Best Songs of 1992

It’s quite possible that, by the middle of the decade, I’d settled on the songs that would eventually make this list once I finalized it here in 2017. Obviously I was not thinking about 100-song Spotify playlists in my teenage years, but by 1996 or ’97 I am fairly certain I had absorbed nearly every last one of these songs, either directly or indirectly, into my musical life.

If true, then this would be the first year of my lifetime in which I could safely make that declaration, and the reason is as much technological as it is biographical. While my sources were still limited largely to radio, MTV and the influence of my slightly older sister, the diversity of sounds presented in just those three arenas was enough to broaden my horizons beyond my KUBE-heavy days just a year or two earlier.

In that sense, 1992 is a transitional year, beginning a slow shedding of the pop, hip-hop and R&B sounds of my tween years and moving toward rock, country and whatever you want to call the alternative-indie-college rock scene of this era.

The end result is a list which begins to set me on my musical path toward a boundless desire for discovery—new artists, new sounds, new genres—that here in 2017 has settled into an inevitably more balanced approach, featuring longtime favorites punctuated by the occasional comet of novelty which reminds me of these younger days, maybe not so much in sound, but in spirit.

For these year-end lists, I like to undertake the seemingly impossibly task of creating an hours-long mix. The order you see below represents that effort, which you can listen to via Spotify. Sadly all 100 tracks aren't available—just 4 shy of complete!—but you get the general idea. Track notes to come eventually or maybe never.

Show Grid

Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg

TLC

Ooooooohh… On the TLC Tip

LaFace

Notes
7

Prince

The Love Symbol Album

Warner Bros.

Notes
Everything’s Gonna Be Alright

Father MC & Jodeci

Close to You

Uptown

Notes
Hey Love

R. Kelly & Public Announcement

Born Into the 90s

Jive

Notes
Freak Me

Silk

Lose Control

Elektra

Notes
Weak

SWV

It’s About Time

RCA

Notes
I’m Every Woman

Whitney Houston

The Bodyguard

Arista

Notes
Rhythm Is a Dancer

Snap!

The Madman’s Return

Arista

Notes
Walking on Broken Glass

Annie Lennox

Diva

Arista

Notes
Constant Craving

k.d. lang

Ingenue

Sire

Notes
Black Eyed Man

Cowboy Junkies

Black Eyed Man

RCA

Notes
Harvest Moon

Neil Young

Harvest Moon

Reprise

Notes
Sandusky

Uncle Tupelo

March 16–20, 1992

Rockville

Notes
Blue Sky Blues

Chris Whitley

Fathers and Sons

Sony

Notes
Sex in a Pan

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones

UFO Tofu

Warner Bros.

Notes
You Look Like Rain

Morphine

Good

Rykodisc

Notes
Don’t Sweat the Technique

Eric B. & Rakim

Don’t Sweat the Technique

MCA

Notes
They Reminisce Over You

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth

Mecca and the Soul Brother

Elektra

Notes
Ex Girl to the Next Girl

Gang Starr

Daily Operation

Virgin

Notes
Tonight’s Da Night

Redman

Whut? Thee Album

Def Jam

Notes
Final Frontier

MC Ren

Kizz My Black Azz

Priority

Notes
Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang

Dr. Dre

The Chronic

Interscope

Notes
It Was a Good Day

Ice Cube

The Predator

Priority

Notes
Ditty

Paperboy

Ditty

Next Plateau

Notes
Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta

Geto Boys

Uncut Dope

Rap-A-Lot

Notes
They Want EFX

Das EFX

Dead Serious

East West

Notes
Rump Shaker

Wreckx-N-Effect

Hard or Smooth

MCA

Notes
Hit

The Sugarcubes

Stick Around for Joy

Elektra

Notes
Dizz Knee Land

Dada

Puzzle

I.R.S.

Notes
Smile

Luna

Lunapark

Elektra

Notes
Peng! 33

Stereolab

Peng!

Too Pure

Notes
Bury the Hammer

Beat Happening

You Turn Me On

K Records

Notes
She Is Weird City

Lotion

Head

Kokopop

Notes
With a Wish

Miracle Legion

Drenched

Morgan Creek

Notes
Everybody Loves Me But You

Juliana Hatfield

Hey Babe

Mammoth

Notes
Summer Babe (Winter Version)

Pavement

Slanted & Enchanted

Matador

Notes
Sheela-Na-Gig

PJ Harvey

Dry

Island

Notes
Safari

The Breeders

Safari

4AD

Notes
Pretend We’re Dead

L7

Bricks Are Heavy

Slash

Notes
Bad Luck

Social Distortion

Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell

Epic

Notes
2000 Light Years Away

Green Day

Kerplunk

Lookout!

1991 vinyl release
Somebody to Shove

Soul Asylum

Grave Dancers Union

Columbia

Notes
Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)

Cracker

Cracker

Virgin

Notes
No One Knows

Screaming Trees

Sweet Oblivion

Epic

Notes
Breath

Pearl Jam

Singles

Epic

Notes
Black Metallic

Catherine Wheel

Ferment

Fontana

Notes
Wild Horses

The Sundays

Blind

DGC

Notes
Human Touch

Bruce Springsteen

Human Touch

Columbia

Notes
Not Enough Time

INXS

Welcome to Wherever You Are

Atlantic

Notes
This Time Around

The Freddy Jones Band

The Freddy Jones Band

Capricorn

Notes
This Time - Last Time

Shawn Mullins

Better Days

SMG

Notes
Galileo

Indigo Girls

Rites of Passage

Epic

Notes
Dream in Blue

Los Lobos

Kiko

Slash / Warner Bros.

Notes
In the New Sunshine

Freedy Johnston

Can You Fly

Bar/None

Notes
Waiting for the Sun

The Jayhawks

Hollywood Town Hall

Def American

Notes
Waiting for Somebody

Paul Westerberg

Singles

Epic

Notes
Got Me Wrong

Alice in Chains

Sap

Sony

Notes
Plush

Stone Temple Pilots

Core

Atlantic

Notes
Freedom

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine

Epic

Notes
Aneurysm

Nirvana

Incesticide

DGC

Notes
Chapel Hill

Sonic Youth

Dirty

Geffen

Notes
Drown

Smashing Pumpkins

Singles

Epic

Notes
Secret World

Peter Gabriel

Us

Real World

Notes
All in All

Toad the Wet Sprocket

Walk on the Ocean

Columbia

Notes
Found Out About You

Gin Blossoms

New Miserable Experience

A&M

Notes
It’s a Shame About Ray

The Lemonheads

It’s a Shame About Ray

Atlantic

Notes
Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

Sophie B. Hawkins

Tongues and Tails

Columbia

Notes
Rain

Madonna

Erotica

Maverick

Notes
She’s Playing Hard to Get

Hi-Five

Keep It Goin’ On

Jive

Notes
My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)

En Vogue

Funky Divas

East West

Notes
Real Love

Mary J. Blige

What’s the 411?

Uptown

Notes
People Everyday (Metamorphosis Mix)

Arrested Development

People Everyday

Chrysalis

Notes
Crossover

EPMD

Business Never Personal

Def Jam

Notes
Scenario (Remix)

A Tribe Called Quest

Scenario

Jive

Notes
Slam

Onyx

Bacdafucup

Def Jam

Notes
Jump Around

House of Pain

House of Pain

Tommy Boy

Notes
Jump

Kris Kross

Totally Krossed Out

Ruffhouse

Notes
Baby Got Back

Sir Mix-A-Lot

Mack Daddy

Def American

Notes
The Way I Swing

Kid Sensation & Ken Griffey Jr.

The Power of Rhyme

Nastymix

Notes
Passing Me By

The Pharcyde

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

Delicious Vinyl

Notes
So What’cha Want

Beastie Boys

Check Your Head

Grand Royal

Notes
Satellite

Luscious Jackson

In Search of Manny

Grand Royal

Notes
Trapped in a Box

No Doubt

No Doubt

Interscope

Notes
The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead

XTC

Nonsuch

Virgin

Notes
I Palindrome I

They Might Be Giants

Apollo 18

Elektra

Notes
The Mango Song

Phish

A Picture of Nectar

Elektra

Notes
Did You Ever Look So Nice

The Samples

No Room

What Are Records?

Notes
Friday I’m in Love

The Cure

Wish

Elektra

Notes
99.9 F°

Suzanne Vega

99.9 F°

A&M

Notes
Lifetime Piling Up

Talking Heads

Sand in the Vaseline

Sire

Notes
I Don’t Wanna Grow Up

Tom Waits

Bone Machine

Island

Notes
Tonight

The Afghan Whigs

Congregation

Sub Pop

Notes
Silent All These Years

Tori Amos

Little Earthquakes

Atlantic

Notes
Tears in Heaven

Eric Clapton

Rush

Reprise

Notes
Birds Without Wings

David Gray

Birds Without Wings

HUT

Notes
Seasons

Chris Cornell

Singles

Epic

Notes
No Rain

Blind Melon

Blind Melon

Capitol

Notes
Man on the Moon

R.E.M.

Automatic for the People

Warner Bros.

Notes
These Are Days

10,000 Maniacs

Our Time in Eden

Elektra

Notes
Remedy

The Black Crowes

The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion

Def American

Notes