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101 Best Songs of 1994 - #1 - Notorious BIG - Juicy (5 Viewers)

Fort Worth's own, and my favorite band of all time. Still to this day I play more Toadies than anything else. Counting Toadies, Burden Brothers and Vaden Lewis solo, have probably seen over 100 shows. Getting to buy Vaden a beer after he played a solo acoustic set and talk Mavs 2011 title run might be my greatest moment. The band has found their niche as a one/two hit wonder for a while, they put out new music here and there, and tour quite a bit still, and even have their own festival locally, where they play acoustic one night and plugged in the next. Most concerts now include a full playing of Rubberneck from front to back. They know why people are there and they always play the hits. Too many drunk people yelling "PLAY TYLER!!" not too.

Cover of LCD Soundsystem's Someone Great that my brother knows to play at my funeral

 "Beside You" - which I would play in the car with my kids every Sunday after single Dad weekend   (acoustic solo version)

Anyone that likes Rubberneck but is older now, I recommend Heretics which has stripped down versions of most songs you know. Sorry for the rant. 
Great band. A friend of a friend of mine (they were also occasional bandmates) signed them to Interscope. Once we heard Rubberneck we all thought they were going to be huge. Then they just faded away. Burden Brothers were great, too. 

 
# 29 - Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

Things I would rather do than try to come up with semi-interesting things to write about a four-song run of above-average grunge classics:

1. Read another @Bogart/ @rockactiondeep-dive into the catalog of a relatively obscure 90s band.

2. Discuss my own minor run-ins with 90s PC culture and how that would play out today.

3. Search the archives to learn more about the bad blood between wikkid and Carole King.

Alas, I'm stuck here with a Soundgarden song that Rolling Stone ranked as the 368th best of all time.  Which makes me want to add another thing to the list:

4. Tag @plinkoso he can retell how he pissed off Kim Thayill.

Black Hole Sun


I never liked Black Hole Sun, or about half of Superunknown, I wanted some more of the heavy #### from BMF

But I love "Head Down" and "Day I Tried To Live".  Both hit where it hurts 

I met Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil at a PAW show, at the London Astoria... I was #### faced, as usual, and made a fool of myself, as usual; as I recall Cornell was very gracious but Kim wanted me gone, my friend was like "Kim Thayil is gonna kick your ### if we don't leave".  For a while I had a Chris Cornell signed Pantera poster that I tore off the wall there.  That's about it..

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy

I know my overall meh-ness on grunge as a genre is coming through in the write-ups if not the rankings.  Vitalogy was the second-fasting selling album of all time (almost 900,000 copies in its first week) behind only PJ's previous record Versus.  Like STP and Soundgarden, I've never owned any PJ records in any format - felt like I didn't need to.  Vitalogy, Purple, and Superunkown were in constant rotation on the restaurant kitchen mini-stereo in the summers of '95 and '96 - at least on nights when the meathead kids from NY/NJ had dibs instead me or my buddy C-Pole.

Corduroy

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy

I know my overall meh-ness on grunge as a genre is coming through in the write-ups if not the rankings.  Vitalogy was the second-fasting selling album of all time (almost 900,000 copies in its first week) behind only PJ's previous record Versus.  Like STP and Soundgarden, I've never owned any PJ records in any format - felt like I didn't need to.  Vitalogy, Purple, and Superunkown were in constant rotation on the restaurant kitchen mini-stereo in the summers of '95 and '96 - at least on nights when the meathead kids from NY/NJ had dibs instead me or my buddy C-Pole.

Corduroy
it's a good song. doubt it would be in my favorite 100 of the year... and that album just didn't interest me when I heard it the first few times. still doesn't really.

I did own 10- which I bought on cassette on a crosscountry road trip just after college when it came out. my gb was interning at rolling stone and met the band before they got big... starting dating the bassist (who was prematurely bald, which is why he always wore hats). when my other gb and I pulled into some ####-show town in the middle of Utah and found a record store, we started poking around and were flummoxed to see Pearl Jam on the shelves.. what? our friends' bf's band? bought the tape (for the car) just for that, and at the checkout counter, the geeky Utah kid working the register gave us the most excitedly conspiratorially thumbup on the purchase I'd ever seen. kinda scared both of us, tbh. but the album was, and still is great, IMO. for me, the subsequent albums kinda ramble and lack the hook after hook they had in that first one.

 
I thought the Toadies would have made it bigger.  Seems like there were a lot of one-hit bands in 94 as this style of music flamed out fast.
They ran into label problems getting them to release their follow up and provide them the appropriate support. Music business for you. Sucks, but glad to read I'm not the only one who loves this album. Probably listen to it cover-to-cover during a workout at least once every couple-few weeks. Mr Love is my favorite, but the juvenile side of me can't help but snicker and want to mosh anytime Velvet kicks in.

You hurt me you ####!

Stop it!
Stop it!


You hurt me you ####!

 
it's a good song. doubt it would be in my favorite 100 of the year... and that album just didn't interest me when I heard it the first few times. still doesn't really.
At the time, same, but it grew on me after re-listening attempts last decade, especially the intentionally odd collection of work after Bugs. Too many auto skips but Spin the Black Circle, Not For You, and Courdoroy are classics...Last Exit and Satan's Bed are fun tracks that aged well...and with hindsight my lack of appreciation for Nothingman when I was young was silly.

 
They ran into label problems getting them to release their follow up and provide them the appropriate support. Music business for you. Sucks, but glad to read I'm not the only one who loves this album. Probably listen to it cover-to-cover during a workout at least once every couple-few weeks. Mr Love is my favorite, but the juvenile side of me can't help but snicker and want to mosh anytime Velvet kicks in.


My younger brother is also a huge Toadies fan, and he is seven years younger than me, so graduated class of 2000. HB/SA is his Pinkerton. He knew the radio hits of Rubberneck, but this album is what got him hooked on the band. First album with Clark makes it maybe the most beloved lineup. The fact that this is the only Toadies album not to be available on vinyl drives him crazy. As a guy that camps out for Record Store Day and has every album of every band he likes on vinyl, there is no price too high for him to add that to his collection.

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy

I know my overall meh-ness on grunge as a genre is coming through in the write-ups if not the rankings.  Vitalogy was the second-fasting selling album of all time (almost 900,000 copies in its first week) behind only PJ's previous record Versus.  Like STP and Soundgarden, I've never owned any PJ records in any format - felt like I didn't need to.  Vitalogy, Purple, and Superunkown were in constant rotation on the restaurant kitchen mini-stereo in the summers of '95 and '96 - at least on nights when the meathead kids from NY/NJ had dibs instead me or my buddy C-Pole.

Corduroy
@Kilgore Trout

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy
I remember how pumped i was to buy Vitalogy, and when I got it I was fairly disappointed. Not awful, not great, just kinda there. Not one song on it that I really love, but plenty of "okay to pretty good" stuff. 

Meanwhile their peers Soundgarden and Alice were firing on all cylinders with Superunknown and Jar of Flies.

 
I’ve always known that my awareness of “new music” stopped somewhere in the early 90s around the time of Hootie & the Blowfish, Counting Crows, and the Spin Doctors.  Between grunge and boy bands.

I am surprised at how many of the bands and songs on this list I have no recollection of.  

Which is weird because I was still single and social back in 1994 (before wife and kids and career) and usually one of the great things about music is that a song will take you back to a very specific time and place in your life and most of these songs don’t have that time/place imprint on me.  

I guess my blind spot for music started earlier and is larger than I remember.

Thanks again for doing these lists, Scorchy.  Hopefully if you get back to 1993 or earlier I will better remember more of the entries.

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy


I can't say that I really like Pearl Jam.  They're solidly OK in my book.  I felt the same way in the '90s.  But Cordoroy is easily my favorite song of theirs, and would probably land in my top 25 overall.  Love this song.

I wonder how many speakers were destroyed by that song?  ...  By people like myself turning it waaaaaay up on the lead-in

 
That might be because it was thoroughly dead in '94, scorchy. Just a heaving carcass of it was left for consumption. 


Quick run, at least hair metal had like 4 years

Now for my ~every five year Paw-pimping.. (The "Jessie you're a good dog" guys)  I dig their debut Dragline enough that I still follow the musical exploits of their frontman Mark Hennessey - the real culprit for me ruining Kim Thayil's night, when he told us dummies how to get backstage

 
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Quick run, at least hair metal had like 4 years

Now for my ~every five year Paw-pimping.. (The "Jessie you're a good dog" guys)  I dig their debut Dragline enough that I still follow the musical exploits of their frontman Mark Hennessey - the real culprit for me ruining Kim Thayil's night, when he told us dummies how to get backstage
I still play that song. It's awesome. I don't blame you for following his career. I never did, nor do I know Dragline, but "Jesse" is a good/great song. I bust it out at least once a year. I had the video on an old VHS tape of college bands (it was purchased from like Strawberries or something) that got lost in my move to CA. 

It's cold outside
And you're not coming home
Oh, but Jessie you're a good dog


 
I won't belabor the point but it's a killer album.  They showed a lot of promise, I'd seen them just months earlier opening for TOOL.  Their follow-up couldn't get it done

 
#27 - Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline

My second favorite song on Purple - somehow shocked that I ended up with three STP songs on here (yes, I'm spotlighting.)  The single went #2 on the Modern Rock charts and #1 on Mainstream Rock - more evidence that grunge didn't just kill hair metal, but classic rock too.

Vasoline

 
#27 - Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline

My second favorite song on Purple - somehow shocked that I ended up with three STP songs on here (yes, I'm spotlighting.)  The single went #2 on the Modern Rock charts and #1 on Mainstream Rock - more evidence that grunge didn't just kill hair metal, but classic rock too.

Vasoline


great effin' tune ... man, Scott embraced the rock star persona, and ran with it ... so refreshing as juxtaposed to the Seattle whiners.

all that said, the video is a 90s lowlight for the medium - ridiculous with that big nosed jackass  :lmao:

 
great effin' tune ... man, Scott embraced the rock star persona, and ran with it ... so refreshing as juxtaposed to the Seattle whiners.

all that said, the video is a 90s lowlight for the medium - ridiculous with that big nosed jackass  :lmao:


I'm prepared to take some flack here, but I never liked Scott as a front man... felt way too poseury affected for my liking- at least in the videos and vocals. I never saw them live. and the band definitely cranked. 

 
Three from Purple, wow, remind me to give you my first-run CD from WORLD OF MUSIC in München
So weird.  I never even knew I liked Stone Temple Pilots.  Some of it has to do with the singles all getting released in the same year - so couldn't hedge like I'm doing for other bands.

 
I'm prepared to take some flack here, but I never liked Scott as a front man... felt way too poseury affected for my liking- at least in the videos and vocals. I never saw them live. and the band definitely cranked. 
Hmmm, I'm with otb.  The world needs rocks stars.

 
I saw them live at a festival, later years, they definitely weren't headlining and I don't even think were next up, I think it was still light out... but Weiland kicked ### ,seriously, whatever he was on was working 

 
STP is a cool band. That's about my reaction to them. I certainly never really turned off the radio when they were on, which is as backhanded a compliment as I can really give to a band. 

We played them sophomore year in our on-campus suite. Good albums. 

 
#26 - Alice in Chains - No Excuses

One more for good measure, and this one is off of an EP I actually own.  Jar of Flies is legit great, but I'm a sucker for acoustic albums.  Just listened last night and now I'm kicking myself for not including a third song to the countdown earlier - total screwup on my part.

No Excuses

 
Saw Alice In Chains open during The Clash Of Titans tour in L.A. It was Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and AIC. 

Good show. My girlfriend was there and liked AIC. 

I, of course, was there for Slayer. They were the kings of my fall senior year for me. South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss, slowed down by Rick Rubin, were their finest albums, IMO, and they deserved the mainstream-esque ears they got. 

Sorry for the Slayer sidetrack, but those were just really good albums. The height of thrash metal -- or even just metal -- if you ask me. 

 
You weren't joking.  Lots of dead front men lately. And all in bands that I really like. 

The last six were all in heavy rotation.  I went to a commuter school and work at a job doing delivery driving, so I had a lot of time listening to rock radio in those years.  Anyway, great list, Scorchy.  It takes me back.  I never had it so good.

 
and work at a job doing delivery driving
Something about being young and having a delivery job that doesn't require too too much physical labor is the bee's knees. I had a construction office job that required deliveries. Not too heavy stuff, under sixty pounds of concrete per bag, and I loved it. Trucking two hours to a site to deliver special tools and whatnot. Getting paid along the way. Cool beans. 

 
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Something about being young and having a delivery job that doesn't require too too much physical labor is the bee's knees. I had a construction office job that required deliveries. Not too heavy stuff, under sixty pounds of concrete per bag, and I loved it. Trucking two hours to a site to deliver special tools and whatnot. Getting paid along the way. Cool beans. 


I drove a flatbed bobtail truck with a lift gate for an oil company.  Delivering anything from cases of oil and filters to drums of oil and grease.  Not lightweight, mind you, but I was a workout junkie back then, so it fit pretty well. I miss those days

 
drums of oil and grease.  Not lightweight, mind you
No doubt. You earned what you got. I had a cushiony job, really. Maybe why I loved it. "Oh, go bring this part down to New York. We'll pay you for the day plus mileage." 

This was in CT. I was overjoyed. 

 
I never liked Black Hole Sun, or about half of Superunknown, I wanted some more of the heavy #### from BMF

But I love "Head Down" and "Day I Tried To Live".  Both hit where it hurts 

I met Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil at a PAW show, at the London Astoria... I was #### faced, as usual, and made a fool of myself, as usual; as I recall Cornell was very gracious but Kim wanted me gone, my friend was like "Kim Thayil is gonna kick your ### if we don't leave".  For a while I had a Chris Cornell signed Pantera poster that I tore off the wall there.  That's about it..
You were THAT guy. Awesome!

my favorites from Superunknown: 
 

Let me Drown

My Wave

title track

Head Down

Spoonman

The Day I Tried to Live

Like Suicide (hard to listen to now for obvious reasons)

 
#28 - Pearl Jam - Corduroy

I know my overall meh-ness on grunge as a genre is coming through in the write-ups if not the rankings.  Vitalogy was the second-fasting selling album of all time (almost 900,000 copies in its first week) behind only PJ's previous record Versus.  Like STP and Soundgarden, I've never owned any PJ records in any format - felt like I didn't need to.  Vitalogy, Purple, and Superunkown were in constant rotation on the restaurant kitchen mini-stereo in the summers of '95 and '96 - at least on nights when the meathead kids from NY/NJ had dibs instead me or my buddy C-Pole.

Corduroy
One of their best. It’s just triumphant in every way.

 
#27 - Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline

My second favorite song on Purple - somehow shocked that I ended up with three STP songs on here (yes, I'm spotlighting.)  The single went #2 on the Modern Rock charts and #1 on Mainstream Rock - more evidence that grunge didn't just kill hair metal, but classic rock too.

Vasoline
This was the song that made me realize they were more than a Pearl Jam tribute act.

 
Something about being young and having a delivery job that doesn't require too too much physical labor is the bee's knees. I had a construction office job that required deliveries. Not too heavy stuff, under sixty pounds of concrete per bag, and I loved it. Trucking two hours to a site to deliver special tools and whatnot. Getting paid along the way. Cool beans. 
I only miss one thing about working in a kitchen - the ability to hurl obscenities at a fellow cook/server when they piss you off.  About once a month at my cushy office job, I find myself imagining what I would say if it wouldn't get me written up in Federal Employees' News Digest's You Be The Judge HR column.

 
Probably my most hated of the mainstream bands of the era...never really understood the adoration of Counting Crowes.
There it is. Can't be believe it took so long to get some Counting Crows hate up in here. You are far from alone.

 
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#25 - Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Sharon Osborne once described Billy Corgan as a "baldy #### in a dress."  Sounds about right.  I was lucky enough to see Smashing Pumpkins on the Gish tour (before he started wearing dresses).  Great show except for the parts when Billy would go off about how us rich college kids could never understand all the pain and despair in his songs.  Still love Gish though and 1993's Siamese Dream was even better.  Disarm, released as the third single in February 1994, was banned in the UK for the "cut that little child" lyric, which censors mistook as referring to either abortion or murdering a kid.  Really, it was just about Billy's parents.

Disarm

 

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