Best of the Rest of the Top 40: 1995

Cafe Society
1

Sorry for taking so late into the day to do this one. I’m just getting back from a road trip. The year is now 1995, and we have 29 songs to choose from. At the risk of poisoning the well, this year is kind of slim pickin’s, but stick with us, gang, it gets interesting again in a few more years.

What’s your favorite?

Previous polls: 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

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2

Terrible year. Blues Traveler has the only halfway decent song here.

3

Did Hootie and the Blowfish also have a song called “One More Chance”? I saw it listed, but I don’t remember it.

I like a lot of these songs, but nothing is really jumping out as special. I went with Blues Travelers, because it’s a fun song, though not really all that great, IMO.

4

Not a vintage year. Of the ones I know I went for Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me”, and that’s pretty much only because I really like the Sugababe’s 2002 mashup of it with “Are Friends Electric?” Sugababes - Freak Like Me - YouTube. It improves on Adina’s version in every way.

5

1995 was a big year for me because I graduated from high school and started college, but certainly *not *because of all the awesome music that made the top 40. I’ll make my pick later when I have a chance to listen to the titles I don’t recognize. Dionne Farris’s “I Know” was good, so I may end up voting for that.

6

I have a soft spot for “You Gotta Be,” so that’s the way I went. A diverse mix here, but not much I really love. I used to be a big Blues Traveler fan, but I don’t particularly like that tune. I think “One More Chance” would be my runner-up from this selection.

7

Wikipedia says that should be “Hold My Hand.”

I’m a sucker for up-tempo-ish songs in 6/8 time (or something similar), so I went with “Strong Enough.” Based on Sheryl Crow’s support from last year, I’m surprised I’m the first person (out of 12) to vote for it.

8

That’s correct. I screwed up while copying everything over.

One of these days I’ll make it through a decade without blowing it.

9

I actually like some of these songs, lets see from the year I was an eight year:

Vanessa Williams
Martin Page
Real McCoy
Dionne Farris
Janet Jackson

I only like one of those Hootie and the Blowfish songs, they had better ones not listed. I don’t care for the Blues Traveler tune. Sophie B Hawkins’ was not bad, but I voted for “Damn I Wish I Was your Lover” for 1992 which was far superior.

I’ll

10

The beautiful Vanessa Williams got my vote. Nice soundtrack.

11

Just as a disclaimer since I didn’t mention it earlier; much as with “A Whole New World” when it topped the charts in ‘92, Vanessa Williams’ version of Colors In the Wind is not the one that was actually used in the soundtrack of Pocahontas; the movie cut was sung by Judy Kuhn, who was Pocahontas’ singing voice in the film.

AFAIK because I haven’t checked yet, the only Disney soundtrack song to make a year-end cut with the recording actually used in the film is “Let It Go”, which made it to #5 and which we’ll be seeing towards the end of this poll series. (The intended pop radio cut, sung by Demi Lovato, only made it to #38.)

12

Sweet merciful crap, 95% of this music absolutely sucks. I listened to a little bit of all the songs I didn’t recognize, and they’re all terrible. This is why the Spice Girls would become so popular in a couple more years–they made pop music fun again.

As I predicted earlier, “I Know” ends up with the highest score in the world-famous Ponch8 Music Rating System.

There are too many contenders for dead-ass last place, so I won’t bother trying to pick one.

13

These are the only songs I recognize, assuming that “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is a remake of Bonny Tyler’s version.

Nicki French - “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Hootie & the Blowfish - “Let Her Cry”
Hootie & the Blowfish - “Only Wanna Be With You”

I can’t vote for any of this shit.

14

Yep, the 90s were when I seriously gave up on music.

15

Daaang… I got nothin’ this year either. What was it with the Mid-90s Pop chart, man, it’s not that it was so terrible as much as that it was so “Meh”.

16

It is, and I would have voted for it except that it’sa soulless, mechanical cover with none of the passion that Bonnie brought to the original. You really have to try to make a Jim Steinman song not be utterly amazing by default, but apparently that’s what Ms. French and her producers set out to do. Here, allow the Protomen’s version to wash Nicki French out of your memory.

I went with Hootie more or less by default. Trust me, 1996’s list is better.

17

Time for me to give Sheryl Crow some love, I guess.

18

Easy. Shaggy!

19

Luniz - *I Got 5 On It *

Because I like the bass line. Simple but effective and very much to the forefront in the mix.

20

Sophie B. Hawkins, mostly because she agreed to appear on Community as herself.