The best Modern Rock #2 hit of all time?

wait what are the other 120?

of these, wicked game or cannonball. really tough call.

Jesus & Mary Chain, "Head On"
1990 – Chris Isaak, "Wicked Game"
1991 – Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
1991 – The Las, "There She Goes"

fab sequence

i touch myself or cannonball

I thought a poll with all of them would be too unwieldy, but here's the full list:

Cocteau Twins - Carolyn's Fingers
Siouxsie & the Banshees - The Killing Jar
Robyn Hitchcock - Madonna Of The Wasps
Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing
The Cult - Fire Woman
Wire - Eardrum Buzz
The Cure - Love Song
Ziggy Marley - Look Who's Dancing
The Ocean Blue - Between Something and Nothing
Big Audio Dynamite - James Brown
The Sugarcubes - Regina
Deborah Harry - I Want That Man
Morrissey - Ouija Board, Ouija Board
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Head On
The House Of Love - I Don't Know Why I Love You
Adrian Belew - Pretty Pink Rose
Hothouse Flowers - Give It Up
Iggy Pop - Home
The Heart Throbs - Dreamtime
The Soup Dragons - I'm Free
Public Image Ltd. - Don't Ask Me
U2 - Night and Day
Morrissey - Piccadilly Palare
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
Daniel Ash - This Love
Divinyls - I Touch Myself
Morrissey - Our Frank
The La's - There She Goes
Violent Femmes - American Music
Joe Jackson - Obvious Song
Crowded House - Chocolate Cake
The Smithereens - Top Of The Pops
Billy Bragg - Sexuality
Primal Scream - Movin' On Up
Social Distortion - Bad Luck
The Lightning Seeds - The Life of Riley
Concrete Blonde - Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man
Peter Murphy - The Sweetest Drop
Morrissey - We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
INXS - Heaven Sent
The Wolfgang Press - A Girl Like You
The Cure - A Letter to Elise
INXS - Not Enough Time
The Sundays - Love
Neneh Cherry feat. Michael Stipe - Trout
R.E.M. - Man on the Moon
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
The The - Dogs Of Lust
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way
Radiohead - Creep
U2 - Numb
Bjork - Human Behaviour
The Breeders - Cannonball
The Cure - Purple Haze
Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
Enigma - Return to Innocence
The Pretenders - Night In My Veins
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Pearl Jam - Better Man
The Stone Roses - Love Spreads
Oasis - Live Forever
Bush - Everything Zen
PJ Harvey - Down By The Water
Elastica - Connection
Matthew Sweet - Sick Of Myself
Collective Soul - December
Foo Fighters - This Is a Call
The Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Spacehog - In the Meantime
Stone Temple Pilots - Big Bang Baby
Soundgarden - Pretty Noose
Garbage - Stupid Girl
R.E.M. - E-Bow the Letter
Soundgarden - Burden in My Hand
No Doubt - Don't Speak
The Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-Three
Green Day - Good Riddance
Fuel - Shimmer
Creed - One
Fatboy Slim - Praise You
Smash Mouth - All Star
Pearl Jam - Last Kiss
Blink 182 - What's My Age Again?
No Doubt - Ex-Girlfriend
The Smashing Pumpkins - Stand Inside Your Love
Blink 182 - Adam's Song
Creed - With Arms Wide Open
SR71 - Right Now
Incubus - Stellar
3 Doors Down - Loser
Blink 182 - Man Overboard
The Offspring - Original Prankster
Aaron Lewis and Fred Durst - Outside (Live)
Weezer - Hash Pipe
Blink 182 - The Rock Show
Tool - Schism
Incubus - Wish You Were Here
P.O.D. - Alive
Creed - My Sacrifice
Hoobastank - Running Away
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
Puddle of Mudd - She Hates Me
3 Doors Down - When I'm Gone
The Ataris - The Boys of Summer
Blink 182 - Feeling This
Three Days Grace - I Hate Everything About You
Dashboard Confessional - Vindicated
Velvet Revolver - Fall to Pieces
Crossfade - Cold
Papa Roach - Scars
Queens of the Stone Age - Little Sister
Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends
311 - Don't Tread On Me
Shinedown - Save Me
Fall Out Boy - Dance, Dance
Foo Fighters - No Way Back
Tool - Vicarious
Blue October - Hate Me
Stone Sour - Through Glass
Muse - Starlight
Papa Roach - Forever
The Smashing Pumpkins - Tarantula
Linkin Park - Bleed It Out
Three Days Grace - Never Too Late
Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day
The Offspring - Hammerhead
Weezer - Troublemaker
Apocalyptica - I Don't Care
Weezer - (If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
Jimmy Eat World - My Best Theory
My Chemical Romance - Sing
Rise Against - Help is On the Way
Foo Fighters - These Days

man on the moon

return to innocence was a #2 modern rock hit???

Out of the poll list Jesus & Mary Chain, "Head On". No question.

You thought a Collective Soul song was more notable than some of the others on the full list? Hmmm.

yeah you can only have up to 50 poll options anyway

that said, there's a few tracks on there that i wish i could vote for

I liked that Collective Soul album, dammit.

yeah, Man On The Moon.

x-post - I guess someone had to!

if you'd included Deborah Harry's "I Want That Man," "Eardrum Buzz," or one of the Morrisseys it woulda been impossible.

"december" is a nice lil song and complete outlier in collective soul's sucky catalog

wanna vote for either "Fire Woman" or "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" because i think simple, effective riff rock is gonna get overlooked here

riff rocking dominates this poll from the late nineties on though

Contrast: Songs that still get massive airplay like "Creep," "Canonballl," "Are You Gonna Go My Way," and "Interstate Love Song" with stuff that actually went to #1 in that era like Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Jesus Jones, and Peter Gabriel.

p. clear delineated by grunge imo

voting for 'black hole sun' i guess. its either that or 'lovesong'

<3 Ned's. lol did GCG really go to #1? Not that I have a problem with that, it's a great song. I'm just surprised.

I hate Black Hole Sun so much.

riff rock like "Don't Speak," "Praise You," "Stellar" and "Starlight"?

I heard "Steam" on the radio yesterday!

i don't believe you

satellite radio though

Sucks to be... Blink 182 (five #2's), Morrissey/Smashing Pumpkins (four #2's), Cure/Foo/STP (three #2's).

RETURN TO INNOCENCE heeey yaaa whooooa eeeyaaaaaa!

interestingly, my first instinct was to vote for "fire woman" as i used to love it when i was much younger. hard to go past "lovesong" though. also, "wicked game" is pretty incredible -- one of those "where the fuck did that come from?" songs from an artist that i'm generally indifferent to.

the complete list throws a few extra spanners in the works (cocteaus, "picadilly palare", pj harvey etc.)

Return To Innocence being a hit feels like the kind of "only in the 90s" things that I'll be explaining to my kids one day.

1989 – The Cure, "Lovesong"
1990 – Chris Isaak, "Wicked Game"
1991 – Divinyls, "I Touch Myself"
1993 – Lenny Kravitz, "Are You Gonna Go My Way?"
1993 – Radiohead, "Creep"
1993 – Bjork, "Human Behaviour"
1993 – Breeders, "Cannonball"
1997 – No Doubt, "Don’t Speak"
1999 – Fatboy Slim, "Praise You"
2002 – Jimmy Eat World, "Sweetness"

voting one of these

Sucks to be... Blink 182 (five #2's), Morrissey/Smashing Pumpkins (four #2's), Cure/Foo/STP (three #2's).

― LimbsKing, Monday, June 25, 2012 10:37 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

the Blink guy with the show on Fuse interviewed RHCP recently and half-jokingly complained to them that practically every time Blink had a single out they'd get shut out at #2 because RHCP would be at #1

Ah-oooo-oooh!

also Enigma totally should have been in this poll, come on

so should The Soup Dragons

I'm sort of surprised that Alfred and I have been the only Head On supporters so far. That's def in my top 5 favorite songs of all time if not top 5. It makes me FEEL THINGS.

I love that Soup Dragons song. They actually had a couple good ones iirc.

"only in the 90s" explains return to innocence being a hit, but i don't know what explains it being a modern rock hit.

The 1993-1995 run of #2's is unstoppable. My childhood right there.

heeey yaaa whooooa eeeyaaaaaa!

― frogbs, Monday, June 25, 2012 10:40 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's not in the poll but I love that Adrian Belew-Bowie collab.

"Head On" is okay but most of my JAMC fandom is tied to Honey's Dead

also it really bums me out when ppl refer to my college years as "their childhood" ;_;

Dan they're playing the Paradise in Sept if you're interested. I got tickets on Friday.

yeah I first heard JAMC during the Honey's Dead period ("Almost Gold" and "Far Gone and Out" got lots of airtime on my college radio station).

bitter about sweetness due to over-production in comparison to the orig demo

live forever or mr. jones or bullet with butterfly wings

...i bought the return to innocence single and played it on my walkman during sunday school before skipping to go browse around the medical museum next door. lol what was the other new agey one that played on modern rock stations, the one with the new zealand pygmy chants or w/e

Return To Innocence was a Modern Rock hit cause it's "alternative."

"Sweetness" is great and huge-sounding, can't imagine it being better not overproduced

Return To Innocence was a Modern Rock hit cause it's "alternative."

"alternative" is a horse running backwards

lol what was the other new agey one that played on modern rock stations, the one with the new zealand pygmy chants or w/e

― fauxmarc, Monday, June 25, 2012 10:51 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Forest For The Trees!

I could totally be down for JAMC in September

I'd heard Darklands back in the day and wasn't convinced (I think because the tape we had had no bass on it whatsoever). When "Head On" came out, I decided I'd been hasty in dismissing them and they were okay, and then "Reverence" came out and I was like "holy shit this is the greatest band in existence"

also "Sweetness" pwns

Forest For The Trees!

I think you mean Deep Forest, lol!

xpost who mentioned "Come Undone" ?

no one, but it should get mentioned because it's also awesome

Between Jimmy Eat World and Muse right now but maybe I should reconsider some of the older ones. Always liked "Firewoman" and "Creep".

i voted "wicked game" but i actually really love a lot of these

i also like the collective soul song

It's not a very interesting vote, but "Man on the Moon" from both the big and the small list. From the big list, "Pretty Noose" runner-up.

lol what was the other new agey one that played on modern rock stations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F9DxYhqmKw ?

spacehog! cripes

I touch my cannonball

I voted for 'Lovesong.'

But, if it had been an option, I would have voted for 'Chocolate Cake' without hesitation.

buddy holly

runner-up: cannonball

Cannonball is a masterpiece

Are some of these surprising to everyone?

Seriously, JaMC made it to #2? Really?

I mean, that's simultaneously hilarious and awesome.

"blues from a gun" was a #1

k.

"Chocolate Cake"? really? I thought only Geir would defend it.

It's a decent song

Eh, it's OK, but pretty dopey and the only topical thing the band ever did. Which dates stamps it.

Like, it should have been relegated to a movie soundtrack, given how good the rest of the stuff on that record is. It's the band's "Barry Williams Show."

Voted 'Wicked Game', just over 'Cannonball', but may have went for 'Ordinary World' if it was nommed.

BAD's 'James Brown' is a blast. I'll have to see if 'Megatop Phoenix' is on spotify.

I'm trying to figure out how "it's a decent song" can be interpreted as unqualified that demands rebuttal

Unqualified PRAISE obv

given how good the rest of the stuff on that record is. It's the band's "Barry Williams Show."

ha – yeah. Does Up have an "It's Only Natural" or "Weather With You"?

1991 – The Las, "There She Goes"

Not even close.

I just want an excuse to post this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km5sW7d70IY

voting for Head On. I actually like a lot of these songs! Even the Muse one is all right.

:D

I cannot believe I did not vote for my pipecleaner haired boyfriend.

But it was a tossup between Bjork and the Breeders and Cannonball won.

Cannonball really is great.

it's definitely one of many 90s alt-rock songs that benefits from a mumbly delivery of the nonsense lyrics.

lots of ILM posts could benefit from this advice.

how does one mumble in text

I actually like a lot of these songs!

Yes, it was surprisingly tough to pick one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Sweetness" won out in the end.

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

WICKED

Runoff!

wow, i should've thrown the divinyls a vote

HA... nobody chose my Collective Soul.

there's a special room in Hell for me where I am damned to listen to the guitar arpeggios/conga break in that Collective Soul song for all eternity

But that's the best part!

what about the guitars in "Wicked Game"?

haha what awesomely weird results

nerNEEEEER...NEEEEEERner.....vs. neernerneerner neernerneerner

haha, nice to see a pretty decent showing for "fire woman". it was one of the few songs that slayed when i saw the cult play about 3 years ago.

I see "Chunkchunkchunkchunkchunkchunkchunkchunkchunkc" came third.

excise a few (Blink-182, Counting Crows, "Live Forever", maybe "Creep) and that top 20 or so would make an excellent comp

Ha, that Chris Isaak video was the most explicitly sexual thing I'd ever seen when I was 11.

By the 'which song does this list make me wanna hear RIGHT NOW' test, I'm pretty surprised to find my vote would go to 'Fire Woman'.