The 50 Best Pop Singles Of 1995 (Featuring New Interviews With Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Kylie Minogue, Monica, Ace Of Base & More!)
6. DIONNE FARRIS, “I KNOW”
It only took 20 years, but I’ve finally realized that Dionne Farris’s “I Know” — one of the most play-listed songs of 1995 — is a sonic wonder and pretty much a pop masterpiece. Smart, pointed lyrics, a loose but determined vocal, repetitive verses that build and build, each line adding to the emotional heft of a harmonic climax that eventually breaks you, liberates you, tells you what you already knew. In short, it’s a revelation. (“I know!” — Dionne) It was a song that blared everywhere in 1995, from SNL and The Tonight Show to each and every gas station, department store, restaurant and car in town, so perhaps I knew of its genius all along but was temporarily blinded from overexposure.
Of course, no single could break so big without casting an equally large shadow. After peaking at #4 on the Hot 100, “I Know” proved a hard act to follow. New Jersey native Farris, a singer-songwriter and former vocalist for Arrested Development, clashed creatively with her label, the relationship soured and two years passed before another hit materialized. (That would be 1997’s “Hopeless,” a dreamy jam from the Love Jones soundtrack.) Farris was bound for greater glory in an independent milieu, and that’s where she continues to thrive today. Lucky for us, the catchy-as-hell “I Know” continues to live on in supermarkets and restaurants, penetrating even the most unreliable of memories. — JOHN HAMILTON
5. BRANDY, “SITTIN’ UP IN MY ROOM”
The Waiting To Exhale soundtrack had its fair share of bangers that all straddled the line between sensual and scorned (much like the film). However, Brandy was at the beginning heights of her musical career and still just a teen, so her contribution was far more PG-rated. “Sittin’ Up In My Room” gave tons of feels, as the braided wunderkind wove a tale that encapsulated the universal experience of thinking of our crush within the confines of our own bedroom. By the time this song hit, the ink was just drying on the contract for Brandy’s hit TV series Moesha and she was on the verge of becoming a household name.
The video, where then-16-year-old Brandy and her friends are having a house party, yet she prefers to sit in her room and master the possibilities, features Donald Faison, who was wildly popular that year after portraying the role of Murray in Clueless. “Donald’s downstairs?!” Brandy yelps as her friend is reading off the eye candy guest list. See? Even she knew he was poppin’. It’s an innocent love story for any age — not to mention any girl who once used the word “crush” and didn’t have the luxuries of Snap Chat to let a guy know she liked him. Those were the days. — KATHY IANDOLI
4. ALANIS MORISSETTE, “HAND IN MY POCKET” (Interview)
Alanis Morissette introduced herself to America by spewing enough acidic vitriol to fuel a thousand diss tracks, then went and did an about-face with the jangly, optimistic second single “Hand In My Pocket.” In the space of two songs, she confounded a public (and industry) that was used to filing artists into simplified categories.
“There was a time 20 years ago when you weren’t allowed, quote unquote, to be integrated. You weren’t allowed to be rock-pop-alternative-salsa-country. You had to pick one thing,” Morissette says over the phone. “So at the time, ‘Hand In My Pocket’ definitely marked that if someone said, ‘You’re just rock,’ I would always come back with, ‘And I’m also pop.’ And if someone said ‘You’re so pop,’ I’d say ‘I’m also a badass rocker.’ I was always fighting for everything then.”
“Now, this is the era of integration,” she adds, “which, by the way, is not a moment too soon.”
The single would eventually top the Modern Rock charts — no small feat considering the aggro nature of the genre back then. It was a promising indication that the music world was ready for a boundary-blurring star who was eager to carve out her own territory, and it’s easy to chart a throughline from this point directly to the women dominating the conversation today who willfully defy categorization, from Grimes to Nicki Minaj. But beyond laying the groundwork for artists who would flout rigid industry stratifications, “Hand In My Pocket” also serves as the thesis statement for Jagged Little Pill, and even Morissette’s entire career. Regarding the song’s dualities and contradictions, she said “it was a perfect marking of the mission.”
“It touches on the psychological part, and different aspects of self. I’ve always been everything and eventually, of course, I wind up writing a song about it because I had to.” — CARL WILLIOTT
3. OASIS, “WONDERWALL”
When the editor of Idolator asked me to participate in this 1995 song project, I looked back at my playlists and thought, “Well, I played the shit out of ‘Wonderwall.’ I want THAT.” On my first trip to London in October ‘95, I remember hearing this everywhere. Shop girls singing along, drunken pub crawlers wailing. The album it’s pulled from, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, is a flawless pop-rock gem, and “Wonderwall,” which begins with — literally — a cough, is the first renowned power ballad of what would become the Britpop era.
There are arguably better songs on the album (“Don’t Look Back in Anger,” anyone?), but Wonderwall soars in both its optimism and Liam Gallagher’s committed — and very British — vocal. For such a laddish, ornery bloke, he sings his heart out on this. Since the song’s release, he and brother Noel (who wrote the song) have had more fights than hits. The band is, for now, dormant. I‘ve been to London many times since and I wonder, in this age of EDM, whether this kind of track could ever have a worldwide impact again. The globalized music business has stripped pop hits of their unique cultural identities and romanticism. Whatever. In 1995, I was there, singing along with everyone else. — STEPHEN SEARS
2. NO DOUBT, “JUST A GIRL”
“Take this pink ribbon off my eyes. I’m exposed, and it’s no big surprise.” Most of us weren’t hip to No Doubt prior to those very words uttered by frontwoman Gwen Stefani at the start of “Just A Girl.” “Don’t you think I know exactly where I stand,” she continues, “this world is forcing me to hold your hand.” It came at an ideal moment. Riot Grrrl was well underway, and while the Anaheim, California outfit wasn’t exactly an extension of that movement, the sentiment of their introductory single tied in perfectly with the tune of the times. “Just A Girl” was a feminist anthem: bold, ironic, sardonic and sarcastic — as Stefani rattled off a list of everything she couldn’t do because she was, well, just a girl.
Urban legend tells us that Gwen penned this first single off No Doubt’s third (yet breakout) album Tragic Kingdom in response to her dad’s concern over her driving to then-boyfriend and bandmate Tony Kanal’s house at night. She even alludes to that in the song when she says, “I’m just a girl, I’d rather not be, ’cause they won’t let me drive late at night.” Such an anti-establishment anthem for women who grew tired of being smothered by stereotypes. And it spoke wildly to the genre No Doubt was wedged in. The Ska movement, like most niche genres, was something of a boys club, and Stefani had to prove her power by being one of the baddest. It worked out well for her and still does to this day.
The video, looking half b-roll/half Instagram filter, shows Stefani leaned up against a crashed car (probably one she cracked up since “girls can’t drive”) heading with her band to practice. The scenes are split, as the boys in the band get to have fun in the filthy men’s room jamming out, while Gwen dances alone in the posh ladies room as two bathroom maids sit and monitor her moves. Eventually Gwen’s “had it up to here,” and throws a party of her own with a bunch of ladies. By the end, the walls metaphorically come down and everyone gets to party together. If that’s not a microcosm of society, then what is?
“Just A Girl” wasn’t the biggest No Doubt hit, by far. It only landed at#23 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, but the song didn’t need accolades to become an instant classic. The track introduced us to Gwen, the epitome of Girl Power, who would ultimately sprinkle this femme outlook into the pop world. What’s most ironic about “Just A Girl” is really how little has changed in two decades; women are still ripping pink ribbons off their eyes, so 20 years later “Just A Girl” can still be replayed, absorbed and understood in response to everything happening around us. This is a song that stood the test of time, and while it wasn’t No Doubt’s most successful track on the charts, it was arguably one of their most meaningful. — KATHY IANDOLI
