10 Songs That Had A Chokehold On The 90s. No escaping these earworms in the 90s. On radio, in the club, for better or worse they ruled the day. Many of these 10 songs that had a chokehold on the 90s were one-hit wonders, never to be heard again. A few were done by artists that continued to have somewhat successful careers afterward. In both cases, the world, for the most part, today knows their famous song better than the performer.

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What Makes A Song Have A Chokehold On An Entire Nation?

In the case of these songs, they all have a few things in common. First off, they all hit the charts in the 1990’s, a time when Generation X was coming of age. Musically, just about anything flew. Grunge, Metal, Alternative, Freestyle, Club Music, Techno, Industrial, Goth, Rap, Hip Hop, Country, and of course Pop music. So the landscape of American radio was vast, and hungry ears listening for something new were ripe for the picking, so to speak.

As you will see from this list, depth of message wasn’t always a prerequisite for these 10 songs that had a chokehold on the 90s. Nor was a prior success on the charts. Many of these artists came out of seemingly nowhere, and with one catchy tune with an ear-grabbing hook, heard over and over, played just about anywhere, became overnight sensations. Some relished the spotlight, while others remained enigmas, letting the song become the star.

To Be Honest, It Wasn’t Easy Keeping It At Just 10 Songs.

As we did our research, we realized two things: we had a lot of the same songs on our list, and each of us thought of valid songs the others had not! So we had to whittle these little earworms down to ten and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of yelling, filibustering, crying, whining, and even a few fist to cuffs! In the end, I’m proud of the list we’ve created, quite a bit more proud than I am that we, as a nation actually LOVED some of these babies. This is a perfect place to start our list of 10 songs that had a chokehold on the 90s!

Hey if you wanna here killer 90’s rock songs every day in the 6 pm hour, click here!

• ICE ICE BABY - VANILLA ICE. Released August 22nd 1990

  Oh cool, Under Pressure by Bowie and Queen is coming on! Whoops! Nope, it was just a sample of the iconic rock duet, a sample that launched one of the fastest rise and falls in the annals of American popular music. Robert Van Winkle could rap, dance, and with his Vanilla Ice persona, and breathy lyrics, he could make everyone believe he was rollin’ in his 5.0 as a banger from the streets of Miami. At least for a little while. But damn that song was catchy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE  

• CAN'T TOUCH THIS - MC HAMMER. Released May 28th, 1990

  About the time folks were discovering Ice Ice Baby, the biggest thing to hit American music was in full swing. The lyrics, the crab dance, the Superfreak sample, and oh those pants. MC Hammer, who before Hammer Time, was Stanley Burrell, a former batboy for the Oakland A’s.  Hammer was a hustler, selling copies of his song everywhere to anyone out the back of his trunk. All that hustle paid off with a number one single, number one album, Grammy Awards, and dozens of TV appearances. The song was everywhere.

   

• MACARENA (BAYSIDE BOYS MIX) - LOS DEL RIO. Released August 15th, 1995

  This tune was originally released by the Spanish pop duo Los Del Rio in 1992. However it wasn’t until the remixed dance version from the Bayside Boys was released in the summer of 1995 that the song grabbed ears in the States. By the summer of 1996, the New York Yankees had replaced their famous 7th inning stretch tradition of having the grounds crew dance the YMCA with the crew “doing the Macarena”. You remember how to do the Macarena, don’t you? Well if not, here is the video for the song, so you can remember your moves, AYYYYE!

   

• MY HEART WILL GO ON - CELINE DION. Released November 24th, 1997

  There are just as many reasons to hate everything about this song as there are to love and admire it. It’s all wrapped around the premise that a fictional love story is taking place during one of the most famous real life tragedies ever, and went on to become the biggest film of time. Then there was that song, with the flute or recorder or whatever the hell it was, Celine’s amazing, if not syrupy sweet voice, and Leo and Kate making it all too emotional for America. Titanic and that song seduced America, then left us crying and wanting more. Alas, there was no Titanic II. I do enjoy watching those Celine A Scene sports videos on YouTube though:

• MMMBOP - HANSON. Released April 15th, 1997

  Who knew America would get such an earworm treat on Tax Day 1997? The Tulsa Oklahoma Hanson Brothers, were musical prodigies, and were well established local Indie rockers when the Dust Brothers took the original slower version of the song an supped it up. The result was a worldwide feel good hit for the band, who still records and performs together today as middle aged mmmbopers! Interestingly, if you put the Closed Captions on during the video, when the music starts, it reads [Cheerful Music..]. LOL.

   

   

• MMM MMM MMM MMM - CRASH TEST DUMMIES. Released October 1st 1993

  I mean, while we’re on the subject of the letter M, let’s take this old horse out of the barn and saddle her up. Jeez, this one really brings me back. Back to a time when I thought “I could write a better song than this shit!” The premise is simple, “There are weird and different people in the world, and sometimes weird and different things happen to them, and you just gotta nod your head and say MMM MMM MMM MMM.” At least I think that’s what the Dummies meant by it. Either way, in the Fall of ’93 it had everybody mmmming.

• TUBTHUMPING - CHUMBAWAMBA. Released August 11th, 1997

  I actually really like this song. I liked it then, and I like now. I play it every blue moon on my 90s Palooza Show, and it always puts me in a good mood. It’s a bit of a manic song with the female Irish singing about Danny Boy, who apparently drinks wayyyy to much, however the message about getting knocked down and getting up again is something we can all relate too. As for the name of the song and the band? Well, it was the 90s after all.

   

• ONE WEEK - BARENAKED LADIES. Released September 15th, 1998

  I’ll say this for the Canadian rockers Barenaked Ladies, they fit a hell of a lot of content into two minutes and forty eight seconds. From rug burns, to Chinese chickens, to watching X Files with no lights on, it was pure Gen X bliss. Never really understood the reference to German composer Bert Kaempfert and his “mad hits”, but hey it was their 2:48.

• BABY GOT BACK - SIR MIX-A-LOT. Released May 7th, 1992

  Finally, some royalty on the list! Well Sir Mix-A-Lot wasn’t really royalty, but Anthony L. Ray did have a taste for the ladies, especially a certain part of them. This song catapulted Sir’s career into the stratosphere, and made big bootied women everywhere proud. As for men and their Anacondas, well, you best revisit the video here.

   

• MAMBO NUMBER 5 - LOU BEGA. Released April 19th, 1999

  1…2…345. An earworm of girls names that Lou Bega bounced to the original 1949 musical version of the song. It made him rich, and got him ultimately sued. However, if you were at the club in the summer of ’99, this was the jam that got the girls jumpin’, no matter what name they went by.

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