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Mainstream, Alternative Rock #1s in 1995

Bush

These tracks are the Mainstream and Alternate Rock #1s in 1995. The Mainstream Rock charts started in 1981, while the alternative rock tracks began in September 1988.

In 2020, the late Joel Whitburn wrote in the author notes of Rock Tracks, “There has been increasingly less crossover between the mainstream and alternative charts.” Mainstream charts, but there was some similarity back in 1995.

Lightning Crashes – Live, 10 weeks at #1 Main, nine weeks at #1 Alt, #12 pop. I knew a guy named Ed Kowalczyk remotely through work in this time frame. If I remember correctly, he was vaguely elated to the Live vocalist with the same name.

Wonderwall – Oasis, 10 weeks at#1 Alt, #9 Main, #8 pop. Yes, this is on the only Oasis album that most people, including me, own.

December – Collective Soul, nine weeks at #1 Main, #2 Alt, #20 pop

Better Man – Pearl Jam, eight weeks at #1 Main, #2 for four weeks Alt, #13 pop

When I Come Around – Green Day, seven weeks at #1 Alt, #2 for two weeks Main, #6 pop

And Fools Shine On – Brother Cain, six weeks at #1 Main

Name – Goo Goo Dolls, five weeks at #1 Main, four weeks at #1 Alt, #5 pop

Good -Better than Ezra, five weeks at #1 Alt, #3 for two weeks Main, #30 pop

On stage

You Oughta Know – Alanis Morissette, five weeks at #1 Alt, #3 for three weeks Main, #13 pop. Won Grammys for Rock Vocal and Rock Female Vocal. The songs from the album were made into a musical, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, which we saw in May 2023, and liked. One of my favorite bits in 60 Songs From the ’90s was when Rob Harvilla’s girlfriend would play the album, and she would cough when the F-bomb came on to hide it from her mom.

My Friends – Red Hot Chili Peppers, four weeks at #1 Main and #1 Alt, #27 pop

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me – U2, four weeks at #1 Alt, one week at #1 Main, #16 pop, from the Batman Forever soundtrack.

Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do) – Van Halen, three weeks at #1 Main. This is from the Sammy Hagar period, which I know less about than the DLR era.

Tomorrow – Silverchair, three weeks at #1 Main and #1 Alt, #28 pop

Hard As A Rock – AC/DC, three weeks at #1 Main

Misery – Soul Asylum, three weeks at #1 Alt; #3 for four weeks Main, #20 pop. Ha! I didn’t know this song, but I instantly recognized the Weird Al parody.

Comedown – Bush, two weeks at #1 Alt, #2 Main, #30 pop

Glycerine – Bush, two weeks at #1 Alt, #4 Main, #28 pop

J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Revla) – Green Day, one week at #1 Alt, #17 Main, #6 pop

Hand In My Pocket – Alanis Morissette, one week at #1 Alt, #8 Main, #15 pop

Lump – The Presidents of the United States of America, one week at #1 Alt, #7 Main, #21 pop. Not to be confused with Weird Al’s Gump.

Hot R&B #1 Singles for 1995

sampling Marvin Gaye

Here are the Hot R&B #1 Singles for 1995 from the Billboard charts.

One More Chance/Stay With Me – The Notorious B.I.G., nine weeks at #1 RB, #2 for three weeks pop. Christopher George Latore Wallace, a/k/a Biggie Smalls. The hit is from his 1994 debut album, Ready To Die. Brittanica notes that he “was among the most influential artists of 1990s gangsta rap.” He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. “On March 9, 1997, Wallace was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles when he was killed in a drive-by shooting. The shooter and the motive remained unknown.”

Exhale (Shoop Shoop) – Whitney Houston, eight weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop. Died in 2012.

This Is How We Do It – Montell Jordan, seven weeks at # RB, also #1 pop

Fantasy – Mariah Carey, six weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop

MJ

You Are Not Alone – Michael Jackson, four weeks at #1 RB, also #1 pop. Died in 2009. About a decade after that, I posted a piece in response to the question, “Are we under any obligation to erase performers or songs we once liked because it later turns out that they were either allegedly or actually terrible humans or allegedly or actually did terrible things?” I’m still ambivalent about it.

Baby – Brandy, four weeks at #1 RB, #4 RB, platinum

Candy Rain – Soul for Real, three weeks at #1 RB, #2 for four weeks RB, gold

I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need To Get By – Method Man featuring Mary J Blige, three weeks at #1 RB, #3 pop. The latter song was a 1968 hit by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, #1 RB for five weeks, #7 pop.

Don’t Take It Personal (just one of dem days) – Monica, two weeks at #1 RB, #2 for three weeks pop, platinum. Samples Back Seat (Of My Jeep) by LL Cool J

These are the number ones for only one week, RB.

Boombastic– Shaggy, #3 for two weeks pop, platinum. Samples Baby Let Me Kiss You by King Floyd. A remix also samples Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On.

Who Can I Run To? – Xscape, #8 pop, gold

You Remind Me Of Something – R. Kelly, #4 pop, platinum

1995 #1 Hot Country Singles & Tracks

John Michael Montgomery, Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn

Here are the 1995 #1 Hot Country Singles and Tracks. Joel Whitburn’s Hot Country Songs contains information about chart methodology.

“For decades, Billboard’s country singles charts were compiled by playlists reported by radio stations and sales reports reported by stores. These airplays and sales reports established the weekly rankings…

“On January 20, 1990, Billboard began basing the charts entirely on airplay with information gathered by the Nielsen Broadcast Data systems, a subsidiary of Billboard that electronically monitored actual radio airplay… These monitors can identify each song played by an encoded audio fingerprint.

“On December 5, 1992, Billboard began compiling the country singles charts strictly on the number of detections or plays registered by each song.

The songs

I Like It, I Love It – Tim McGraw, five weeks at #1

Check Yes or No -George Strait, four weeks at #1. As you may know, Strait has been selected for the Kennedy Center Honors in 2025. Someone gave me one of his compilation CDs, the 1991 Ten Strait Hits.

I Can Love You Like That – John Michael Montgomery, three weeks at #1. This song I know! I own a version by All-4-One. Some music pundit noted at the time that this convergence meant that the genres were essentially meaningless.

Summer’s Comin’– Clint Black, three weeks at #1

Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident) – John Michael Montgomery, three weeks at #1

Not A Moment Too Soon – Tim McGraw, two weeks at #1

Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) – Pam Tillis, two weeks at #1

Old Enough To Know Better – Wade Hayes, two weeks at #1

This Woman And This Man – Clay Walker, two weeks at #1

Thinking About You – Trisha Yearwood, two weeks at #1

Any Man Of Mine – Shania Twain, two weeks at #1

You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone – Brooks & Dunn, two weeks at #1

Dust On The Bottle – David Lee Murphy, two weeks at #1

Tall, Tall Trees – Alan Jackson, two weeks at #1

That’s As Close As I’ll Get To Loving You – Aaron Tippin, two weeks at #1

All the rest of the songs are one week at #1

Gone Country – Alan Jackson

My Kind Of Girl – Collin Raye

You Can’t Make A Heart Love Somebody – George Strait

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter – Reba McEntire

Little Miss Honky Tonk – Brooks & Dunn. I read the titles to text, and the machine changed Honky to *****, which I thought was adorable.

Gonna Get A Life – Mark Chesnutt

What Mattered Most – Ty Herndon

Texas Tornado – Tracy Lawrence

I Don’t Even Know Your Name – Alan Jackson

I Didn’t Know My Own Strength – Lorrie Morgan

Not On Your Love – Jeff Carson

She’s Every Woman—Garth Brooks. I own only one other album represented on this list, Fresh Horses.

1985 #1 Top Rock Tracks

the Pauls Carrack and Rodgers

These are the 1985 #1 Top Rock Tracks. What am I talking about? Earlier this year, I bought the book Joel Whitburn Presents Rock Tracks. It is “compiled from Billboard’s alternative Rock and Mainstream Rock charts.” The mainstream rock chart was first published in 1981.

Further, “there’s a weekly Top 60 airplay chart compiled from rock radio as indicated by the Nation’s leading album-oriented and top track stations. What is a track? Billboard’s Mike Harrison said, “Quite simply, a track is any individual song played on the raw merits of its popularity, regardless of its mechanical configuration, meaning, regardless of whether it is a 45 RPM single, LP cut, or whatever.”

Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) – Mike + The Mechanics, five weeks at #1, #6 pop. It also appeared on the soundtrack of the film On Dangerous Ground. The track features former Ace and Squeeze singer Paul Carrack on lead vocals.

Lonely Ol’ Night – John Cougar Mellencamp, five weeks at #1, #6 pop

The Old Man Down The Road – John Fogerty, three weeks at #1, #10 pop

Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds, three weeks at #1, #1 pop

Trapped – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, three weeks at #1. #2 for four weeks pop. This was on the We Are the World album by USA for Africa.

If You Love Somebody Set Them Free – Sting, three weeks at #1, #3 for two weeks pop. Linguistically ahead of the curve.

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits, three weeks at #1, #1 for three weeks pop

You Belong To The City – Glenn Frey, three weeks at #1, #2 for two weeks, from the Miami Vice soundtrack.

Tonight She Comes – The Cars, three weeks at #1, #7 pop, from the Cars’ Greatest Hits.

Also

Somebody – Bryan Adams, two weeks at #1, #11 pop

Just Another Night – Mick Jagger, two weeks at #1, #12 pop

All She Wants To Do Is Dance – Don Henley, two weeks at #1, #9 pop

Forever Man – Eric Clapton, two weeks at #1, #26 pop

Little By Little – Robert Plant – two weeks at #1, #36 pop

Tough All Over – John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band – two weeks at #1, #22 pop

The Power Of Love – Huey Lewis and The News, two weeks at #1, #1 for two weeks pop

Fortress Around Your Heart – Sting, two weeks at #1, #8 pop

Sleeping Bag – ZZ Top, two weeks at #1, #8 pop

Talk To Me – Stevie Nicks, two weeks at #1, #4 pop

The rest for a single week at #1

I Want To Know What Love Is – Foreigner, #1 for two weeks pop

Radioactive – The Firm, #28 pop. The Firm was a British rock supergroup formed in 1984, featuring singer Paul Rodgers (Free and Bad Company), guitarist Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin), drummer Chris Slade (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Uriah Heep, and later AC/DC), and bass player Tony Franklin.

We Built This City – Starship, #1 for two weeks pop

Easy Listening #1s in 1975, part 1

NASA

Like the other charts, the Billboard Easy Listening #1s in 1975, the nomenclature at the time for what became Adult Contemporary, were also overcrowded. `

Something Better To Do – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1

Please Mr. Please – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1, also #1 pop

Midnight Blue – Melissa Manchester, two weeks at #1 – I loved that song at a point when I had no real romantic relationships

At Seventeen – Janis Ian, two weeks at #1. She sang it when she was 23.

I’m Sorry – John Denver, two weeks at #1, also #1 pop

The Way I Want To Touch You – Captain and Tennille, two weeks at #1

My Little Town – Simon and Garfunkel, two weeks at #1; this song was included on the solo albums of each artist

I Write The Songs – Barry Manilow, two weeks at #1. Not incidentally, Barry Manilow did not write it, though many people assume so. The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston penned it.

The rest of the songs, #1 for a single week

Only You (And You Alone) – Ringo Starr. This was originally recorded by The Platters in 1955. On Ringo’s version, John Lennon plays acoustic guitar, and Harry Nilsson sings harmony vocals

Please Mr. Postman – Carpenters, also #1 pop . Yes, it’s Carpenters, not the Carpenters. The 1961 debut single by the Marvelettes for the Tamla (Motown) label was the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Morningside Of The Mountain – Donny and Marie Osmond. I had never heard this song before! Pure treacle

Best Of My Love – The Eagles, also #1 pop

Sweet Surrender – John Denver

Lonely People – America. I wrote a post about this song, as well as NASA, DC, and Charlotte, NC.

Nightingale – Carole King

Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow

Have You Never Been Mellow – Olivia Newton-John, also #1 pop

I’ve Been This Way Before – Neil Diamond

(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – B.J. Thomas, also #1 pop

Emotion – Helen Reddy