The first Top Ten list I made in the Seventies was simply my favorite songs of
the year. I was so embarrassed when the lists were printed in The Austin
Sun and my staggeringly MOR tastes stuck out among the vibrant album
choices of luminaries like Bill Bentley and Bobby Eakin. For years, I hid the
fact that, for me, it often was the song, and not the singer. This was
my secret shame: I was a song slut. I carefully hid it for years with big talk
about albums, concepts, and continuity, but inside I was really just a singles
gal. It’s why I have stacks of CDs and vinyl that I like for just one
song.
I tried ineptly to explain this to a friend one night about three years ago.
He shrugged and said, “Sometimes I just like the song, not the group.” I was
stunned at this admission. Yes! This is what I’d felt all along. I
embraced this newly found liberation with glee. I bought CD and cassette
singles like mad. I played Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend” endlessly (still do)
and reveled in the glory of three-to-five-minute gems like I was 12 years old
and buying 45s during the first British invasion.
Nineteen ninety-four was a tough act to follow in terms of singles, with great
songs like the Offspring’s “Come Out and Play” and Ini Kamoze’s “(Here Comes
the) Hotstepper,” but there wasn’t a month in 1995 where I wasn’t sailing from
one song or another. My favorite songs of 1995 were ebullient, joyous, and
probably predictably mundane. Still, I thought Oasis’ “Morning Glory” was as
perfect a single as this year produced. Here are the others that caught my
ear:
Foo Fighters “I’ll Stick Around,” Southern Culture on the Skids “Nitty
Gritty,” Chris Isaak “Somebody’s Cryin’,” Seal “Kiss From a Rose,” Chris Isaak
“Go Walkin’ Down There,” Seven Year Bitch “Hip Like Junk,” White Zombie “More
Human Than Human” and “Electric Head Pt. 2 (The Ecstasy),” Dave Matthews Band
“What Would You Say?,” Salt-n-Pepa “Ain’t Nothing But a She Thing,” Sixteen
Deluxe “Idea,” Elastica “Connection,” Live “All Over You,” Ed Hall “Pollution,”
Babes in Toyland “Sweet ’69,” Rolling Stones “Jump on Top of Me,” Joan Osborne
“Right Hand Man,” AC/DC “Hard as a Rock,” David Ball “What Do You Want With His
Love?,” Apache Indian, “Boom-Shak-A-Lak,” Monster Magnet “Negasonic Teenage
Warhead,” PJ Harvey “Under the Bridge,” Dash Rip Rock “Let’s Go Smoke Some
Pot,” k.d. lang “If I Were You,” Spot “Moon June Spoon, “Bush “Everything’s
Zen,” Juliana Hatfield “Heartbeat,” Smashing Pumpkins “Bullet With Butterfly
Wings.” – Margaret Moser
This article appears in January 5 • 1996 and January 5 • 1996 (Cover).