# Best #1 single of the year retrospective: 1996 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 9, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168 "2014-11-09T17:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/41 "2014-11-11T00:45:02Z")
I like most of these songs, seems my vote of “No Diggity” is neck and neck with “California Love”. I’m also glad that Toni Braxton’s “You Make Me High” also got a vote, one of her better songs, unlike “Unbreak My Heart”, which I never liked, not even in the Fall of 96’ when I was going on the 10 years old. Except for the duet with Boys 2 Men, the other Mariah single is pretty good, and my opinion of the Celine Dion song is overall positive, though I preferred her other single from 1996, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. I don’t recall Braxton’s accompanying single to “High”. Not a bad list in my view. But 1996 like other years had plenty of good songs that did not make it #1. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/42 "2014-11-11T01:03:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. I’m a casual fan (and I enjoy everything _through_ the black album), but I would say their earlier sound was more “progressive,” not the other way around (at least _Metallica_, _Load_, _Reload_. The last two they seemed to want to recapture their old progressive spirit.) > > I’m still stunned at the Macarena. I mean, seriously guys? _California Love_ is a great fucking song, no caveats like “in 1996” or anything. It’s solid. Classic. I agree. I’m all about the east coast, but that song makes me wish I’d been born in the city of big ole blunts. And Tupac’s flow is awesome too. > [@adaher](#): > > BTW, I think it would be cool for those who aren’t happy with the choices to propose alternatives. Not stuff to go into the poll, but just to remind us of better music that was available at the time. [1996](http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1996.htm) has some pretty a’ight songs. Alanis Morrisette had a hit entitled “Ironic”, Oasis did “Wonderwall”, and Busta Rhymes was tearing it up with “Woo Hah!!” For more poppy tastes, Ace of Base’s “Wonderful Life” isn’t THAT bad (certainly less annoying than “Macarena”, IMHO) “If Your Girl Only Knew” by Aaliyah is another good track. That girl died way too soon. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/43 "2014-11-11T01:07:02Z")
Ah, Ironic, that song was pretty big as I recall. Mainly for her lousy pronunciation and inability to understand what irony actually was.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/44 "2014-11-11T01:27:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. I’m a casual fan (and I enjoy everything _through_ the black album), but I would say their earlier sound was more “progressive,” not the other way around (at least _Metallica_, _Load_, _Reload_. The last two they seemed to want to recapture their old progressive spirit.) Well, I was told by a Metallica snob that they used to be more thrash metal and moved on to be more progressive. I’m not enough of an expert to parse the differences out… but I do tend to like progressive rock overall, so it made sense the way that guy described it. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/45 "2014-11-11T01:36:51Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Didn’t Journey’s Trial By Fire come out in 1996? I thought that was a great Journey album and “When You Love a Woman” had decent chart success. Indeed. Other songs from 1996 were: “Don’t Speak” No Doubt “Love Fool” Cardigans “Naked Eye” Luscious Jackson “Counting Blue Cars” Dishwalla “Give Me One Good Reason” Tracy Chapman “I Will Always Love You Forever” Donna Lewis “Head Over Feet” Alanis Morissette “Come N’ Ride The Train” Quad City DJ’s “Change The World” Eric Clapton “Missing” Everything But The Girl “Follow You Down”/ “Till I Hear It From You” Gin Blossoms “One of Us” Joan Osborne “Wonder” Natalie Merchant “Sweet Dreams” La Bouche “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” Deep Blue Something “The World I Know” Collective Soul “1979” Smashing Pumpkins “Hook” Blues Traveler “Closer to Free” BoDeans “Old Man and Me” Hootie and the Blowfish “Set You Free” Planet Soul “Back For Good” Take That “Mouth” Merrill Bainbridge So many other songs from 1996. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/46 "2014-11-11T01:38:40Z")
Yep. I do recall 1996 as not so bad after the dismal period of 1993-1995. Thanks for reminding me of all the good songs. But then I’m an 80s fan and a few of the 80s years actually had surprisingly slim pickings at #1. For some reason my favorite pop music tends to be in the top 5-10 songs rather than the stuff that made it all the way to #1. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/47 "2014-11-11T02:09:38Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Didn’t Journey’s Trial By Fire come out in 1996? I thought that was a great Journey album and “When You Love a Woman” had decent chart success. Other good albums from that year (looking through my playlists): Beck - Odelay Belle & Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister Belle & Sebastian - Tigermilk DJ Shadow - Endtroducing … Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt Pearl Jam - No Code Sleater-Kinney - Call the Doctor (the only album I actually own on vinyl. Never played it in its record form.) Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup Turbonegro - Ass Cobra Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants Weezer - Pinkerton And, of course, the 2Pac _All Eyez on Me_. Actually, not a bad year. ---
**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 11, 2014, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/48 "2014-11-11T23:44:11Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > \*Macarena is the best song on this list. \* Ponder that statement for a while. **No it isn’t.** Not by a long shot. > [@Leaffan](#): > > Holy shit music is terrible now. I just looked ahead. I’m not voting any more, ever. No, the Billboard Hot 100 is terrible. There was some excellent music being released in 1997 that isn’t represented at all on this list. Like anything from _Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness_ which IMHO was the greatest albums of the 90’s. I went with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. They were the first rap group I really liked. The first time I heard one of their songs I was blown away by their flow. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/49 "2014-11-12T05:11:10Z")
> [@Nema98](#): > > Indeed. Other songs from 1996 were: > > “Don’t Speak” No Doubt > “Love Fool” Cardigans > “Naked Eye” Luscious Jackson > “Counting Blue Cars” Dishwalla > “Give Me One Good Reason” Tracy Chapman > “I Will Always Love You Forever” Donna Lewis > “Head Over Feet” Alanis Morissette > “Come N’ Ride The Train” Quad City DJ’s > “Change The World” Eric Clapton > “Missing” Everything But The Girl > “Follow You Down”/ “Till I Hear It From You” Gin Blossoms > “One of Us” Joan Osborne > “Wonder” Natalie Merchant > “Sweet Dreams” La Bouche > “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” Deep Blue Something > “The World I Know” Collective Soul > “1979” Smashing Pumpkins > “Hook” Blues Traveler > “Closer to Free” BoDeans > “Old Man and Me” Hootie and the Blowfish > “Set You Free” Planet Soul > “Back For Good” Take That > “Mouth” Merrill Bainbridge > So many other songs from 1996. Forgot “In The Meantime” by SpaceHog and “Virtual Insanity” by Jamiroquai. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168/50 "2014-11-12T11:02:15Z")
_Hey, Macarena!_ Still catchy after all these years. It’s got my vote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-1-single-of-the-year-retrospective-1996/704168.md?page=2)