We may earn an affiliate commission from any company linked to in this post.
There were a slew of hits that glazed the billboard that year. I spent many an hour in the 93 Chrysler LeBaron, radio on, to attest to that. Is this the 90s year that produced the most hits? It very well could be, but have you heard the ’99 catalog? Get back to me on that though.
100% Purity
Seriously, why don’t they breed them like Crystal Waters anymore? “100% Pure Love” is one of the purest art pieces from the 90s. The 8 minute long club house mix on youtube gives it a refreshing twist, yet maintains its original form.
The Primary School Days
Those days when I’d eat pudding out on the swing set in the backyard. The days of summer. 1995. “You Gotta Be” was crafted by a woman named Des’ree. Reminds me of the innocence then and what I took for granted, including Des’ree.
One that really blew me out of the water (and still does) is “Gangsta’s Paradise”. This one gave me a real strange, but euphoric, almost orgasm-like, sensation first time I listened to it. Like a subtle guilty pleasure that I needed to hear. An other worldly energy. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain, but it gives me almost the same pleasure state today.
^Coolio earlier this year with an old friend of mine^
The background choir is always an epic win. Rolling Stones pulled it off in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, Crash Test Dummies did it with “Mmm mmm mmm mmm”, so why can’t Coolio recruit a choir?
“Another Night” by Real McCoy is of course one I always come back to. Other of those women that took me by the nads in ’95 were most definitely TLC, and not to forget Dionne Farris. I know you know the name of that one. “I Know” has so much importance to me with it’s vintage sound that I can’t let it go. It’s as good as “You Gotta Be” or maybe “100% Pure Love”, yet I could never imagine all those women getting together on one stage. The universe would probably explode.
TLC’s “Creep” slams me to the floor almost (but not quite) like Gangsta’s Paradise. The trumpets and vintage, female voices reverberating from the TLC members SCREAM the 90s!
It was maybe 2007 and I was going to the local Tech College and I was blaring Gangsta’s Paradise in the parking lot with the windows down (glooming pride) and a girl walked by after I turned it down, and she mentioned that wasn’t necessary because she likes that music.
Looking Past Darius Rucker
Okay, we know Hootie and the Blowfish made a huge dent that year with hits that will forever be known, but most of the time I gravitate to the underdogs.
The one song that deserves much more attention than its one-hit status like shadow is “Here Comes the Hotstepper“. I almost cried when I heard it again after sifting through these songs that I hadn’t heard in years. It was like rediscovering Hootie and the Blowfish. That was the effect Ini Kamoze had on me with that one song.
Featured image by Matthew Juzenas under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license