The 20th P&J Singles Poll!

a pretty good list!

I'm stuck between "Hard Knock Life," "You Get What You Give," Aaliyah, and Fatboy Slim.

Please ignore the Most Overrated Madonna Single Ever.

somehow I think this is a way better list than the 1997 one without it really being any less MOR or VH1.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about it too; I would probably take out "You Get What You Give" and add the other Jay-Z single, though.

xp

It's somewhat less pop, I think.

although there's some serious career momentum bullshit on here ("Thank U," "The Dope Show," "Malibu"). (xpost)

BTW, the ballot function doesn't seem to be working for this year's P&J on the Voice site (unless Chuck or someone else knows something about it that I don't, that is).

Never mind, I'm an idiot. This is the correct link:

http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/pazznjop/98/albums.php3

Why are there only nine singles on my ballot? That's odd.

Anyhoo, "Rockafeller" here. But the greatest single of this year (which I didn't even know was a single until later) is Local H's "All The Kids Are Right," a devastating fare thee well to the passing of grunge. And, of course, a predictor of Local H's own fate.

M.I.A.:

Stardust: "Music Sounds Better With You" (Roulé/Virgin 1998) - Another devastating song/track. About social atomization, I said at the time. Not so sure now.
Barenaked Ladies: "One Week" (Reprise 1998) - Canada is the greatest country on the planet.
Next: "Too Close" (Arista 1998) - See Xgau.
Shampale Cartier: "I Got A Man" (SFP 1998) - Soto, you MUST hear this. But I only have it on vinyl. One day I'll learn vinyl to mp3 conversion...soon. Anyhoo, this is a classic bitch track. Part of it excoriates a "'can you play some Madonna' fool?" THE number one question I got as a DJ was "Can you play some Madonna?" And I also REALLY couldn't stand the overration of Ray of Light at the itme. So this track hit me hard.
Faith Hill: "This Kiss" (Warner Bros. 1998) - George Jones even likes it. Said so on CMT. (Is that the name of the country music channel?)
Will Smith: "Just the Two of Us" (Columbia 1998) - I can understand why this didn't make the cut.
Deborah Cox: "Nobody's Supposed To Be Here (Hex Hector Dance Mix)" (Arista 1998) - Many R&B "divas" should bolt right for the gay dancefloor.
Will Smith: "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" (Columbia 1998) - I'm baffled why this didn't make the cut.
De'Lacy: "More (Paramour Thief in the House Mix)" (Rise 1998) - Memories of my first trip to Manhattan. Sigh.

Oh this is a terrific list. But NOWHERE NEAR AS GREAT as 1997. Bow down to 1997, y'all!!!!!!!!

uh, "Music Sounds Better With You" and "One Week" are on the list.

I went for "Can I Get A..." which is probably my favorite Jay-Z song. Other greats on the list: "Torn", "Rockerfella Skank", "Hard Knock Life".

Both Daft Punk on the 97 list are better than "Music Sounds Better With You" and every single song on the 97 list, except for maybe "Sunny Came Home" is better than fucking "One Week". This list is fucking weak.

Both Daft Punk songs...

STARDUST

uh, "Music Sounds Better With You" and "One Week" are on the list.

uh, sorry.

except for maybe "Sunny Came Home" is better than fucking "One Week".

"fucking," even. Another bad day at work?

TS: Most Retarded-Looking Barenaked Ladies Member on This Album Cover

Much lamer list than 1997. Not even close.

I think I'll go with "Malibu". Runners-up would be Big Pun and "Can I Get A..." (neither of which I liked all that much at the time, I don't think.) And maybe "My Favorite Mistake" and Fat Boy Slim (and Harvey Danger? Nah, probably not.)

Pretty sure I actively dislike all of these; ambivalent about most of the rest (and I actually can't remember at all what Alanis's "Thank U" sounds like, though I'm pretty sure I didn't like it much.)

Fastball: "The Way" (Hollywood)
Natalie Imbruglia: "Torn" (RCA)
New Radicals: "You Get What You Give" (MCA)
Semisonic: "Closing Time" (MCA)
Marilyn Manson: "The Dope Show" (Nothing)
Propellerheads Featuring Shirley Bassey: "History Repeating" (Wall of Sound import)
Barenaked Ladies: "One Week" (Reprise)

Stardust: Yeah, not as good as Daft Punk.

Aaliyah: I like the Timbaland parts and the parts with the baby (this is the one with the baby, right?) Still think Aaliyah's so-what vocal is the least intersting part of the song.

"fucking," even. Another bad day at work?

Haha. It ended with a pounding headache, so yeah.

Songs I love:
OutKast: "Rosa Parks" (LaFace)
Jay-Z: "Hard Knock Life" (Rock-a-Fella/Def Jam)

Songs I like:
Fatboy Slim: "The Rockafeller Skank" (Skint/Astralwerks)
Lauryn Hill: "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
Beastie Boys: "Intergalactic" (Grand Royal)
Madonna: "Ray of Light" (Maverick/Warner Bros.)
Pras: "Ghetto Supastar" (Interscope)
Big Punisher Featuring Joe: "Still Not a Player" (Loud/RCA)
Marilyn Manson: "The Dope Show" (Nothing)
Jay-Z: "Can I Get a . . ." (Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam)
Harvey Danger: "Flagpole Sitta" (Slash)

Songs I tolerate:
Aaliyah: "Are You That Somebody" (Atlantic)
Stardust: "Music Sounds Better with You" (Roule/Virgin)

Songs I don't tolerate:
Brandy and Monica: "The Boy Is Mine" (Arista)
Semisonic: "Closing Time" (MCA)
Alanis Morissette: "Thank U" (Maverick/Reprise)
Barenaked Ladies: "One Week" (Reprise)

Songs I don't know (although I'm sure I've heard a one of these or two):
Hole: "Celebrity Skin" (Geffen)
Fastball: "The Way" (Hollywood)
Natalie Imbruglia: "Torn" (RCA)
New Radicals: "You Get What You Give" (MCA)
Sheryl Crow: "My Favorite Mistake" (A&M)
Shania Twain: "You're Still the One" (Mercury)
Propellerheads Featuring Shirley Bassey: "History Repeating" (Wall of Sound import)
Hole: "Malibu" (DGC)

"Hard Knock Life" gets my vote, I guess. Maybe I should do a first impression review thing with the "don't know"s like I did on the last thread, but there are quite a few more this time, although I have a feeling I'd hear the first few notes of half of them and recognize them.

I totally would have gone for "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" over any of this whatever, or "Frozen", or "Ruff Ryders Anthem", or probably a couple other things I'm not thinking of.

I totally would have gone for "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" over any of this

Me too.

"One Week" and "It's All Been Done" are the only Barenaked Ladies songs I've actually enjoyed.

songs on this I've never liked:
"The Dope Show"
"Music Sounds Better With You"

songs I liked at the time but really have no desire to hear:
"Rockafeller Skank" (I'd rather hear Disco Duck)
"Doo Woop (That Thing)" (pretty fuckin pious)

the rest I'm pretty cool with, but not as ecstatic about as stuff from the recent previous polls. Feel like going with "Can I Get A..." with "Flagpole Sitta" a close second.

Voted quickly for Aaliyah, only paused long enough to consider Natalie Imbruglia, Harvey Danger, and Stardust (which I'm not sure I realized was this old ... I thought it was Discovery-era).

guys this is so obviously 'can i get a...'

OK, by reading this page I now have had "One Week" stuck in my head for the past few hours...

Oof.

The genius of Jason Priestley helped!

Pras rulez!

Despite it having Stardust and OutKast (which are great though I sure OD-ed on both), this list has a few too many lame ones on it, foremost Fastball, Pras, Semisonic and Propellerheads.

Song I would've probably voted for at the time (because I was behind the curve and don't think I actually heard Stardust until '99) but don't even think I like anymore: New Radicals.

A little too much Stardust hate on this thread, so I give it my reluctant vote.

"The Boy Is Mine"

NOT YOURS!
BUT MINE..
NOT YOURSSS!!
BUT MIIIIIINE
NOT YOURRRRRRRRRS
BUUUUUUUUUUT MIIIIIIIIIIINE

I really like that Semisonic song. Maybe it helped working at a club.

Love:

Lauryn Hill: "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
Beastie Boys: "Intergalactic" (Grand Royal)
Aaliyah: "Are You That Somebody" (Atlantic) [This song is really OVERRATED though... I LOVED it at the time but it's like Aaliyah's worst single besides "The One I Gave My Heart To"]
OutKast: "Rosa Parks" (LaFace)
Hole: "Celebrity Skin" (Geffen)
Jay-Z: "Hard Knock Life" (Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam)
Big Punisher Featuring Joe: "Still Not a Player" (Loud/RCA)
Brandy and Monica: "The Boy Is Mine" (Arista)
Semisonic: "Closing Time" (MCA)
Stardust: "Music Sounds Better with You" (Roule/Virgin)
Jay-Z: "Can I Get a . . ." (Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam)
Shania Twain: "You're Still the One" (Mercury)
Hole: "Malibu" (DGC)

Hate:

Pras: "Ghetto Supastar" (Interscope)
Sheryl Crow: "My Favorite Mistake" (A&M)
Marilyn Manson: "The Dope Show" (Nothing)
Alanis Morissette: "Thank U" (Maverick/Reprise)

Indifferent/Haven't Heard:
Fatboy Slim: "The Rockafeller Skank" (Skint/Astralwerks)
New Radicals: "You Get What You Give" (MCA)
Propellerheads Featuring Shirley Bassey: "History Repeating" (Wall of Sound import)
Barenaked Ladies: "One Week" (Reprise)
Fastball: "The Way" (Hollywood)
Harvey Danger: "Flagpole Sitta" (Slash)
Natalie Imbruglia: "Torn" (RCA)

Aaliyah vs. Imbruglia vs. Harvey Danger for me. I only got into that Aaliyah song a year ago, so it's the freshest of all these. I also like the Faith Hill song Kevin mentions. Like a bunch of others, too.

'ghetto superstar' is easily top 5 on this list.

that song is really annoying sorry.

Aaliyah: "Are You That Somebody" (Atlantic) [This song is really OVERRATED though... I LOVED it at the time but it's like Aaliyah's worst single besides "The One I Gave My Heart To"]

OTMCAKES

yea "Ghetto Superstar" was perfect for Bulworth and I mean that in a bad way

I don't know how over-or-under rated that Aaliyah song is, but I can certainly think of lesser singles in her discography. I find it really striking, but again, it's fairly new to me.

My top ten that year, apparently -- well, top nine; maybe my #10, whatever it was, was never entered! Weird, I never noticed that before. Also weird how much I liked "Ray of Light" and the Fat Boy Slim tune.

And yeah, "This Kiss" is great from its multisyllabic adjectives on down.

Anyway:

1 Third Eye Blind "Losing a Whole Year" Elektra
2 Los Umbrellos "No Tengo Dinero" Virgin
3 Madonna "Ray of Light" Maverick/Warner Bros. buy this!
4 Fatboy Slim "The Rockafeller Skank" Skint / Astralwerks buy this!
5 Placebo "Pure Morning" Virgin
6 The Offspring "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" Columbia
7 Hole "Malibu" DGC buy this!
8 Will Smith "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" Columbia buy this!
9 Rammstein "Du Hast" Slash

Also, yeah, really like this. Probably still have the album in storage somewhere, though I don't think any of the other tracks lived up to this one. (My second favorite had "rat" in the title, I think!):

Next: "Too Close" (Arista 1998)

But "Butta Love" is great.

5 Placebo "Pure Morning" Virgin

Also great.

I love this list...so many great childhood memories (feeling ashamed when my mom also wanted a copy of the Natalia Imbruglia album, skating around the roller rink to "The Dope Show")

is anyone voting for 'closing time'?

what an awful song btw.

I really liked "Too Close" for the first few months, but I still haven't recovered from the radio saturation it endured.

I feel it has aged like fine wine.

I prefer to keep fine wine out of my ears, too.

heyo.

Every time I see it done at karaoke, it seems like at least one person in the audience has never heard it and is OMGing at the screen.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Does anyone else remember Courtney at the VMAs that year hailing either Brandy or Monica with "Hey, it's Brandymonica!"?

And c'mon, as my ex-girlfriend enjoys pointing out, how can you not love Aaliyah asking "Is it your go or is it my go?"

I mean, really, people, board games rule!

It's always sounded stilted to me. It doesn't make me want to dance, it doesn't have much of a tune, and most of his other productions from that era are more interesting/palatable to me. That fucking baby. The only Aaliyah singles I can think of that I like less are "More Than a Woman" (which actually sounds great in the context of the album, but not on its own) and "The One I Fell Asleep During".

Actually, add "Hot Like Fire" to that list, it has quite possibly the laziest-written chorus I've ever heard.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Big Punisher Featuring Joe: "Still Not a Player" (Loud/RCA) 0

Alanis Morissette: "Thank U" (Maverick/Reprise) 1

New Radicals possibly aside, I don't think anything that got 3 or more votes sucks.

I'd've voted for Pun if it was "You Came Up" or "Twinz" or he was on the albums poll for the same year.

I was one of the people who voted for Stardust, and I'm totally not even in the Daft Punk superfan ILM voting bloc.

I'm gonna doublecheck but I'm guessing this the lamest one-two we've had yet

There's some iffy #1s OR #2s in the early polls, but ugh this is the pits

<i>earlier</i> I mean

I just double checked 2001 to make sure a "Digital Love"/"Frontier Psychiatrist" win wasn't possible.

I don't remember which thread blueski (I think) said it on, but "there will be no more badmouthing of 'Music Sounds Better With You'"

I don't remember which thread I gave a shit on.

Whatever, you liked fucking "One Week."

Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie

Don't mind me. I'm the kind of guy that hums "Music Sounds Better With You" at a funeral.

I actually just watched the youtube to verify my opinion of the song, as I hadn't heard it in years. Less annoying (prolly cuz I haven't heard it in years), but I can't fathom what makes it more worthy of praise than every other house song ever.

House is a conservative genre. What separates a classic from a dud is usually very minute.

Croupier, I can understand your amazement at Stardust winning. But is it really so difficult to grasp why "The Rockafeller Skank" came in at #2? It has extremely wide appeal. In fact, I'd say that disparate social groups found it at least as must-hear as Lauryn Hill's album in 1998. That doesn't necessarily make it a great single. But are you really confused as to why it placed so high?

I didn't say I was amazed "Rockafeller Skank" is #2. I just said it was lame.

I voted for "Thank U". It's like the "Flagpole Sitta" without the jokes.

Missed this, but would have added a point to the winner.

I can't fathom what makes it more worthy of praise than every other house song ever.

Yeah, I don't get this at all, either. It sounds completely generic to me. Not bad, just...average.

Propellerheads Featuring Shirley Bassey: "History Repeating" (Wall of Sound import) 0

Kind of shocked -- even a little sad! -- that nobody has defended this heavy-handed annoyance. I do want to say, though, that Propellerheads did have one really good 1998 single, without some kitsch icon attached to it -- "Bang On!," their update of Todd Terry's "Bango," which was his update of Dinosaur L
s "Go Bang #5" (assuming I've got the titles right.)

Shania Twain: "You're Still the One" (Mercury) 0

Weird, I didn't even see this til now! And I have no memory at all of it placing in Pazz & Jop. Maybe I should have voted for it! Especially since nobody else did (though nobody else voted for "Malibu" either.)

I was gonna say earlier--that Propellerheads thing is probably the worst thing on that list. Mind you, I have a strong aversion to anything "featuring Shirley Bassey."

I used to be crazy for the Stardust song--I'm sure it was my #1 single that year--but it really doesn't hold up that great.

I voted for "Thank U". It's like the "Flagpole Sitta" without the jokes.

Or the energy. Or the smarts. Or the "ba ba ba" background vocals, which always reminded me of a Burt Bacharach melody. (Though I will say that "Thank U" isn't devoid of a pretty melody of its own.)

Xgau's list strikes me as kind of meh, though it's nice to see the Backstreet Boys, Local H (assuming that was actually a single), and Jimmy Page on there:

Backstreet Boys: "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (Jive)
Fatboy Slim: "The Rockafeller Skank" (Astralwerks)
Local H: "All the Kids Are Right" (Island)
Next: "Too Close" (Arista)
Jay-Z: "Hard Knock Life" (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
The Lox: "Money, Power and Respect" (Bad Boy)
Brandy and Monica: "The Boy Is Mine" (Atlantic)
Will Smith: "Just the Two of Us" (Columbia)
Alanis Morissette: "Thank U" (Maverick/Warner Bros.)
Will Smith: "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" (Columbia)
Aaliyah: "Are You That Somebody?" (Atlantic)
New Radicals: "You Get What You Give" (MCA)
Aretha Franklin: "A Rose Is Still a Rose" (Arista)
Big Punisher Featuring Joe: "Still Not a Player" (Loud/RCA)
Spice Girls: "Stop" (Virgin)
Brandy: "Almost Doesn't Count" (Atlantic)
Monifah: "Touch It" (Universal)
Lauryn Hill: "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (Ruffhouse/Columbia)
Snoop Dogg: "Snoop World" (No Limit)
Puff Daddy Featuring Jimmy Page: "Come With Me" (Sony Music)

Spice Girls: "Stop" (Virgin)

Liked this at the time, may have even voted for it, but I played it recently at a wedding (on request) and it actually sounded really horrible. Kind of surprised me. "Spice Up Your Life," on the other hand, sounds better than ever.

I was gonna say earlier--that Propellerheads thing is probably the worst thing on that list. Mind you, I have a strong aversion to anything "featuring Shirley Bassey."

you must hate Amy Winehouse then

the Local H was definitely a single (has a video) and is definitely awesome

Maybe it was just being in the Midwest, but it seems like "Closing Time" was the most ubiquitous of these songs in '97 (along with "Ghetto Superstar"). Though "One Headlight" was even more so.

The Lox: "Money, Power and Respect" (Bad Boy)

'SPECT KNUCKLES

Alanis Morissette: "Thank U" (Maverick/Warner Bros.)

'spect knuckles rescinded.

xp: "Closing Time" was ubiquitous everywhere.

Yeah, upthread I called out Propellerheads for being particularly awful.

Monifah: "Touch It" (Universal)

I was just thinking today that this was one of the few songs I would've put on a Kevin-style MIA list. This (and Adina Howard's "T-Shirt & Panties On" in '97) are skeez at its best. I love the radio edit of Monifah's song in particular -- at the very climax of her performance, where she soars (sort of) for the big high notes, the "fuck" in "do you wanna fuck with me tonight" gets unceremoniously clipped off at "ffff-" for maximum coitus interruptus effect.

you must hate Amy Winehouse then

I like her novelty single okay, but yeah, she annoys me a lot.