3 One-Hit Wonders From the 1990s That Everyone Remembers After the First Note

If your song was a radio hit in the 1990s, people everywhere knew it well. Back then, the radio was where a band made its bones. Sure, CD sales were great and so were ticket sales. But if you could master the radio? You were in.

Here below, we wanted to highlight three songs from back in the day that were all over radio station airwaves. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from the 1990s everyone remembers after the first note.

“Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice from ‘To The Extreme’ (1990)

As soon as this track’s sped-up bass line hits, you know Vanilla Ice is about to bless you with some unintentionally funny rhymes. Indeed, this song is strange. On the one hand, the rapper shows real talent. He’s compelling. He’s magnetic. But on the other hand, he’s cartoonish and goofy. Should we take him seriously? Do we? Well, whatever the answers to those age-old questions, one thing is true. We certainly recognize this song as soon as it hits our speakers.

“No Rain” by Blind Melon from ‘Blind Melon’ (1992)

Guitar players, listen up. We all know that it’s very tempting to want to noodle around on your six-string and play as many notes as fast as you can. But quantity doesn’t always equal quality. Just check out the opening notes on this song—that guitar line is so simple and yet so memorable. Clarity and concision are attractive. And if you lean into them, you may just write an instantly recognizable hit song like “No Rain”. Speed and maximization can be fun—just not always.

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve from ‘Urban Hymns’ (1997)

Over the years, much has been written about the violins on this track. First of all, as soon as you hear them, you know the hit 1997 song, “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, by The Verve is about to gloriously wash over your ears. But there is also a bit of a salacious backstory to those strings. They were sampled by The Verve from a song by The Rolling Stones without their permission. That irked Mick Jagger and company, and it caused quite a stir between the two British groups. Well, today, all that is water under the bridge. But maybe all that history helped people perk up when the tune came on the air. Either way, when it does today, the song remains immediately identifiable—thanks to those darn violins.

Photo by Gie Knaeps/Getty Images