# Best #1 Modern/Alternative Rock Song of the Year: 1997 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-1997/704861 "2014-11-17T16:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-1997/704861/21 "2014-11-21T12:25:16Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Ugh. Believe it or not, this still isn’t as bad as it gets, but it’s still pretty bad. Not a single song here I can get truly excited about, though there are one or two that at least aren’t completely terrible. Not a great year for the charts - but looking through my iTunes library, there were plenty of good “alternative” songs that didn’t place: Spiritualized’s “Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space”, Yo La Tengo’s “Autumn Sweater”, Space’s “Female of the Species”, Elliott Smith’s “Rose Parade”, Conrershop’s “Brimful of Asha”, The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”, Stereolab’s “Miss Modular”, Morrissey’s “Lost”, Portishead’s “All Mine” - hell, even “Song 2” by Blur would have livened this list up. Still, my choice here was relatively easy (even if the song was overplayed to death - a good drinking song is always welcome). Wait - Bittersweet Symphony didn’t make #1?! Yeah, I’m not voting. I think that is the best single over the past 20 years or so. Seriously. I know, it got overplayed and is full of pretentious teenage angst, but man, I still love it… ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-1997/704861/22 "2014-11-21T15:31:54Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Wait - Bittersweet Symphony didn’t make #1?! Yeah, I’m not voting. I think that is the best single over the past 20 years or so. Seriously. I know, it got overplayed and is full of pretentious teenage angst, but man, I still love it… Apparently on the US Alternative charts it topped out at #4, and on the Hot 100 it topped out at #12. So, in the US at least, it didn’t make #1 - [but according to wiki, it hit #1 in Canada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony#Charts), so yay! Also, like Song 2 and many others, it’s no longer all that overplayed, so we can enjoy it again… ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-1997/704861/23 "2014-11-21T16:30:46Z")
“Female of the Species” by Space is good though he has an awful voice. High time for 1998 now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-modern-alternative-rock-song-of-the-year-1997/704861.md?page=1)