us Now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYQt11Mfb4w

I'm not saying it's memorable or worth saving but I remember it was constantly on the radio for a while and it suddenly dissapeared. I only remembered it had a rollercoaster in the video.

Abra Moore - "Four Leaf Clover"

my friend wrote a weird-al style parody of "mungo city" about his ex-girlfriend, but I'm really struggling to remember any of the lyrics

I did a keyboard-based, vaguely "bluesy" cover of it one time, only getting through the first verse and a half or so...

not only do I remember Patti Rothberg, I remember that her album title comes from the train that she busked in front of

I first saw her video at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, NM. I was on a Boy Scout trip. One of the older guys told me about his thing for girls that play guitar and offered me some dip. I declined.

Abra Moore - "Four Leaf Clover"

― Look at how funky he is! (jer.fairall), Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:43 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YES! Part of the short-lived Arista Austin imprint, this was huge on Houston Alt. Rock radio in '97 (the fact Moore played the summer "Buzzfest" radio concert helped too) and iirc the song never to be heard again on the air after '98.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFfHaC_jnu4

Fluorescein - Cathy's On Crank

(note, not actually good)

I wish this thread had a spotify playlist

hmmm, gimme a few, though i bet a lot of these aren't on there

I know "shawty swing my way" isn't

http://open.spotify.com/user/doctorcasino/playlist/2taIeJ0IhYbdEJWgGXJBsK

not on spotify:
Billy Lawrence - Come On
LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest"
Warren G's "Smokin' Me Out"
"Shaniqua don't live here no mo'"
Space Monkeys - "Sugar Cane"
* B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem)
Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne"
112, "Anywhere"
* 98 Degrees, "Invisible Man"
Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"
* Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"
Forest For The Trees, "Dream"
David Garza, "Disco Ball World
sun 60 c'mon kiss me
"consolation prize" by amateur lovers
* Public Announcement - Body Bumpin' (Yippie-Yi-Yo)
* 702 - steelo
* merril bainbridge - mouth
qkumba zoo - the child inside
loreena mckennitt - the mummer's dance
Tin Star - "Head"
Something For The People, "My Love Is the Shhh"
Sylk E Fyne, "Romeo & Juliet"
College Boyz - HOllywood Paradox
Liquido - Narcotic
Liqudio - Play Some Rock
Chopper One - Punk Named Josh
Carnival Art
* Precious - Say It Again
* Moxy Fruvous - King of Spain
Yvette Michele - I'm Not Feelin You
Jennifer Trynin, "Better Than Nothing"
* INXS - Elegantly Wasted
Bif Naked - Daddy's Getting Married
Patti Rothberg - Inside
Sylk E Fyne - Keep It Real
Asante "Look at What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"
Dayna Manning - My Addiction
Eve's Plum - I Want It All
Fluorescein - Cathy's On Crank

* = live version or terrible karaoke/cover/sound-alike version only

but that still makes 99 memorable songs, etc!

whoa, i didnt know this actually ended up happening. thank you!!! i'm gonna pump this during my commute later.

haha thats not the real "shawty swing my way" but good effort :)

haha yeah, the karaoke/cover versions are so disappointing, i should probably take 'em back out...

and you're welcome! I've been enjoying it as well, especially for the R&B stuff which was really off my radar at the time.

xp it's funny though

This song was a #2 hit in 1999 and I haven't even seen it referenced since it disappeared off the radio. Also, early T-Pain effect spotting? I know they used it greater effect on their later hit "Crazy". Obviously this one just rode the "All My Life" wave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41GHAV-HG4U

Huh - don't remember that one at all! Not bad at all.

The vocal effect is closer to like a Zapp synth talkbox thing, right? Seems like it was in circulation a lot in that era, most obviously with Roger Troutman coming back to sing the "California Love" hook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dY4KjMdMVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Obkkxng-0g

SR-71 is 2000, but not a bad song. The Marvelous 3 one never really hit home with me, okay hook but seemed kinda by-the-numbers.

idk they both seem pretty damn by-the-numbers!

71 and 3, to be precise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0NILJQN-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0yYCqkt0VE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIANBamMgas

Nine Days and "Is Anybody Home" are also 2000! Although feel-wise, they're there. Stroke 9 pretty much qualifies I think.

Once again, I plug: Defend The Indefensible: "Absolutely (Story of A Girl)" by Nine Days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKtUrS6QTOo

Dude EVERYONE knows the late 90's lasted til like 2002

hahaha, yeah, yeah, I know. There was a strong case made on the "song that represents the end of the 90s" thread (I think?) that there should be a "transitional period" covering like 98 or 99 to 02 as kind of its own thing, sonically and aesthetically. I pretty much buy that, it's an era without its name in both pop and rock and as I think I said before it has some weird parallels to the post-Cannibals, Positive Vibes era.

here is how it breaks down in my mind:

The 90's - 1988-1997
The Late 90's - 1998-2002
The 2000's - 2002-2010, etc.

I think I've assembled this list of threads before, recently, but it bears repeating, as I believe one of ILX's signature projects in 2012 is hashing out a new discourse of Late 90s Radio Rock Studies:

The song that represents the END of the 90s

^^^ transitional period gets put forth, discussed

Modern Rock #1 Hits of 2000
Modern Rock #1 Hits of 1999

^^^ similar topics get worked over, particularly with regard to what pop-rock records sounded like in this era - it's a certain, very distinctive production aesthetic that kind of creeped in somewhere between 96 and 99 and made everything almost totally unlistenable, simultaneously polished and crunchy with lots of goofy crap going on in the background. see also the languishing:

top 100 production tricks of the 90s

btw, I totally dig "It's Saturday," but I'm a Marcy Playground stan: Marcy Playground: Classic or dud?

Also why do ALL MODERN ROCK VIDEOS from this era have the band playing in a really crowded room w/ everyone else *totally rawking out*?

meanwhile, just now realizing how many damned singles Collective Soul put out between '95 and '00...pretty sure at least 2/3 of them qualify for this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQ2TIul8pI

THEY SAY MISERY LOVES COMPANY
WE CAN START A COMPANY AND MAKE MISERY

Dude EVERYONE knows the late 90's lasted til like 2002

mid-98 until 2001 was def its own separate era of pop culture.. however that doesn't mean you can simply lump all of this together as "part of the 90's"

"is anybody home" (the video and single) was 2000 but the prior single from that album "one man army" was late 1999 (although the album was '99 so technically both songs are 90s)

confession: I owned the CD single of "Is Anybody Home?" It really is a good fit for this thread I think. Nowhere near the exposure/buzz that "Clumsy" and "Superman's Dead" had. Maybe it was a weaker song or maybe it's once again that shift in modern rock radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGgTPAbsaGo

"This sounds like a Pepsi commercial" - my friend, at the time

See also: "Precious Declaration" and "Tremble For My Beloved." "Heavy" and "Run" were maybe high-profile enough that they live on in the, uh, collective memory, even if I haven't heard either one in eons.

xxp really?? I always thought "Is Anybody Home?" was their huge hit

nah it's at most their 5th biggest US hit, and US radio only remembers 3 or 4 of their songs

god, all i remember about Collective Soul is "Shine."

sometimes i'm glad i hid under a rock after 96 or so.

Rusty - "Groovy Dead"

This song rocks! What happened to them?!

Also "Hitchhiker Joe" by the Rugburns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W88bat_dkm8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5x_ikFpqz0

Hitchhiker Joe is so goddamn catchy. Now that I hear it again, it may be singlehandedly responsible for Fountains of Wayne.

Do most Americans remember Big Wreck? They were big in Canada and I was surprised to learn that some of their songs were modest hits in the US:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuhzlSQovxc

Ahh, it looks like they were mentioned earlier.

Wow, Hitchhiker Joe...don't think I've ever heard that before, pretty damned catchy!

(It's '94, though, and very much an early 90s sound IMO - compare to, e.g., "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick - Classic or Dud? - which I think is sorta pushing it...what's the consensus?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVg5_gCeBRQ

Sprung Monkey - Get 'Em Outta Here (1998)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjBwe6IL10o

Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar (1998/99, followup to "6 Underground")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX5qtSzcZ0A

Luscious Jackson - Ladyfingers (1999, an album after "Naked Eye")

weirdly, that last one sends my brain directly to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM4uwLTiDPU

Lisa Loeb - I Do (1997 - still hear this from time to time)

"I Do" had a surprisingly long shelf life--I still hear it in grocery stores and casual dining restaurants.

Yeah, it's definitely a grocery store song - - weird. Peaked at #17 on Billboard...but it got to #3 on the "Adult Top 40" chart which might be a secret gateway into grocery store heaven.

o wow i didn't know it was that big a hit initially, i just remember it as a 'failed followup' i actually liked, always thought she was a fox. still hear it on occasion on magic 102, it's definitely in that recurrent top 40 that's made its way onto adult contemporary where it will stay in the playlists until it's simply outdated. btw pfork gave that loeb album an 8.8 - http://web.archive.org/web/20010707042005/pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/l/loeb_lisa/firecracker.shtml

I'd heard the poppy single "I Do" on the radio, but I couldn't make myself get the album. It's kind of like how Bailey can't get too close to the booze on "Party of Five," lest he relapse into his alcoholism.

hahahaha this has to be some clever hack of archive.org

And so I was talking to Beverly on the phone tonight. I casually mentioned that I'd gotten the new Lisa Loeb CD, and as far as I could tell, no eyebrows were raised. She doesn't know about me and Lisa, about what we used to have. I hung up the phone and turned on the TV and caught the tail end of "I Do" on VH-1... the part where she's squirming around on pink shag carpeting, not wearing any pants.

Here we go again.

woah i had totally forgotten about this one, five years before 'i'll be there for you' and technically a bigger hit (#14 vs #17). this isn't bad, second tier crowded house - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmjQVoHrXe0

Hey guys, remember when Seven Mary Three went Country Rock?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUGXzs5E7kM

No!

The playlist is really giving me more time with ones that I probably checked out when they first got shoutouts in this thread but which I didn't really absorb - and man. "Hopeless" is pretty great. The R&B version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" though is... O_o

Ha, I'm sure I said this upthread, but it's the first version I ever heard! It was totally trying to capitalize on the success of the Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly" earlier that year and improbably got played on the r&b station here all that fall. I remember my cousin had the cassinle which in no way indicated they were white ladies. Wasn't until I tracked the video down on youtube that I even realized this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6bHXjWZjtY

Guster in general. Added that and "Airport Song," which I had utterly and totally forgotten about until just now. At the time I thought it was pretty cool!

woah i had totally forgotten about this one, five years before 'i'll be there for you' and technically a bigger hit (#14 vs #17).

yeah "I'll Be There For You"'s US chart placing was a victim of Billboard's antiquated calculation method still in use at that time that combined radio airplay and physical sales of a single to determine popularity. IBTFY wasn't available as a single (or even their album until it was added to later pressings), and achieved the #17 placement on radio airplay alone.

(Billboard's charting algorithm still a mess today but that's a subject for another time and place).

Tracy Bonham - "Mother Mother"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0GgLKUU_I

Prophetically, the album this was from also included a song called "One Hit Wonder"

Haha google and I just talked abt this song last weekend

Google=goole.

ok i'm bout to drop a ton of these on you:

Huffamoose - "Wait"
Mack 10 - "Backyard Boogie"
Goldfinger - "This Lonely Place"
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - "Blue On Black"
Mya f/ Silkk The Shocker - "Movin' On"
Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"
Playa - "Cheers 2 U"
Lenny Kravitz - "If You Can't Say No"
DJ Quik f/ El Debarge and 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand"
Raphael Saadiq f/ Q-Tip - "Get Involved"
Mystikal and Outkast - "Neck Uv Da Woods"
Rah Digga - "Break Fool"
Lit - "Zip-Lock"
Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "Do Right"
Juvenile - "U Understand"
Sammy Hagar - "Mas Tequila"
Naughty By Nature f/ Zhane - "Jamboree"
Our Lady Peace - "One Man Army"
Sugar Ray - "Falls Apart"
Chris Cornell - "Can't Change Me"

Dammmmmn, quite a list there!

"If You Can't Say No" really captures the feel of this thread for me...got a lot of airplay at the time, I totally remember it, could sing the chorus as soon as I saw the title, but never liked it, haven't heard it since 1999 for sure. "Fly Away" really blotted out the other stuff from that album. Remember "Black Velveteen"? Only heard that a couple times, think it might have been bigger in Europe maybe.

"Falls Apart" and "Zip-Loc" maybe too big of hits to count? But then, I guess they don't really get played much anymore.

Ugh, "Blue On Black."

"Can't Change Me" reminds me of Soundgarden's "Bleed Together," which was the bonus song added to liven up the greatest-hits CD, and got a decent amount of alt-rock airplay IIRC.

Just updated the playlist with all of the above, except Spotify duckers "Bleed Together" and "Can't Change Me," I think. Also threw in Our Lady Peace, "Starseed," which I always liked. It's from '94 originally but I never heard it on the radio until the Armageddon soundtrack, for which it was ostensibly remixed. Anyway, Our Lady Peace seem to be kind of essential to our mix here.

(Golfinger's career also tracks this pretty well - - - I was tempted to also add "Mable (She's The Bomb)" but couldn't be sure how lost and forgotten that one is.)

"Blue on Black" was the #1 Mainstream Rock Track for 1998 in Billboard.

Yeah, I was wondering about that one.

"Blue On Black" is still huge and gets tons of recurrent plays, it just felt like the kind of thing that would be considered 'forgotten' on ilx

"Starseed" was a pretty sizable hit in '95, definitely more remembered than most of their singles from the actual late '90s

Wait, really? "Superman's Dead" and "Clumsy" were HUGE where I was at. I know "Naveed" got some play back in the day but "Starseed" was totally new to me when Armageddon dropped.

DJ Quik f/ El Debarge and 2nd II None - "Hand In Hand"

I discovered it a few months ago and loved it.

i said "most" not "all" -- the Clumsy singles were definitely bigger but "Starseed" was much more popular than "Naveed"

Neil Finn - "She Will Have Her Way"

I was a Crowded House fan but this one was one of the first examples of which I was aware of how aging singer-songwriters got hip by adding drum loops and scratching and weird post-Froom sounds: the late nineties/2000's equivalent of McCartney using Linn drums and synclaviers.

Yo I totally remember that Jimmie's Chicken Shack single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAez4hlV-Fo

Mxpx - I'm OK, You're OK

not sure how heavily played this was on the radio, as opposed to The Box, but I dug it. Anyway, I feel Mxpx fit the vibe of the thread enough to merit more than just one song in the playlist. Amazingly, the video isn't on Youtube. The gimmick is that a snow globe keeps getting passed from one character to another through a series of unlikely coincidences and run-ins...and the band is playing inside the snow globe! Whee!

Have we talked about Cadlebox?

Banditos by the Refreshments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmujs348H5o

omg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O94CW_tIEzU

Er. I now see that "Starseed" was mentioned, not very far upthread at all.

Wow, Hitchhiker Joe...don't think I've ever heard that before, pretty damned catchy! (It's '94, though, and very much an early 90s sound IMO - compare to, e.g., "New Age Girl" by Deadeye Dick - Classic or Dud? - which I think is sorta pushing it...what's the consensus?)

Yeah, true. I suppose these are more early 90s than late 90s. They don't possess the darker undercurrent of late 90s music (even though "Hitchhiker Joe explicitly brings up people being brutally butchered and eaten).

Rah Digga - "Break Fool"

^^love this, had it on some tony touch cassette

1. I have been in a band that covered "Banditos." And I don't mean in the 90s, I mean in the last 5 years. Dude from The Refreshments now leads an apparently well-regarded group called Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers.

2. Tracy Bonham had a way better song than "Mother, Mother" released as her second single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVWGKg-r1c

3. You know who has a new record out? K's Choice, that's who.

Mya f/ Silkk The Shocker - "Movin' On"
Mystikal and Outkast - "Neck Uv Da Woods"
Jimmie's Chicken Shack - "Do Right"
Juvenile - "U Understand"Naughty By Nature f/ Zhane - "Jamboree"
Sugar Ray - "Falls Apart"
Chris Cornell - "Can't Change Me"

I remember these!

Little T and One Track Mike - Shaniqua Don't Live Here No More (technically released in 2001 but feels very 90s)
some cover version of M's "Pop Muzik" that shoehorns in references to "Spice Girls, Britney"... no idea who did this
Ideal - Get Gone
Silk - If You
Carl Thomas - I Wish

also:

Citizen King - Better Days (and the Bottom Drops Out)
Fastball - Fire Escape (only remembered the line "I don't wanna make you mad/I don't wanna meet your dad")

I had that Citizen King song stuck in my head last week

"Fire Escape" is great - I believe it got mentioned upthread but happy to have it recognized again. Very pleasant tune.

I'm counting "Falls Apart" in despite its relatively high pop profile, as it's the biggest Sugar Ray single to be excluded from the abridged Sugar Ray singles poll ...seems a good indicator that its former ubiquity has really faded.

Re: Pop Muzik - - Wiki says "Other remixes and remakes recorded by other artists have come from all sides since its creation, including Marcus' "Pop Muzic 2001", eX-Girl in 2001, and by Junior Vasquez and the Dub Pistols in 2003." The Marcus version seems to fit your description:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EiogMvt0YU

Sadly, it's from 2001 and wow, does it ever sum up the "transitional period."

Carl Thomas is 2000, not sure what to do with that one. The piano part is REALLY familiar - I feel like I heard this a bunch on the quiet-storm station that would sometimes be on in the background at my last job. May not be so forgotten!

man, that rah digga song is great. I remember a guy in high school having a big crush on her, picture in the clear sleeve of his three ring binder, etc., but I don't know that I ever heard her music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhBt2PgGryM

"I WANT THE PRODIGY REALLY LOUD"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxj60CNxftc

uggggggggggh was pretty okay with forgetting all about Athenaeum

added to the playlist along with Oleander, who they reminded me of, with their trudging late grunge hit "Why I'm Here."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtmdUzG1I9A

Methods of Mayhem - Get Naked

i'm sorry, everyone.

I thought that was 2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glPS5I40xsU

The Methods of Mayhem album came out in December '99, "Get Naked" I guess got released as a single in 2000.

How do we feel about Gravity Kills's "Guilty"? I dunno if it passes the basic test laid out in the thread's title but at this point I see this thread as a repository for the larger project of "stuff that got radio play in the late 90s but long ago fell out of rotation, either because it didn't chart high enough, or because radio formats shifted around so that the sound it represents became homeless."

I remember hearing this on regular pop radio in 96, before later finding out that they were a Christian band:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6e-k6I1hOc

Same with Jars of Clay's Flood, though that one's a little more well known and I still occasionally hear played in shopping stores. Though I didn't know until now that their songs "Crazy Times" and "Unforgetful You" actually charted on the Modern Rock and Adult Contemporary charts in 97 and 2000 respectfully.

Oh my heck I used to be soooooooo into that Newsboys album when I was 10

How do we feel about Gravity Kills's "Guilty"? I dunno if it passes the basic test laid out in the thread's title but at this point I see this thread as a repository for the larger project of "stuff that got radio play in the late 90s but long ago fell out of rotation, either because it didn't chart high enough, or because radio formats shifted around so that the sound it represents became homeless."

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, October 10, 2012 5:53 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think of Gravity Kills (and Stabbing Westward and Filter) as being benificiaries of that long period after The Downward Spiral when Nine Inch Nails was huge but there was no new album, so all these really pathetic NIN knockoffs scored radio hits left and right.

Filter also more of a straight up heavy guitar band but definitely with a burbling grimy "darkness" that resonated with the NIN aesthetic I think. Maybe closer to Tool, with more wide-open quiet-loud hooks? Or an offshoot of the Alice In Chains wing? I'm glad you reminded me of them - "Jurassitol" is going straight into the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFj3vXp3R_M

HEY OLD MAN GOT SOMETHING FOR YOU

That Newsboys song is remarkably irritating, and several years ahead of the curve insofar as the beats, processing on the vocals, chunky-sunny "Pinch Me" type chorus, inexplicable chorused "Jimmy Ray" breakdown (1:42 forward) etc., all would be perfect fits for '99-00. Wow.

I also like how the video thumbnail makes it look like the background is trying to give Filter dude bunny-ears.

Wow I remember "Banditos" on the radio and that line "Everyone knows that the world is full of stupid people".... have never ever heard the song mentioned anywhere and I was doubting for a while that it actually even existed. Thanks for bringing that up!

Remember too that the Filter dude was part of the NIN road band in the early days.

wait, if you guys are talking about Filter, does that mean I can talk about God Lives Underwater

Man, the "From Your Mouth" video is pretty brilliant, total one-idea video but there's something really hypnotic and tension-inducing, hard to look away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_FZGu5JrQU

Black Lab - Wash It Away

pretty ordinary on all levels - I remember thinking it was kinda epic at the time, for some reason. Maybe it's the "send me an an-gel!" part.

Also wanted to add Memory Dean's "So Complicated" to the playlist but they are apparently not on Spotify. Or Youtube, for that matter!

One of the area CC's has a FM radio station specializing in Rock of varying vintages. They have student djs during the day, but after midnight they go automated and things get interesting. Tonight's find:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG1FSt9Tm-k

I think this was Sweet's last hit of any consequence. I don't think I've heard or even thought about this song in at least ten years.

Oh YEAH! That was actually my introduction to Sweet, believe it or not. Also completely forgot about it. Nice one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8

Indigo Girls - Shame On You

^^^ good song and sort of typical of one strain of stuff on this thread IMO - even when it was getting airplay, it was on stations (at least, my station) that didn't really "sound" like this by 1997. But they had been big into this kind of music just a few years earlier, the DJs were probably interested in this record, whatever one show on the weekend they had that played retro-college rock would still have "Closer To Fine" and "Galileo" in the rotation, so naturally this got carried in with that momentum. But the new song was never going to make it into the permanent file, even if the station's format hadn't further shifted with nu-metal and all that. And of course it never had a chance anywhere besides "modern rock" land.

Other factor here is that for me in Atlanta, IG were a "local" act (long since gone major) - curious whether this track made an impact in the wider world.

"Where You Get Love" either got a lot of play on my local or it was on a CMJ cd that I listened to a lot, because I knew about half of the words and I'm sure I haven't heard it since 1997

looked it up - it was the CMJ cd

ha i went on a Matthew Sweet binge on Spotify recently and when i got to "Where You Get Love" i was like oh yeah i remember the crappy outer space video that was on 120 Minutes for a few weeks and then disappeared

Another item from the CC Rock station by everybody's fave rave acoustic nerf grunge band on their sophomore album and it's first single, wherein the frontman fired the rest of the band and learned how to dance in the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1sA7YkLw1w

He says "yeah" alot, don't he?

Hahaha yeah "Enemy" is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when first starting this thread! I might also have to add "The Shelf In The Room" which is a terrible song but certainly way below the profile of "Touch Peel & Stand." I remember my buddy and I at the time actually being kind of shocked by "Enemy" on the grounds of "hey, this is a kind of cool song, how'd that happen?"

This version doesn't sound so familiar though, I feel like the backing track was a little more forceful in the one I heard.

Spotify also reminds me of their "The Down Town" which might be too obscure for this thread - pretty sure I only heard that on the radio, like, three times max. (It also sucks.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsMUQK4jdsQ

The Cardigans - My Favorite Game. Not on Spotify!

Also would like to add Drivin n Cryin's "Everything's Gonna Be Alright," almost certainly a regional-only airplay "hit." Haven't heard it since 1998, and it's not on Youtube OR Spotify. On top of it, now that I think of it, I think the one they played a lot was a live version. So...forget about that one. Maybe not so memorable. Suddenly really feeling the urge to hear "Fly Me Courageous" though.

that cardigans song was used as background music for 1000 mtv things around that time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB_g3KYs2QM

Woooooowwwwwwwww, that digs deep - through the first verse I was prepared to say "never heard that before" but the chorus clicks into focus. I don't know it well but I definitely know it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSmeqrSH6xg

The Nixons - Sister

really getting into the dregs now, i fear

"Leech" was fairly big at the time, the follow-up to "Inside Out" iirc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best..._Album_in_the_World...Ever!#Volume_6_.281997.29

"Where You Get Love" either got a lot of play on my local or it was on a CMJ cd that I listened to a lot, because I knew about half of the words and I'm sure I haven't heard it since 1997

― infowars.go.com (los blue jeans), Sunday, October 21, 2012 5:22 PM (6 days ago

It got a lot of college airplay down here too and it sounded enough like a 100% Fun track to obviate the sense that his moment was about to pass.

Scanning through the "best album in the world" - my main takeaway is Monaco's "What Do You Want From Me" - very pleasant 80s throwback thing - which turns out not to be on Spotify. Did remind me of MONO's "Life In Mono" from the Great Expectations Soundtrack which is a gimme for the playlist.

Most of the rest is mysterious, which by which I mean "British." How do we feel about Republica's "Ready To Go?" Awesome song, major at the time - would we agree it's sort of vanished or does it have any kind of afterlife (video games maybe? feels like it might soundtrack a montage here and there).

my main takeaway is Monaco's "What Do You Want From Me" - very pleasant 80s throwback thing

When Peter Hook is involved, everything is an "80s throwback thing".

"Where Do You Get Love" has one of the stranger key changes in a pop song.

How do we feel about Republica's "Ready To Go?" Awesome song, major at the time - would we agree it's sort of vanished or does it have any kind of afterlife (video games maybe? feels like it might soundtrack a montage here and there).

Back when we had a "Classic Alternative" station around here, this was in their playlist, but in some less-poppy (and ergo, not as good) remix form.* I still dig the song, and could see it popping in movies about the '90s or at least in commercials again (IIRC, Mazda or Mitsubishi used it in a late '90s campaign).

*I always wondered how their library was put together. The station ran for about 8 months, was '80s/early '90s (non grunge) centric for the first couple before their listener feedback came in and the 80s stuff got mostly dropped in favor of grunge; by the time they went off the air, they were playing songs from 2006/7. They used to have weird holes in the catalogue too, like for the longest time all the Nirvana they played was from Nevermind or Unplugged. And then there was the unique versions thing, like the Republica remix, and what I assume was a "Top 40" mix of the Black Crowes' take of "Hard To Handle" which had horns and was completely new to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqoHqmo2irI

Porno For Pyros - Hard Charger

^^Good one!

I'm pretty sure I've heard The Nixons on the radio (WMMR in Philly probably) within the last 5 years or so

I thought this was totally a hit that everyone knew but I've mentioned it to/sang it to/played it for at least half a dozen people and not a single one knows it. You all know this, right? Right??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z778slDEsds

!!!! Didn't know it when I clicked "play," knew it from like 0:02. Wow, forgot all about this. I think I thought it was Sixpence None The Richer or something. Really pretty little tune IMO. Didn't recall all the details of the verses and so on but it's good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrvxfX6LPDc

reminds me, somehow, of this: Fleming & John - Love Songs

Oh yeah, it's really really great ("Two peas in a pod, yes we are/or have I read too much fiction? Is this how it happens?")

Sincere question: was this era particularly characterized by a seeming parade of anonymous one- or two-hit rock bands that were identifiable basically by name only? That's not a jab at any of them, just me trying to figure out if I was a particularly uninterested listener (no magazine subscriptions etc). I mean, I could rack up megapoints on a trivia quiz that was organized by "here's the song, name the band" - - - "That's Republica!" - - - but I couldn't actually tell you anything about Republica, they didn't seem to have an image or a presence or anything besides the name.

Wonder how much of this is just also that I was too young to go to shows, etc.

Just found documents from 1997-1998 covering a series of tapes I made by mashing RECORD while listening to the radio. Mostly top-tier hits, but a few things that would go well in this thread maybe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5HNCw3VLB0

Phish - Free

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5C6hqZEX_8

311 - Transistor (video is an amazing video effects period piece)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD3yVmT7ZEU

311 - Prisoner

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvQRRuckqM8

Filter/Crystal Method - (Can't You) Trip Like I Do

Man, I fucking love "Free" and didn't realize it was a radio single!

Dunno if it was - just heard it a lot on 99X for a couple months or so.

swinging for lilith fair:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdG618TMc5E

Natalie Merchant - Kind & Generous. VH1 hit; I reckon this is still strong on the grocery-store circuit, but a considerable step down in bigness from the Tigerlily singles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2JWJYLNUq4

Sarah McLachlan - Sweet Surrender. In between "Building A Mystery" and "Adia," I remember hearing this a lot at the time but it apparently peaked at #28 on the Hot 100, and I think it's pretty much vanished now. It's better than I remember, although certainly too long.

Also, btw:

The album was mentioned in the Starr Report, the late-1990s account of Independent Counsel Ken Starr's investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.[17][18][19] After a visit to the White House in November 1997, Lewinisky wrote that she "noticed you (President Clinton) had the new Sarah McLachlan CD" and that "whenever I listen to song #5 (Do What You Have to Do) I think of you."[20][18]. McLachlan's representatives had no comment on the matter.[17]

"Free" was definitely the only Phish song besides "Down With Disease" that got a decent little bit of rock radio airplay

i remember hearing bouncing around the room quite a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwvlUEm_fmA

Screaming Trees - All I Know

Who doesn't remember "Kind & Generous"??

Which is more obscure/forgotten, that or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M9ncAkKSNM

Which is more obscure/forgotten, that or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M9ncAkKSNM

well, i remember it now! 1992, but yeah. A lot of these I really haven't got a good sense of what's forgotten and what's not. Almost threw "The Perfect Drug" in at one point and then went "....nah." Again, on some level I think what this is really about for me is rehabilitating/archiving low-ranking hits that never make the long-term rotation but were essential to the landscape of what it sounded like to turn on the radio in 1998 or whenever. Any future "oldies" format that's missing this stuff will feel as hollow as the stations that boil the 60s down to "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "Mrs. Robinson" to the exclusion of everything else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNQr6HLZHtk

Mack 10 feat. Snoop Dogg & Ice Cube - Only In California

The CC Station played "What's Up With That" yesterday, which leads me to the home team's prior single, from the From Dusk 'Til Dawn OST: "She's Just Killing Me" by ZZ Top (w/celebrity guests!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDeLYTw7EmU

Wow. I don't think I knew ZZ Top still existed in 99X. Nice one.

heard Live's "Freaks" on the radio today and thought of this thread

^^I think any Live that was post-"The Big Album" would fit here.

Amazing, really, that it took us this long to get there, since I think there are about 400 different Secret Samadhi discussions on ILX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2qkE_QXEog

Soundgarden - Bleed Together. Outtake/b-side, re-framed as the bonus song for the greatest hits comp. Not bad!

Today's CC Radio re-discovery: "One More Murder" by Better Than Ezra, wherein they "go dark", discover trip hop, and hold onto their audience for the last 30 seconds of their "15 Minutes".

FUN FACT: In 1998, they co-headlined the Sugar Land Texas City Fair w/Dishwalla. I bet they thought those golden days would never end...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmzlf28SGD4

Don't remember that, but I do remember this song of theirs from 2001:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwG6ivdn1IA

Huh, wow, no memory of either of.... shit, wait! He started singing on "One More Murder" and I know I've heard this. Not many times, mind you, but this certainly isn't the first.

lol i remember "One More Murder" from THE X-FILES: THE ALBUM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files:_The_Album

Haha, all I had was SONGS IN THE KEY OF X, oddly also featuring the Foo Fighters, Filter, and Soul Coughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ8_P3XB2qg

Sponge - Have You Seen Mary

Chorus is weirdly reminiscent of "Every Day Is A Winding Road," obviously mellowed out relative to that. This was in the regular rotation right when I started listening to alt-rock radio; hearing it, as with Fleming & John, makes me picture a particular stretch of my high school's corridors, presumably the area where I had my locker that year. Haven't heard it once since then.

OMG "Extra Ordinary" is one of those songs that I have not heard since it was on the radio

xpost I remember seeing that Sponge album in the cut out bin @ Best Buy about a year or so after it'd been released. It got a really good review in the old (lol 90s) MusicHound guide--like 4 or 4 1/2 bones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ukTY752iuY

Tracy Chapman - Smoke and Ashes (fan video with clips from My So-Called Life but the other choice was a bunch of still photos of donkeys for some reason). LONG, but a nice tune I think. Fits comfortably into Chapman's larger career but also seems very much of a piece with certain other things going on around that time, with the Hammond organ and the naturalistic production. I think 99X had a weekend-morning program called like.. Roots X or something like that, where things like this (and probably that Indigo Girls track) got played a lot, alongside, I dunno, "6th Avenue Heartache" and, well, almost anything by Counting Crows besides "Angels of the Silences."

Lisa Loeb's "I Do" was mentioned upthread, but for some reason this one popped into my head this morning. It was her immediately follow-up to "Stay" and only got as high as 18 on the Hot 100, and 20 on the Modern Rock chart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Ca62l_X8M

Huh, wow, never heard that before! Pretty good track. I can see why it wasn't a hit - feels very "album cut"-ish. Nice find though!

Never heard the song, but I recognize parts of the music video because that song was featured on the first volume of the Canadian Now! series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhS3YP04Fjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kryV3E4QKGk

Semisonic - "Singing In My Sleep" and "Secret Smile." The followup singles to massive airplay hit and #11 pop hit "Closing Time" - neither charted on the Hot 100. "Secret Smile" is a Serious Snooze but "Singing In My Sleep" has some energy, a passable hook and a nice little organ doohickey.

Maybe it's all the S's but I always associate these with "Someday" by the New Radicals, the hopeless followup to "You Only Get What You Give." Decent adult-contemporary pop-rock.

Love Wiki's description of the video, which could almost be a Mad Libs template for this period: Directed by David Barnblatt, the video features the whole band playing the song in a damp warehouse with Gregg Alexander on guitar. It features scenes of people in different places: a laundromat, a bus, a diner, and a pool. In one scene, a lonely woman sits alone stirring her coffee, and the end of the video shows an empty seat at the back of a bus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDmA8qQKhMY

Secret Smile is the only Semisonic song I know and I hear it all the time in the uk

I like that New Radicals guy switched to his sad times bucket hat

dog latin - wow, that amazes me! Standard UK/US shock I guess, but "Closing Time" was huuuuge in the US - #1 on Modern Rock, #1 on airplay, nominated for a Grammy, lots of TV show usage, and:

The song was prominently featured in the 2011 film Friends with Benefits where, in the climax, Justin Timberlake's character points out that the song is by Semisonic and not, as he previously believed, Third Eye Blind.

Whereas "Secret Smile" went straight to nowhere. Weird.

haha, i was just about to propose Natalie Imbruglia's "Wishing I Was There," stopped, checked, and, yup, huge hit in the UK. Wow.

This one might be a bit too big in comparison to the other songs on the list, but in comparison to his other singles at the time, I'd say it's pretty forgotten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cugj6EBvkiA

Wow. I'm not entirely sure I've ever heard that. #56 on the Hot 100...might have slipped right past me. Nice pick!

hahah, the video is pretty great too. Transforming jet-car! Now that's crusin'.

'Closing time' was pretty big in the UK. All the Semisonic and New Radicals rubbish was played all the time on Radio 2, which I could not escape at work :(

Cowboy Mouth - Love of My Life

(only live vids on Youtube - added the studio one to the Spotify playlist though)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEfbL53jhN4

Alana Davis - 32 Flavors. A 1997 McLachlanization of Ani's less anthemically presented original, with added "I am who I am" chorus replacing the wandering oh-hoo-eee-a-hoo-la-de-heyya-whaaaaaa stuff. I remember hardcore Ani fans spitting at this whole business. It sounds okay now but not great. Sort of weirdly Sandi Thom-esque.

A few more things from the CC Rock Station:

Blues Traveler: "Carolina Blues"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYdKho_5Y9A

Their follow-up to the big hits. More like Carolina BLOOZ, amirite?

Brother Cane: Lie In The Bed I Make (studio version not on youtube)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-TxlD1OMU

Follow-up single to "And The Fools Shine On", big in '95 and already mentioned upthread. In my neck of the woods, this one was just as ubiquitous spring/summer '96.

Jerry Cantrell: Cut You In

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b36pJh8Didg

Second Solo hit & Lead single from his initial post-AIC lp. "Second Solo Hit"? Cause this...

Jerry Cantrell: Leave Me Alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXHoxCSO9g

THE CABLE GUY SOUNDTRACK

I actually had a cassette single of "Cut You In".

Can't say as I've ever heard any of those before, though there was a moment when "Carolina Blues" sounded like some shadow of something I might have heard once. Added 'em to the playlist, except the Brother Cane, which isn't on Spotify, and "Leave Me Alone," available only in karaoke form (?!). I do love how the video tries its best to make all the "Cable Guy" footage seem creepy and sick and wrong. I mean, moreso.

PM Dawn - Downtown Venus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT34WfGD6Ew

Ok I remember these two getting airplay and nowadays only a couple of friends remember them. I don't consider them memorable but they probably were to a grade if you're into christian rock (one is about keeping your virginity and the other about the story of Noah.

Sense Field - Save Yourself
http://youtu.be/s__QUKSWrK0

Jars of Clay - Flood
http://youtu.be/EfAhpX_wIBk

Wait, is that what PM Dawn sound like? That's great!

Added, in honor of Somebody helped me figure out what fucking song this is! - MC Breed, "It's All Good"

kind of hard for me to believe that #8 "The Fix (remix)" is real even though it shows every indication of being an actual video that was played on MTV2

do we have a "Directed by: Paul Hunter" appreciation thread yet

WAOOOW! AWRIGHT Y'ALL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ5av3dglzY

Stroke 9 - "Letters." Followup to the unexpected success of the re-release of four-year-old track "Little Black Backpack." A Modern Rock #27 "hit"; pretty sure I haven't heard it since a week or two in early 2000. You're leaving me here. Dear. Alone with all your lettERS.

I've never heard that song before, but I am aware of Stroke 9 through their song "Kick Some Ass", which I've often thought of it as one of the last songs of the "90s" since I only saw the video for it once and that was on like September 9, 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-0Ds0sYARY

Pushmonkey - "Handslide." Also known as "the 'break that water' song."

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

God, Pushmonkey were fucking HUGE on Houston Rock radio in '96.

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

― WE WANT FET WAP (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, June 28, 2015 7:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm having trouble imagining a dad playing this CD a lot in the car, was your dad a member of stroke 9?

Playlist updated btw! Found a bunch of things not previously available, and purged some karaoke versions. Threw in K's Choice - Everything For Free, which somehow hasn't come up here already.

Still missing, for future checkup reference:

Billy Lawrence - Come On
LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest"
Warren G's "Smokin' Me Out"
Little T and One-Trick mike - Shaniqua Don't Live Here No More
B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem)
Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne"
Tracy Lee - "The Theme (It's Party Time)"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"
Tatyana Ali - "Daydreamin'"
Forest For The Trees, "Dream"
sun 60 c'mon kiss me
Amateur Lovers - consolation prize
702 - steelo
qkumba zoo - the child inside
Liquido - Narcotic
Liquido - Play Some Rock
Chopper One - Punk Named Josh
Carnival Art
Moxy Fruvous - King of Spain
Patti Rothberg - Inside
Sylk E Fyne, Romeo & Juliet
Sylk E Fyne - Keep It Real
Asante "Look at What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"
Dayna Manning - My Addiction
Eve's Plum - I Want It All
Fluorescein - Cathy's On Crank
Sprung Monkey - Get 'Em Outta Here
Huffamoose - Wait
Filter - Jurassitol
Memory Dean - So Complicated
Cardigans - My Favorite Game
Jerry Cantrell - And the Fools Shine On
Jerry Cantrell - Leave Me Alone

that's https://open.spotify.com/user/doctorcasino/playlist/2taIeJ0IhYbdEJWgGXJBsK

Billy Crawford - Urgently in Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp1oAy5lwZQ

I remember that Stroke 9 song but prob less from the radio and more from my dad playing the CD in the car all the time

― WE WANT FET WAP (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, June 28, 2015 7:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm having trouble imagining a dad playing this CD a lot in the car, was your dad a member of stroke 9?

We just listened to a lot of modern rock radio!

haha, fair, fair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdAt4qWvz_8

Squirrel Nut Zippers - "Put A Lid On It," the followup to the unlikely success of "Hell." I also feel like I heard "The Suits Are Picking Up The Bill" (the go-nowhere lead single from the next album) but listening to it, it seems like there's no way this ever got on the radio -- maybe on a station promo compilation or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8IPLgAIueo

The Urge - Jump Right In (1998). Featuring Nick Hexum of 311, who clearly shot all his scenes separately and is thus spared from having to perform fifteen feet in the air on a wobbling pole. So many questions about this video - why the bleak, washed-out color for this mood-boosting ska song? Why Chinatown? Why the Hare Krishnas?

I had totally missed these guys the first time around but they still have some kind of beloved institution status here in St. Louis; singer is some kind of local sausage magnate now?

I hope they have local TV ads urging people to jump right in... to a double-dog combo!

Oh man, "Jump Right In"...I saw The Urge on my first Warped Tour in '98. They were on the main stage in a mid-size arena with a shitty PA. But half the floor was a mosh pit (easily the biggest I'd seen at that point), and when "Jump Right In" started it was like getting permission to tear shit up.

I always liked how they worked the band name into the lyrics ("Fought the urge to do it..."). Imagine there was a lot of high-fiving in the studio that day.

I kept thinking of that video during "Fury Road"

hahaha, oh man, video mashup waiting to happen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRQMB0tkBY

The Nixons - "Baton Rouge." This was a top 10 rock hit in 1997.

And I bet hasn't been played on the radio since mid-1998.

Wow. Really struggling to say whether I've ever heard this before. Even more grating than I remember most of this era of post-grunge being. Guy's vocal delivery should have been saved in a time capsule, along with basically everything about the video.

This is from 2000, so I'm not sure if quite counts:
Elwood - Sundown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu-fH2b7Pro

Maybe about time for the early 2000s version of this thread tbh.

Ooh I dunno like, we'll need to carry out a detailed cost-analysis. In the meantime:

top 10 hits that no one remembers

(I'm sure they accept genre chart top 10s, they're nice people)

ha sorry, that came out weird but basically i've been thinking about launching the 'sequel' but wondering if the time was ripe in terms of enough 'distance' from the early 2000s. but i just checked and i started this thread barely seven years out from the late 90s. so...yeah.

Now That Was Totally On The Radio and Stuff! Vol. 2: Forgotten Singles of the Early 2000s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibawg0lW7Kw

Presidents of the United States of America - Video Killed the Radio Star

Used to love this band, thought this cover and "Cleveland Rocks" both outdid the originals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Myp1plDUGA

Gangsta Boo - Don't Stand So Close

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQaMMJQwtgM

Goodie Mob feat. Big Boi and Backbone, "Get Rich to This"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4QfYcMRN9E

Vertical Horizon - We Are (1999). First single off the album that subsequently yielded the lousy mega-hit "Everything You Want" and the less-remembered "You're A God." The video somewhat implausibly features a live crowd being super-hyped about seeing Vertical Horizon, but YMMV. Popped into my head just now for reasons I cannot explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPUY_otr-Q

Master P - Kenny's Dead (1998). Mayfield-derived tribute to the South Park character. I don't think I've posted this one before - a real artifact of the early South Park popularity phenomenon

.

if you count 2002 as late 90s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-py5G1j4Q

if you count 2002 as late 90s

2002 possibly the last year of the "long 90s" in terms of the viability of certain musical genres.

90s started with Nirvana
90s ended with Limp Bizkit or 9/11, take your pick

did....Limp Bizkit do 9/11?

Now That Was Totally On The Radio and Stuff! Vol. 2: Forgotten Singles of the Early 2000s

some good 'long 90s' vs. 'interzone' discussion here i think: The song that represents the END of the 90s

as someone pointed out in that thread, the video for "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit has them playing on top of the World Trade Center.

Summercamp - Drawer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy_k-6U8HOc

guessing this was more popular in the UK but "Millenium" by Robbie Williams is like the best forgotten 90's jam

^^ I wish it were forgotten o'er here, still hear it a lot in stores, stations I don't listen to etc.

In the US it basically didn't exist except for mysteriously honorific placement in a Now! advertisement iirc.

"Millennium," and some other Williams tracks, got quite a bit of play here in Canada, both on radio and on Much Music, but it always felt like an attempt to make Robbie Williams happen in North America far more than actual demand. His albums pretty much collected dust at the record store I worked at during that time.

yea I definitely remember MTV fawning over him, "he's a big star in the UK, he's gonna be like the Spice Girls!" but that lasted about three weeks. love that tune though.

to this day in my mind I still think of this as being a huge hit but BradNelson and I seem to be the only 2 ppl on the planet who know this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0NILJQN-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXzphHiHD8

Bad Ronald - "Shoot the ****" (lol)

"I've been waitin all day for that Bad Ronald" is probably my favorite opening line in a debut single

Our Lady Peace are huge in Canada. I heard that song all the time.

hahah for some inexplicable reason i once owned the CD single of "Is Anybody Home?" i didn't even like it very much! certainly not compared to "Clumsy" and "Superman's Dead" which were JAMS to me and my tenth-grade buddies. feels like something from the dollar bin, or maybe the free bin.

That OLP guy's voice was a major public nuisance here in Canada for about a decade.

imo the our lady peace album that contains "is anybody home" is their best record and an alt-rock classic but

the only OLP song I like is "Naveed"

I don't know that Authority Zero song but it sounds like something the Sims would listen to at one of their rockin' parties

haha otm

Bad Ronald one of the very first acts posted to the early 2000s sequel to this thread. Now as then, I attempted listening to it and was caught in a void of vague familiarity, as if I had indeed heard it once upon a time.

oh damn - must be a misprint on my memory

Some random songs I have on an alt-rock "follow up singles that weren't as popular" playlist:

Elastica - Car Song
Tripping Daisy - Piranha
Better than Ezra - Rosealia
Cranberries - Ridiculous Thoughts

Also, how about Blind Melon "Galaxie"??

I love the hook and the dark vibe. Creepy video too. Went to #8 modern rock. RIP Shannon Hoon.

did....Limp Bizkit do 9/11?

― Neanderthal, Thursday, 30 March 2017 04:46 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry for formatting I'm on my mobile. I was doing my normal YouTube research for the truth and i stumbled upon this song by Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (air raid vehicle) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYnFIRc0k6E).

All of a sudden, it hit me. This is blatant conspiracy at work.

Right at the beginning you see a car and its license plate (http://i.imgur.com/dLrHU.png). I did some simple math and realized that 9 and then 9+5-6-6-9-5 = negative 12. Put together, that is 9-12. This is all on a Bentley which is symbolism that after 9-11 on 9-12 the rich will be the ones who have all of the power (symbolized from the car and the fact that it has a lot of horsepower). Ben Stiller is the driver of the car which shows that both the JEWs and HOLLYWOOD are intertwined and involved heavily in the events of 9/11.

Seconds later you can see the Bentley superimposed over the twin towers (http://i.imgur.com/tLUXo.png) obvious foreshadowing of Jewish power and their taking the lead in 9/11.

Then it cuts to them performing ON the WTC building roof and on the helicopter landing pad (http://i.imgur.com/5dGvK.png). OBVIOUSLY mocking everyone because on 9/11 there would be no LANDINGS.

The lyrics “keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin“ are obviously a foretelling of America’s foreign policy after 9/11 – keep rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ into foreign countries and taking them over. Predictive programming I would say.

As you can see (http://i.imgur.com/rDDjt.png) everyone is wearing the same outfit. Obviously, painfully shoving it in our face that FEMA would be setting up camps in the near future and we will all be stuck in them WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT. MORE PREDICTIVE PROGRAMMING.

Also this video proves without a doubt that if Limp Bizkit was able to perform a concert full with lighting equipment and backup dancers on the WTC buildings without getting stopped then it would be painfully easy to lace the building with bombs to demolish it on 9/11.

Then there are the lyrics “You cant mess with Limp Bizkit” By proxy, you cant mess with the government and they are rubbing it right in your face.

Many would point to the dress and makeup of the guitarist as symbolism or some shit but they are stupid. He is obviously a false flag to distract you from the real shit Limp Bizkit is pulling.

There is so much more imbedded in this video (didn't touch on the obvious Illuminati references) but I can't spoon feed you guys everything. WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!

Scrolling down I was sure ^^ this was a Karl Malone post, but halfway I was like 'no wait, it's bizarro'. Kudos. The Bentley is a dead giveaway tbh.

all credit must go to a redditor whose account is now deleted, presumably because they were getting dangerously close to the truth

does anyone else remember "Got You (Where I Want You)" by The Flys?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM_OWaItNJM

yeah that song is dope

love that one. chorus is probably the best fake Cornell to ever hit the radio.

video is fake "velouria" also, and iirc disturbing behavior was fake stepford wives, oh well

Classic 'One & Done' band. The song had its run, which concluded with both it and the band disappearing.

Thought about this song the other the day for the first time in forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIriSoch9rE

The video and song are both 'so 1996' that of course they came out in early '97.

From the comments:

Carlos Roots 2 years ago
Man, I used to wait up until all hours to watch this music video back in the 90's. Now, the only time I am up at all hours is if I have to go pee. Oh, and the lead singer looks strangely like my next door neighbor.
Reply 2
Mike M
Mike M 8 months ago
the lead singer probably is your neighbor

^^Orbit: "Medicine", for those w/images/vids off and still keeping score.

watching that Flys video, I'm reminded of a little bit of useless trivia: There were two versions of the song serviced to radio--one was the version heard in the video, with the other singer doing his rapping/toasting thing, and the other identical but with his track removed/muted.

Huh - a rare case of that being done to a white act - and one loud and grating enough that a top 40 crossover surely couldn't be in the cards. (Obviously things like the massive Semi-Charmed Life edit are sort of related, but specifically cutting out the 'rapper' is normally reserved for Supercat, Snoop Dogg, et al.)

That Orbit song isn't ringing any bells besides the really loud and clear debt to the Pixies' arrangements. The rest is a kind of mishmash of 1996, indeed - bit of Better than Ezra, bit of Gavin Rossdale, maybe even a bit of Trent Reznor. Not bad though!

Gilby Clarke (Izzy's replacement in GnR) brings the buttrock in '94. Both of these were MASSIVE on Houston radio at the time. For some reason I still vividly remember riding around all day on a Saturday in the summer and hearing one or the other every hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qg1APJTk14

"Tijuana Jail"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcboNoPcJyc

"Cure Me or Kill Me"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsQZvsR_QI

Is it true that Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in LA wasn't a hit i. The US? I know it was big in Canada and in Mexico.

I found out it wasn't that popular in the US after a couple of friends and me were drunk singing the chorus in LA (felt apropos and we very surely sounded like idiots) and some people were asking us what song it was. I went to the wiki article the next day and apparently it didn't chart at all in the US but did good on UK and Canada and still gets some airplay now and then.

It was an alternative sort of "hit" the video for which got played a lot in NZ too, dunno if it sold at all. I get it in my head a lot still.

Same. Was a huge hit w/ MTV Europe, they played the shit out of that video (regardless of how it charted I suppose).

It got short-term alt-rock radio play in the US. It didn't really "take," but people like me (aka teenagers obsessively listening to such stations in the late 90s) know it and can sing along if you bring it up.

(Also, thinking about that, if someone else wants to start an Early 90s version of this thread for things like those Gilby Clarke tracks, they should go for it! I didn't start digging into radio and MTV until right around '95 so it wouldn't really be my turf.)

damn, sugar should've sued orbit

Is it true that Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in LA wasn't a hit i. The US?

I worked at Sam Goody when it came out and we received one copy that never sold during the year-and-a-half that I worked there. I only just listened to it now for the first time.

It got enough play on MTV for me to buy the album; I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio.

I didn't have MTV at the time and also never heard it on the radio.

It got enough play on MTV for me to buy the album; I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio.

― PJD PDJ DPJ (DJP), Wednesday, May 24, 2017 6:06 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same, and I even hung around for their second album, which I still think is really actually pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUNWhKq80_s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA-DmFtryFY

wow, never heard that before in my life. #1 on Mainstream Rock, as was "Without You"! Actually based on chart placement they have a lot of contenders for this thread, from that greatest hits album and the one Gary Cherone record. "Humans Being" and "Fire In The Hole" were also top-ten Mainstream Rock and "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "One I Want" made #12 and #27 respectively. What stations were playing this stuff though?

There was an Active Rock station in my area that played it a lot. (Not sure if that format exists anymore.) Another popular station in my area was splitting 2/3's classic rock with 1/3 dad-friendly '90s rock bands like Alice In Chains, Tom Petty etc.

I definitely heard this song a lot on the radio within the months after VH appeared at the VMAs with Roth but the song was not an MTV hit.

tasmin archer sleeping satellite

'96 was one of the last years geezers made a big impact on Album/Mainstream (Soon to be rebranded "Active") Rock Radio. Plus, Roth getting back together w/VH was a Big Deal--I remember the evening DJ in Houston taking listener calls on air all night when the news broke.

Speaking of reunions, this might of been one of--if not the last old dude (or old dude not named "Ozzy") radio jam before the Nu Metal takeover of late '98.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnxz6yXRJL0

Page/Plant: "Most High"

^^ENGINEERED BY STEVE ALBINI

Just updated the Spotify playlist with stuff mentioned in the last couple years, plus a nice handful of tracks that have finally showed up on there. For my own reference, these are still missing:

LL Cool J, "Deepest Bluest"
Little T and One Track Mike, "Shaniqua" (2001)
B-Real, Busta Rhymes, Coolio, LL Cool J and Method Man - "Hit Em High (Monstar's Anthem)
Salt-n-Pepa - "Champagne"
Imperial Teen's "You're One"
Jamie Blake's "Runaway"
Forest For The Trees, "Dream"
Sun-60, "C'mon Kiss Me"
Amateur Lovers, "Consolation Prize"
Sylk-E. Fyne, "Romeo & Juliet"
Sylk-E. Fyne, "Keep It Real"
Chopper One, "Punk Named Josh"
Carnival Art, [?]
Yvette Michele, "I'm Not Feelin You"
INXS, "Elegantly Wasted"
Patti Rothberg, "Inside"
Asante "Look What You've Done (Refugee Camp Remix)"
Dayna Manning, "My Addiction"
Fluorescein, "Cathy's On Crank"
Memory Dean, "So Complicated"
Billy Crawford, "Urgently In Love"
Janet Jackson, "Runaway"
Drivin n Cryin, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright"

That link again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpHWiiaC4Ow

Everclear - The Swing, a So Much For The Afterglow afterthought that saw the light of day on the Scream 2 soundtrack. My station played it approximately twice, for some reason (it was not a single).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yqls1UvU6oI

96 was one of the last years geezers made a big impact on Album/Mainstream (Soon to be rebranded "Active") Rock Radio.

I mean, Dave Grohl, whose band has the current #4 song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, is the same age that Robert Plant was in 1996.

cf. Marilyn Manson, who has the #5 song

Local H: Bound to the Floor

Love Spit Love - How Soon Is Now

Does anyone remember this? Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs fronted this band and had a radio hit with the Smiths cover.

Opening theme to Charmed! How could anyone forget? :)

I mean, Dave Grohl, whose band has the current #4 song on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, is the same age that Robert Plant was in 1996.

Then swap out "Geezers" with "Classic Rock Artists Whose Careers Began In The '60s To Mid-'70s". Besides Group, there's also RHCP, who are now mostly in same ballpark, age-wise, as the Stones circa Bridges To Babylon, which kicked up a little noise on AOR in '97-8.

"Grohl", Stupid Phone.

Also: That LSL cover of "HSN?" was quite witchy, as it was recorded for and first appeared on the covers-heavy soundtrack to The Craft.

Of course, there are exceptions to my Classic Rock Rule.

Aerosmith spun a few AOR radio hits off 1997's Nine Lives before "Pink" actually crossed over to Top 40 late in the year. I actually heard the radio premiere of this, the first single, early that year. It was supposedly a 'Satellite Transmission' prefaced by a mayday recording of Steven Tyler crashing a spaceship on the "Planet Fallopia" (or some other equally dopey entendre).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BaVSjFWZbY

Aerosmith: "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)"

Sammy Hagar relaunched himself as a liquor impresario and Kid Rock's Dad or Grampa in '98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRKUPj1UfR0

Sammy Hagar: "Mas Tequila"

And then there's the Stones...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0ZM6HWj4s

The Rolling Stones: "Flip The Switch"

In the mid to late 90s, between the ages of 11 and 14, I made a series of VHS tapes featuring all the songs I liked on Musique plus and Much Music. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of tracks from Local H's As Good as Dead on them… Some memories are best repressed forever.

some dude gave us "Mas Tequila" upthread, and I can't believe that "Bound For The Floor" is really forgotten.... but y'all have reminded me to add "Eddie Vedder" to the playlist along with "Flip the Switch" which I'm not sure I've ever heard before. I had a friend who repped for Bridges to Babylon for about... a week I think.

I got Nine Lives as a castoff from the same guy and I remembered "Falling In Love" being a little more exciting than it now seems. Something really doughy and sluggish about it despite the horns and other signifiers of energy and fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU

Powerman 5000 - When Worlds Collide

(can't imagine anyone who's ever heard this mess has forgotten it, but it had a pretty brief moment in radio rotation and it's another one where the entire genre is sort of out in the cold right now)

^ an ice hockey dressing room smash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kXiLeBXzG4

Jamiroquai - Alright. Third single off the album led by "Virtual Insanity." I remember it, like "Cosmic Girl," getting at least token airplay (maybe even with more of a 'rock' remix? can't find any proof of that existing)... and then it was gone. I suspect they're thought of as one-hit wonders in the US even though "Canned Heat" topped the dance charts and the video was around for a minute.

Surprised to realize Metallica hasn't come up here yet. Between Load (1996), Reload (1997), Garage Inc. (1997) and S&M (1999), they were constantly pushing new product (twelve singles!) in the late 90s, a period capped off in 2000 with substantial hit "I Disappear" off the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack. I won't list them all, and a few of them like "Fuel," "Until It Sleeps" and their cover of "Turn The Page" are surely not forgotten... but when was the last time you heard Mainstream Rock chart-topper "No-Leaf Clover" or the covers of "Die, Die My Darling" and "Whiskey in the Jar"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd9ohpDDCRU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boanuwUMNNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTqxn6KCNs

I don't know if The Tuesdays ever made an appearance on US radio in the late 90s, but they come off as a rigorous attempt to craft a Bangles for that era--something that 1997 probably wasn't looking for, but I still think its kind of a shame that they never had more of a career. I had pretty much forgotten about them until I found their self-titled (and only?) album among my CDs a few weeks ago. On the whole, its a bit too ballad-heavy, but in their better moments, they come up with some irresistible sugar-rush pop songs like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljV0KM5zZOk

Doesn't ring any bells with me. It's nice though! The Beatlesy backing vocals are cute. Agreed that it doesn't really feel like a US pop single in 1997. Maybe countrify it more and you have a viable Dixie Chicks alternative, or make it a lot poppier and glossier, and the positive-vibes message would get you into a Vitamin C kind of space.

Stretch Princess, whose s/t album came out in 1998 and who had songs featured in She's All That, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Buffy and Smallville, were a British three-piece who glenn mcdonald perfectly describes "sound like an extremely meticulous pop archivist has gone through the catalogs of 'til tuesday, Sarge, the Sundays, the Bangles, the Rose Chronicles, Grace Pool, the Cranberries, Veruca Salt, Emm Gryner, the Go-Go's, Paula Cole, Lush, the Primitives and Marry Me Jane, extracting only the purest moments of glossy melodic passion. I don't know if they did anything on US radio, but their soundtrack credentials are as late 90s as they come. "Sorry" (the one from Teaching Mrs. Tingle) was my fave, but if this is anything close to the kind of thing you like, I strongly recommend the full album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OqzWDsNthM

No memory of that on US radio myself, but you're on the money with the soundtrack lineup. To my ears, the sound is just little bit of a throwback to a couple years before in terms of grunge/post-grunge guitar and vocals; it doesn't quite sound like what I was hearing in 1998.

I had a friend in high school who saw Stretch Princess open for...I want to say Creed (back when Creed still toured clubs), and was raving about them the next morning in gym class.

Hmmm, plausible - they were on the same label (Wind-Up) it seems.

I'm doubting that Creed story now. I genuinely don't remember the headliner was.

ANYWAY, no track to share. I've got a rental car this week that doesn't have a CD player. So I've been listening to the area Alt. Rock station and they just played the discussed upthread Flys: "Got You Where I Want You", which was unexpected to say the least.

man "me wise magic" sucks, huh

was roth going for early scott weiland on the verses?

i think i voted for that song in the vh poll

the chorus has at least something headsticky to it but the verses are sludge, and the intro sounds like a frightening harbinger of "kryptonite" by 3 doors down before then going into an incredibly awkward portamento transition. also i can't shake the suspicion that "me wise magic" is dave's idea of voodoo-shaman talk or jamaican patois or some other area i really don't want him troping into. an event reunion single that feels much more like the last gasps of a dino-rock act before breaking up. maybe serious VH heads dig eddie's solos though?

really pleased to see yvette michele mentioned here. the single that i remember more vividly, besides the funkmaster flex mixtape favorite 'everyday & everynight' (which is also awesome), was 'dj keep playin' (get your music on)': https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IGXsXU79RRE that was a full force production too, iirc.

her whole album was really good and one of the only r+b records i liked from that era.

I loved and still do love that first Stretch Princess album. Went through a period in 1998/99 where it was chiefly all I'd listen to for days at a time.

xp "Me Wise Magic" is insane and shouldn't exist

but i actually came here to post this lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qTESaoSU_8

do you actually remember it??

not at all

oh great now i have "meeeee wise magic" stuck in my head again

don't fight it. that 9/8 intro mmm

I loved that Reply All podcast but did not at all imagine Evan Olson as a Neil Patrick Harris clone

the evan olson song is a flight of conchords thing right

Oh my God, this was such a ride!
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/o2h8bx/158-the-case-of-the-missing-hit for those that haven't heard it

yeah it's wild! i wish they'd followed up with more of their sources once they reached the conclusion. but super entertaining listening.

pretty entertaining detective story (i h8 podcasts and managed to make it through), but with the reveal of what the song was it's clear that the extent to which the song had been 'erased from existence' or 'scrubbed from the internet' or however they kept putting it was quite a big exaggeration. it may have seemed that way initially when the song's lyrics were apparently ungooglable, but the track (w/ its parent album) seems to have been on youtube and digital download stores for a decade now, probably much longer?

searching thru radio & records issues from the time shows it got some play at a handful of top 40, hot ac and (to a lesser extent) alternative stations, but never secured enough play to crack even the bottom of those formats' charts. the track got mentioned in billboard's heatseekers column, which was meant to highlight music breaking regionally, before the album's originally planned release. it's unclear when it actually came out, because i don't think it ever ended up making even the heatseekers chart, but at least it did get released! like, here's billboard's amusingly hyperbolic review of the followup single that probably ended up getting played by approximately zero stations.

as the sources interviewed in the podcast said, it seems to have been quite a common fate for artists scooped up while the industry bubble was at its largest. it's no surprise that many of them ended up pretending to be undiscovered talent on american idol a few years later.

on a related note: this is from the early rather than late 90s, but what strikes me about it is that it actually charted on billboard, but i'm not sure if it actually ever came out. it's "let's get into something sexy" by erik hicks, which got just enough airplay to hit the bottom rungs of billboard's chart for the rhythmic top 40 format for two weeks (and the hot 100 airplay chart for one week).

finding this song + him on discogs reveals ZERO releases by this artist other than this one song on a promo cd. (however he does have numerous production, writing and session credits on other artists' releases.) so despite getting some minor (but not negligible) airplay, he never got to put an album out, and it's possible the single never got released to retail either. googling the song leads to a small number of hits, including forum posts from collectors struggling to find it. it's not even on youtube (tho apparently another recording of the same song is??). TRULY erased!

i recall having seen a couple other similar examples but i think they were country artists so there's no way in hell i'll remember them

actually just to be a horrible contrarian i'm going to put my tin foil hat on and insist that those podcast people actually knew of evan olson's tune all this time and just concocted this whole saga/detective story knowing it would be excellent podcast material. the rolling stone folks suspecting a viral marketing hoax were onto something!!

Somehow youtube algorithm recommended me to listen to Eve 6 after almost two decades of forgetting about them.

“Inside out” and “leech” were sort of popular on alt radio. Does anyone remembers them at all? The Leech video doesn’t even have 1M views so I guess not. Inside Out is definitely more popular with 18M views.

https://youtu.be/TB_g3KYs2QM

Oddly enough I think Leech is the catchier song despite being less popular.

"inside out" was very big, "leech" not so much so.

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

their faked-up versions of the song (tho delightful imo) also may have muddied the waters by losing all the sonic tags of a '99-era would-be hit, which the song undoubtedly shares with half the playlist.

man that fake U2 chorus tho. not a lot of people out there going that directly for bono's gold. tho i think it helped me realize how much collective soul wanted to be in that space (see: the guitars and drums in "heavy," now seems very obvious to me as an attempt to pump the Achtung Baby sound up to late 90s compression and attack standards).

Is there a comparable thread somewhere for obscure '80s hits? I keep coming across these older songs whose artists and titles make me shrug but as soon as I hear them I'm like 'ohhhhhh yeah!'. It's like stumbling upon a Riunite commercial on YT.

as far as this "series" goes, i've only made the late 90s and early 00s one (and really should launch the late 00s one) but i would not be surprised if there's some other thread that fills this role for the 80s!

Does anybody remember this song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRC-X0twti0

I only really know of it because I googled music videos directed by McG, and MAYBE I heard back in the day, but I came across it again inspired by that Evan Olson song by going through old Mainstream Radio Promo CD playlists from that era on Discogs and finding songs that didn't show up on Lyrics Websites. However, lyrics were posted for this in a Yahoo Answers question.

wow, no, never heard this before but WHAT a time capsule. the main guitar thing in the verse sounds almost like a slowed-down sample of "Scar Tissue" and that video is like typical McG aesthetic crossed with "Steal My Sunshine" framing/editing. plus random turntable scratches.... the hyper-saturated blue track jacket versus bleached blonde hair.... just needs Supercat dropping in halfway through. total 1998-2001 interzone pop-rock.

not on Spotify tho

yeah, never heard that before, but it's an impossibly perfect example of the genus

for posterity in case of bum youtube link, we are discussing "Destiny" by "Mister Jones."

Been thinking a bit about this one lately, John Squires' Britpop move from '97.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVzUFNWIYM0

Seahorses: "Love Is The Law"

The album version had a long jam at the end.

John Squire, that is.

"Love Is The Law" actually racked up some decent Alt-Rock airplay for a month or so that summer. This follow-up, while having a much splashier video, didn't fare as well, although I do remember hearing it (alongside loads of other forgotten also-rans) on Muzaks at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv3J4HTThpQ

Seahorses: "Blinded By The Sun"

yeah dyl i agree the "vanished from the internet" thing was both overstated and vaguely defined. i expect it just genuinely never occurred to the hosts to use print resources to try and narrow down the title/artist. which is kinda lame! weird that they got as far as talking to veteran radio promo people, but not to that point.

I think the issue was that the song is called "So Much Better," and those words don't actually exist in the lyrics. So if all you have is the lyrics and they're not on online anywhere, it's hard to get to the title/artist.

(But yeah, the song was out there, so it's not like it had totally vanished.)

That “Destiny” song is surprisingly good

(canceled on arrival, tho, for the f’d-up shot in which the “fat chick” twirls around and turns “hot”)

This thread has made me search for the tracklists on the Now! that’s what I call music compilations from Mexico. We only had 8 of them, but the selections we’re a tad weirder than those from US/UK. I’ve no idea what parameter they used to pick these songs since: a) some of them weren’t billboard top singles in Mexico or anywhere else? b) to the point you never really heard them on the radio, c) not even big hits on mtv that I’m aware of.

Let me point some examples after the break.

Apologies for the format, I’m copy/pasting from Discogs. Apparently the Mexican version of Now went all the way to 10, I lost track after Vol. 6 since there was a 2 year gap between 6 and 7 and they lost me. At any rate here are the 10 comps if you’re interested, some songs I can’t even recognize, overall I like the variety in every one of these.

https://www.discogs.com/es/label/1764152-Now-Thats-What-I-Call-Music!-7

Please take a look at least until Vol. 6 - which is the final volume of the 90’s - Lots of songs in there that could fit in this thread.

Ugh didn’t copy paste properly.

Anyhoo click on the link, you’ll find them there.

Ha, first one has Duran Duran's version of White Lines.

The Cranberries Free To Decide 3:52
–George Michael Fastlove 4:52
–Bryan Adams The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You 3:24
–Def Leppard Slang 2:36
–Everything But The Girl Wrong 6:40
–Fool's Garden Lemon Three 3:09
–Pet Shop Boys Se A Vida É (That's The Way Life Is) 4:03
–The Cardigans Love Fool 3:15
–Larry Mullen And Adam Clayton Theme From Mission: Impossible 3:27
–Bon Jovi These Days 4:30
–Queen You Don't Fool Me 3:14
–Melissa Etheridge I Want To Come Over 5:25
–The Cure Mint Car 3:30
–Babylon Zoo Spaceman 4:00
–Pulp Disco 2000 4:32
–Sting Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot 4:29
–Shaggy Boombastic 3:47
–Gin Blossoms Follow You Down 3:45
–Roxette June Afternoon 4:11

Just copy-pasting Vol. 3 in here as an example. Vol. 3 was released in 1996 and I was 11 and it was the first cd I ever bought in my life.

Pains me to say these were actually the first songs I heard from almost every act in here... this includes “legacy” acts such as The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Def Leppard, George Michael and even Queen.

It annoys me nowadays, but at the time, “lemon tree” was the most fun cut in here for me. I had a thing with my cousin were we would rewind the song over and over again to hear the intro and act as we were the ones shattering the glass. The Paul McCartney-esque sing along quality to it also made it a maddeningly catchy song.

Songs I loved and still do: Lovefool, Follow You Down, Disco 2000, Boombastic and Wrong.

Songs I found weird, in a bad way: Spaceman

Songs I found weird, but in a good way: Se a Vida E and Fastlove.

Songs in here I found lame and still do: Songs by Roxette, Sting, Melissa Etheridge and Bon Jovi which have dull titles I wont even type.

Xpost:

As in Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines!? I had Vol. 1 but I must have blocked that memory from my head. I feel like this is the first time I learn about this.

I need to listen to this right away. Brb

That was terrible. I must have blocked that memory from my head on purpose.

I’ve now discovered that Duran Duran has a covers record. Is it worth listening to any of it, or are the results as ghastly as that “white lines” cover?

White Lines and the parent LP are mainstays of "worse record" lists.

Seahorses are a great pick! Kinda surprised they never came up before, I've always had them in my general 90s alt-rock playlist. I believe my station played "Love is the Law" exactly twice - once for me to go "ooh what is that?" and another time for me to tape it. cool riff, lyrics were fun to sing along to at the time. now strikes me as a little bit sluggish and overstuffed.

"Blinded by the Sun" is new to me. man, what a 1997 video. i wonder how many other Britpop acts had serious attempts to market them in the US before it became obvious circa Be Here Now that the American pop audience at large wasn't actually here for the genre, just "Wonderwall" and to a lesser extent "Champagne Supernova."

Wow, I'd forgotten about "Lemon Tree!" I think that similarly got exactly one week of one play per day before getting abandoned. Would not have guessed the band hailed from Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg. Moka, that Volume III list is otherwise a fascinating mix of pretty big, popular songs that have nonetheless faded from the collective memory ("Fastlove") and shit I've never heard of in my life from massive massive artists. Fascinating.

xp I had "Leech" by Eve 6 on a mixtape in high school. I've only maybe heard it once in the past 10 years but I probably know about half of the lyrics.

Re: Evan Olson, my first thought was that Reply All should have hit up ILM with a Song ID thread.

I listened to that podcast — it was entertaining enough, but I agree with whomever above said that the whole “call Xgau and everyone else under the sun” thing, before they suddenly “had the idea” to search Facebook, seemed like a fake out.

https://www.facebook.com/nealobermeyer/posts/10105397416710613

"When I did my study abroad in England in 97-98, there was this amazing song I would frequently hear in McDonald’s, grocery stores, etc. and none of my native English friends I was with ever knew who or what it was. In the ensuing 22 years, I’ve done everything I could think of to try to find this song — I’ve bought pretty much every Now compilation from 1995-1998 in the hopes it would be there; I’ve downloaded singles charts looking for songs I didn’t know, in the hopes that it could be uncovered that way. It wasn’t until recently, when listening to the SiriusXM 90s on 9 channel, that it occurred to me that *there are surely UK 90s web radio stations!* So the past two days, I’ve started listening to four different 90s-specific web radio stations based in the UK. While I wouldn’t expect to find this long-lost song in the first 36 hours, it is blowing my mind how all four of these stations seem committed to playing Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” approximately once an hour.

EDIT: I initially intended this post as essentially nothing more than a shaggy dog story leading to my befuddlement at UK web radio’s fascination with Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing.” I didn’t intend it as a call for assistance, because I don’t remember enough details about the song in question to be able to realistically enlist anyone’s help. I’ll know the song when I hear it, and I really do hope to hear it again someday, but I just don’t remember enough to be able to put anyone else on the job. However, that hasn’t stopped many of you from wanting to be helpful; I think you’re most likely wasting your time, but I appreciate your desire to help solve this mystery. So in the interest of minimizing your wasted time, here’s everything I can think of that could possibly narrow it down:

1. I heard the song multiple times within the 1997-1998 academic year. The only time I can precisely pinpoint would be March of 1998, because I remember asking a friend in McDonald’s over Easter break if she knew the song (she did not).

2. This was not a well-known song; I asked multiple native British people (some English, at least one Welsh) if they knew the song as we would hear it playing (they did not). However, it was mainstream enough to be played in stores, and that’s the one thing that gives me hope I can someday find it.

3. From what I remember, I’d say the song is around 120 bpm; I’d consider it on the slow end of something that could be considered electronic dance music.

4. I would classify it as dance-pop but with a somewhat spooky sound. The best sonic connections I can draw to this would be the tempo, sparse production and soulful vocal stylings of Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You.” The Disclosure song “Holding On” featuring Gregory Porter also reminds me of it. When I first heard Gregory Porter’s voice, I was hopeful it was him, but he didn’t release music until 2010, so it’s not him.

5. In about five minutes last night, I put together a really quick sketch of what I remember of the vocal melody, which I shared in a few threads below. I am not going to share that here, because I think that whatever random synthesizer I chose to capture the vocal melody has set people on the wrong path. That audio clip was really just intended to capture the tempo and vocal melody line — nothing more. If you look for that audio clip in the comments below, please listen with that framing.
6. If you find it, I’ll offer you your choice of a high-five or a hug when it’s safe to do so. I need to keep the prize pretty worthless because I don’t want to entice people into wasting their time. I’ve spent 22 years on this, and I know what it sounds like!"

(Copied from a shared facebook post).
The audio clip is this, but bare in mind it's just the melody, which is male vocals

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21AIc4%2DT8gbtwUfNU&cid=48D95192749E505F&id=48D95192749E505F%2114325&parId=48D95192749E505F%21469&o=OneUp

He doesn't remember any of the lyrics?

No, guess not. I used to listen to 90s UK web radio and never heard that Michael Bolton song either

now resolved!

What was it? It sounded very vaguely familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwxpMIEZ9fg

^ Roy Davis Jr ft Peven Everett - Gabriel (Live Garage Version)

I’ve been reading a book mentioned in the “Good Books About Music” thread, by the drummer of the band Semisonic, about his experiences in the music biz. (The only Semisonic song that I’ve ever been familiar with is “Closing Time,” which I’m not a fan of).

The drummer writes at length about the band’s first single, “Down in Flames,” which was chosen by the head of their label; they didn’t agree that it was a good single choice, but were advised not to question this guy’s judgment. It was pushed to radio, with very little success; MTV also buried the video, because of its prominent “fire” imagery (this was right after a kid set a fire, allegedly under the influence of Beavis and Butt-head). Anyway, it’s a pretty decent song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1BHPX0Vwto&app=desktop

This is the book, btw. I don’t super recommend it — most of the details are pretty pro forma — but it’s a good, light insomnia read.

Kinda disturbed at how a song like Jars of Clay - Flood has 5M views on youtube and Geggy Tah - Whoever You Are which is a stupid awesome song only has 288k. I thought Geggy Tah was way more popular than that.

I mean I guess Jars of Clay is popular because it has some Christian push or something but still, how does 'whoever you are' not have at least 1M views?

The second version that comes up in a search is an audio-only upload from 9 yrs. ago with 149K views. (I agree the official video upload should get more “traffic,” tho)

Wait — 149k is less than 288k. Sorry, I’m tired, hitting the sack

interesting pairing!

the christian rock thing helped the big Jars of Clay album go platinum, which already means a lot more people who would have been spinning the disc (and, maybe, *not* spinning a lot of other discs? so they really get to know and remember the songs?) in the mid-90s. i can't seem to find a sales number for geggy tah's /sacred cow/ but i'd be surprised if it even went gold. they had one single, received as an alt-novelty, which got to #16 on Modern Rock. i also feel like i've been at parties or karaoke nights where "whoever you are" gets played and a lower-than-i'd-expect percentage of millennials go "oh, THIS song!" it kinda just came and went after a few weeks, i think. i suspect even many people who bought the album didn't keep it long, as there's not a lot that really sounds like "whoever you are." anecdotally, iirc i got mine from the used bin not long after the song's heyday....

another comparison for Jars of Clay - the (sorta christian-feeling) "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla, which peaked at a similar #15 on Modern Rock, but had a *much* longer presence on radio that year, and sold to non-christians who dug its soft/loud dynamics, giant hook, and bono-esque aspirations to profundity. spotify numbers:

Geggy Tah, "Whoever You Are" - 1.8 mil
Jars of Clay, "Flood" - 6.5 mil
Dishwalla, "Counting Blue Cars" - 23 mil

more surprising to me: Geggy Tah have another song, "Holly Oak," from another album, with 900k spotify listens. never heard of it, but the rest of their material is down at like 35K, so it must be on some playlist or a not-super-popular soundtrack, or something.

Doc, "Counting Blue Cars" went #15 on the Hot 100, and was #1 with a bullet on Modern Rock. It was inescapable that summer. #DishwallaTruther

I’m awake again, and clear on how numbers work.

Didn’t realize the Geggy Tah guy was such an accomplished producer.

oh oops, was misreading/misremembering. yeah CBC is objectively a much bigger hit.

Asked Siri to play "Flowers" by The New Radicals (thanks to all the NR talk going on today) and its the Apple Music algorithm selected this song to play afterwards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xejQogXzrPw

I couldn't tell you a single other thing about Toad the Wet Sprocket--I think they may have had one or two bigger hits?--but I remember liking this one despite it not getting a whole lot of airplay. Anyway, good job Siri!

pride and joy of santa barbara california

Yeah I'm not too familiar with this one. "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" are probably their best known songs, though they had a few other modest hits as well.

lol is that Monica

Friends soundtrack

I remember that one. Didn't know what the lead singer looked like - much more wholesome/clean cut look than most alternative acts.

wow, "Good Intentions" is quite pretty! slightly outside of scope here (1995) but totally fascinating to me. Toad the Wet Sprocket was a name I saw many times when browsing through the used CD bins, but I never actually knew what they sounded like. Would have guessed something harder-edged and "alternative," but in hindsight it seems like a perfect name for a "college rock about halfway between REM and Gin Blossoms" type of band. nice to finally learn that.