C.R.E.A.M.
1994 · From Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
RZA looped a lonely piano figure from the Charmels, and Inspectah Deck's second verse became hip hop scripture.
★ 8.9
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1994
Showing 68 songs from 1994
N.Y. State of Mind
1994 · From Illmatic
Premier built the beat on the spot; Nas nailed verse one in a take, muttering doubt into the intro.
★ 8.7
Juicy
1994 · From Ready to Die
Poke and Combs looped Mtume's Juicy Fruit, and Wallace told the rags to riches story that hip hop kept retelling.
★ 8.5
Hallelujah
1994 · From Grace
Buckley learned it from John Cale's version and cut over twenty takes at Bearsville; the edit sounds like one breath.
★ 8.2
Sabotage
1994 · From Ill Communication
Yauch's bass line started it, Ad-Rock turned a joke about their producer into a scream, and Jonze filmed the rest.
★ 8.0
The World Is Yours
1994 · From Illmatic
Ahmad Jamal's piano figure, a hook Pete Rock sang himself, and the most hopeful stretch of Illmatic.
★ 7.9
Black Hole Sun
1994 · From Superunknown
A Leslie speaker gives the guitars their swirl, and Cornell built the title from a misheard news broadcast.
★ 7.7
All I Want For Christmas Is You
1994
Carey and Afanasieff wrote it fast in 1994 from Spector chords, and it reached number one twenty-five years later.
★ 7.7
Basket Case
1994 · From Dookie
Armstrong rewrote it around his undiagnosed panic attacks, cut it at Fantasy Studios, and sold punk to the suburbs.
★ 7.7
Live Forever
1994 · From Definitely Maybe
Gallagher wrote it in 1991, before Oasis had a record deal, pitching plain optimism against everything grunge was selling.
★ 7.7
Big Poppa
1994 · From Ready to Die
Chucky Thompson built it on the Isley Brothers' Between the Sheets, and Biggie made charm sound entirely effortless.
★ 7.6
Loser
1994 · From Mellow Gold
Six and a half hours in Stephenson's house, a slide guitar loop, and a hook mocking Beck's own rapping.
★ 7.6
Life's a Bitch
1994 · From Illmatic
AZ's first appearance on record, the only rapper Nas let onto Illmatic, and his father Olu Dara closing on trumpet.
★ 7.5
Where Did You Sleep Last Night
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Closing the Unplugged set at Sony Studios, a Lead Belly song, and a last verse Neil Young called unearthly.
★ 7.4
I Used to Love H.E.R.
1994 · From Resurrection
No I.D. looped George Benson, Common told hip hop's story as one woman, and Ice Cube took it personally.
★ 7.4
It Ain't Hard To Tell
1994 · From Illmatic
Large Professor looped Human Nature into a hush, and Nas closed Illmatic with his most dazzling stretch of technique.
★ 7.3
Regulate
1994 · From Regulate...G Funk Era
Warren G looped four bars of Michael McDonald in a Long Beach bedroom, and Nate Dogg sang his half.
★ 7.3
Buddy Holly
1994 · From Weezer (The Blue Album)
Cuomo thought it too cheesy to release; Ocasek insisted, then Spike Jonze spliced the band into Happy Days footage.
★ 7.2
Electric Relaxation
1994 · From Midnight Marauders
Q-Tip built the beat in his grandmother's basement from a Ronnie Foster loop, and Phife traded lines with him.
★ 7.2
Zombie
1994
O'Riordan answering the 1993 Warrington bombing by trading jangle for distortion, then six weeks atop America's alternative chart.
★ 7.2
Fade Into You
1994
Roback's guitar and Sandoval's half-whisper, the band's only Hot 100 entry, and television's favorite shortcut to longing.
★ 7.0
Say It Ain't So
1994 · From Weezer (The Blue Album)
Cuomo's working title was "The Classic Rock Song"; Ocasek produced, and the clean offbeat chords carry a family's addiction.
★ 7.0
Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing ta Fuck Wit
1994 · From Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
RZA cut it at Firehouse Studio on almost no budget, Method Man co-produced, and the chorus became the Clan's motto.
★ 6.8
Cut Your Hair
1994 · From Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Malkmus turned a fake band advert into a hook, and Pavement's snipe at image became their biggest hit.
★ 6.8
The Man Who Sold the World
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Fourteen songs, one take, November 1993; Cobain plays Bowie through an amp and makes the song permanently his.
★ 6.8
About a Girl
1994 · From Bleach
Cobain wrote it in 1988, reportedly after playing Meet the Beatles all day; the Unplugged take topped Modern Rock.
★ 6.7
Creep (TLC)
1994 · From CrazySexyCool
A trumpet loop, T-Boz half-whispering, and Left Eye objecting so strongly she threatened to tape her mouth shut.
★ 6.7
When I Come Around
1994 · From Dookie
Four palm-muted chords, Dirnt's bass doing the melodic work, and a lyric Armstrong wrote after fighting with Adrienne.
★ 6.6
Mass Appeal
1994 · From Hard to Earn
A joke about radio playlists, built on Vic Juris's "Horizon Drive," and it became Gang Starr's most recognizable record.
★ 6.6
Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)
1994 · From Illmatic
Nas was twenty and already writing memoir here, over DJ Premier's loop of a Reuben Wilson organ.
★ 6.5
Bring the Pain
1994
RZA's murk, Method Man's first single away from the Wu-Tang, and a title Chris Rock borrowed for his 1996 special.
★ 6.4
Interstate Love Song
1994
Robert DeLeo worked it out as a bossa nova on nylon strings; Weiland nailed the Atlanta vocal in one take.
★ 6.3
Undone (The Sweater Song)
1994 · From Weezer (The Blue Album)
Ocasek produced it, Cuomo aimed for the Velvet Underground, and the party-chatter intro made a sad song sound hilarious.
★ 6.1
I'll Make Love to You
1994
Babyface wrote it and the group nearly turned it down; fourteen weeks at number one settled that argument.
★ 6.0
You Don't Know How It Feels
1994 · From Wildflowers
Rubin produced, Petty blew the harmonica, and MTV solved one lyric by simply running the word backwards.
★ 5.9
Thuggish Ruggish BoneBone Thugs-n-Harmony
Thuggish Ruggish Bone
1994
DJ U-Neek's beat, Shatasha Williams on the hook, and the harmonized Cleveland flow Eazy-E had to be talked into releasing.
★ 5.8
Welcome to ParadiseGreen Day
Welcome to Paradise
1994 · From Dookie
Armstrong wrote it about squatting in a West Oakland warehouse, and the Dookie re-recording is the one everyone knows.
★ 5.7
Flava In Ya Ear
1994
Easy Mo Bee built that beat for Apache, who was on tour; Mack took it and made 1994's sparest hit.
★ 5.7
Back and ForthAaliyah
Back and Forth
1994
Fifteen years old, a debut single that went top five, and Aaliyah already sounding unhurried and completely in command.
★ 5.4
Murder She WroteChaka Demus & Pliers
Murder She Wrote
1994
Sly and Robbie cut it over the Bam Bam riddim, and Omarion, Pitbull and Jason Derulo all borrowed it later.
★ 5.4
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
1994 · From The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Written as a comedy number for a meerkat and a warthog until John objected, and it took the Oscar.
★ 5.4
Kiss From a RoseSeal
Kiss From a Rose
1994
Written in 1987 and abandoned in a corner, it took Batman Forever to make it Record of the Year.
★ 5.3
Natural Born Killaz
1994 · From Murder Was the Case: The Soundtrack
Sam Sneed and J-Flexx started it as 'The Heist'; Dre and Cube's first record together since N.W.A.
★ 5.2
This DJ
1994 · From Regulate...G Funk Era
Snoop wrote the hook but label trouble kept him off the record; Warren G took it to number nine.
★ 5.2
In Circles
1994
Enigk wrote it as a solo acoustic song; the band took it over, and his cracked howl carries it.
★ 5.2
On Bended Knee
1994
Only the Beatles had replaced themselves at number one before Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis handed the group this.
★ 5.1
9th Wonder
1994
Butler moved the crew to Brooklyn and cut it live over programmed drums, jazz-rap turned dusty and political.
★ 5.1
Ode to My Family
1994
A homesick lullaby from No Need to Argue, with a string arrangement O'Riordan scored herself over Noel Hogan's chords.
★ 5.1
Bump n' GrindR. Kelly
Bump n' Grind
1994
Twelve weeks at number one on the R&B chart, a record then, and one of 1994's smoothest hooks.
★ 5.0
Fantastic VoyageCoolio
Fantastic Voyage
1994
Bryan Dobbs looped Lakeside's 1980 hit, and Coolio rode it to number three dreaming of somewhere trouble-free.
★ 4.7
Here Comes the Hotstepper
1994
Salaam Remi's remix bolts a Taana Gardner sample to that Land of 1000 Dances chorus, and Kamoze went number one.
★ 4.6
Plateau
1994 · From MTV Unplugged in New York
Curt Kirkwood wrote it for Meat Puppets II, then stood onstage playing it while Cobain sang his obscure song to millions.
★ 4.6
Let Her Cry
1994
Rucker flipped the genders when he wrote it; by his account the addiction in the song was his own.
★ 4.3
Water Runs Dry
1994
Four voices, one Babyface song about a relationship drying up, and another number two for the Philadelphia group.
★ 4.2
You Gotta Be
1994
Written out of a breakup and a Shakti Gawain self-help book, then re-released in Britain three times until it stuck.
★ 4.2
Crazy (Aerosmith)
1994 · From Get a Grip
Desmond Child helped Tyler and Perry finish it, and Liv Tyler's debut video kept MTV busy through 1994.
★ 4.1
Run-Around
1994
Popper wrote it about an unrequited crush, then watched it sit on the Hot 100 for forty-nine weeks.
★ 4.1
Candy Rain
1994
Trackmasters built it on a Minnie Riperton bassline, and Heavy D took four Wyandanch brothers to number one R&B.
★ 4.0