Favorite Songs of 1994

In the summer of 1994, I was looking forward to the release of REM’s new album, anticipating something along the line of their previous two blockbusters, Out of Time and Automatic For the People. The first track released for radio, titled What’s the Frequency Kenneth, was radically different. It was more of a hard piece, with a “wall of guitar” sound permeating the background throughout the song. When their new CD Monster was released soon thereafter, I immediately went out and bought it. I was stunned at the difference in this album from anything they had done (which was pretty good as well). Monster was a stark, loud, forceful album that is still one of my all-time favorites. And my favorite song of 1994, Let Me In, was on it as a deep track, buried deep near the end. Let Me In was a stirring lament that Michael Stipe wrote for Nirvana’s creative force Kurt Cobain, who had taken his own life earlier that year. Here are my favorites from 1994:

Cannonball (Breeders)
Buddy Holly (Weezer)
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) (Us3)
Come Out And Play (Offspring)
Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins)
Down With Disease Pfish)
Gotta Get Away (Offspring)
In The Night (Real McCoy)
Longview (Motivation) (Green Day)
Mmm-Mmm-Mmm-Mmm (Crash Test Dummies)
Return To Innocence (Enigma)
Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
The Sign (Ace of Base)
Streets Of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen)
Laid (James)
Today (Smashing Pumpkins)
Walls (Yes)
In The House Of Stone And Light (Martin Page)
Love Is Strong (Rolling Stones)
You Got Me Rocking (Rolling Stones)
Secret (Madonna)
Take A Bow (Madonna)
What's The Frequency Kenneth (REM)
Crush With Eyeliner (REM)
King Of Comedy (REM)
I Don't Sleep I Dream (REM)
Star 69 (REM)
I Took Your Name (REM)
Let Me In (REM)
Circus Envy (REM)
Leaving Las Vegas (Sheryl Crow)
All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow)
Strong Enough (Sheryl Crow)

There were many tearjerkers from 1994: the aforementioned Let Me In, Bruce Springsteen’s movie soundtrack hit Streets of Philadelphia, Elton John's Can You Feel the Love Tonight (from The Lion King) and Madonna’s elegant, poignant Take a Bow. But the Crash Test Dummies came out with one of the most heart-rendering songs I have ever heard in Mmm-Mmm-Mmm-Mmm, a piece describing the trials that children have to endure in life. Us3 sampled a famous Herbie Hancock piece with their “funky-funky” Cantaloop. Sheryl Crow made her “debut” with great tunes like Leaving Las Vegas and Strong Enough (another tearjerker). And the Rolling Stones, already being described in 1994 as having one foot in the grave, produced (in my opinion) their best album since 1978’s Some Girls with Voodoo Lounge. My favorite from it was the great, appropriately-named tune You Got Me Rocking.