I love hip hop but I don’t know a lot of songs all the way through. This one I do, and the song helped catapult this artist into superstardom. Who knows where this rapper/actor would be today were it not for this song and how it made him a mainstream force. Our #6 song released 30 years ago today is It Was a Good Day by Ice Cube.
Come on…I know you don’t want to…but try as you might, as soon as you hear this song, you’re going to want to move your head sideways. Lots of songs conjure up multiple images, but sometimes, one song just has one image stuck with it. Yet its popularity today knows no bounds, so much so that this song deserves a place in this countdown, and it arrives at #7. It’s What is Love by Haddaway.
The grunge era of Nirvana and Pearl Jam helped pave the way for bands like our next entrant. This band ended up with lots of hits but this song stands out still as probably their best song from their debut album Core. It’s still played a lot today and sounds just as fresh now as it did back then. Our #8 1993 song is Plush by Stone Temple Pilots.
The next entry in this countdown is our 2nd entry from Ms. Jackson and arguably her biggest hit from this album. If you listen to similar songs before and after this, you realize how much this song actually changed the game for R&B. The production of such songs were never the same and seemed to follow production path of this track. And also, my wife and I just love the tune. At #9 it’s That’s The Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson.
We begin the top 10 of the best songs released in 1993 with (as indicated in my other countdown) a song I had to discover again in my searches before finishing up this list. I recall it being a big club hit growing up, and you still hear it play at sporting events too, enough to where it had to make its way in this countdown. And it stops at #10, it’s Another Night by Real McCoy.
We reach the halfway point with another potentially controversial entry. Still, I would argue that this song continues to get a lot of airplay, and the lyrical content fits what a lot of us aspiring musicians and rock stars have gone through and what we all ultimately (if not secretly) want. It’s also the band’s biggest song, and wraps up the bottom half of the 1993 countdown at #11. It’s Mr. Jones by Counting Crows.