# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1994 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771 "2014-11-05T16:35:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/21 "2014-11-05T19:32:44Z")
I listen to oldies stations a lot. I’m starting to understand why there are so few “I love the 90s!” weekends. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/22 "2014-11-05T19:33:50Z")
Lisa Loeb, because I kinda remember the song. It may even be on my iPod. I think it’s the only one on the list I’ve ever heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/23 "2014-11-05T20:06:55Z")
Ini Kamoze got my vote. I know all of the songs on this list (the 90s were definitely my years for music), but that one was easily the most interesting and fun. Ace of Base would have gotten the second-place vote. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/24 "2014-11-05T20:58:37Z")
1994 is one of the few years in my life that I remember almost no new music at all from. That might say something about the sort of year 1994 was for me, but that’s another story. From this list, I remember “All For Love,” but I’m not gonna vote for it; it doesn’t matter how many times Canada has apologized for Bryan Adams. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/25 "2014-11-05T21:23:18Z")
I just came to say that All-4-One was criminally underappreciated ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/26 "2014-11-05T21:39:39Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I just came to say that All-4-One was criminally underappreciated Oh, it’s criminal all right, but I don’t know about underappreciated. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/27 "2014-11-05T21:59:10Z")
Stay. That’s one of the best \*cri de ceour’s \*of the “What am I gonna DO?” since Cyndi’s “Time After Time”. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/28 "2014-11-05T22:13:36Z")
Egads. Can’t pull the trigger on this one. To borrow from the immortal words of Leonard Pynth-Garnell, welcome to another installment of Bad Pop Record Charts. I had re-relocated back here and stopped listening to commercial radio for a while as all my routines had become disrupted so I was spared much of it. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/29 "2014-11-05T22:38:17Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I just came to say that All-4-One was criminally underappreciated I like “I Swear”, nice song. All 4 One had another song that was also good. Also love “Hot stepper”. The year a massive quake hit SoCal, OJ Simpson murdered his wife, Richard Nixon died, Kurt Cobain committed suicide, Lion King opened in the theaters, Republicans swept into the senate led by Newt Gingrich. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/30 "2014-11-06T03:00:56Z")
Would’ve voted for “Hotstepper” because it’s a weed-fueled song (it seems), but since I don’t remember it, I couldn’t vote for it. I did vote for “The Sign” because that one still pops, unbidden, into my head on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/31 "2014-11-06T04:03:33Z")
“I’ll Make Love to You” is one of the worst sets of lyrics ever written. It is just gross. ‘Put your clothes . . . on the floor . . . and I’ll take my clothes off toooooo-ooh-oooh.’ Please don’t. I picture the skinny dude from Boyz 2 Men (also a dreadful name for a band rivalled only by Tony, Toni Tone) stripping down to his tighty whiteys. After Marvin Gaye’s death the seduction song went down hill pretty fast. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/32 "2014-11-06T06:52:29Z")
Abstain once again. > [@Smapti](#): > > The year is now 1994. We’re on the eve of the explosion of hip-hop/R&B that defined '90s pop Thanks for the warning. So it will only get worse (for me at least). ---
**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:** [November 6, 2014, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/33 "2014-11-06T07:17:39Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Lisa Loeb is the only one I can even moderately tolerate. I have never heard of this person. I played the song just now on YouTube, and I have never heard it in my life. I do not consider this a badge of honor, I promise, because obviously many fellow Dopers are familiar with this performer and this song. She was (is?) attractive, I’ll give her that. I went with Boyz II Men again. I had to ask my wife which of the two songs was better; she chose “I’ll Make Love To You” (sorry, fruitbat). (I agree that Tony Toni Toné is a terrible name, but I do like what little I’ve heard of their music – there’s some funk sensibility there.) ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/34 "2014-11-06T08:46:34Z")
**Lisa Loeb** - _Stay (I Missed You)_ Not because I really like the song (it’s OK though not particularly great) but because it reminds me of my semester in London. And I didn’t want to pass again after I gave up trying to find a song that was at least tolerable in the 1993 poll. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/35 "2014-11-06T16:02:37Z")
Down year for music right in the middle of my worst year of high school. No wonder I started listening to country. Lisa Loeb was pretty good, though. When did Alanis show up? 95? Gah, 1994 was awful. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2014, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/36 "2014-11-06T16:37:05Z")
I actually quite like “All for Love” (and apparently 4 others agree with me), in fact it’s one of only two songs on this list I could hum the tune to unprompted (I’m assuming I’ll recognise the Lisa Loeb song when I hear it, but I’m at work at the moment so can’t access it). The other one I know is “The Power of Love”, but it’s so much worse than the Huey Lewis and the News song of the same name that I wouldn’t vote for it under any circumstances. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/37 "2014-11-06T17:05:58Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > When did Alanis show up? 1991, but that’s not the answer to the question you asked - Jagged Little Pill came out in 1995. We won’t be seeing her in the poll, though, since the closest she came to a chart-topper was “Ironic” at #4. (She has made #1 six times in her native Canada, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/38 "2014-11-06T19:47:26Z")
It’s not getting any better. I was hoping it would get better. This is the year I started listening to alternative rock and now I remember why. There were good things happening on that side of the charts. Not so much on this side. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/39 "2014-11-07T03:08:18Z")
Cut Your Hair. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771/40 "2014-11-07T03:21:06Z")
Here is Beavis and Butt-head’s commentary on “All for Love”: Oh, dear Lord. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1994/703771.md?page=3)