80 – Laid – James
A fun little song about a guy with an obsessive girlfriend who he wishes he could get rid of, but never really does because it always comes back to the thing that was most important for him. One of the more fun songs from the alternative scene.
79 – Jump Around – House of Pain
Not even a Pringle’s advertisement can ruin this Irish rap song. Play this song at party today and watch everybody make a mad dash for the dance floor so they can jump around like a bunch of fools.
78 – Zombie – Cranberries
Many people thought that this Irish band was done for when they released their hardest song to date. It was a departure from the other soft songs they had been releasing but it was the one that has stood the test of time.
77 – All Mixed Up – 311
Who ever thought that there would be hip hop rock fusion band from Omaha that would make it big, especially one so obsessed with aliens? But that was the brilliance of the 90s, and this song marked the height of 311’s career.
76 – No Rain – Blind Melon
There was a time when I would wear nothing but henley shirts because of this video. It definitely was one of the more memorable ones from the decade and it wasn’t just because of the dancing bumblebee, but because it was accompanied by a real good song.
75 – Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
Power chords strummed really fast, and awesome drums were not the only things going for this song; it also had a screaming bridge in the middle that was so much fun to try to sing along to if you never ran out of breath before you got to the end of it.
74 – One Week – Barednaked Ladies
Half the time you sat wondering what this song was really about. The other half of the time you didn’t care because you were having so much fun singing along to the goofy lyrics.
73 – Shine – Collective Soul
Yes, the marketing geniuses who put together Collective Soul’s debut song clad them in too much flannel in the hope to sell lots of records, but that didn’t stop this song from being great even though it never really had a chorus.
72 – Freak on a Leash – Korn
Even though they claim to be the first band to blend rap and rock (they weren’t), they still put together a great song that had you screaming along. They proved that metal music could be funky as well as hard.
71 – El Scorcho – Weezer
Even though Pinkerton flopped as an album when it was first released, it has grown to be one of the most revered from Weezer fans, and this song is a big part of the reason why. It is such a good song, and it is sad that not more people know about it.
John Collings 