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I listen to a lot of podcasts when I drive whether it’s CheapShow or the LBC Mystery Hour, music radio isn’t something I listen to often. If you’ve listened to our podcast recently, you’ll understand that I’m somewhat stuck in the late 80s and 90s which brings us to this post: What would be my ideal 90s playlist? I jumped on to Apple and YouTube Music and started listening to and watching amazing music videos that took me back to many times in my life!
So, in no particular order we have:
Fugees – Ready or Not, 1996
This song doesn’t bring back memories of 1996 nor did I listen to it when it first came out. Instead it reminds me heavily of the year 1999 when I was heading towards my final year of school. To get to Parmiters each day I would catch the school coach who pretty much always listened to local radio stations. During the summer of ’99 Ready or Not was played constantly and with the hot weather I match that with our yer groups final trip to Sports day. Maybe it was the fact it was the final sports day for me or possibly just the way my brain works but I will always remember sitting on a hot coach en route to day lounging in the sun.
Green Day – Good Riddance (Time of your life), 1996
I only discovered this song whilst watching an episode of E.R (Season 4, Episode 18) and wondering what the hell it was. I didn’t have a computer at the time let alone the internet so had to rely on my middle brother to tell me what it was. As per my first music memories post, you’ll know Roland was a Green Day fan with his hooky copy of Kerplunk so it wasn’t surprising he had a CD single of the song. I fell in love with the song and have even learnt it on the Ukulele which alone gave it a spot on this list.
R.E.M – Losing My Religion, 1991
I love REM whether the song played is ‘Man on the moon’, ‘Everybody hurts’ or ‘It’s the end of the world’. ‘Everybody hurts’ just reminds me of a certain group of young people from Chiswell Green singing ‘Everybody’s stoned’ whilst ‘it’s the end of the world’ takes me back to the first airing of Independence Day in the Hatfield Odeon. Losing my religion is one of if not my favourite of their songs and I listen to it regularly.
The Cranberries – Zombie, 1994
It still amazes me how a song can bring back vivid memories of times past. We already know I’m a geek so it shouldn’t surprise you that once upon a time I collected Warhammer 40,000, a Games Workshop role playing game. To purchase the models I would have to wait for Mum to take me to Watford with that being our nearest store, come the mid 90’s that changed with the St Albans store opening. Mick was the manager at the time, a rotund gent who was genuinely a nice guy more interested in showing kids how to paint and play than making a profit. The store played the same CD on repeat for years with Zombie being one of the songs, it’ll always remind me of those times in store as well as being a great song.
The Lighthouse Family – High, 1997
I can’t tell you when I first heard this song but it has always been a firm favourite for the 90’s. Other than their hits ‘Ocean Drive’ and ‘Lifted’ I couldn’t tell you what happened to them as a group.
The Lemonheads – It’s All True, 1996
Another song I found through my brother Roland. He had quite a large CD collection of weird and wonderful songs and when he moved out to go to Univeristy I rustled through the boxes; One of these boxes contained his collection of singles which is where I stumbled across It’s all true. I’ve listened to this song regularly ever since and will remain doing so for a long time to come.
Bare Naked Ladies – It’s all been done, 1998
How can you not love this song? Yes, the Bare Naked Ladies have had some amazing hits and it’s incredibly hard to choose which one I would put on a 90’s playlist. Realistically I’d put multiple songs by them on an iTunes playlist but for this I’ll stick with one song. I discovered the Bare Naked Ladies when I bought the album Stunt from CD Warehouse in Watford. It was a second hand copy and took a lot of cleaning before it would play without skipping but once it worked? I must have played it continuously for months on end.
The Verve – The Drugs don’t work, 1997
On the 31st August 1997 Princess Diana died and on the 1st of September 1997 The Verve released their album ‘Urban Hymns’. At the grand age of 13 I couldn’t really care about the death of a member of the royal family, no matter how nice she was, instead I did care that all my TV shows had been cancelled and all I had to watch was news channels. I walked in to St Albans town to see what I could find to do and to help me get through the walk I listed to the radio. This song was played and ever since I get the memory of wandering through an empty town centre trying to find something to do. The mix of guitar, violins and haunting lyrics make this a must for my playlist.
Weezer – Buddy Holly, 1994
I was mercilessly bullied through my early years of secondary school when people found out I listened to 50’s and 60’s rock n roll, it was different and it didn’t fit in with what other people enjoyed. Around 1996 / 1997 My oldest brother Richard bought a computer from Dell using his first few pay cheques from working at a nursing home, with it came Windows ’95 Plus! Now those of you that are geeks will know that the Windows ’95 disc had some surprises including some pretty decent games but did you know it also had a music video? Of course you did, everybody knows that now but back then it was incredible to find. The song in question was Buddy Holly by Weezer and was done using clips of Happy Day’s and green screen. The song is a favourite as is the blue and green albums they released back in the 90’s.
4 Non Blondes – What’s Up
For my tenth and final song (if this was the 90’s I’d only have a cassette Walkman to listen to these on) I’m going to go for something a little different to everything else. This is another song that came off the Games Workshop CD, played day after day in the St Albans store. I love the club mix, I love the original and let’s face it, when you’re driving down a road in the sunshine this is one hell of a song to sing out loud and look nuts!
There are son many songs and artists I could have featured should I have had time. Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene and Reef are just a few to be named. What would your 90’s playlist be?
These songs can all be found over on YouTube.
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