Favorite Songs of 1998

For the first few months of 1998, I greatly enjoyed listening on the radio to truly alternative rock music off 97.7-WRRX “97X”. Unfortunately, that time was short-lived because WRRX changed ownership in the late spring, as well as frequency and call letters (to 97.3-WSKY) It started a new format in June with (conservative) talk shows and news. For the rest of the year, I listened to 105.3-WYKS “Kiss-105” and 103.7-WRUF “Rock 104” for my music. I managed to procure a copy in 1998 of the Foo Fighters’ 1997 release, The Colour and the Shape, and included several tracks from it among my favorites. Here’s the list of my most-liked songs from 1998 (as I lived it):

Ain't Going To Goa (A3)
Good Riddance (Green Day)
Building A Mystery (Sarah McLachlan)
Karma Police (Radiohead)
The Shelf In The Room (Days of the New)
I Don't Want To Wait (Paula Cole)
The Way (Fastball)
Closing Time (Semisonic)
Mummer's Dance (Loreena McKennitt)
Shimmer (Fuel)
The Real World (Matchbox 20)
Push It (Garbage)
Most High (Plant-Page)
This Kiss (Faith Hill)
Adia (Sarah McLachlan)
Ava Adore (Smashing Pumpkins)
Space Lord (Monster Magnet)
Shining In The Light (Plant-Page)
Intergalactic (Beastie Boys)
One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
Celebrity Skin (Hole)
Lullaby (Shawn Mullins)
Fly Away (Lenny Kravitz)
Ray Of Light (Madonna)
The Power Of Goodbye (Madonna)
Hey Johnnie Park (Foo Fighters)
My Poor Brain (Foo Fighters)
Enough Space (Foo Fighters)
February Stars (Foo Fighters)

Sarah McLachlan’s Building a Mystery actually was a 1997 hit that I didn’t get around to paying attention to until early in 1998. Since then, it’s gradually grown more and more to my liking until now it’s my #2 all-time favorite song! But back then, my favorite song of the year was Lenny Kravitz’s great, loud, screaming ode to escape, Fly Away. Right behind it was the spooky Karma Police by Radiohead and the Beatle-like The Way by Fastball (a band that has since disappointed me with its lack of follow-up hits). Courtney Love’s band Hole surprised me with a well-crafted hit in Celebrity Skin. Madonna enchanted with the dreamy songs Ray of Light and The Power of Goodbye. Green Day stepped out of their pattern and produced a poignant, acoustic song in Good Riddance. Garbage’s Push It was one of their best, in my opinion. And the tearjerker-of-the-year award for 1998 was split between two songs: Fuel’s debut hit Shimmer and Shawn Mullins’s sweet ode to a struggling young lady in Lullaby.