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101 Best Songs of 1990 - #1 George Michael - Freedom '90 (1 Viewer)

Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
massraider said:
scorchy said:
Heart - All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You

The song itself is terrible on its own, but made a million times worse by associating an all-time great band like Heart with its awfulness. Written by Mutt Lange for Don Henley but then kind-of forced on the Wilson sisters by their record company, the lyrics are so bad that it's hard to chose the worst line:

a) So we found this hotel, it was a place I knew well
b) He brought out woman in me, so many times - easily
c) I am the flower, you are the seed, we walked through the garden, we planted a tree

Seriously, Mutt Lange decides that the best way to deal with a husband's infertility is to repeatedly try to get knocked up by various hitchhikers? Ann is on record as hating it too:

Actually we had sworn off it because it kind of stood for everything we wanted to get away from... I don't know you so let's get in the car and exchange fluids and now, get out. I mean, that's hideous.
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Unfortunately, All I Wanna Do was Heart's last Top 10 hit and became the bands biggest selling single ever.
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Dude, what the F.

This makes me realize I have never really paid attention to lyrics.
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This is totally me. I was fully forty before I realized Peter Gabriel was singing about his penis on Sledgehammer.
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47 for me
 
Speaking of "interesting" lyrics, there is always Jimi Hendrix talking to someone's dog.

Move over, Rover
and let Jimi take over

🎸 🐕 🔥
 
Since we're on this interlude, can we discuss that other great/terrible Warrant song? The one called Uncle Tom's Cabin but having nothing to do with the novel of the same name? Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear Warrant's take on Harriet Beecher Stowe, but they couldn't have called it BIlly Bob's Cabin or something? It bugs me every time, even as I admit the song kinda rocks a bit.
 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Since we're on this interlude, can we discuss that other great/terrible Warrant song? The one called Uncle Tom's Cabin but having nothing to do with the novel of the same name? Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear Warrant's take on Harriet Beecher Stowe, but they couldn't have called it BIlly Bob's Cabin or something? It bugs me every time, even as I admit the song kinda rocks a bit.
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The song rocks very little and the only answer is I guess cocaine? Beside “Love In Stereo” and “I Saw Red” this album blew a ton of chunks. Amateur hour.
 
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Since we're on this interlude, can we discuss that other great/terrible Warrant song? The one called Uncle Tom's Cabin but having nothing to do with the novel of the same name? Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear Warrant's take on Harriet Beecher Stowe, but they couldn't have called it BIlly Bob's Cabin or something? It bugs me every time, even as I admit the song kinda rocks a bit.
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I had asked Zilla the same burning question once and got a similar response. Still way better than Nelson though. And no one can ever take slow-dancing with Rhonda to Heaven away from me.
 
scorchy said:
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Since we're on this interlude, can we discuss that other great/terrible Warrant song? The one called Uncle Tom's Cabin but having nothing to do with the novel of the same name? Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear Warrant's take on Harriet Beecher Stowe, but they couldn't have called it BIlly Bob's Cabin or something? It bugs me every time, even as I admit the song kinda rocks a bit.
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I had asked Zilla the same burning question once and got a similar response. Still way better than Nelson though. And no one can ever take slow-dancing with Rhonda to Heaven away from me.
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Did people every really think originality was a strength of Warrant?
 
massraider said:
scorchy said:
Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Since we're on this interlude, can we discuss that other great/terrible Warrant song? The one called Uncle Tom's Cabin but having nothing to do with the novel of the same name? Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure I didn't need to hear Warrant's take on Harriet Beecher Stowe, but they couldn't have called it BIlly Bob's Cabin or something? It bugs me every time, even as I admit the song kinda rocks a bit.
Click to expand...
I had asked Zilla the same burning question once and got a similar response. Still way better than Nelson though. And no one can ever take slow-dancing with Rhonda to Heaven away from me.
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Did people every really think originality was a strength of Warrant?
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Their first album was pretty good
 
My two brief cents:

Warrant was terrible from the jump, fellas. (Help me, Rhonda, yeah! Get her out of my heart)

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" was their most rockin-est song, and it never made any sense. Ramsay and Zilla are both right in their own ways.
 
FatMax said:
cheesier Heaven ... Bryan Adams or Warrant?

Tough call, but I still don't hate either. Both bring back memories that I like.
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Warrant not close...

Also, the Warrant video that gives their first names in the beginning of the video might be the most ***** glam metal moment in music video history.
 
TripItUp said:
FatMax said:
cheesier Heaven ... Bryan Adams or Warrant?
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Warrant not close...
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I agree with this. Bryan Adams could never write a lyric as comically bad as

I don't need to be your Superman
As long as you will always be my biggest fan

The Bryan Adams version was sneaking out of the dance and snogging with Amy F at christian summer camp after 7th grade. The Warrant version was making out at the senior year spring formal with the aforementioned Rhonda. Considering where I was in life, the first one was a way bigger accomplishment, but the latter was a bigger catch.,
 
I think "Down Boys" would be my favorite Warrant song.

Least favorite definitely "Heaven"

ETA: I'm not a Warrant apologist
 
#9 Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole

I left home in August 1990 never having heard of Nine Inch Nails. I drove back from Florida in December of that year with the ubiquitous square NIN sticker on my car.

Pretty Hate Machine was likely the CD I listened to most during my undergrad years and was the gateway drug for my descent into the industrial/goth scene. NIN's debut was actually released in October 1989 but I'm not sure how many people really paid attention to it until the following year - according to Wiki, it didn't earn a review in Rolling Stone or other major media until spring 1990. The first time I heard Head Like a Hole (released as the second single in March of '90), it was through the concrete dorm wall I shared with this weird stoner dude who lived next door. He swapped me his copy of the CD (plus Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Front 242's Front by Front) for ordering him two Little Caesars' pizza on my dining card. Best trade ever...

Listening now, Pretty Hate Machine definitely sounds both dated and immature (definitely would not say the same thing about the follow-ups) but damn it was revolutionary at the time. And the maudlin lyrics* hit hard for a 17-year old that had just found out his girlfriend back home had hooked up with one of his best friends. I was primed for NIN by my love for Depeche Mode and New Order, as Trent was really the first industrial artist to pair actual melodies and choruses with the traditional noise and darkness of industrial bands like Skinny Puppy. Head Like a Hole was the catchiest of a great batch of songs and actually made it to #28 on the Modern Rock charts.

* Grey would be the color, if I had a heart. Oof.
 
scorchy said:
zamboni said:
Sister Tracy was the real talent in that family
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Was not expecting Square Pegs. Learned something new today.
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Was not expecting this when nostalgia made me google the wiki page

Series cancellation​

Square Pegs creator Anne Beatts revealed in 2015, "I think that certainly, there was some drug abuse or drug traffic that may have happened, because I would say that that is norm for a set". Devo member Gerald Casale also confirmed in 2009 about the drug use on set, saying "The girls were out of control — they were doing drugs and they were making out and they were coming on to us in a big way... They might have been 15 or 16, but in their heads they were already 40. I don’t think there was a virgin on the set, except maybe a couple of the guys". Most of the show's scenes were filmed at the abandoned Excelsior High School in the suburb of Norwalk, California. Because Norwalk was twenty miles from Norman Lear's studio and CBS Television in Los Angeles, it was hard to know what was happening during filming. Embassy Television received numerous reports of drug and alcohol abuse in the presence of minors, which caused Embassy president Michael Gradeto ask for an investigation and led him to pull the plug on the show shortly after the first season finished production.

Cast members Jon Caliri and Tracy Nelson have adamantly and strenuously denied that any of the minors in the cast were involved with drugs (although not denying that there may have been drug abuse amongst the crew). Beatts herself maintained "...drugs, ego, and chaos did not kill Square Pegs. Low ratings did. The highest audience share Square Pegs ever received was a 24, which now would make you the queen of Hollywood, but was considered inadequate for CBS.”
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scorchy said:
#9 Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole

I left home in August 1990 never having heard of Nine Inch Nails. I drove back from Florida in December of that year with the ubiquitous square NIN sticker on my car.

Pretty Hate Machine was likely the CD I listened to most during my undergrad years and was the gateway drug for my descent into the industrial/goth scene. NIN's debut was actually released in October 1989 but I'm not sure how many people really paid attention to it until the following year - according to Wiki, it didn't earn a review in Rolling Stone or other major media until spring 1990. The first time I heard Head Like a Hole (released as the second single in March of '90), it was through the concrete dorm wall I shared with this weird stoner dude who lived next door. He swapped me his copy of the CD (plus Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Front 242's Front by Front) for ordering him two Little Caesars' pizza on my dining card. Best trade ever...

Listening now, Pretty Hate Machine definitely sounds both dated and immature (definitely would not say the same thing about the follow-ups) but damn it was revolutionary at the time. And the maudlin lyrics* hit hard for a 17-year old that had just found out his girlfriend back home had hooked up with one of his best friends. I was primed for NIN by my love for Depeche Mode and New Order, as Trent was really the first industrial artist to pair actual melodies and choruses with the traditional noise and darkness of industrial bands like Skinny Puppy. Head Like a Hole was the catchiest of a great batch of songs and actually made it to #28 on the Modern Rock charts.

* Grey would be the color, if I had a heart. Oof.
Click to expand...

I remember NIN winning best new band in my school newspaper my freshman year of high school…in 1994 when downward spiral was released
****in posers :lmao:
 
scorchy said:
#9 Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole

I left home in August 1990 never having heard of Nine Inch Nails. I drove back from Florida in December of that year with the ubiquitous square NIN sticker on my car.

Pretty Hate Machine was likely the CD I listened to most during my undergrad years and was the gateway drug for my descent into the industrial/goth scene. NIN's debut was actually released in October 1989 but I'm not sure how many people really paid attention to it until the following year - according to Wiki, it didn't earn a review in Rolling Stone or other major media until spring 1990. The first time I heard Head Like a Hole (released as the second single in March of '90), it was through the concrete dorm wall I shared with this weird stoner dude who lived next door. He swapped me his copy of the CD (plus Ministry's The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Front 242's Front by Front) for ordering him two Little Caesars' pizza on my dining card. Best trade ever...

Listening now, Pretty Hate Machine definitely sounds both dated and immature (definitely would not say the same thing about the follow-ups) but damn it was revolutionary at the time. And the maudlin lyrics* hit hard for a 17-year old that had just found out his girlfriend back home had hooked up with one of his best friends. I was primed for NIN by my love for Depeche Mode and New Order, as Trent was really the first industrial artist to pair actual melodies and choruses with the traditional noise and darkness of industrial bands like Skinny Puppy. Head Like a Hole was the catchiest of a great batch of songs and actually made it to #28 on the Modern Rock charts.

* Grey would be the color, if I had a heart. Oof.
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The chick who inspired that album must have really been something else
 
While I never loved them, maybe not completely my style, like Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails really sounded liked something new and different and totally awesome at the time. And both bands were all of that, and harbingers of things to come, for better or worse. There are still turns of phrase from that album that pop into my head from time to time, even though I never listen to it, and "THAT'S WHAT I GET!" isn't even the only one.

I would go on to really get into spin-off band Filter and wannabes Stabbing Westward
 
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plinko said:
I would go on to really get into spin-off band Filter and wannabes Stabbing Westward
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It definitely seems dumb now, but at the time, the industrial crowd all were lukewarm on Filter and actively rolled their eyes at Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills - the same way the metal crowd did to Poison, Warrant, etc. In hindsight, Filter was pretty good and nothing really wrong with the other two either.

Shockingly, NIN never got much of it, even from the much more hardcore wings of the scene. We were all annoyed by frat boys listening to them once Closer saturated the airwaves, but I think all of us recognized that everything after Pretty Hate Machine was actually less commercial. Trent certainly wasn't trying to sell out.
 
plinko said:
While I never loved them, maybe not completely my style, like Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails really sounded liked something new and different and totally awesome at the time. And both bands were all of that, and harbingers of things to come, for better or worse. There are still turns of phrase from that album that pop into my head from time to time, even though I never listen to it, and "THAT'S WHAT I GET!" isn't even the only one.

I would go on to really get into spin-off band Filter and wannabes Stabbing Westward
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I called Stabbing Westward "Three Inch Nails."
 
I saw the Stabbing Westward guy get hit with a flying object at the HFStival and keep going with blood all over his face, which was pretty cool, that's points earned

"Save Yourself" is an angsty nineties classic
 
#8 A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

The third and final entry from the best hip-hop album of 1990 (apologies to PE's Fear of a Black Planet). Of the top of my head, maybe my favorite call-and-response rap chorus of all time - Q-Tip and Phife were just 18 when they recorded Can I Kick It and it's exactly that youthful playfulness and amiable vibe that makes it a joyous party anthem. That and the Walk on the WIld Side sample, which famously wasn't cleared and ended up lining Lou Reed's pockets.

NME ranked Can I Kick It as the 90th best song of the 90s, Pitchfork put it at #25, and Rolling Stone named it the 292nd best song of all time.
 
scorchy said:
#8 A Tribe Called Quest - Can I Kick It?

The third and final entry from the best hip-hop album of 1990 (apologies to PE's Fear of a Black Planet). Of the top of my head, maybe my favorite call-and-response rap chorus of all time - Q-Tip and Phife were just 18 when they recorded Can I Kick It and it's exactly that youthful playfulness and amiable vibe that makes it a joyous party anthem. That and the Walk on the WIld Side sample, which famously wasn't cleared and ended up lining Lou Reed's pockets.

NME ranked Can I Kick It as the 90th best song of the 90s, Pitchfork put it at #25, and Rolling Stone named it the 292nd best song of all time.
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Pretty classic example of a simple sample, drum machine beat, and some verses, and a great song.
 
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#7 Faith No More - Epic

Yesterday, @plinko wrote about NIN:

While I never loved them, maybe not completely my style, like Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails really sounded liked something new and different and totally awesome at the time. And both bands were all of that, and harbingers of things to come, for better or worse.
Click to expand...

Couldn't put it any better, and like many of these stories, it almost didn't happen. The Real Thing - FNM's first album with Mike Patton on vocals after original singer Chuck Mosley was fired - was initially met with disappointing sales and lead single (From Out of Nowhere) didn't change things. Figuring that it wouldn't really matter, the record company gave the band freedom to pick the second single/video, and FNM chose Epic. The infamous video with the flopping fish debuted on MTV in early February 1990 then got shelved, presumably for good. At the same time, FNM was playing a series of chaotic shows in England, earning the band a sizable following on the other side of the Atlantic, vaulting Epic into the UK Top 40. The label took notice, and pushed MTV to start playing the video again stateside. By September 1990, Epic had become a left-field top 10 hit on mainstream pop radio.

A few months later, Anthony Keides famously accused Mike Patton of aping his style. The band pushed back a little at the time, but Patton definitively got the last word in a 2001 interview:

I think Anthony, deep down, feels like I'm a better dancer than he is. I think I shake my booty just a little bit fresher than he does. And if he would stop doing drugs I think he could outdance me. Maybe one day we'll have a breakoff, just breakdance.
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From Out of Nowhere > Epic

But both are great songs.

They killed it on SNL

vimeo.com

Faith No More - From Out Of Nowhere (SNL 1990)

This is "Faith No More - From Out Of Nowhere (SNL 1990)" by hillelsun on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com vimeo.com

vimeo.com

Faith No More - Epic (SNL)

This is "Faith No More - Epic (SNL)" by Jacek Ksiazek on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com vimeo.com
 
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I thought the same about Patton's resemblance to Anthony, how could you not?

But it became pretty clear that FNM were for real, and their background is similar enough for the similarities to make sense.
 
Best song on The Real Thing is the title track, what a slammer. If they somehow ticked off and made the Chili Peppers raise their game, good for them, because Mother's Milk was weak sauce in comparison, and earlier Peppers were clownish. Bring it or don't, sock boys... BSSM ... was incredible, and deserves every accolade it gets. Served as kind of the icing on the cake of the grunge age.
 
plinko said:
Best song on The Real Thing is the title track, what a slammer. If they somehow ticked off and made the Chili Peppers raise their game, good for them, because Mother's Milk was weak sauce in comparison, and earlier Peppers were clownish.
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Early Chili Peppers is my favorite. Blood Sugar Sex Magic is probably their zenith, but the early stuff was so original. SoCal skate punks who listen to funk, I loved it. Young, silly Anthony is so much better than adult Anthony.

So, so, so much better
 
Faith No More hasn't really held up for me...feels like a young man's act and I'm not the young man I used to be.

ETA: I have no issues with the ranking
 
#6 Deee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart

This being the FFA, and all, I'm sure someone is going to immediately contradict me, but I've never heard anybody say a bad word about Groove is in the Heart. Cheeseball Friday nights at Florida Theater, the norms and greek crowd would pack the floor. Saturday nights at Full Circle, the goth kids loved it as a change of pace. In the restaurant kitchen every summer, all the grunge/metal meatheads that worked the line with me would groove to the sounds of Bootsy Collins, Q-Tip, and Lady Miss Kier. Even 15 years later, Groove was a surefire crowd-pleaser at the hipster bars where I sometimes DJed.

Deee-lite had been around the NYC club scene for years, finally recording and releasing their debut album World Clique in the summer of 1990. Spin called it "the debut album of the year" and "an eloquent tableau of '90s possibilities." Honestly, for anyone who made the mistake of buying the CD, it was neither of those things. The band never wrote another song remotely as good as their debut single, but what a single that was. Groove is in the Heart peaked at #4 on the Hot 100. In 2021, Rolling Stone named it the 233rd best song of all time.
 
massraider said:
plinko said:
Best song on The Real Thing is the title track, what a slammer. If they somehow ticked off and made the Chili Peppers raise their game, good for them, because Mother's Milk was weak sauce in comparison, and earlier Peppers were clownish.
Click to expand...
Early Chili Peppers is my favorite. Blood Sugar Sex Magic is probably their zenith, but the early stuff was so original. SoCal skate punks who listen to funk, I loved it. Young, silly Anthony is so much better than adult Anthony.

So, so, so much better
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I only like Anthony when he's not actually trying to sing. Songs like "under the bridge" make me want to jam pencils in my ears.
 
scorchy said:
#6 Deee-Lite - Groove is in the Heart

This being the FFA, and all, I'm sure someone is going to immediately contradict me, but I've never heard anybody say a bad word about Groove is in the Heart. Cheeseball Friday nights at Florida Theater, the norms and greek crowd would pack the floor. Saturday nights at Full Circle, the goth kids loved it as a change of pace. In the restaurant kitchen every summer, all the grunge/metal meatheads that worked the line with me would groove to the sounds of Bootsy Collins, Q-Tip, and Lady Miss Kier. Even 15 years later, Groove was a surefire crowd-pleaser at the hipster bars where I sometimes DJed.

Deee-lite had been around the NYC club scene for years, finally recording and releasing their debut album World Clique in the summer of 1990. Spin called it "the debut album of the year" and "an eloquent tableau of '90s possibilities." Honestly, for anyone who made the mistake of buying the CD, it was neither of those things. The band never wrote another song remotely as good as their debut single, but what a single that was. Groove is in the Heart peaked at #4 on the Hot 100. In 2021, Rolling Stone named it the 233rd best song of all time.
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This song holds up so well.
 
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