Doo-wop (That Thing)
1998 · From The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Hill wrote and produced it herself, aimed one verse at women and one at men, and debuted at number one.
★ 7.8
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1998
Showing 47 songs from 1998
...Baby One More Time
1998
Max Martin built it at Cheiron in Stockholm after TLC and the Backstreet Boys passed, and Spears was sixteen.
★ 7.7
Teardrop
1998 · From Mezzanine
Mushroom sent the demo to Madonna, got outvoted, and Elizabeth Fraser sang it over harpsichord and a Les McCann loop.
★ 7.3
Are You That Somebody?
1998
Timbaland built the beat around a baby coo lifted from a sixties sound-effects record, and Aaliyah glides over it.
★ 7.3
My Name Is
1998 · From The Slim Shady LP
Dre and Eminem finished it in an hour, over a Labi Siffre interpolation, and Slim Shady existed.
★ 7.3
Hard Knock LifeJay-Z
Hard Knock Life
1998 · From Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life
The 45 King looped an Annie showtune, and Jay-Z cleared it with a letter he admitted was a lie.
★ 7.2
Rosa Parks
1998 · From Aquemini
Andre 3000's stepfather, Reverend Robert Hodo, plays the harmonica breakdown; the woman in the title sued.
★ 7.1
Changes (2Pac)
1998
Recorded in 1992, shelved, then remixed after his death over Bruce Hornsby's piano; a posthumous Grammy nomination followed.
★ 7.1
In the Aeroplace Over the Sea
1998 · From In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Julian Koster's singing saw over double-tracked acoustics, cut in Denver with Robert Schneider, and a chorus that faces death smiling.
★ 6.9
Holland, 1945
1998 · From In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Every instrument distorted at Schneider's Denver studio, and Mangum turns an elegy for Anne Frank into pure forward momentum.
★ 6.8
Wide Open Spaces
1998 · From Wide Open Spaces
Gibson wrote it on her first trip home from forestry school, and Lloyd Maines knew it belonged to his daughter.
★ 6.6
Respiration
1998
Hi-Tek loops Don Randi's "The Fox" under a Style Wars monologue, and three MCs read the city at night.
★ 6.5
Definition
1998
Hi-Tek loops Boogie Down Productions while Mos Def and Kweli revive KRS-One's demand that the violence stop.
★ 6.4
Iris
1998
Rzeznik tuned every string but one to D, wrote it for City of Angels, and owned airplay for eighteen weeks.
★ 6.1
That Don't Impress Me Much
1998
Twain and Lange built it on three men who fall short, and that hooded leopard print did the rest.
★ 6.0
The Boy Is MineBrandy
The Boy Is Mine
1998
Brandy got the idea from a Jerry Springer love triangle, and Darkchild's clipped beat held number one thirteen weeks.
★ 6.0
You Get What You Give
1998
Alexander buried a celebrity taunt in the last verse to prove the press would ignore the politics; it worked.
★ 6.0
The King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1
1998 · From In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Schneider got the fuzz from tube preamps and compression, not pedals, and Mangum sings childhood into two minutes flat.
★ 5.9
Clandestino
1998 · From Clandestino
Recorded on portable gear while Chao roamed Latin America, an undocumented migrant's lament carried by the lightest guitar.
★ 5.8