08/20/2021
TRIVIA POST: 1995
The first song on the playlist is "1979" by Chicago's very own The Smashing Pumpkins. This is a great selection from their 3rd studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. No further trivia for this song.
We then headed to the silver screen for Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me." The song was written for Pixar's debut feature-length film, the iconic Toy Story. In the years since, Pixar would go on to make 3 sequels to Toy Story, and "You've Got a Friend in Me" would become synonomous with the entire Toy Story franchise.
After making a successful comeback with 1990's The Razor's Edge album, it took AC/DC five years to record a follow-up. But the wait was well worth it. The resulting album was called Ballbreaker, and the song we heard from it was called "Hard as a Rock."
After that, we had Tommy Emmanuel's cover of "Classical Gas," an instrumental written and originally recorded in 1968 by Mason Williams. For this cover, Emmanuel teamed up with the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra and Air Supply Music guitarist Rex Goh. And the result is just pure magic.
Following that up was a double shot from Green Day's Insomniac album. Even though "Brain Stew" and "Jaded" are listed as two separate tracks on the album, they're typically played together as a single song due to the former segueing directly into the latter. In fact, even the music video features both songs!
After that, we had the breakout hit from a band named after an alcoholic beverage. From the Sparkle and Fade album, it was "Santa Monica" by Everclear.
Next on the list, we have one of the last big hits of the grunge genre. And it was written and recorded by a trio of 15-year-olds! It was "Tomorrow" by Australia's Silverchair, taken from their debut LP, Frogstomp.
And then, we have the song that shot Gwen Stefani and No Doubt into superstardom. From their landmark third studio album, Tragic Kingdom, it was "Just a Girl," a song Stefani wrote about being the only female in an otherwise all-male band.
After hearing four alternative rock songs in a row, we finally get a break from the genre with this next song. It is "Walkin' Away" by Diamond Rio, the first single released from their fourth album, which was appropriately titled IV.
The next song was "Hey Man Nice Shot" from Filter's debut LP, Short Bus. No trivia for this song.
Four years after Freddie Mercury's death, the surviving members of Queen put out an album featuring unreleased vocals from Mercury. The album was called Made in Heaven, and it featured one of Queen's last hits: "I Was Born to Love You." The song was originally written as a ballad. This version can be found on Mercury's 1985 solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. Upon including it on Made in Heaven, Brian May turned it into the uptempo rocker that we all know and love. And in all honesty, it sounds so much better this way.
To follow that up, we have our . This week's Deep Dive is a cover of "Scarborough Fair" recorded by a one-off project called Age of Passion. For this cover, the traditional English folk song went from a painfully slow dirge to a 160 BPM hard dance beat. And, as all the cool kids say, this version slaps hard.
It was then followed by "Connection" by Elastica, a song from their eponymous debut album. No trivia for this one.
Next up is a song from another group's eponymous debut album. This time, it's "No News" by Lonestar. No trivia for this one, either.
And after that, we have a one-hit wonder. From their debut album, Pet Your Frienda, we heard "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla. Even though the group has had a couple of other hits on the Alternative Rock charts, "Counting Blue Cars" is the band's only song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #15. After the song's release, lead singer J.R. Richards received death threats for depicting God as female in the song.
The next song on our 1995 playlist was another song I had considered to be the . However, I decided against it because the group behind this song has released other material. The group in question is a Swedish group called Basic Element. The song, which was taken from their second album, The Ultimate Ride, is called "This Must Be a Dream."
We then have "Fake Plastic Trees" from Radiohead's sophomore album, The Bends. No trivia for this one.
Following that is a great deep cut from Alanis Morissette's iconic LP, Jagged Little Pill: "You Learn." In fact, the album is so iconic that playwright Diablo Cody turned it into a Broadway musical, also called Jagged Little Pill. The musical ended up receiving 15 Tony Awards nominations, and "You Learn" is used as the musical's closing number.
And up next is "Let's Go to Vegas" by Faith Hill, a great cut from her sophomore effort, It Matters to Me. No trivia for this one.
And closing out the 1995 playlist is a song that will forever be associated with that one do**he at a party with an acoustic guitar: "Wonderwall" by Oasis. It was taken from their sophomore LP, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Well, that marks the end of this week's playlist! Next time, the playlist will have 20 songs that don't have their titles mentioned in their respective lyrics. So, you can expect to hear songs from Queens of the Stone Age, Joni Mitchell, Sir Rod Stewart, M.I.A. and more!
And after that, I'll be dropping a playlist containing 20 great songs from 2002. And this one features Norah Jones, Nightwish, The Dixie Chicks (The Chicks), Bruce Springsteen and a whole lot more! I am really proud of both of these playlists, and I sincerely hope that y'all love them as much as I do!
