90s Anthems

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Originally a song by The Village People from their 1979 album Go West, Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys chose it for the duo to perform at an AIDS benefit at the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester in 1992. The duo then decided to record it, and it appeared on their highly regarded 1993 album, Very. The album was called their “coming-out” album due to its content, including this bizarrely moving cover, and Neil Tennant discussing his long-rumoured homosexuality. I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother, I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I do not feel ashamed,” Meredith Brooks sings on the chorus of her breakout. Brooks’ label was skittish about releasing such a provocatively-titled song as a single, but one listen should’ve been enough for the higher-ups to realize that “Bitch” sought to reclaim the word from those who used it as a weapon. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get (1997) There is an excellent episode of Netflix’s Song Exploder featuring the band that discusses the song in detail. The single reached number 5 in Ireland. Not to be confused with the Bee Gees’ classic, this song instead is all about Dru Hill’s sexual prowess. This single also helped the group blow up when it appeared on their sophomore album Enter The Dru. It had all the hallmarks of the classic Dru Hill sound: impeccable harmonies, staccato production flairs, and Sisqo’s unmistakable vocal runs. 73: Immature – Never Lie

What song makes you want to get on the dance floor even when you hear it today? "What Is Love" by Haddaway was such a hit it was played consistently on Saturday Night Live during the infamous Night at the Roxbury sketches. "Barbie Girl" is so infectious that anyone who hears it can't help but sing along. And then of course, there's "Wannabe" by Spice Girls, which was the girl anthem to end all girl anthems. You want the best dance anthems of the 90s? Then you can’t go wrong with this highly rated 90s compilation. Dave Pearce is a Radio One DJ who hosted ‘Dance Anthems’ on the radio station for a decade. So he should know a thing of two about creating one of the best 90s dance albums. That may explain why around 400 people – in the UK alone – search Google every month for this specific 90s album. Show me Love, Children, Rhythm is a Dancer, I Luv U Baby, Let me be your Fantasy, Born Slippy, Where Love Lives… there are some bangin’ tunes here.Leave it to Mariah Carey, the girl next door, to make pure lust sound so naive, so syrupy sweet, that it could be read as something pious to a passerby. Leave it to a diva at the height of her fame to describe being horny as feeling “kinda hectic inside,” and to articulate it by singing more dizzying runs than an amusement park’s worth of rides. It feels right that she wrote, produced, and recorded “Fantasy” in only two days, roughly the amount of time a person can live solely on the giddiness of a flirtation and the anticipation of an eventual release. Here’s what love at 26, the age at which she put out the song, could feel like. It’s what you want love to feel like for the rest of your life, too. Built on a mandolin riff, the song was the unlikely hit single from their album Out Of Time (1991). Its success was largely due to the critically acclaimed music video, which earned it airplay on both MTV and VH1 (and probably drew my attention to it). I loved the song initially as I was already at the age where I was questioning religion, and I took the lyrics at face value. With its supple bass and icy, droning keyboards, “Brown Paper Bag” sounds like the midpoint between 90s electronica and 70s Miles Davis. This nine-minute electronic odyssey was one of several singles that took Roni Size, and drum ‘n’ bass along with him, into the mainstream. Skunk Anansie – Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) (1996)

A hot song with an equally hot video, Toni Braxton’s runaway No.1 from her sophomore album was the hit of the summer of ’96, and more than earns its place among the best 90s R&B songs. Rumored to be about everything from weed to masturbation, the suggestive lyrics were cleverly buried under a poppy, danceable, uptempo beat that borrowed from the burgeoning electronica movement. 17: Boyz II Men – On Bended Knee Given the crowded field, we’ve been ultra-selective in compiling this all-bangers, no-clangers playlist and limited it to one song per artist. Whether the ‘90s was the greatest decade for music is mostly a generational debate, but as you’ll hear, one thing’s for sure: it was never boring. While it was a hit in the US, her biggest ever, it did poorly in the UK and I actually couldn’t find how it placed on the Irish charts.Coming at the end of a decade marred by cynicism and consumerism, New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” was a ray of sunshine of a pop song, warm, bright, and life-affirming. Though New Radicals are remembered only as a one-hit-wonder (and disbanded after just one album), it’s a hit that left an impressive legacy. Nine Inch Nails – Closer (1994) Before Bey went solo there was Destiny’s Child. Produced by Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, this song demands to know if the man they love is cheating. This was Destiny’s Child’s breakthrough song, the one that put them on the map. 45: Brownstone – If You Love Me This is by far Babyface’s most successful and most recognizable song. With Babyface broken-hearted and unable to move on from his love, hopefully, the answer was “soon.” 58: All-4-One – I Swear

Oasis have two further songs inside Greatest Songs of the 90s Top 10 – ‘Wonderwall’ at Number 3 and ‘Live Forever’ at Number 5. ‘Champagne Supernova’ narrowly missed out on the Top 10 at Number 12. The very idea of a dance rendition of a Neil Young ballad sounds like it shouldn’t work. But Saint Etienne pull off their cover of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” by staying true to the original’s emotional tenor – a melancholy, homespun charm that’s better suited for dancing on your own in your bedroom than in the club. Stereolab – French Disko (1993)

There’s one more thing that makes ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ the song of the decade, and that’s Samuel Bayer’s now iconic video. His lo-fi, sepia-saturated take on a school concert that descends into madness – complete with slo-mo cheerleaders, smashed up guitars and smoke and fire in a sports hall full of sweaty headbanging teens – was as disturbing and anarchic as the song itself. Everyone watched it. Everyone knew they would never forget it. Tim Arthur