Dear Mama
1995
Pizarro built it from a Joe Sample loop and the Spinners' Sadie, and the Library of Congress later archived it.
★ 8.5
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1995
Showing 56 songs from 1995
California Love
1995
Roger Troutman's talk box over a Joe Cocker sample, and Shakur's first single after Death Row sprang him from prison.
★ 8.2
Shook Ones Part II
1995 · From The Infamous...
Havoc built the beat in his Queensbridge bedroom from a slowed Herbie Hancock piano figure and a Daly-Wilson drum break.
★ 8.1
Glory Box
1995 · From Dummy
Barrow looped Isaac Hayes' Ike's Rap II, Utley added the guitar, and Gibbons sings it like a demand.
★ 7.6
Waterfalls
1995 · From CrazySexyCool
Organized Noize's horns, a million-dollar F. Gary Gray video, and the first number one record to confront AIDS.
★ 7.6
Fake Plastic Trees
1995 · From The Bends
Yorke came straight from a Jeff Buckley gig, sang three takes at RAK, then burst into tears.
★ 7.5
Don't Look Back in Anger
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Noel's first lead vocal on an Oasis single, a phrase lifted from a Lennon tape, Manchester's anthem ever since.
★ 7.4
You Oughta Know
1995
Flea on bass and Dave Navarro on guitar, recorded in Glen Ballard's home studio, behind the nineties' fiercest kiss-off.
★ 7.4
Wonderwall
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Owen Morris showed Bonehead the root notes for a Mellotron cello, and the track was largely done in a day.
★ 7.3
Champagne SupernovaOasis
Champagne Supernova
1995 · From (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Seven and a half minutes, Paul Weller on lead guitar, and a lyric Noel admits he chose for the rhyme.
★ 7.3
Brown Sugar
1995 · From Brown Sugar
Every instrument on it is D'Angelo's, cut at Battery Studios, and the groove barely bothers to move.
★ 6.8
Gangsta's ParadiseCoolio
Gangsta's Paradise
1995
A Stevie Wonder interpolation cleared on condition the profanity went, L.V.'s stacked one-man choir, and 1995's biggest-selling single.
★ 6.5
Just a Girl
1995
A late drive home from Tony Kanal's house, a father's lecture, and Stefani's first song without brother Eric.
★ 6.4
I Ain't Mad At Cha
1995
Released two days after Shakur's death, Daz Dillinger's loop of DeBarge's A Dream carrying a farewell to lost friends.
★ 6.4
Fantasy
1995
Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love, flipped by Dave Hall, and Carey the first woman to debut at number one.
★ 6.3
Tha CrossroadsBone Thugs-n-Harmony
Tha Crossroads
1995
Recut after Eazy-E's death, the elegy spent eight weeks at number one and won the group a Grammy.
★ 6.3
High and DryRadiohead
High and Dry
1995 · From The Bends
Rescued from a 1993 demo the band wrote off as too Rod Stewart, and adored everywhere except by Yorke.
★ 6.3
I Got 5 On It
1995
A Club Nouveau hook, Michael Marshall on the chorus, and a Bay Area anthem Jordan Peele later made sinister.
★ 6.2
MissingEverything but the Girl
Missing
1995
Todd Terry's remix pushed a subdued album cut into New York house, then held the Hot 100 for a year.
★ 6.1
1st of Tha Month
1995
DJ U-Neek's beat, Cleveland voices harmonizing at double speed, and welfare day reimagined as a neighborhood holiday.
★ 6.0
Ironic
1995
Ballard produced it, number four on the Hot 100 stands as her highest, and everyone still debates the title.
★ 5.8
Needle in the Hay
1995 · From Elliott Smith
Cut in September 1994 at bandmate Tony Lash's house, trumpet and harmonica stripped away until only guitar and dread remain.
★ 5.8
This Is How We Do It
1995
Def Jam's first R&B single looped Slick Rick's 'Children's Story' and held number one for seven weeks.
★ 5.8
Brain Stew / Jaded
1995 · From Insomniac
A slow descending riff, Armstrong's insomnia, and a segue into Jaded that welded the two songs together permanently.
★ 5.7
Keep Their Heads Ringin'
1995 · From Friday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Dre and Sam Sneed rebuilt The Sequence's Funk You Up as G-funk, Nanci Fletcher singing the hook to number ten.
★ 5.6
Head Over Feet
1995
Harmonica played by Morissette herself, Ballard's warm production, and a rare Jagged Little Pill song that is simply grateful.
★ 5.5
Go Rest High on That Mountain
1995
Gill started it for Keith Whitley in 1989 and finished it after his half-brother died, Patty Loveless singing harmony.
★ 5.5
Give Me One Reason
1995 · From New Beginning
Chapman played it live for seven years before recording it, then a loose blues shuffle became her biggest hit.
★ 5.5
Planet Telex
1995 · From The Bends
Originally called Planet Xerox until the trademark intervened, drums spliced from other sessions, piano soaked in delay.
★ 5.5
Back for Good
1995
Barlow says it took fifteen minutes to write; the BRIT Awards debut pushed the release forward to an instant number one.
★ 5.5
Dreaming of You
1995
Cut in Corpus Christi with Selena fighting bronchitis, her first take kept, and released months after her murder.
★ 5.5
Ants Marching
1995
Played live since 1991 and cut twice on record, it rides Boyd Tinsley's violin hook and Beauford's snare.
★ 5.3
Tell Me
1995
Larrieux's feathery lead over Bryce Wilson's interpolation of the Mary Jane Girls, and neo soul had its blueprint.
★ 5.2
One Sweet Day
1995
Nathan Morris had written nearly the same song for his late road manager, Carey said; sixteen weeks at number one.
★ 5.2
No More "I Love You's"
1995
Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse fed the 1986 original; Lennox and Lipson rebuilt it into a Grammy winner.
★ 4.9
Feel Me FlowNaughty by Nature
Feel Me Flow
1995
A Meters loop under Treach's easiest flow, pulled from the first album ever to win the rap Grammy.
★ 4.7
Who Will Save Your Soul
1995
Written at sixteen on a road trip, produced by Ben Keith, from a debut that took two years to break.
★ 4.5
Name
1995
Rzeznik twisted tuning pegs until a second high E replaced the B string, and that open ring carries the song.
★ 4.4
Check Yes or No
1995
Wells and Black's first song ever cut by a major star, and Strait took a playground note to number one.
★ 4.3
Hey Lover
LL Cool J and Boyz II Men
1995 · From Mr. Smith
Trackmasters looped Michael Jackson's The Lady in My Life, Boyz II Men sang the hook, and LL won a Grammy.
★ 4.2
Boombastic
1995
A King Floyd sample, Sting International's production, and a Levi's ad that carried it to number one in Britain.
★ 4.1
Wonder
1995
Merchant wrote it for twins she knew with a rare skin condition, and it later inspired R.J. Palacio's novel.
★ 4.0
The World I Know
1995
Two hours walking New York on a day off, and Roland returned with four weeks atop album rock.
★ 3.9
I Wish
1995
Skee-Lo wanted to be taller, a Bernard Wright loop did the rest, and the Grammys nominated it against Coolio.
★ 3.6
Popular
1995
Ric Ocasek produced it, and the spoken verses lift straight from Gloria Winters' 1964 teenage charm and popularity guide.
★ 3.5
I Will Remember You
1995
Seamus Egan's instrumental came first; McLachlan added words, and the live Mirrorball version won her a Grammy.
★ 3.3
Diggin' on You
1995 · From CrazySexyCool
Babyface wrote and produced it at the Music Grinder, and T-Boz makes a summer crush sound effortless.
★ 3.3
One Of Us
1995
Bazilian wrote it in one night to impress the woman he later married; Osborne's vocal earned three Grammy nominations.
★ 3.3
Counting Blue Cars
1995
Richards wrote it after a talk with his ten-year-old neighbor, and calling God "her" brought death threats.
★ 3.0
Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
1995 · From Waiting to Exhale (soundtrack)
Babyface hummed a placeholder where the words should go, kept it, and watched the record debut at number one.
★ 3.0
December
1995
Roland wrote it about a souring relationship with the band's first manager, then rode nine weeks atop rock radio.
★ 2.9
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?Bryan Adams
Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
1995
Paco de Lucía's flamenco guitar runs through it, cut for Don Juan DeMarco, and it held number one five weeks.
★ 2.5
I Want to Come Over
1995
Padgham and Etheridge co-produced it, and Gwyneth Paltrow starred in the video shot at an old Los Angeles hotel.
★ 2.0
Beautiful LifeAce of Base
Beautiful Life
1995
Written on New Year's Day in the Canary Islands, then finished at Cheiron by Denniz Pop and Max Martin.
★ 1.8
Breakfast at Tiffany's
1995
Todd Pipes drew the lyric from Roman Holiday, swapped in a different Hepburn title, and Britain sent it to number one.
★ 1.4
MacarenaLos del Rio
Macarena
1995
Romero improvised the chorus for a flamenco dancer in Venezuela; the Bayside Boys remix ran fourteen weeks at number one.
★ 0.9