VH1's Top 100 songs of the 90s

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

01 Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

02 U2 - "One"

03 Backstreet Boys - "I Want It That Way"

04 Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"

05 Madonna - "Vogue"

06 Sir Mix-A-Lot - "Baby Got Back"

07 Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time"

08 TLC - "Waterfalls"

09 R.E.M. - "Losing My Religion"

10 Sinéad O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"

11 Pearl Jam - "Jeremy"

12 Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"

13 Dr. Dre (Feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg) - "Nuthin' but a "G" Thang"

14 Mariah Carey - "Vision of Love"

15 Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under the Bridge"

16 MC Hammer - "U Can't Touch This"

17 Destiny's Child - "Say My Name"

18 Metallica - "Enter Sandman"

19 Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"

20 Hanson - "MMMBop"

21 Celine Dion - "My Heart Will Go On"

22 Beck - "Loser"

23 Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue - "Whatta Man"

24 House of Pain - "Jump Around"

25 Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"

26 Eminem - "My Name Is"

27 Counting Crows - "Mr. Jones"

28 Ricky Martin - "Livin' la Vida Loca"

29 Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"

30 *NSYNC - "Tearin' Up My Heart"

31 Radiohead - "Creep"

32 BLACKstreet - "No Diggity"

33 Spice Girls - "Wannabe"

34 Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life"

35 Oasis - "Wonderwall"

36 C+C Music Factory - "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)"

37 Green Day - "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)"

38 Christina Aguilera - "Genie In A Bottle"

39 Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"

40 Color Me Badd - "I Wanna Sex You Up"

41 Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"

42 Collective Soul - "Shine"

43 En Vogue - "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)"

44 The Fugees - "Killing Me Softly With His Song"

45 Hootie & the Blowfish - "Only Wanna Be With You"

46 Shania Twain - "You're Still the One"

47 Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch - "Good Vibrations"

48 Matchbox Twenty - "3 AM"

49 Jewel - "Who Will Save Your Soul"

50 Alice in Chains - "Man in the Box"

51 Tupac (Feat. Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman) - "California Love"

52 Sugar Ray - "Fly"

53 Naughty by Nature - "O.P.P."

54 Joan Osborne - "One of Us"

55 Fiona Apple - "Criminal"

56 L.L. Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"

57 Jay-Z featuring Amil and Ja Rule - "Can I Get A..."

58 Sophie B. Hawkins - "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover"

59 Weezer - "Buddy Holly"

60 Bell Biv DeVoe - "Poison"

61 Sheryl Crow - "All I Wanna Do"

62 Live - "I Alone"

63 The Notorious B.I.G. (Feat. Mase & Puff Daddy) - "Mo Money Mo Problems"

64 The Presidents of the United States of America - "Peaches"

65 Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"

66 Edwin McCain - "I'll Be"

67 Deee-Lite - "Groove Is In The Heart"

68 Will Smith - "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It"

69 Korn - "Freak on a Leash"

70 Jamiroquai - "Virtual Insanity"

71 Arrested Development - "Tennessee"

72 Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"

73 Marcy Playground - "Sex and Candy"

74 Cher - "Believe"

75 Kris Kross - "Jump"

76 Blues Traveler - "Run-Around"

77 Ice Cube - "It Was a Good Day"

78 Lenny Kravitz - "Are You Gonna Go My Way"

79 Meredith Brooks - "Bitch"

80 Right Said Fred - "I'm Too Sexy"

81 Paula Cole - "I Don't Want to Wait"

82 Geto Boys - "Mind Playing Tricks on Me"

83 The Breeders - "Cannonball"

84 Snow - "Informer"

85 Cypress Hill - "Insane In The Brain"

86 The Cranberries - "Linger"

87 Billy Ray Cyrus - "Achy Breaky Heart"

88 Duncan Sheik - "Barely Breathing"

89 Liz Phair - "Never Said"

90 New Radicals - "You Get What You Give"

91 Sarah McLachlan - "Building a Mystery"

92 Public Enemy - "911 Is A Joke"

93 Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories - "Stay"

94 Fastball - "The Way"

95 Montell Jordan - "This is How We Do It"

96 Nelson - "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection"

97 Prince & The New Power Generation - "Gett Off"

98 EMF - "Unbelievable"

99 Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott - "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"

100 Gerardo - "Rico Suave"

 

Obviously a very mainstream list, but still a quality set of songs here. I woulda had Jeremy in the top 10 and I'm surprised Macarena didn't make it on there since it took over the earth for a couple of years.

[King Kamala 0]

As one of this board's foremost experts on 90s mainstream music, that is one terrible list.

 

 

I didn't even know VH1 still did these countdowns. Hell, they barely still do music related programming.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I don't get why "One" gets so many superlatives, and in that vein, I don't get why Achtung Baby is considered any sort of departure. Yeah, they shifted their Eno-related listening from Another Green World to Low, but--and maybe this is because I'm only going by the albums and not the Zoo TV tour--it's really just the same arms-outstretched histrionics and bombast as the last four albums, just with a few electronic elements grafted onto it. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?", "Ultraviolet," "Acrobat," and "One" aren't terribly different from what was on The Joshua Tree, and "One" has no electronic touches at all, which makes it stick out like a sore thumb on the album. If you want to talk about U2 being "ironic" and "ready for the Nineties" and "bad at making music," that didn't really happen till Zooropa, if you ask me.

 

I went off on a tangent regarding U2 because this list is worthless without Real McCoy.

[Retard Girl 0]

there's some good music there.

 

aaaaand some not-so-good music. boy, we listened to some crap.

[snuffbox 0]

The 1990s were an extremely underrated decade for music. This list, unfortunately, does not help my thesis.

[tominator89 0]

Baby Got Back nearly cracks the top 5!

[Gary Floyd 0]

People still watch VH1?

[JHawk 0]

Christ, some of the artists had better songs not make the list than made the list.

[Guest Smues]

Two things I noticed:

 

1. I counted at least 12 songs on this top 100 list that were on one or more of VH1's "Top X most awesomely bad blah blah blah songs" lists.

 

2. "I want it that way" at #3? I know the list doesn't have any credibility anyway, but I could at least understand most of it, but I just don't get why that song of all songs, or even of all back street boy songs would be in the top 3. Color me confused.

[King Kamala 0]

If they're going to put a pop song by a male vocal group in the top 5, they should have put "End Of The Road" by Boyz II Men .

 

 

[Youth N Asia 0]

If Eddie Vedder had killed himself instead of Kurt, then "Jeremy" would be #1. I was a pretty big Nirvana fan, but even I knew that got way overrated the moment that asshole killed himself

 

[snuffbox 0]

I did laugh when I saw "Creep" on there.

 

No Jeff Buckley.

 

 

[foleyfanforever88 0]

I may be wrong, but after a quick look through the list it appears that no artist is on there more than once. This was obviously done on purpose..so the list's validity is automatically lessened.

[King Kamala 0]

Wait is Boyz II Men even on this list?

 

 

[snuffbox 0]

Nope.

[King Kamala 0]

Now that's a bunch of bullshit. I don't care if you like them or not, you can't deny that Boyz II Men were one of the biggest acts of the 90s. I mean Nelson is on there! Gerardo is on there! And Boyz II Men isn't?

 

 

I shouldn't get worked up over VH1 lists. Actually though, I kind of like their Top 100 Songs of the 80s list. I didn't catch most of it but The Top 10 wasn't half bad, choice wise.

 

 

[Brett Favre 0]

Wu-Tang isn't even on the list.

[snuffbox 0]

Smashing Pumpkins?

[GreatWhiteNope 0]

Where the hell is "November Rain"?

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Hey, GreatWhiteNope is back! We were just talking about your bleeding ass.

[cbacon 0]

90 New Radicals - "You Get What You Give"

 

[Epic Reine 0]

2. "I want it that way" at #3? I know the list doesn't have any credibility anyway, but I could at least understand most of it, but I just don't get why that song of all songs, or even of all back street boy songs would be in the top 3. Color me confused.

 

I'm not a fan in any way but that song was HUGE when it was released. It was everywhere and it helped that album break records. It definatley deserves to be on there. In terms of quality though, I agree with you.

[luke-o 0]

75 Kris Kross - "Jump"

 

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Where the hell is "November Rain"?

 

 

That was my first thought as well.

[NoCalMike 0]

You know when a band has a "Greatest Hits" album and a "Best of" Album........well that list is more of a "Greatest Hits" type of list.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

You know when a band has a "Greatest Hits" album and a "Best of" Album........well that list is more of a "Greatest Hits" type of list.

If this is greatest hits like then how could it be missing one of the 5 biggest and most popular acts of the 1990's (Boyz II Men)? Stupid list.

[Red Baron 0]

Under the Bridge? Really???

[Gary Floyd 0]

I know it was produced in 1989, but it came out in 1990. So, no Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence"?

[snuffbox 0]

Elliott Smith - "Miss Misery"

The Wallflowers - "One Headlight"

 

?

[King Kamala 0]

Elliott Smith - "Miss Misery"

The Wallflowers - "One Headlight"

 

?

 

 

 

OK most of the complaints I get so far but would anybody really expect VH1 to put Elliot Smith on a list? I mean not that he doesn't deserve it but this is VH1 we're talking about.

 

Call me crazy I thought that VH1 used to make some half-decent lists. The Hard Rock and One Hit Wonder ones come to mind.