I just listened to the Lisa Loeb song. I’d never heard it before and I like it a lot. Poignant.
I just threw up a t little in the back of my mouth reading this list. Pass.
Seems like you guys are going with Lisa because her song is the least offensive on the list.
I actually chose Mariah Carey’s Hero. Like that song or not, it’s pretty iconic and is probably the only song on this list that you still hear a lot today.
Stay and Hotstepper are the only ones on the poll that aren’t wretched. Luckily, they’re both actually pretty good. Stay got my vote, because I couldn’t frigging remember Hotstepper until pulling it up on YouTube (though I recognized the title).
Stay in a runaway. Great simple pop song, great simple video. I was 18 when it came out, so I appreciated the video even more.
Didn’t even read to the bottom of the list. The Power of Love. Celine has the voice of an angel, and when she hits that high note my socks fall down my ankles.
“Truth is Beauty,
and Beauty truth,
And that’s all you need to know.”
Regards,
Shodan
I don’t know if the comments here make me feel really young or really old. Probably a combination of both- I’m 35 and I have recognized every song from the #1 single and #1 modern rock threads since the mid-80s or so.
I still listen to the radio, but not Clear Channel. During '94 I was 14-15 and mostly listened to “underground hip-hop.” Still, most if not all of these songs were unavoidable- maybe that has to do with my age and environment at the time. Had I been an adult or a toddler perhaps I could have escaped “Stay.” I don’t know anyone who didn’t know the Ace of Base song, or anyone who liked it.
I don’t know if I can vote for any of them, though.
A note about All 4 One- it seemed like every hit song they had was also a country hit at the same time or soon before/after. I had a summer job that required playing country music because my alternative rock loving boss figured that’s what all the old and/or hick customers wanted.
ETA: I think for me, as with a lot of people, it wasn’t until the post-Napster legal download/iTunes era that a lot of #1 singles became more “niche” and less broadly played and recognizable to a wide audience. Even then, I guess because I’ve always been into #s and pop culture, I am always aware of #1 songs even if I have never heard them.