Every Billboard Modern Rock/Alternative #1 Single (Part 2: The 1990s)

“Zombie” – The Cranberries-- Just OK. It got overplayed, like a lot of these songs. I think I thought it was a bit too Serious and Topical for me. I think I used to an imitation of this song at parties.

“Welcome To Paradise” – Green Day -- Good song.
“Seether” – Veruca Salt -- Seemed a little too much like a band that had been cynically set up to capitalize on the post-Breeders/Juliana Hatfield girl power-pop song. Probably unfair.
About A Girl” – Great song.
“Bang and Blame” – Probably my second favorite song on this album after "Strange Currencies". Got old, though.

“Doll Parts” – Sounds like Kurt Cobain, which of course means it's awesome.

“Buddy Holly” – Weezer -- iconic and sweet. Love it.

“When I Come Around” – Nice riff...but a bit too repetitive.

Euro-trash Girl -- highly enjoyable

 

Well we made it through another year. The final #1 of 1994.

106. "Bang and Blame" by R.E.M.

#1 for 3 weeks starting December 17, 1994.

Single by R.E.M.
from the album Monster
B-side "Bang and Blame" (instrumental version)
Released October 31, 1994

Length 5:30 (album without short interlude)
4:51 (single edit)
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)

• Berry
• Buck
• Mills
• Stipe[1]

Producer(s)

• Scott Litt
• R.E.M.

"Bang and Blame" is a song by the American alternative rock group R.E.M. It was released as the second single from the album Monster in 1994. It is the last R.E.M. song to reach the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 19, and also their last number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

When the album version of the song finishes, an untitled instrumental featuring tremolo effects on the guitar amp and amplified slap bass techniques follows, lasting approximately 30 seconds from fade in to fade out.

The song was the most successful single by the band in America since 1991's "Shiny Happy People". After "Bang and Blame", the band did not have a single that matched its success. Despite its success, it was left off of In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003 and Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011.

"Bang and Blame" was featured in the Cold Case episode "Blackout" as well as in the Danish mini-series "Charlot og Charlotte" by Ole Bornedal (director of "Nattevagten"/"The Night Watch"), the My Mad Fat Diary episode "Not I" and the Melrose Place episode "No Strings Attached". The song was also used in "Weird Al" Yankovic's polka medley "The Alternative Polka" from his 1996 album Bad Hair Day.

Despite its success as a song, "Bang and Blame" was only ever played live once throughout the tour in support of Monster.

Top 10 for the week of December 17, 1994

1. “Bang and Blame” – R.E.M.
2. “Buddy Holly” – Weezer
3. “About A Girl” – Nirvana
4. “Zombie” – The Cranberries
5. “Doll Parts” – Hole
6. “When I Come Around” – Green Day*
7. “Better Man” – Pearl Jam
8. “Interstate Love Song” – Stone Temple Pilots
9. “Landslide” – Smashing Pumpkins
10. “Supernova” – Liz Phair

So I'm going to give a day's space between 1994 and 1995. Tomorrow if anyone needs to catch up like me feel free or if you want to post some kind of ranking of the #1's. ​

 

"Better Man" is a pretty good song by Eddie Vedder. I remember hearing it on the radio during some live broadcast during the Vs era and liking it.
I think I liked the live version a lot more than the studio version, though.

 

The highlighted point is inconsistent with four or five concerts, maybe more, at Setlists.fm. I caught R.E.M. on the Monster tour on 8 November 1995, and retain several memories of the show. Whether they played "Bang and Blame" isn't one of them. For the twenty-fifth song of the evening they gathered in a circle in front of the drum riser so Bill Berry could hear and contribute, to discuss what to play. According to Stipe, they hadn't rehearsed it, parts of "Landslide" and "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac: it was sloppy, obviously off-the-cuff, daring, and downright fun, such recklessness just not done by a headlining band.

R.E.M. Setlist at Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville

 

"About a Girl" is another Nirvana great. Kurt's pop sense really set them apart. I love both the version on Bleach and the unplugged version.

"Bang and Blame" by R.E.M. is fine. It's not an obvious hit, but R.E.M. were in a period where they could have hits with less-obvious material.

"Buddy Holly" is one of the better Weezer songs, with a really amusing video.

Although there was at least one week of 1994 when I didn't really like any of the songs in this chart's top ten, and I'm seeing a lot more crud than before overall, there's still been quite a bit that I like. Things will eventually get worse.

My favorite number ones of the year are the two Nirvana songs ("All Apologies," "About a Girl") and Green Day's "Basket Case," with honorable mention to the two R.E.M. songs ("What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and "Bang and Blame"), Morrissey ("The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get") and the Gin Blossoms ("Found Out About You"). I'd trash the rest.

 

I kind of felt the same. I think I'm more accepting now.

 

“Zombie” – The Cranberries - Never took to this one. I, too, never cared for the vocalizations. But my teenage daughter loves it so it has legs I suppose.

“About A Girl” – Nirvana - I forgot just how fast Nirvana came and went. Three, four years? It felt like they were so solid. Maybe because they were more consistent than any other alt band. Twice as bright, half as long.

“Landslide” – Smashing Pumpkins - I was unfamiliar with Fleetwood Mac's version of this song. In fact, I assumed it was a Pumpkins track. An odd choice but the Pumpkins went their own way.

“Welcome To Paradise” – Green Day - They just keep getting better and better, don't they?

“Seether” – Veruca Salt - I was loving how many women were rocking in the 90's. Maybe the best decade for women rockers. Extra points for the clever band name.

"Sweet Jane" - Cowboy Junkies - How did this song wind up on the charts in 1994? It was originally released in 1988 or so.

"Doll Parts" - Hole - This was a fantastic album (Live Through This). Nothing Courtney did afterwards was quite as strong. It really felt like an extension of Nirvana to me.

“Bang and Blame” – R.E.M. - The entire Monster album was a bit forced to me. This one is more an album track than a single to my ears.

“Buddy Holly” – Weezer - Loved this one and its video. A great pop song and a sense of humor were very welcome in the mid 90s.

“When I Come Around” – Green Day - And the hits just keep on coming. Tremendous album.

“Better Man” – Pearl Jam - I wasn't a fan of Pearl Jam. They sounded too 1973 to me. I couldn't understand why such a retro, but uncool retro, band became so big. My opinion changed with Vitalogy and Better Man. This sounded like a different band to me. Suddenly they sounded modern. Probably me, not them. Either way, I liked the songwriting. Better Man is a great track.

 

This was probably the result of its inclusion on the soundtrack of Natural Born Killers. It reached #5 on this chart in 1989 and then #9 in 1994.

 

I forgot that "Sweet Jane" had a comeback of sorts because of "Natural Born Killers". An amazing cover, but it's probably telling that one of my favorite songs on this 1994 chart is from 1988.

Love "Supersonic" and Oasis was a dominant force in my listening for the next couple years.

I'm a huge Cult fan and I like this song but they were mostly off my radar at this point. I couldn't get into that self-titled album at all, though I've warmed up to it a bit over time.

 

99. Toad The Wet Sprocket – “Fall Down”
I’m not sure how this one to #1 and others of theirs didn’t but this is not their best single and even the followup “Something’s Always Wrong” is better but charted lower. This is just straight ahead light alt. rock in their typical jangly style but without their great melodic sense. Not much of a hook either either. It’s just average.

100. The Offspring – Come Out And Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)
There was a time before the joke songs that this band actually felt dark, serious, political and a real punk threat. That all went out the window later but on their breakthrough indie label album Smash they did have great talent and a darkness that felt intimidating. The chugging guitars, the Indian riff that’s so famous, the “take ‘em out” line that sounds like “eliminate ‘em!”-it’s got that surf rock Indian riff but it’s not surrounded by the beach but more like it’s surrounded by a cult. Great song-hooks galore, very singable.

101. Counting Crows – Einstein On The Beach
This song flew right by me as I heard repeat plays of “Mr. Jones” and “Round Here” over and over on radio. It’s fresher to me because I had no clue about it. It plays like Soul Asylum a bit just riding along an acoustic backing. Decent melody not overly annoying. Tolerable but it doesn’t have that #1 feel.

102. Green Day – Basket Case
One of 5 songs that got huge airplay from Dookie, this is another great track and a fan fave. It’s also considered one of punk’s greatest songs if you count Green Day as punk. Awesome songwriting, hooks, tight performance, just another reason why this band is one of my favorites. It’s also got the great video. Holds up well to this day.

103. R.E.M. – What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
Whether you like R.E.M. turning up the guitars or not, this was still a big hit waiting to happen. There was huge anticipation for this album and when it came out some fans thought they were too close to grunge and others were thoroughly satisfied. It’s the first of 2 #1’s from Monster and the riffs, distorted guitar tones, and vocal melody are great. Right up there with their best 90’s material.

104. The Cranberries – Zombie
I was on a major Cranberries kick last year after Dolores O’Riordan passed away and I wrote a couple of articles on them – one was a top ten rockers from the band and of course this made my list at #1. Rarely did a band have such soft successful singles like “Linger”, “Dreams” and then this monsterous political epic that is considered one of the great alternative rock songs ever. When she passed I watched the YouTube count soar up -it’s getting up to a billion views at this point. Awesome tension, power and emotion in this performance and song.​

105. Nirvana – About A Girl
A song that I felt was already well known and on radio but it was replaced by pretty much an identical version except this was acoustic coming from MTV Unplugged and I felt like it was unnecessary. I maybe was in a mindset that they might start exploiting the Nirvana name to milk it as much as possible and I thought it was unnecessary to have this released but it did excellently like you’d expect and it also signaled the end of the ‘In Utero’ singles campaign. I was hoping for some kind of release of “Pennyroyal Tea” or “Serve The Servants” which both got some airplay but then this came out. “Pennyroyal Tea” to this day is heard on radio in its MTV Unplugged form as well as this one. I like the studio versions better.

106. R.E.M. – Bang and Blame
Not quite as good as the lead single “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” this has a lot of rock with more mood dynamics and highs and lows. It’s dramatic and the chorus breaks out of the verse well.

 

Of the songs I haven't already talked about:
Pearl Jam - "Better Man" PJ goes pop! Liked it then, still dig it now. Not exactly their most rocking song but still good.
Green Day - "When I Come Around" I liked this the first few times I heard it, but boy, did it get old and overplayed fast!
Smashing Pumpkins - "Landslide" Decent remake. Didn't add much but didn't really do a bad job either. I listened to it when it came on the radio but never thought it was good enough to actually purchase.

 

1995

107. "When I Come Around" by Green Day

#1 for 7 weeks starting January 7, 1995.

Single by Green Day
from the album Dookie
Released January 31, 1995


"When I Come Around" is a song released by American punk rock band Green Day. It is the tenth track on their third studio album, Dookie, and was released as the fourth single from that album in 1995. It was played live as early as 29 August 1992. "When I Come Around" was Green Day's most popular radio single in their early career, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart. This was their highest charting radio single until 2004's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" peaked at No. 2.

"When I Come Around" was one of the most successful alternative rock songs of 1995. It topped Billboard's Alternative Songs chart for seven weeks, and also hit number two on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. It was Green Day's third straight number-one from Dookie, after "Longview" and "Basket Case". As of August 2010, "When I Come Around" has sold 639,000 copies, making it the band's second best-selling single of the 1990s behind only their 1997 hit "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".[3]

Top 10 for the week January 7, 1995

1. “When I Come Around” – Green Day
2. “Bang And Blame” – R.E.M.
3. “Better Man” – Pearl Jam
4. “Buddy Holly” – Weezer
5. “Zombie” – The Cranberries
6. “Love Spreads” – The Stone Roses
7. “Gotta Get Away” – The Offspring
8. “About A Girl” – Nirvana
9. “Everything Zen” – Bush
10. “Sour Times” – Portishead
---
#12 “She Don’t Use Jelly” – The Flaming Lips
#14“21st Century (Digital Boy)” – Bad Religion
#19 “Halah” – Mazzy Star
#24 “That’s Just What You Are” – Aimee Mann
#27 “You Suck” – The Murmurs
#33 “Ode To My Family” – The Cranberries
#37 "Bright Yellow Gun" - Throwing Muses
#38 “Corduroy” – Pearl Jam

 

R.E.M. - What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

This album had so much hype. "The return of proper R.E.M.! They're RAWKING again!". In reality it was a very disappointing album. This tune isn't bad. The guitar is catchy, but really simple. I like the use of the backwards guitar solo. Other than that, it's not terrible but it got boring the 2nd time I heard it. The song definitely doesn't have staying power.

The Cranberries - Zombie

Grungy guitars with crap-sounding drums. The loud part of this song is much less enjoyable than the clean part. While I like the lyrics a lot, her voice on the chorus is painful and that always made this song virtually unlistenable for me. The lyrics don't save this one.

Nirvana - About a Girl

I wasn't affected by Kurt's death back in the Spring and I didn't understand why so many of my classmates were so broken up by it. I liked Nirvana, but he wasn't my voice or my hero. He was just a dude who wrote good songs and someone with a lot of problems, and he found the best way (for him) to not be in pain anymore. The time between his death and the airing of the Unplugged show was a time of massive change for me and I wasn't remotely interested in the band anymore by the time it aired. For others though, About a Girl was the first single released after his death and I'm sure that contributed a lot to it going #1. I don't remember even hearing this at the time and even though I know I've heard it in the past 25 years, it never has stuck in my head. The images from the show? Totally iconic. But the song itself, there's nothing special or catchy about it. This version just feels like a downer. Maybe people really needed the emotional release? I don't know. It does nothing for me, though.

R.E.M. - Bang and Blame

This has some echoes of Losing My Religion in the verses. So it's derivative, but it works. The chorus is terrible and obnoxious. The bridge is basically nothing, just 2 chords going back and forth. What's up with these guys? Terrible song overall.

***

1994 Overall thoughts:

These last 4 songs were such a downer; what a terrible way to end the year. I can't believe I'm actually saying thank goodness for Green Day. We needed some levity in the chart. It's interesting to me to compare 1993 to 1994. '93 only had 1 song I didn't enjoy and '94 comes along and there's 9 bad ones to only 8 good ones. I know that I changed during this year, but something also happened with the music. It became stagnate. There are glimmers of hope, definitely, but there was also a lot of music that did not and still does not connect with me.

Focusing on the good, though, here are the #1's that I really liked:

Pearl Jam - Daughter
Gin Blossoms - Found Out About You
Nirvana - All Apologies
Beck - Loser
Tori Amos - God
Green Day - Longview
Toad the Wet Sproket - Fall Down
Green Day - Basket Case

There are some damn good songs in that bunch. I think my favorite is All Apologies, but Loser is right there and the 2 Green Day songs are right on their heels. Let's see what 1995 brings!

 

"When I Come Around" by Green Day is catchy, but I agree that it got old and overplayed fast. For me, "Basket Case" (always my favorite) and "Welcome to Paradise" have held up best of the Dookie singles.

There's not much else I want to comment on in the top ten. The Stone Roses made their disappointing return, and it's nice to see Portishead in there with a rather different sound. I've got a few big favorites further down the chart: Bad Religion's "21st Century (Digital Boy)" is a re-recorded version that I initially found inferior to the first version, but now I love both; Aimee Mann's "That's Just What You Are" is a fantastic track that should have peaked higher than #24 (Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze back her up on this one); and "Bright Yellow Gun" is an excellent single from Throwing Muses.

 

Green Day - When I Come Around

The main riff is basic, but catchy enough. Great bassline and the drums sound solid as hell too. It's a good toe-tapper of a song, but it's not as high quality as the previous two #1's. I'll take that since 3rd/4th singles usually aren't as good as the previous ones.

It's great to see Portishead's Sour Times make the top 10! Great band, really original sound. Such a cool song. Also, The Murmur's You Suck at #27 this week...fantastic song. "There's dust on my guitar you f*** and it's ALL YOUR FAULT!" Haha, I've certainly felt that over the years.

 

When I Come Around is based on a good riff...and nothing else. It was annoying the second time I heard it, and it was on teh radio for friggin' months. I really like that Dookie album, but that song can go sit in a corner and mumble to itself.

 

“Gotta Get Away” – The Offspring - This one is okay but, this many years later, I consider it a lesser Offspring track.

“About A Girl” – Nirvana - A pop song. I like the studio version as well.

“Everything Zen” – Bush - Everything Zen? I don't think so. - Along with Live, Silverchair and others, Bush ushered in the second wave of grunge. None of this can I listen to today. Ugh.

“Sour Times” – Portishead - A bit of a Twin Peaks vibe. There were a number of these oddball songs on the radio at the time and I welcomed most of them. My fave Portishead song is Roads. So beautiful.

“That’s Just What You Are” – Aimee Mann - I was a BIG fan of Aimee at the time. I read a rave review in ICE of the final Till Tuesday album and purchased it out of curiosity. Of course I knew Voices Carry, but nothing else. The Everything's Different Now album really captivated me. Her solo debut was just as good, maybe stronger. I loved it's title - "Whatever". Kurt used her album title in a little ditty of his own when he sang Whatever Nevermind. So these two albums are strangely linked in my mind. I'm With Stupid was an little hit and miss for me. But I loved the single. I wish she would have done an entire album with Difford & Tillbrook. I understand Chris had a major crush on Aimee. Who could blame him? Up next: Magnolia & Bachelor - amazing!

“You Suck” – The Murmurs - I played the hell out of this song when it was new. It fell off of my radar after that. Listening to it now it is really charming. Good to rediscover some tracks.

“Corduroy” – Pearl Jam - Vitalogy was a great album. More quirky and more poppy songwriting than previously. IMO this was Pearl Jam's sweet spot. This is a great song. Love how the vocal answers the guitar (usually its the reverse). Good rocker.

 

Latest chart, songs I haven't already talked about:
The Stone Roses - "Love Spreads" Ooh, I've loved this song from day one. I think this song is as good as almost anything on their first album. Just a killer track.
Bush - "Everything Zen" Ok at first but quickly got annoying. Kinda like most of their output, at least to me. I wasn't as bothered by the band as some people I knew, but I never really got into them either. Never owned any of their albums, I'll put it that way.
The Flaming Lips - "She Don't Use Jelly" Not one of their best songs, so of course it's probably their most popular. But it served as my entrance into a band that, while I don't love everything they do, I really enjoy a great deal so that's a good thing.
Mazzy Star - "Halah" One of my favorite songs on my favorite album by the band although I'll admit I didn't discover this album until "Fade Into You" was a big hit and I went digging through their back catalogue. Awesome song!
Pearl Jam - "Corduroy" Still in my top 5 PJ songs I loved this song right away. Just a killer rocking tune. Verses are great, chorus is perfect. I can't really say how much I dig this track, but it's a lot.

 

I lost track of this thread so I've got some catching up to do.

Gin Blossoms - "Found Out About You": great song from a great (and tragic) album. Those chiming guitars always give me a spine-tingle.

Pearl Jam - "Daughter": solid track from my favorite Pearl Jam album. Although why "Yellow Ledbetter", an outtake from Ten is attached to it on the chart is strange.

The Cure - "Purple Haze": from a Hendrix tribute album, this is not their finest hour, or even close to it. Strange that it even made this chart.

Smashing Pumpkins - "Today": solid track, if not among the best of their hits.

Nirvana - "All Apologies": a classic, even if I always found Kurt's vocal on this one to be severely whiny.

R.E.M. - "Photograph": a wonderful outtake from Automatic for the People that was released on a charity compilation album. Have always loved this song and feel that it has been unjustly overlooked. I remember hearing it on the radio at the time and thinking it was from the next R.E.M. album.

Kate Bush - "Rubberband Girl": always liked this one, even though it gets bashed by hardcore Bush fans.

 

Counting Crows - "Mr. Jones": this is one that I quite liked at the time but simply got overplayed both on radio, MTV, and in my car! Nowadays, it's one of my least favorite tracks on the first Counting Crows album.

Crowded House - "Locked Out": CH is one of my favorite bands, but this just wasn't one of my favorite songs of theirs. There were far more brilliant cuts on their Together Alone album, but I think the label wanted them to put out a rocker in the U.S., so this got the nod. It's fine, but hardly an example of the band at their best.

 

1. “When I Come Around” – Green Day
The best thing about Green Day is that they got a lot of kids into Buzzcocks and Descendants.

5. “Zombie” – The Cranberries
The vocal affectation is simultaneously a bit much and brilliant. Notable that there aren't a lot of political songs hitting the Alt top 10.

6. “Love Spreads” – The Stone Roses
I picked up this single a few weeks back–John Squire's guitar is unabashed 1970s American hard rock but somehow it works with SR's retro-but-modern sound. Plus Ian Brown's best 'I am a messiah' lyrics. A good high note for the band to go out on.

9. “Everything Zen” – Bush
Bush should be happy that Nickelback stole their title as 'shorthand for bad rock music'. Dumbest lyrics to appear on this chart until 'Lightning Crashes' hits

10. “Sour Times” – Portishead
Alt radio could still deliver some surprises. This doesn't sound at all like a 1980s song but it would fit in nicely on the early alternative charts. Pretty sure Saint Etienne heard this, thought 'damn Portishead nailed our sound' and disappeared until 1998. Also at this point it seems pretty clear that alt stations kept one, and only one, weekly Heavy Rotation slot open for electronic music.

Also, 3 British and 1 Irish band in the top 10 this week, although IIRC Bush were Australian? And they're certainly trying to sound American. The Stone Roses track is pretty American-sounding as well.

---
#14“21st Century (Digital Boy)” – Bad Religion
Somehow this only goes to #11!

#27 “You Suck” – The Murmurs
At the time I dismissed this as another try-too-hard Gen X/Slacker anthem; should have appreciated it a bit more

#37 "Bright Yellow Gun" - Throwing Muses
Massively underappreciated band. Aside from maybe 'Dizzy' they were never inclined to write hooky radio songs, which is very much to their credit.

 

Beck - "Loser": A classic, of course, but my initial reaction to it was strange. And then I discovered that I had a personal connection to the artist that I had been unaware of (I knew his mother and he had briefly worked for us as a go-fer), which of course stimulated my interest in his music. He's clearly gone on to do much more rewarding and important work, but this was an early taste of his humor and creativity.

Crash Test Dummies - "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm": I had liked their first album, but found the second one far too slick for my tastes (as well as lacking in quality material). Also, by then, Roberts' deep voice and twee lyrics had pretty much worn out their welcome for me, so the fact that this song became such a huge hit was pretty annoying. I'd say that it hasn't aged well.

 

Tori Amos - "God": A solid song with a slinky groove, it boded well for Amos' second solo album. I remember listening to this quite a lot.

Cracker - "Get Off This": I loved Cracker, but always found this song snotty and annoying. A low-light of the Kerosene Hat album.

Elvis Costello - "13 Steps Lead Down": Decent, but one of the weaker tracks on his excellent Brutal Youth album. I feel like there were far better candidates for hit material on that album than this.

 

"Disarm" - Smashing Pumpkins: This is one that I tend to forget about. It's a solid track but not quite as memorable as the other hits from Siamese Dream.

"Leaving Las Vegas" - Sheryl Crow: My roommate heard this song once and picked up Crow's debut album on the basis of that. The album quickly became a fixture in our apartment, and this was always one of the highlights on the album. Very much the successor to David + David's fantastic Boomtown album from 1986 and one of the David's (Baerwald) Bedtime Stories album from 1990. Both Davids (Ricketts being the other) primarily wrote this song, if I recall correctly.

 

Live - "Selling The Drama": Decent, but somewhat surprised this made it to #1 on this chart. Throwing Copper is the only Live album I've ever had, and while it did contain a few good songs, I mostly found it overwrought and a bit of a chore to listen to. This song is okay but I think the vocalist took the song's title a bit too literally here.

Sarah McLachan - "Possession": Great track from IMO her best album. Etherial, yearning, and utterly captivating.

Collective Soul - "Shine": I remember thinking that the 70s throwback sound of this song had to be a joke. Never could take it seriously.

Counting Crows - "Round Here": Fantastic song and one of the highlights of their classic debut album.