The 50 Best Pop Singles Of 1995 (Featuring New Interviews With Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Kylie Minogue, Monica, Ace Of Base & More!)

19. ANNIE LENNOX, “NO MORE ‘I LOVE YOU’S”

“I don’t find myself bouncing home whistling buttonhole tunes to make me cry.” Not your standard Top 40 radio lyric, is it? Annie Lennox, in 1995, didn’t do standard. She boldly launched the all-covers follow-up to her world-dominating solo debut, Diva, with this version of The Lover Speaks’ obscure 1986 single. This song, a Grammy winner for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, is a linguist’s delight — “changes are shifting outside the word” — with a lyric about the verbal clues of a fading love affair.

Lennox’s theatrical vocal is on a high wire throughout the song, climbing up and down the scales. She made subtle tweaks to the original lyrics and added a bizarre, spoken middle eight in which she assumes a child’s voice, gushing, “There are monsters outside!” The lush moment at 3:08, when a multi-tracked Lennox cascades back in, is flat-out beautiful. “No More ‘I Love You’s” lives as a testament to the power of the vocalist as an actor. — STEPHEN SEARS

18. PULP, “COMMON PEOPLE”

Jarvis Cocker is, by American standards, an unlikely anti-hero. Before he became known for jumping onstage  at the 1996 BRIT Awards and shaking his ass at the audience while Michael Jackson performed that terrible single “Earth Song,” Cocker took the UK by storm with a series of songs that gave the finger, with wit, to staid British society. He was a wicked mix of social commentator and nerdy fop. Cocker has never revealed who he wrote “Common People” about, but it’s the story of a rich girl who’s slumming it with a lower class dude: “I said, ‘Pretend you’ve got no money’ / She just laughed and said, ‘Oh you’re so funny’.”

As a commentary on the British class system, “Common People” struck a nerve. It hit #2 on the UK chart, but had little impact in America. Didn’t matter — the band’s performance of it at the 1996 Glastonbury festival is legendary and the album from which it came, Different Class, remains an iconic Britpop masterpiece. It secured Cocker’s status in the upper echelons of UK pop/rock. — STEPHEN SEARS

17. LIVIN’ JOY, “Dreamer” (Interview)

Oh, hell yeah, “Dreamer” — that was the definitive club jam of 1995. Whether you were partying at Sound Factory in NYC or hanging at a hole in the wall in Ohio, you heard “Dreamer” at some point in the night. Just a whiff of that intro, the staccato gasp of omniscient diva Janice Robinson followed by a distinctive, rollicking synth riff, was enough to cause a stampede to the dance floor. I still taste rum and coke in my mouth when I hear that intro today.

Coming on like a giddy little sister of Robin S‘ 1993 floor filler “Show Me Love,” the ebullient “Dreamer” was the brainchild of the Visnadi brothers, Italian producers Paolo and Gianni, who raised the stakes for deep house with their colorful, energetic production style. As if the jumbo-sized synth bloops and hyper, screeching organ weren’t enough to win over the crowds, the rip-roaring chorus of “Dreamer” was guaranteed to stick in heads and make fools of amateur lip-syncers. Delivering that twisty, fascinating bit of wordplay was none other than the song’s co-writer, veteran club performer Robinson.

On putting the song together, Paolo (who also co-produced the #21 entry in our list, Alex Party’s “Don’t Give Me Your Life”) recounts: “I met Janice in a club in Jesolo, Italy, in the summer of 1990. She came for a live show and we really liked her vocal timbre and grit, and after almost a year we met again. That’s when we decided to make this happen. I remember, mainly, the fact of having recorded the takes of the voice with an eight-track tape recorder and everything was controlled via midi through an Atari computer!”

From there the single was launched, following the standard route of conquering the underground house scene before blossoming into a full-fledged Euro hit on a major label (MCA). World domination was imminent, and that included a #1 hit in England, Top 5 placing throughout Europe, and utter ubiquity anywhere that had a strobe light and a speaker. (An eventual #76 placing on the Billboard Hot 100 was disappointing, but not surprising.) All of this success was bolstered by a video that needs to be seen to be believed, a very ‘90s affair with more than the required quota of diaphanous outfits, muscle studs, chihuahuas, wigs,and Robinson dressed as a showgirl on a carousel horse bathed in mist. In other words: instant classic!

After “Dreamer” ran its course, Robinson departed Livin Joy for a bit of her own solo success. A sizable airplay hit in 1999, “Nothing I Would Change” (which lyrically referenced her success with “Dreamer”) was followed by a stint opening for Tina Turner. Later she accrued an impressive resume of songwriting for other artists, including Taylor Dayne, Ashley Tisdale, and Abigail. Livin’ Joy lived on, too, with the Visnadis bringing in a new vocalist for a string of further hits, including “Don’t Stop Movin” (which bested “Dreamer” with a #67 Hot 100 placing) and “Follow the Rules.”

Today, Paolo hints that “it’s never too late” to pick up where “Dreamer” left off, but when pressed to choose a favorite between his two 1995 classics, Livin’ Joy and Alex Party, he protests: “For me, they have the same value because they belong to the same family and period — an amazing one!” — JOHN HAMILTON

16. EDWYN COLLINS, “A GIRL LIKE YOU”

Like Liv Tyler’s mohair midriff sweater, Edwyn Collins’ reign as rock royalty was short but iconic. The deep-voiced Scot had been in the game for a long time — as frontman of Orange Juice, he wrote and performed their 1983 minor UK hit “Rip It Up.” But Collins broke though with “A Girl Like You,” easily the best cut on the excellent Empire Records soundtrack.

A dark, driving ode to female forces of nature who eat you alive while you’re loving every second of it, “Girl” is as sexy as it is spooky. Kind of shocking, then, that it only went to #32 on the Hot 100 and #4 in the UK. At least the Belgians got it right, shooting Edwyn to the top of the charts as fast as Empire’s Renée Zellweger slithers out of her panties on Rex Manning Day. — JONATHAN RIGGS

15. MARIAH CAREY, “FANTASY”

Mariah dominated the ‘90s pop music scene and is often credited with introducing R&B and hip hop into pop’s traditional bounty of bubblegum confections. Mariah’s sweet, sweet “Fantasy” was just one such song to do just that, all while remaining as sticky-fluffy-fun as cotton candy. When you give the song a listen today, hip hop might be the last thing you hear, but 20 years ago, “Fantasy” was different; and speaking of different, its music video is a classic to behold: Mariah muses on about her fantasy man while rollerblading (oh, those knee pads), riding a roller coaster and sway-dancing atop a Jeep — all while wearing a hoodie crop-top. How can you not love 1995?

This was not the mega-hit that was her “One Sweet Day,” which remains the longest-running #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but “Fantasy” is a near-perfect example of a song with melded genres that satisfies across multiple music demographics. The song has the distinction of being the first by a female artist to debut atop the Hot 100, and it was Carey’s ninth #1. (The diva does have 18 of them!) Mimi deserved the glory, sounding like an angel and looking effortlessly beautiful…suspect hoodie crop-top and all. — MIKE WOOD