Madonna, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” (Miami Mix) (No. Probably for the best that America held out for the real(er) thing, though the list of songs with choruses in any language catchier than “No Tengo Dinero” is muy bajo.ĩ5. 42, Hot 100)Ībout a year and change before Ricky Martin took over in earnest, Danish trio Los Umbrellos delivered a Latin Pop explosion as imagined by McG all beach bunnies, gaudy primary colors and kitschy Spanglish cheese. Valiant effort, and “Chelsea” is convincing enough in its stroll through Ethan Hawke faux-bohemia that it could’ve worked - but the song tanked at radio, and Jon Bon wisely rejoined his namesake band just in time to take over TRL with their “Livin’ on a Prayer” sequel.ĩ6. 57, Radio Songs)Ī whole lot changed in the rock world in the seven years between the Hot 100-topping “Blaze of Glory” and “Midnight in Chelsea,” but Jon Bon Jovi hoped to make the seamless transition from stadium power-balladry to coffee-house singer-songwriterdom with his sophomore LP’s lead single, without Triple A noticing. Smith singles, but today the thing sounds fantastic: a slithering groover of on-the-prowl malevolence, which sounds 100x sexier as delivered by James Todd Smith’s sociopathic whisper than it ever could via Abel Tesfaye’s pained falsetto.ĩ7. Bill Withers (via Creative Source) throwdown of “Phenomenon” didn’t match the pop success of LL’s Mr. Rare was the 1997 rap single that didn’t try to ride at least one well-trodden pop/funk lift to radio omnipresence the title track off LL Cool J’s ’97 album hedged its bets with two. “I get a little bit closer to feeling fine” is an admirable and identifiable aspiration perhaps the least contentious sentiment ever expressed by a hit single off an album banned from Wal-Mart.ĩ8. 12, Hot 100)Ī “Life Is a Highway” for folks who occasionally like to get high on in-tel-lect-u-al-ism, with a surprisingly funky intro that smooths out into VH1 crossroads serenity in time for the big chorus. Sheryl Crow, “Everyday Is a Winding Road” (No.
The Patrice Rushen sample has aged a lot better than the in-character lyrics and alien square-dance breakdown, but every generation gets the “On Our Own” it deserves, and no one was better equipped to deliver this one to future millennials than the former Fresh Prince.ĩ9. In its own way, this song was as responsible as Puff Daddy’s string of MTV-slayers for proving hip-hop’s blockbuster potential at the turn of the millennium “Men in Black” even came packaged along with its own actual blockbuster film. So apologies, “My Heart Will Go On,” “Torn,” “Bitter Sweet Symphony,” “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” “Make ‘Em Say Ugh” and many more - see you all in ’98.)ġ00.
That means that some songs that came out earlier but crested in ’97 are here, but many songs that came out in ’97 but hit their mass-culture moment later on aren’t. (Word of warning: To make our list more authentic to the experience of living through 1997 pop, we counted songs as eligible if they peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 - or if they were disqualified from the Hot 100, but peaked on our Radio Songs chart - within the 1997 calendar year. Here are Billboard‘s 100 favorite pop songs - capping it at one song per lead artist, and broadly defining “pop” as music that either was played on top 40 at the time or could conceivably have been - from one of the most pivotal years in the genre’s history. And of course, there were one-hit wonders: plenty of dance-pop novelty smashes, international flukes and alt-rock parting shots to give the year character. But while the core of top 40 was fundamentally evolving in ’97, a lot of other weird stuff was going on, from the rise of nu-soul and crossover country to the last gasps of trip-hop and hi-NRG dance.
Within a year or two, post-grunge had been replaced by nu-metal and pop-punk on alternative radio, West Coast had almost totally given way to East Coast in the hip-hop mainstream, and pop’s center was dictated daily by teen-pop soothsayer Carson Daly on Total Request Live.
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In hip-hop, the Bad Boy empire was springboarded to the top of the food chain, as label head Sean “Puffy” Combs was reborn as Puff Daddy, and quickly became the best-selling rapper in the universe thanks to a series of gigantic, top 40-recycling pop-rap smashes for himself and his labelmates. What came along to fill it was the return of mega-pop: Massive, barnstorming, top 40-geared breakouts from groups like Spice Girls, Hanson and Backstreet Boys - artists that bore some of the sonic signifiers of decade’s beginning, but lacked any connection to the angst of grunge or the edge of G-funk.
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