Smells Like Teen Spirit
1991 · From Nevermind
Four chords, a mumble nobody could decipher, and the riff that ended one decade of rock and started another.
★ 9.9
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1991
Showing 53 songs from 1991
Losing My ReligionR.E.M.
Losing My Religion
1991 · From Out of Time
Buck wrote the riff while teaching himself mandolin in front of the television, and R.E.M. got their biggest American hit.
★ 8.2
Enter Sandman
1991 · From Metallica (The Black Album)
Hammett built the riff after Soundgarden's Louder Than Love, and Bob Rock sent Hetfield back to write a child's nightmare.
★ 8.1
Come as You Are
1991 · From Nevermind
A Small Clone chorus pedal gives the riff its underwater sound, and Cobain nearly withheld the single.
★ 8.0
Mind Playing Tricks On Me
1991
An Isaac Hayes loop from Tough Guys, three verses by Scarface, and a rap record about fear rather than swagger.
★ 7.7
Under the Bridge
1991 · From Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Rubin found the poem in Kiedis's notebook and pushed for it; Frusciante's mother sings in the choir at the end.
★ 7.7
Scenario
1991 · From The Low End Theory
Five MCs passing the microphone, and Busta Rhymes at nineteen turning a guest verse into an entire career.
★ 7.6
Alive
1991 · From Ten
Gossard's demo was called Dollar Short until Vedder set it to learning who his real father was.
★ 7.6
In Bloom
1991 · From Nevermind
Cobain aimed it at fans who missed the point, and Kerslake's video staged them on a mock Ed Sullivan Show.
★ 7.4
Lithium
1991 · From Nevermind
The only Nevermind track cut to a click track, and Grohl's metronome only makes the quiet-loud lurch hit harder.
★ 7.4
Can I Kick It?
1991 · From People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
A borrowed Lou Reed bassline that reportedly took all the royalties, and a call-and-response hook the crowd finishes.
★ 7.3
Give it Away
1991 · From Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Nina Hagen handed Kiedis a jacket from her closet, and Frusciante ran his solo backwards over Flea's jam-session riff.
★ 7.2
OPPNaughty by Nature
OPP
1991
A loop of the Jackson 5's "ABC," Melvin Bliss drums, and an acronym that carried the group to number six.
★ 6.9
I Can't Make You Love Me
1991
Bruce Hornsby's piano behind a vocal Raitt cut in one take, then refused to try again.
★ 6.7
Nothing Else Matters
1991 · From Metallica (The Black Album)
By Hetfield's account the open-string intro came one-handed during a phone call, and Kamen's strings did the rest.
★ 6.6
Remember the Time
1991 · From Dangerous
Teddy Riley's new jack swing under a nostalgia lyric, with John Singleton staging the video in ancient Egypt.
★ 6.5
Black or White
1991 · From Dangerous
Bill Bottrell played the riff everyone credits to Slash, then rapped the verse himself after eight months of searching.
★ 6.5
The Choice Is Yours
1991
An upright bass loop, a playground chant for a hook, and a remix that so eclipsed the original nobody plays it.
★ 6.3
Mysterious Ways
1991 · From Achtung Baby
Grown from a Dublin jam called Sick Puppy, and Edge's Korg funk-wah setting turned Clayton's bassline into U2's funkiest record.
★ 6.2
Summertime
1991
Hula and K. Fingers looped Kool and the Gang's Summer Madness, and the duo won a Grammy for it.
★ 6.1
How I Could Just Kill a Man
1991 · From Cypress Hill
Muggs looped Lowell Fulson's 1967 "Tramp" for the guitar and bass, and B-Real's nasal whine arrived fully formed.
★ 6.0
Motownphilly
1991
Michael Bivins raps their discovery story over Dallas Austin's new jack swing, with a doo-wop turn at the close.
★ 6.0
Tears in Heaven
1991
Will Jennings helped finish a lyric Clapton wrote after his four-year-old son died; three Grammys followed in 1993.
★ 5.9
Yellow Ledbetter
1991
McCready's riff was a Ten outtake, and Vedder improvised a lyric he has been rewriting onstage ever since.
★ 5.9
Into the Great Wide Open
1991 · From Into the Great Wide Open
Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote Eddie's rise and fall as one unbroken story; Johnny Depp played him on screen.
★ 5.8
Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg
1991 · From Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip
Dallas Austin stacked seven samples, an Average White Band loop sped up, and Left Eye wrote the rap.
★ 5.6
Shut 'em Down
1991 · From Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Black
Chuck D aimed it at corporations that profit off Black neighborhoods without reinvesting, and Pete Rock's remix outgrew the original.
★ 5.6
Learnin' to Fly
1991 · From Into the Great Wide Open
Four chords, F, C, A minor, G, looping unchanged while Petty and Jeff Lynne make uplift sound effortless.
★ 5.5
Everything's Gonna Be AlrightNaughty by Nature
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
1991
Treach turned a fatherless East Orange childhood into verse, with Marley's chorus supplying the only comfort on offer.
★ 5.3
Emotions
1991
Clivilles and Cole of C+C Music Factory built the disco lift; Carey's whistle register handles everything above it.
★ 5.2
It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
1991
Four voices, no instruments, a 1975 Cooley High ballad rebuilt a cappella and carried to number two.
★ 5.1
Don't Rock the Jukebox
1991
Jackson leaned against a wobbly jukebox in a Virginia lounge, left with the title, and George Jones got name-checked.
★ 5.0
Something to Talk About
1991
A Shirley Eikhard song Raitt carried to number five, her biggest American hit, and a Grammy for that vocal.
★ 4.9
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
1991
Elton John joined Michael onstage near Chicago in October 1991, and the live duet topped both charts.
★ 4.3
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)
1991
Martha Wash sang the hook uncredited, then sued; her settlement put vocalist credits on MTV, and the floor still fills.
★ 4.3
Life is a Highway (Tom Cochrane)
1991
A Red Rider demo called "Love Is a Highway", revived after Cochrane's World Vision trip to eastern Africa.
★ 4.2
Now That We Found Love
1991
Eighteen years after the O'Jays cut it in Philadelphia, Teddy Riley rebuilt it as hip-house for Heavy D.
★ 4.1
I Love Your SmileShanice
I Love Your Smile
1991
Branford Marsalis blowing a jazz solo across Narada Michael Walden's production, and Shanice sounds like she is actually smiling.
★ 3.9