We here at VH1 haven't forgotten that the '90s was a decade flush with a number of stone classic R&B tracks. In the latest installment of VH1's long-running series The Greatest, we're going deep.
This week we're going to be counting down our list of the top 200 tracks of the 1990s. We've done a few of these decade lists on Pitchfork. Last year around this time, we ran down our 500 favorite tracks of the 2000s as part of larger project looking at the decade in a series we called P2K. In years past we've done lists of albums from the 70s, 80s, and 90s and songs from the 60s. But P2K aside, it's been a while since we reached back to look at the music of a decade. The time feels right for listening to and talking about the 90s.
In the last couple of years of indie music, you've been able to hear pretty clearly where younger artists who came of age in the 90s got some of their ideas. Talking about a new band, if you say that the synths in a track sounds 'ravey' or that a band sounds like 'classic indie rock' or that a production choice hearkens back to 90s R&B, people will have a sense of what you're talking about. These sounds are in the air. Though the 80s have been back in a big way for longer than most can remember, more artists are revisiting the sounds of the 90s and putting them into a new context.
Decades of music get more interesting over time. That's partly because some of the music is carried forward and becomes something new in the hands of the next generation, but also because it's never clear what will later seem embarrassing, what might vanish and re-emerge as an overlooked classic, and what will disappear completely. Over time, all of those things happen simultaneously, continuously shaping what a decade of music might mean. One track or album or artist can move fluidly between these categories, and people are going to disagree about what goes where.
In that respect, this list was different from any we've put together. For the first time, the age of the writer being polled had a huge impact on how he or she understood the music of the decade at hand. When Nirvana hit in late 1991, a couple of us were in our early 20s, while more than a few others were still in grade school. That gap proved to be an interesting puzzle. The further we got into voting, the more it became apparent that there were so many sides to the 90s story that it made sense to tell as many of them as possible. So unlike any big list we've ever done, we've only included one song per artist in order to take in as much as we can. Because of this approach, we've also included a collection of 'See also' tracks to go deeper into the specific bands, sounds, and scenes. All song titles-- including the top 200 selections and the additional tracks-- link to YouTube searches so you can listen as you go. You can also hear most of the songs in our Spotify playlist.
You'll notice that a number of write-ups here mention the video for the song under discussion. The 90s were the first full decade when pop music was experienced as an a/v phenomenon for its duration. Videos were huge, and pop stars were also video stars, but MTV's '120 Minutes' meant that smaller bands also got to share in the fun. Be sure to check out last week's Top 50 videos of the decade to watch some of the very best, including videos for a lot of the songs mentioned here.
Next week we'll be back with a feature that takes a broader look at the decade, reaching beyond just music to talk about pop culture as a whole, so tune in for that as well. Thanks for reading. We'll return with album reviews on Tuesday, September 7.
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200. Transformer 2
'Fruit of Love (Techno Mix)'
[Profile; 1992]
'Fruit of Love' landed at a time when dance music was quickly fracturing into various subgenres-- from ambient house to production house to gabba to hardcore. 'Fruit of Love' managed to incorporate elements from a number of these strains, featuring both a new agey pan flute alongside a pulsing Moroder-inspired bass. But the Italo-house piano stabs and diva vocals imploring the listener to 'c'mon c'mon... raise your hands' are the beating heart of the tune, presaging the sunny nu-Balearic beat of the Tough Alliance and Delorean. It both encapsulates the splintering nature of dance music in the early-90s and resists easy classification, a euphoric house side that provides its own ecstasy. --Tyler Grisham
See also: Liquid, 'Sweet Harmony'; Jam & Spoon, 'Odyssey to Anyoona'
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____199. Lambchop __
'Your Fucking Sunny Day'
__[City Slang; 1997]
In their near quarter-century run, the country-soul of Nashville's Lambchop has yet to enjoy the commercial success of bigger-than-indie-rock successors like labelmates Arcade Fire and Spoon. But like the bulk of Lambchop's magpie catalogue, 'Your Fucking Sunny Day'-- the spry, sly and sardonic gem of 1997's Thriller-- at least predicts the ornate ambitions of indie rock's subsequent decade. The horns swell and glow. The crisp guitar line leaps and swivels. And with a vocal performance that's somehow cocksure but completely diffident, Kurt Wagner, one of the decade's true auteur bandleaders, sounds like a most unlikely pop star. --Grayson Currin
See also: Lambchop, 'Soaky in the Pooper'; Pernice Brothers, 'Overcome By Happiness'
198. Dillinja__
'The Angels Fell'
__[Metalheadz; 1995]
Fallen angels is about right. This track from prolific South London producer Dillinja captured jungle as it transitioned from raw breakbeat aggression into something more moody and cinematic. An early release on Metalheadz, the imprint started by the hyper-ambitious Goldie, it samples the eerie ambient-jazz of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack imbuing the physical menace of his rhythms with the crazed genius charisma of Rutger Hauer: debonair, brutal, and dangerously unpredictable. But deadly panache is only half the story. Among all of jungle's furiously fast rhythms there may be none so purely head-wrecking as this multi-tiered monstrosity, simultaneously torpid and quicksilver, the one-two punches of its kicks bruising your ribs over bass flushes that sound like your entire nervous system shutting down. --Tim Finney
See also: Adam F, 'Metropolis'; Metalheads, 'Kemistry'
197. Danzig
'Mother '93'
[Def American Recordings; 1993]
In 1993, 'Mother' was a five-year-old nugget from Danzig's instant-classic first album. So it was weird to see the former Misfits frontman, in all his ripped glory, enter MTV rotation thanks to a live version that improbably hit big. But then, 'Mother' may be the greatest car-radio scream-along that metal gave us during the 90s-- Glenn Danzig's thugged-out Elvis wail tied to a brutally effective song about exposing otherwise sheltered people to a dark universe of music, one that Danzig himself pretty perfectly represented. And as it turned out, a whole lot of us did want to find hell with Glenn. Naturally, even Beavis and Butt-Head approved. --Tom Breihan
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See also: Tool, 'Sober'; Rocket From the Crypt, 'On a Rope'
196. Tindersticks__
'City Sickness'
__[This Way Up; 1993]
Quick, what was Melody Maker's album of the year in 1993? No, it wasn't Suede's self-titled debut or Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish; it was Tindersticks' debut, a brave and spot-on choice. That album by the Nottingham, England, sextet has perhaps the oddest mix of Continental elegance and discordant clang of anything released in the decade, and amid its opulent sprawl, 'City Sickness' stands out as a fluid and graceful peak. Its simple but beautiful strings and easy rhythm give molasses-voiced singer Stuart Staples ample space for his take on the loneliness of crowds and bouncing in and out of love. --Joe Tangari
See also: Tindersticks, 'Tiny Tears'; The Divine Comedy, 'Tonight We Fly'
195. Cutty Ranks
'Limb By Limb'
[Fashion/VP; 1993]
Like a lot of mid-90s dancehall, the half-dozen digital layers that make up 'Limb By Limb's rhythm mesh to create a kind of perpetual motion effect-- it fades out but you're pretty sure it's still bumping along somewhere. The effect is to make the MC riding the beat seem just as inexhaustible-- in Cutty Ranks' case his stentorian brutality comes off as effortless. But the track has a secret weapon, too, a pitched-up second voice like a vicious cyborg anti-conscience, playing even badder cop to funny, scary effect. It's no surprise that the song, with its DJ SS remix, became a key text for London's burgeoning jungle scene as well. --Tom Ewing
See also: Leviticus, 'Burial'; UK Apachi With Shy FX, 'Original Nuttah'
194. Boyz II Men
'Motownphilly'
[Motown; 1991]
Watching the 'Motownphilly' video today is like receiving a transmission from another planet. In what universe did this make sense? Four preppy dudes singing doo-wop harmonies over Dallas Austin-produced New Jack Swing, shouting out cheesesteaks and South Street, doing the dorkiest 'sexy' dance moves ever on the Delaware River waterfront. Michael Bivins of Bell Biv DeVoe (and formerly New Edition) makes a cameo, rapping from a toilet seat while reading a newspaper. OK, Boyz II Men were never cool-- did any one of the four of them even have a discernable personality?-- and the lameness only deepened as they went on to hold the charts hostage with treacly ballads like 'End of the Road' and 'I'll Make Love to You'. But here, they managed to deliver one of the most ebullient and danceable documents of the early 90s hip-hop/R&B crossover. --Amy Phillips
See also: Shai, 'If I Ever Fall in Love'; Jodeci, 'Stay'
90s R&b Mixtape
193. Positive K
'I Got a Man'
[Island; 1992]
'Man, I can't fucking believe this. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?' As the opening dialogue lifted from Die Hard 2 attests, Bronx-born rapper Darryl Gibson's biggest hit was a sequel. Three years after getting brutally rejected by MC Lyte on duet 'I'm Not Havin' It', Positive K returns to the same premise for 'I Got a Man', this time raising failed pickup attempts to blockbuster proportions. The old-school sample (taken from the 1979 proto-hip-hop classic 'That's the Joint' by the Funky Four +1) is perkier, the repartee wittier, and the woman who isn't having it now has a (hilariously relatable) motivation-- not that Positive's trying to hear that. He's too busy rapping both the male and female parts (that's him, pitch-shifted). Ayo technology. --Marc Hogan
Best Of 90s R&b Music
See also: Skee-Lo: 'I Wish', Sagat, 'Funk Dat'
Best Of 90s Music
192. Harvey Danger
'Flagpole Sitta'
[Slash; 1998]
Right from the start, Seattle's Harvey Danger wanted to bite the hands that fed them-- not just the corporate machines that co-opted youthful dissent, but the fickle backbiting post-Nirvana 'punk rock' subculture that treated credibility like a credit card. Think of 'Flagpole Sitta' as a slightly more mature and jaded version of Green Day's 'Longview'. In Harvey Danger's world-- a world where their caustic candor shared Billboard real estate with such alternative rock landmarks like as the Barenaked Ladies' paean to Chinese chicken and the Goo Goo Dolls' big ballad crossover-- the couch is falling apart, the TV broke years ago, and the self-loathing has reached such levels of agonizing irony that when singer Sean Nelson hits one of his many fish-in-barrel bullseyes, you have to wonder if even he believes his own bullshit. --David Raposa
See also: Superdrag, 'Sucked Out'; Nada Surf, 'Popular'
191. Digable Planets
'9th Wonder (Blackitolism)'
[Pendulum; 1994]
Best Of 90s R&b Compilation Download Torrent 2017
While Digable Planet's debut 'Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)' may have resonated with a wider audience, it was 1994's follow-up '9th Wonder (Blackitolism)' that stands up best today. With a breakbeat that reverberates with the airy echoes of a 45 set to 33 1/3rd and the laid-back precision of Bronx DJ vet Jazzy Joyce's scratching, the song retained the group's casual bohemian relaxation without the self-conscious 'jazz-rap' affectation of their more popular 12'. And while the group's rapping still twisted around in an unhurried cadence, the increasing references to Five Percent philosophy suggested that they had begun to articulate a more culturally centered outlook. --David Drake
The Best Of 90s R&b
See also: Brand Nubian, 'Slow Down'; Us3, 'Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)'