The Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda Files: Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul Mash Things Up

Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we raid our cassingle collection in search of a lost gem.

Artist: Teenage Fanclub & De La Soul Song: “Fallin’,” 1993 What happened:If you’re between the ages of, say, 28 and 33, chances are you ran out and bought the Judgment Night soundtrack the day it came out; chances are also good that you sold it to a crappy off-campus CD store halfway through sophomore year. Released at the height of major-label alt-rock mania, the album paired up unlikely collaborators from hip-hop and rock (Pearl Jam & Cypress Hill, Mudhoney & Sir Mix-A-Lot) and forced them to squeeze out a track that would ideally appeal to both bands’ audiences. This was years before rap-rock took over, and your Idolators remember seeing the posters and thinking this was going to be the most amazing album of all time. It was not. Why it should have been a hit: A shrugging, bittersweet tale of letting success get to one’s head, “Fallin'” is by far the best moment on Judgment: The Fannies contribute a slack soft-rock guitar line, De La Soul goof around and quote from “Dazzey Duks,” and a brief snippet of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'” floats through it all. Maybe we’re just high on nostalgia, but hearing this song makes us happier than playing jump-rope with a bunch of newborn kittens.

Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul – Fallin’ [MP3, link expired]