No Diggity
1996
Teddy Riley sang lead because none of his group liked it, then it ended Macarena's fourteen weeks on top.
★ 7.8
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1996
Showing 53 songs from 1996
Mo Money Mo Problems
1996 · From Life After Death
Kelly Price sang the hook uncredited over Stevie J's flip of I'm Coming Out, a posthumous number one.
★ 7.6
Killing Me Softly With His Song (Fugees)Fugees
Killing Me Softly With His Song (Fugees)
1996 · From The Score
Pras suggested the cover, the beat lifts Tribe's Bonita Applebum, and Hill sings it like she wrote it herself.
★ 7.5
On & On
1996
Five-Percenter numerology over a bassline that barely moves, Badu's debut single, and a Grammy at the first attempt.
★ 7.3
1979
1996 · From Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Flood said it wasn't good enough, so Corgan rewrote it that night and got the band's biggest hit.
★ 7.2
Dead Presidents IIJay-Z
Dead Presidents II
1996 · From Reasonable Doubt
Ski looped Lonnie Liston Smith under a Nas vocal, and Jay-Z made money sound like a weary confession.
★ 7.1
Where It's At
1996 · From Odelay
The Dust Brothers built it around a Mantronix sample, and Beck's two turntables and a microphone became a catchphrase.
★ 6.8
Midnight in a Perfect World
1996 · From Endtroducing.....
An Akai MPC60, a Technics turntable, and David Axelrod's mournful piano lifted into the warmest track on Endtroducing.
★ 6.8
Wannabe
1996
Seven weeks at UK number one for a debut single, and a chorus that puts her friends before any suitor.
★ 6.7
Ready Or Not
1996 · From The Score
Uncleared, the Enya sample nearly brought a lawsuit; she heard the finished record and chose to settle instead.
★ 6.6
ATLiens
1996 · From ATLiens
OutKast were booed at the 1995 Source Awards and answered with a title splicing Atlanta and aliens over echo-heavy dub.
★ 6.6
Building Steam With a Grain of SaltDJ Shadow
Building Steam With a Grain of Salt
1996 · From Endtroducing.....
A Jeremy Storch piano loop, a drummer's interview about rhythm, and an MPC60 doing the work of a band.
★ 6.5
Devils Haircut
1996 · From Odelay
Beck cut that riff himself through a broken twenty-watt amp while the Dust Brothers stacked Purdie drums beneath it.
★ 6.2
Return of the Mack
1996
Tom Tom Club's Genius of Love beat rebuilt as smooth British R&B, and Morrison sounding utterly unbothered about being wronged.
★ 6.2
Virtual Insanity
1996
Glazer put the set on wheels and never moved the floor; four VMAs followed, Video of the Year among them.
★ 6.0
What I Got
1996 · From Sublime
Half Pint's Loving supplies the chorus, Lady Madonna the verse melody, and Nowell was gone two months before the album.
★ 5.9
Always Be My Baby
1996
Carey stacked her own harmonies with Kelly Price behind them, and Jermaine Dupri's shuffle carried her eleventh number one.
★ 5.9
One Day
1996 · From Ridin' Dirty
Pimp C built it on an Isley Brothers loop, Ronnie Spencer sings the hook, and Texas rap found its elegy.
★ 5.9
Stakes is HighDe La Soul
Stakes is High
1996 · From Stakes Is High
Dilla looped Ahmad Jamal's "Swahililand" into a warning shot at where hip hop was heading in 1996.
★ 5.9
What They Do
1996 · From Illadelph Halflife
Charles Stone III's video walks the group through every rap-video cliche, which is exactly what the record is arguing.
★ 5.8
LovefoolThe Cardigans
Lovefool
1996
A bossa nova sketch until the drummer swapped in a disco beat, and Persson made pleading sound like sunshine.
★ 5.8
Unbreak My Heart
1996
Diane Warren built it from the title alone, Braxton resisted recording it, then held number one eleven weeks.
★ 5.7
Santeria
1996 · From Sublime
Built on a bassline lifted from a Robbin' the Hood dub, and issued months after Nowell's death.
★ 5.6
If It Makes You Happy
1996
Jeff Trott's hook arrived first, the country arrangement went out, and Crow won a Grammy singing her own backlash.
★ 5.5
Crash Into Me
1996
Desire watched from a distance, an acoustic figure circling, and Steve Lillywhite catching all of it at Bearsville.
★ 5.4
The Distance
1996
Guitarist Greg Brown wrote it, McCrea narrates deadpan over trumpet, and the driver keeps racing long after everyone left.
★ 5.2
I Believe I Can FlyR. Kelly
I Believe I Can Fly
1996
Written for Space Jam, Paul Riser's strings taped in Detroit, the Luv Club Choir massed behind the vocal.
★ 5.1
Say You'll Be There
1996
Judd Lander, the harmonica player from Karma Chameleon, gives the record its Stevie Wonder swing over Absolute's production.
★ 5.1
Doin' ItLL Cool J
Doin' It
1996 · From Mr. Smith
Built for Biggie, sold to Def Jam instead: Rashad Smith's beat rides a Grace Jones sample, LeShaun trading verses.
★ 5.0
Long December
1996
Duritz wrote it before dawn while a friend lay in hospital, and the band cut it almost entirely live.
★ 4.9
It's All Coming Back to Me NowCeline Dion
It's All Coming Back to Me Now
1996
Steinman wrote it out of Wuthering Heights for Pandora's Box in 1989, and Dion made it enormous.
★ 4.8
Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
1996
Two million US copies, a Stockholm session from 1995, and a vocal Nick Carter recorded once his voice settled.
★ 4.8
3AM
1996
Thomas drew on his mother's cancer fight, and his earlier band Tabitha's Secret put it on record first.
★ 4.7
April 29, 1992
1996 · From Sublime
Nowell sings the wrong date, April 26, and the band kept the take anyway; he died before the album arrived.
★ 4.7
Change the World
1996
Wynonna Judd cut it first as country; Babyface gave Clapton a soul groove and the Grammys gave back three.
★ 4.5
Wrong Way
1996 · From Sublime
Jon Blondell's trombone solo quotes Rhapsody in Blue over a ska bounce carrying Nowell's bleakest subject.
★ 4.4
All By Myself
1996
Eric Carmen's verse borrowed from Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto, and Dion nailing the high F Foster dared her to try.
★ 4.4
Bow DownWestside Connection
Bow Down
1996
Bud'da's beat, Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC in formation, a West Coast declaration that topped the rap chart.
★ 4.1