I provided a review of the book “60 Songs That Explain the ’90s” by Rob Harvilla at the Albany Public Library on June 3. It was challenging on several fronts.
I had never listened to the podcasts, and at 90 minutes a pop, I wasn’t about to start. There were far more than sixty songs; it was closer to twice that.
Here was a mixed blessing: I was only familiar with some of the songs, so it was easier to narrow down what I might discuss. The ones with hyperlinks, I was familiar with enough to discuss. Still, do I play a sample, read from the book, or both? As it turns out, I got to very few of them in 45 minutes.
And it isn’t easy to talk about music. From Do You Believe In Music by the Lovin’ Spoonful, “It’s like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll.” –
I described the book as “autobiography via music.” It is a concept I can totally relate to.
In the introduction, he acknowledged that he believed the songs of your teenage years are the ones that most imprint. I have a variation on that experience, which I will address someday if you ask.
The italicized items are generally chapter titles.
Chaos agents
Céline Dion: My Heart Will Go On – the moderator had never heard this song from Titanic, so before the program, I played a section of it.
Hole: Doll Parts
Madonna: Vogue
Spice Girls: Wannabe
Backstreet Boys: I Want It That Way
Eminem – My Name Is
Beck – Loser – I acknowledge that I had not known this song or Black Hole Sun until I heard both in a Weird Al Yankovic medley.
Master P – Make ‘Em Say Uhh!
Prodigy – Firestarter
The Chicks – Goodbye Earl – I did play a bit of this, which Harvilla described as a “gleeful domestic-violence revenge fantasy.” But he also declares that “the point of the song is that somebody helps her.”
Erica Badu – Tyrone
Sellouts (or not) (or maybe)
Metallica – Enter Sandman (30)
Pantera – Walk
Temple Of The Dog – Hunger Strike
Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise. I played the Weird Al parody Amish Paradise, and explained the well-known dispute. Oh, here’s Pastime Paradise by Stevie Wonder from 1976, just because.
Ice Cube – It Was A Good Day
Reel Big Fish -Sell Out
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get
No Doubt – Just A Girl. I posted about this in a blog post, which I described to the audience.
Fugazi – Merchandise
Green Day – Longview
Women versus “women in rock”
The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy
The Cranberries – Zombie (56)
Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains
PJ Harvey – Man-Size
Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know. I read the section where Rob’s girlfriend would play the Jagged Little Pill album, and would cough when the F-bomb came on, to hide it from her mom.
Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl
The Breeders – Cannonball (65)
TLC – No Scrubs
Sinead O’Connor – “Nothing Compares 2 U” – I had intended to play this, but I didn’t have time. Harvilla: “And she’s just singing: no explosions, no quick cuts, none of that ‘MTV-style editing’…Just the stillness, the gravity, the gorgeous severity of it.”
Fiona Apple – Criminal
Sheryl Crow –If It Makes You Happy
Vivid geography, or, everybody hates a tourist
Wu-Tang Clan -C.R.E.A.M.
Mob Deep -Shook Ones, Pt. II
Nas -N.Y. State of Mind
Pulp – Common People
Bjork – Hyperballad
Missy Elliott – The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)
Outkast – Elevators (Me & You)
Juvenile – Back That Azz Up
Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Luniz – I Got 5 On It
Villains + adversaries
Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
Oasis – Wonderwall
Blur – Song 2
A Tribe Called Quest – Check The Rhyme
Pavement – Range Life
Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock
Limp Bizkit -Nookie (Windows+h)
Offspring – Pretty Fly (for a white guy)
DMX – Ruff Ryder’s Anthem
Brandy + Monica – The Boy Is Mine
Flukes + comebacks + spectacular weirdos
Los Del Rio – “Macarena” (Bayside Boys Remix). I agree that anyone who started recording before the Beatles oughtn’t to be dismissed as a “one-hit wonder.”
Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart
The New Radicals- You Get What You Give
The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – Zoot Suit Riot – I played a bit of this, but also explained the history of the topic
Cher – Believe. I wanted to explain autotuning, but no time.
Chumbawamba – Tubthumping. In 2025, I became oddly obsessed with this song. First, it’s mentioned on the CBS sitcom Ghosts by the guy with no pants as the best song of the decade. Then it was a clue on JEOPARDY! I read the beginning lyrics.
Tag Team – Whoomp! (There It Is)
Mark Morrison -Return of the Mack
Santana + Rob Thomas – Smooth. Harvilla: “The true greatness… lies in the whiplash pivot from the nonchalant generality of ‘Man it’s a hot one’ to the remarkable specificity of ‘My muñequita/My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa.’ Rob Thomas wrote this song for his girlfriend [now wife] Marisol Maldonado.”
Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
Teenage hijinks
Rage Against the Machine – Killing In The Name
Body Count – Cop Killer
Guns ‘N’ Roses – November Rain
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
Alice In Chains – Would?
They Might Be Giants – Particle Man
Cake – The Distance
Weezer – Undone (The Sweater Song)
Beastie Boys – Sabotage
Radiohead – Creep
Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter
Romance + sex + immaturity
Salt-N-Pepa – Shoop
Nine Inch Nails – Closer
Tool – Stinkfist
Prince – Gett Off
Boyz II Men – End Of The Road, #1 pop for 13 weeks. I would have played a snippet of this since I saw the group in 2024.
Liz Phair – F*** and Run (193)
Sunny Day Real Estate – In Circles
Bonnie Raitt – I Can’t Make You Love Me. Harvilla writes that this is a song that you shouldn’t sing at open-mic night or even listen to “until you’ve a little silver white in your hair.”
Dave Matthews Band – Crash Into Me
Blink-182 – What’s My Age Again?
Myths versus mortals
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit – I would have played this and/or Weird Al’s Smells Like Nirvana
The Notorious B.I.G – Juicy
Selena – Que Creias?
Dr. Dre – Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang
Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You , #1 pop for 14 weeks
Britney Spears – Baby One More Time
Aaliyah – One In A Million
Tupac – California Love
Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me
Lauryn Hill – Ex-Factor
Shania Twain – Man! I Feel Like A Woman
Big feelings
This chapter, as described, is a bit more substantial.
Tom Petty – It’s Good To Be King
Janet Jackson – Together Again (244)
Black Box – Everybody Everybody
Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (251)
Gin Blossoms – Hey Jealousy
Counting Crows – A Long December
Mary J. Blige -Real Love
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – Tha Crossroads
Lisa Loeb – Stay (I Missed You) . Rob was a pallbearer for a friend younger than he was who loved the song
I liked the book, mostly. He was a bit too glib on occasion, but it didn’t destroy my enjoyment.
