# Best #1 single of the decade: The 1990s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504 "2014-12-17T17:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/21 "2014-12-17T21:48:35Z")
Yikes. I can only identify one of those songs (Sinead) but I was listening to a lot of [alternative rock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_number-one_alternative_singles_of_the_1990s) and house music in the '90s. I couldn’t vote in this poll. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/22 "2014-12-17T22:06:43Z")
You know, I had never actually gotten around to listening to “Nothing Compares 2 U” until this afternoon, because I found it was leading in this poll and figured I ought to. I was not expecting an uninspired, emotionless ripoff of “[One More Try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5N3GC-m20)”. I am disappoint. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/23 "2014-12-17T22:37:41Z")
California Love gets my vote, because Inglewood-- Inglewood always up to no good. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/24 "2014-12-18T00:27:59Z")
Sinead O’Connor aside, this is a pathetic list. Nirvana, REM and Pearl Jam had throwaway songs better than these hits. I know, I’ll have to wait for the Alternative poll. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/25 "2014-12-18T01:29:43Z")
Great decade for music, but I can’t quite vote for any of these. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/26 "2014-12-18T02:04:07Z")
California Love ---
**Author:** ![Eddie\_F](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/22d042/32.png) [@Eddie\_F](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eddie_F)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/27 "2014-12-18T04:02:21Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > You know, I had never actually gotten around to listening to “Nothing Compares 2 U” until this afternoon, because I found it was leading in this poll and figured I ought to. > > I was not expecting an uninspired, emotionless ripoff of “[One More Try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG5N3GC-m20)”. Yeah, “Nothing Compares 2 U” was first released about three years prior to “One More Try”. “One More Try” was so iconic that Prince felt its awesomeness a full _three years_ before it actually was released, and decided to ape it as soon as he felt its vibrations (or something) waaaay back in 1985. Apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/28 "2014-12-18T18:11:04Z")
> [@Eddie\_F](#): > > Yeah, “Nothing Compares 2 U” was first released about three years prior to “One More Try”. “One More Try” was so iconic that Prince felt its awesomeness a full _three years_ before it actually was released, and decided to ape it as soon as he felt its vibrations (or something) waaaay back in 1985. Apparently. Are you saying you _don’t_ believe Prince has access to a time machine? ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/29 "2014-12-19T15:22:23Z")
The biggest thing I personally learned from this whole Smapti project is how the 90s is the decade where I _thought_ my favorite music\* was also very popular, but now I realize it _wasn’t_. (I already knew my tastes diverged from the mainstream in the 2000s.) It’s the 80s where my personal tastes did converge most consistently with Billboard’s, even though I don’t think of its most famous artists – Michael Jackson, Madonna, Duran Duran – as music I much like listening to. The 60s came in second in this regard (while I wasn’t alive then, I happened to be something of a 60s rock (and folk) music devotee since about age eight). In sum, I love rock’n’roll, and don’t mind tasteful, _musically creative_ pop (or even _cleverly worded_ hip-hop). The 1960s had a lot of good rock, overall and in Billboard. The 70s had a _lot_ of good rock, but Billboard was partly ontaminated with horrendous schlock. The 80s had some good rock (in general and on Billboard), but more importantly it had lots of creative pop (including on Billboard). The 90s had plenty of both, but now I see that neither was super-popular, especially not the rock. By the 2000s, for me, even the rock sucked (95% of it, anyway), most pop was derivative or worse (and had mainly evolved into “R and B”), and the only chance of my tastes and Billboard coinciding were with the occasional cleverly-worded hip-hop. (\*Beck, RHCP, Radiohead, Nirvana, Natalie Merchant, Cafe Tacuba…okay, fine, I didn’t expect the last one to be popular in the US…) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/30 "2014-12-19T15:54:55Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > (\*Beck, RHCP, Radiohead, Nirvana, Natalie Merchant, Cafe Tacuba… Also Phish, just to give another representative example of acts I thought were great _and_ generally popular in the 90s, when it turns out they were certainly not the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/31 "2014-12-19T19:45:48Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > (\*Beck, RHCP, Radiohead, Nirvana, Natalie Merchant, Cafe Tacuba…okay, fine, I didn’t expect the last one to be popular in the US…) Copy that on Natalie Merchant and Café Tacuba. For me also, Melissa Etheridge, Indigo Girls, Joan Osborne, Tracy Chapman, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt, Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Patty Griffin, Dixie Chicks, Jill Sobule, Rage Against the Machine. I experienced the music of the 1990s as a thrilling artistic renaissance and felt lucky to be around to hear it happening. Almost none of which was reflected in the charts, of course. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2014, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/32 "2014-12-20T15:02:31Z")
Thanks, Johanna…I’ll check out Patty Griffin and Jill Sobule – I’m not familiar with either. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/33 "2014-12-21T22:32:16Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > …voted for Meat Loaf. > > Not only is it an epic track on a great rock album (and, to be clear, I’m voting for the 12 min album cut, not the 6 min radio version, which may be a bit of a cheat, but oh well), but it also features Roy Bittan the pianist most near and dear to my heart. > > Long live piano rock! Agreed, but I knew it wouldn’t win; I’m glad my close second choice (Sinead) is out in front. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/34 "2014-12-21T23:15:58Z")
I’m a huge fan of Carlos Santana so I voted for _Smooth_. I really don’t care for Sinead O’Connor. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504/35 "2014-12-21T23:49:16Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Thanks, Johanna…I’ll check out Patty Griffin and Jill Sobule – I’m not familiar with either. Jill Sobule kissed a girl before it was popular 🙂 I have to agree with Johanna – all the music I thought was good in the 90’s completely missed the charts. I like some of songs on the poll; have a couple on my iPod, but I wouldn’t consider any of them great, much less song-of-decade great. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-decade-the-1990s/707504.md?page=1)