The soundtrack of my life

The newest meme: go here to find the Top 100 songs from the year you graduated from high school, list 'em on your site, highlight the ones you like and cross out the ones you hate. You underline your favorite, and ignore the ones to which you're kind of indifferent.

God, what a mediocre musical year 1991 was. I still maintain that Nirvana is one of the most overrated bands of all time, but in reviewing this list, I can kind of understand why we needed Nevermind to come out that fall...

1. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Bryan Adams (I bet Bryan Adams was thinking, "this crap sells like hotcakes every wedding season" when he wrote this one)
2. I Wanna Sex You Up, Color Me Badd
3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory ("Dad, why did you take me to a gay steel mill?")
4. Rush Rush, Paula Abdul (lost to the mists of time: the Rebel Without a Cause-inspired video with Keanu Reeves in the James Dean role, dude)
5. One More Try, Timmy T
6. Unbelievable, EMF
7. More Than Words, Extreme (great example of how a hit song can destroy a band's career - Extreme normally had a much harder sound than "More Than Words", but few rock fans took them seriously after it hit #1)
8. I Like The Way (The Kissing Game), Hi-Five
9. The First Time, Surface
10. Baby, Baby, Amy Grant (I never thought I'd say this, but I wish she'd never abandoned "Contemporary Christian" music)
11. Motownphilly, Boyz II Men
12. Because I Love You (The Postman Song), Stevie B
13. Someday, Mariah Carey
14. High Enough, Damn Yankees
15. From A Distance, Bette Midler (from a distance, this song is still a piece of shit)
16. All The Man That I Need, Whitney Houston
17. Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones
18. I Adore Mi Amor, Color Me Badd
19. Love Will Never Do (Without You), Janet Jackson
20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway (shut up)
21. Justify My Love, Madonna
22. Emotions, Mariah Carey ("EEEEEEEEEEEE!")
23. Joyride, Roxette
24. Romantic, Karyn White
25. I Don't Wanna Cry, Mariah Carey
26. Hold You Tight, Tara Kemp
27. You're In Love, Wilson Phillips
28. Every Heartbeat, Amy Grant
29. Sensitivity, Ralph Tresvant
30. Touch Me (All Night Long), Cathy Dennis
31. I've Been Thinking About You, Londonbeat
32. Do Anything, Natural Selection
33. Losing My Religion, R.E.M. (sorry, but I never liked R.E.M.)
34. Coming Out Of The Dark. Gloria Estefan (don't want to sound cruel, but she really milked her bus accident for all it was worth, didn't she?)
35. Here We Go. C+C Music Factory
36. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, Lenny Kravitz
37. Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Celine Dion (amazingly, there was a time when Celine Dion was listenable, if not great)
38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
39. Wind Of Change, Scorpions (I liked it in 1991, but maybe I was just so happy about the fall of communism that I didn't realize how lousy the song was)
40. P.A.S.S.I.O.N., Rhythm Syndicate (somewhere in Hollywood, there's a guy in a seedy bar, telling everyone who'll listen that he was in a group called "Riddim Shyndicate" that had a top 10 hit in 1991. And everyone else is thinking, "yeah right, rummy")
41. The Promise Of A New Day, Paula Abdul (years before Corey Clark came along, Abdul was involved in another "scandal" because of the video, in which she was artificially slimmed down)
42. I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
43. Love Of A Lifetime, Firehouse (I still like "Don't Treat Me Bad", though)
44. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave), Roxette
45. This House, Tracie Spencer
46. Hole Hearted, Extreme
47. Power Of Love-Love Power, Luther Vandross
48. Impulsive, Wilson Phillips
49. Love Is A Wonderful Thing, Michael Bolton (a perfectly good name, until that no-talent assclown came along)
50. Rhythm Of My Heart, Rod Stewart
51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm..., C+C Music Factory
52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
53. Tom's Diner, DMA
54. Iesha, Another Bad Creation
55. Something To Talk About, Bonnie Raitt
56. After The Rain, Nelson
57. Play That Funky Music, Vanilla Ice (some songs should just never be remade. Ever)
58. Temptation, Corina
59. Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Bryan Adams
60. I Can't Wait Another Minute, Hi-Five
61. 3 A.M. Eternal, The KLF
62. Time, Love and Tenderness, Michael Bolton
63. Saideness Part I, Enigrna (the Gregorian-chant fad had died out by Labour Day, thank God)
64. Around The Way Girl, LL Cool J
65. I'll Be There, Escape Club
66. Cream, Prince and The N.P.G.
67. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D. and The Boyz
68. Show Me The Way, Styx (the original was bad enough, but the Gulf War remix - anyone else remember that? - was in a class of awfulness all its own)
69. Love Takes Time, Mariah Carey
70. Cry For Help, Rick Astley (I said, shut up)
71. The Way You Do The Things You Do, UB40
72. Here I Am (Come and Take Me), UB40 (see "Play That Funky Music", above)
73. Signs, Tesla (commie crap - but the rest of the album, Five Man Acoustical Jam, was great)
74. Too Many Walls, Cathy Dennis
75. Crazy, Seal
76. I'll Give All My Love To You, Keith Sweat
77. Place In This World, Michael W. Smith
78. Something To Believe In, Poison
79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak
80. Get Here, Oleta Adams
81. Round and Round, Tevin Campbell
82. Silent Lucidity, Queensryche (14 years later, I still have no friggin' idea what Queensryche were talking about)
83. I'm Not In Love, Will To Power (see "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" above)
84. Piece Of My Heart, Tara Kemp
85. Real Real Real, Jesus Jones (holds up way better than "Right Here, Right Now". These guys deserved better.)
87. Just Another Dream, Cathy Dennis
88. Everybody Plays The Fool, Aaron Neville
88. Strike It Up, Black Box (I said, shut up!)
89. Rico Suave, Gerardo
90. Disappear, INXS
91. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
92. All This Time, Sting
93. The One and Only, Chesney Hawkes
94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature
95. Freedom 90, George Michael ("I'm rich and famous! Waaaah!")
96. I Saw Red, Warrent
97. Miles Away, Winger (not one of their best efforts, but I still love Winger, dammit)
98. Do You Want Me, Salt-N-Pepa
99. The Motown Song, Rod Stewart
100. Shiny Happy People, R.E.M.

Update: I gotta admit, 1986 was even worse. Good Lord.

This meme seems to be having an anti-nostalgic effect on people, at least if they graduated after 1972. (Say what you like about the sixties, the music was a hell of a lot better than what came after.)

Posted by damian at August 29, 2005 01:15 PM | TrackBack