The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1992

 

The Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 1992

What’s up guys? It’s Fire back here with another year-end list!! Today we’re diving into the top 10 BEST hit songs of 1992!!

As I said in my worst list, 1992 seems to be generally agreed upon as one of the greatest and most pivotal ever years for the Hot 100 and that I didn’t really find the year to be as great as a lot of people did. However, when my uncle was reading my worst list he brought up a very good point—a year can be revolutionary for music even if not necessarily the highest quality. For as much as people tend to remember Nirvana reshaping the pop music landscape overnight, I couldn’t help but look deeper and notice the sheer volume of dullness that survived the sucker punch from “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. And don’t get me wrong, we’ll get back to that song later on this list. But this was a year where rap also started to take more hold in the mainstream and was out of its novelty era, to great results! Thus, while I still don’t think 1992 is as amazing as many make it out to be, the true cream of the crop this year is pretty damn special.

Now to get started with this list!! As per usual, the songs eligible for this list must have met at least one of these rules:

• They had to debut on the 1992 Hot 100 YE

• Repeating songs are eligible if they beat or matched their previous standings on this YE

• Any songs in the YE Top 20 are eligible regardless of the first two rules

• The same rules apply to the Hot 100 Airplay YE

Ergo, if you wanna see the full pool of songs I listened to for this list, check out this Spotify playlist here.

So let’s pull out the gems from this iconic year starting with our honorable mentions!!

HM #1: CeCe Peniston - Finally (YE: #20, PEAK: #5)

Peniston. Okay, crude jokes aside, CeCe Peniston had 3 hits this year, and while the other two were pretty good, “Finally” was the one that really won me over with its great diva house synths splashing off the garage beat to make for an incredibly fun time. CeCe Peniston has a tremendous voice that radiates happiness at the feeling of thinking you finally found the right person for you. It sounds sleepover-core in a bit of a similar way to how I’d describe “Nighttime Thing” by Alessia Cara from last year. Great track!

HM #2: Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover (YE: #34, PEAK: #5)

This is just a very enticing queer love song, with its huge baggy sound that leaves enough space in the mix for Sophie B. Hawkins’s soft longing vocals to seamlessly slide into the song. A song like this could’ve easily fallen into “Treat You Better” territory. But what saves this is that Sophie B. Hawkins is clearly not trying to set herself up to be sensitive—she’s upfront that she wants to be the lover of this woman in an abusive relationship. Also, those guitars just kick so much ass.

HM #3: TLC - Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg (YE: #36, PEAK: #6)

This won me over on the great New Jack Swing groove alone. The girls in TLC ride it with a ton of presence and they make the call-and-response bit super memorable. The entire song just steamrolls over you to the point where any time you try to object to anything, the “I ain’t too proud to beg, no!”’s just shut you up. It makes it really easy to ignore the fact that the meter can at points feel off (“I need it in the middle of THE night” just wouldn’t work if the instrumental was any less powerful). Also, the fact that the official lyrics actually use numbers and it DOESN’T feel corny is clearly doing something right.

HM #4: P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss (YE: #44, PEAK: #1)

That hip hop production...*chef’s kiss*. The psychedelic production has this vibe of being grateful for the past and present, which matches the laid back flow. And that fits the lyrics, which are just lovestruck in their nostalgic look back on memories. And the fact that that “solitaire” pun didn’t feel cringeworthy is truly a testament to how great this sounds. It’s a great song that sure does send me adrift on bliss, alright.

HM #5: Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want (YE: #53, PEAK: #15)

Hot Olivia Rodrigo cover!!!!!!!????? Okay seriously though, if all the glam metal on my worst list gave you the impression that I hate rock, here’s my rebuttal!! “All I Want” sounds really close to jangle pop, which is a compliment coming from me. I really like the melodic guitars that remind me of a Goo Goo Dolls song—also a compliment. And when the drums ease into a cruising tempo, it makes the song feel really dreamy. All I want is to feel the way the song sounds.

HM #6: TLC - What About Your Friends (YE: #88, PEAK: #7)

Yup, that’s two New Jack Swing bangers from TLC making this list!! And while the groove here isn’t as powerful as the one on “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg”, I do still think “What About Your Friends” is quite nice. The lyrics are rather simple, but they have a message that I think most people need to hear—it’s about asking yourself if your friends are really true friends. Will they stand by you in your darkest moments or will they let you down? Left Eye’s rap verse highlights how some people will take advantage of your kindness to get what they want before ultimately discarding you. It’s a reminder that having no friends is better than having deviant friends—a lesson I really wish I learned in high school. Great track!!

HM #7: Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer (YE: #72, PEAK: #5)

A eurodance song making Fire’s best list, what a shock! Okay, all jokes aside, “Rhythm Is A Dancer” hits all my soft spots in music—upbeat eurodance percussion, bright synths that compel your body to move to the music, and Thea Austin fitting into the production so well. The delivery just makes this even more of a fun time and the interludes keep the energy high. This is standard club music, but standard club music is my go-to music given almost any environment, so it’s really no surprise this song made my list.

HM #8: Michael Jackson - Remember The Time (YE: #19, PEAK: #3)

It’s no secret that the 90s were a pretty rough time for Michael Jackson due to horrific allegations that would surface the following year. However, in 1992, the king of pop was still on top. And while “Remember The Time” isn’t up there among MJ’s classics, it’s still great. The beat is razor-tight and allows MJ to have his distinct conviction in his delivery. It’s not my favorite from him—even this year—but this is still a bop.

HM #9: Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Back (YE: #2, PEAK: #1)

Ah yes, the song responsible for bringing big butts into the cultural zeitgeist. In a sense, I blame this song for 2014 being such a literal butt-fest for music (both in terms of musical quality and the themes most prominent in pop music that year lol). But hey, “Baby Got Back” has lasted in the cultural memory for as long as it has for a reason—it’s great. Sir Mix-A-Lot sounds like a drill sergeant and you basically have no choice butt (literal typo I made while writing this, not fixing it because it’s a perfect unintentional joke lol) to shake your ass. This song makes me wanna twerk, so uh...bye guys, gonna go do that now. But yeah, not much else to say here, it’s rightfully cemented itself as an iconic ass anthem.

HM #10: Elton John - The One (YE: #43, PEAK: #9)

Oh Elton, if only you chose to keep the goodwill you earned at the height of your fame rather than squandering it all in 2022 when you hopped on the lazy sampling trend. But yeah, when I was listening to the 1992 YE, I immediately clocked this as one of the songs that got sampled in that terrible “Hold Me Closer” with Britney Spears from 2022. And I hate that that’s what it took for me to recognize this track, that I heard a cheap remix in the wild more than this awesome track. This could’ve very easily fallen into generic AC ballad territory, but Elton has the conviction in his delivery and the talent as a pianist to make this feel like the greatest love story ever told. And when you compare it to any of the many generic AC love ballads that made my worst list, it’s so easy to understand why this is so much better—it actually sounds distinct!! This was literally the final cut from the list proper, and it was a very painful cut indeed.

Anyways, now what actually made that list proper over that?

10…As I mentioned at the start, 1992 was a year that saw rap starting to take more hold in the mainstream and fading out of its novelty era. This created a rather interesting split between the more goofy early 90s rap and the more hardcore stuff that would come to dominate the rest of the decade. And both sides of that binary wound up notching real quality—you already saw “Baby Got Back” in the honorable mentions as an example of the former, but for the latter, we have this!....

10. N2Deep - Back To The Hotel (YE: #78, PEAK: #14)

Not even gonna lie, this made this list entirely because of that beat. It’s easily one of the best beats of the year, with its speaker-destroying stalking bassline, the jazz-inflected sax, and that slow drumline that enhances the song’s darkness. The beat is so good that it even makes some of the goofier lyrics like “'Cause you know what I mean when I'm feelin' kinda funky/A sick honky, straight goin' donkey” sound like great wordplay!! The duo brings real dark charisma and mystique in their tight flows to make a song about hooking up with a girl at a hotel sound like something darker and more enticing. You could make a credible argument that this song paved the way for hedonism to dominate much of music today. This song ran back to the hotel so artists like The Weeknd and SZA could sprint in the 2020s—great track!!

9...So one trend synonymous with the 90s was jumping. You had people jumping in unison during group photos, people jumping during concerts and music videos, Michael Jordan, and, of course, two big hit songs from 1992 about jumping. And flipping to the other side of the hip hop binary I mentioned with the previous entry...

9. House Of Pain - Jump Around (YE: #24, PEAK: #3)

“Jump Around” is just way too much fun. That whistle just adds to the hype and energy of the song. All three guys in House Of Pain are clearly having a great time here. The track sweeps you along for the ride with its infectious energy. What the guys in House Of Pain admittedly lack in technical skill they more than make up for with their fun energy. The “jump! Jump! Jump!”’s that are shouted throughout the track just further compel you to, in fact, jump around. Yeah, it’s a great song and why are you still sitting down to read this article? Everybody get out your seat and jump around! Everybody jump! Jump! Jump!  Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump!

8...So one trend synonymous with the 90s was jumping. You had people jumping in unison during group photos, people jumping during concerts and music videos, Michael Jordan, and, of course, two big hit songs from 1992 about jumpi-okay, yeah you get the setup here...

8. Kris Kross - Jump (YE: #3, PEAK: #1)

Okay, yeah, putting the two “Jump” songs right next to each other on this list was too easy of an opportunity to pass up. But I honestly find the two songs more or less equally great. Kriss Kross won out because of wayyyy tighter flows than one would expect out of 12-13 year-olds. They are much better than the 1991 failed experiment of a kids’ group Another Bad Creation becau-

“Don't try to compare us (Yeah) to another bad little fad”

...okay, never mind. But from “'Cause I'm the miggity miggity miggity miggity Mac Daddy” to “Some of them try to rhyme but they can't rhyme like this” to “wiggida wiggida wiggida wack”, “Jump” is just ridiculously quotable and fun. Again, for being 12-13, Kriss Kross have tight flows that clearly show that they’re worth taking seriously despite their age. You don’t hear this and say “you have talent kids, great job. Keep honing your craft!”, you say “I can...totally do that...I’m the migggi-hufkyukyudykyrkdtykyutdfrkuyjtfkufkufkuggitiggityggigiogilkuymjxdydtxnfdnxgddmtngxfcgnd-Mac daddy...Okay, Sumuvthemtryterwhine can’t rhyme like this” and then you quietly exit the room/stage in embarrassment. Sorry House Of Pain, your song is absolutely great, but I think it’s clear that Kriss Kross win the jump-off here.

7...So trying to make a song that acts as a mythological ballad of an ancient entity can often feel too cringeworthy or corny at the time of the song’s release—it’s characterized some of my least favorite Kacey Musgraves songs. It just straight up feels like you’re trying to make a pirate’s song or kids’ campfire song. But what happens if you put this type of song against a New Jack Swing beat and fully commit to the bit?...

7. The KLF - Justified And Ancient (YE: #86, PEAK: #8)

“Justified And Ancient” could’ve easily been a disaster—it's trying to evoke an ancient myth surrounding the KLF's fictional Mu Mu Land. But the song is given a forceful New Jack Swing groove that steamrolls over you before you can make any judgments. The female vocalist commits to sounding mysterious and powerful to evoke the feeling of hearing from a distant deity, especially when coupled with the chanting. This song feels like good camp and it does a great job of...justifying its existence alright.

6...So I think I’ve got a good mix of curveball but respectable picks and beloved favorites on this list so far. The smart thing to do would be to continue that trend, and, you know, not say that there were 5 hit songs in 1992 that I liked more than Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”...

6. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (YE: #32, PEAK: #6)

I wouldn’t blame you at all if you thought this would top this list—hell, I’ve already referenced this song positively on my worst list and multiple times on this list. And yes, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has rightfully earned its status as one of the most revolutionary hit songs of all time. The music scene of the early 90s was painfully dull and begging for the sucker punch that this song gave the music industry. This track basically started the 90s, bringing grunge to the spotlight and giving rock a new identity. The harsh guitar riffs and the dynamic percussion are very engaging and that hook is iconic. And it’s not me just saying that this song reshaped the music scene in the 90s. The song is practically demanding the music scene itself to get its shit together—”Here we are now, entertain us”—all of that is absolutely true. But can I also say that I didn’t always really love this song? I absolutely always liked it, but I admittedly felt a bit of distance towards this song for years—it’s more of a song whose impact I respect more than I actually like the song. Don’t get me wrong, after slogging through the YE lists for 1990 and 91, it was easy to understand just why this song was so desperately needed, which was enough to vault this song this high on my list. But in 1992, there were just more songs I’d revisit over this.

5...So believe it or not, I’m not actually against aspirational anthems on principle. I actually like plenty of the 2010s self-empowerment anthems for as cliche as they could get. For me, it comes down to sonic execution and specificity in the story. Now, a song can excel in one of these (usually the former) and fail hopelessly in the other but the strengths of what it excels at redeem it enough to make the song good or even great. But if you excel in both, well...

5. Mariah Carey - Make It Happen (YE: #42, PEAK: #5)

Mariah Carey tries her hand at an aspirational song about following your dreams and making them happen even through all the obstacles you encounter and it works tremendously!! She opens up about her rough upbringing in an unstable home without much money. And through her sheer star power alone she encourages the listener to persevere and that if they believe in themselves enough, they can reach their dreams. What makes this not feel cliche is the specificity Mariah writes about—she includes details true to her life story, like how she often cried herself to sleep and couldn’t eat or even have proper shoes on her feet. Mariah does include mention of getting on your knees and praying to the Lord and that meaning he will make it happen and I see how it can come across as preachy—but I simply choose to interpret it as “it’s something you can do if you find comfort in it and believe will help you” rather than a demand. All that makes the lyrical content absolutely incredible and it would’ve probably been enough for this song to clinch a spot on this list, but then we get the production—C+C Music Factory gives Mariah a more understated diva house cut that allows Mariah to belt like she truly means what she’s saying. In other words, this is an empowerment anthem that has the ability to actually empower. And if the production were just a bit more lively, I might’ve even put this at #1. And there are still 4 songs I put above this, holy shit.

4...Considering I was born after 9/11 (you’re welcome if I made you feel old), there have been plenty of instances of me hearing a cover of a classic song before the original. Examples include that horrendous Uncle Kracker cover of “Drift Away” and that terrible “Dancing On My Own” cover by Calum Scott. Given that I feel quite negative about those covers, sometimes those emotions can influence how I feel about the original at first—as was the case with Uncle Kracker’s cover causing me to feel a bit cooler on Dobie Gray’s original “Drift Away” initially (I have come around to finding the original song perfect though). So what happens when I already love the cover version to the point where I place it on my 2006 best list and then I hear the original?...

4. Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway (YE: #18, PEAK: #6)

I honestly love the Rascal Flatts cover just about as much as this. I absolutely get why some could find this annoying—Tom Cochrane’s delivery is very scratchy and yelping—but that delivery, when combined with the bouncy rock production, makes this feel all the more fun. The percussion and happy guitars help this feel like excellent driving music—fitting for a song about life being an open road to drive down at full speed. It’s like you’re on an empty highway on a road trip, free to floor it at 100mph. And coupled with some genuinely great harmonica riffs, this song is a ton of fun that I wanna blast on the highway all night long.

3...But going back to 90s MJ, this was the first MJ song I ever heard and for years, it was my favorite song from him. I can admit that that take may have been because I wasn’t all that familiar with his absolute classics, but I mean, it’s never gotten old for me, so...

3. Michael Jackson - Black Or White (YE: #14, PEAK: #1)

My first introduction to this song was when I was in 6th grade—I was with a group of students picking songs to sing at our elementary school’s open house. One kid suggested this song because the only requirement was that the songs had to be “ABC-friendly” (meaning inspirational) because, you know, it’s trying to end racism. And while the song never got selected to be performed (racism was considered too intense for elementary school kids lol), the song has always stuck with me. It absolutely should feel corny, maybe even cringe, in a way similar to that “David Guetta ends racism” meme. And make no mistake, “Black Or White” isn’t saying anything all that groundbreaking. The lyrics essentially boil down to “whether you’re black or white we’re all still human”, not exactly a call to action. But I don’t know, between that electric guitar rollick, those acoustic guitar accents, and that tight beat, this has always sounded incredible to me. MJ has an effortless cool attitude to sell the lyrics without making it sound cliche or corny, which is probably why this still holds up so well for me even now, nearly a decade after having first heard it. Yeah, this might not reach the tier of MJ’s absolute best songs, but “Black Or White” is still amazing.

2...So as you guys might know, I did an Olivia Rodrigo discog dive last month. In researching for that ranking, I came to the discovery that Olivia is a big music nerd. She’s expressed admiration for The Cure—hell, her first non-Disney collab was with the frontman of The Cure, Robert Smith. I’m not gonna say that Olivia’s admiration of their music influenced my opinion towards it (I’ve generally liked everything I’ve heard from them), but I can certainly attribute her to this song placing so high on this list...

2. The Cure - Friday I'm in Love (YE: #71, PEAK: #18)

“Friday I’m In Love” sounds fantastic and even if I weren’t in my Olivia Rodrigo stan era right now, it’d still very likely be somewhere in this top 10. I love the melodic and dreamy guitars and the jangle pop percussion just hits all the sweet spots for me. Robert Smith sounds so head over heels in love, which really helps the lyrics feel sweet. It relies on a simple “listing days of the week” structure to say that Saturday through Thursday, Robert Smith can be miserable but it’s worth it because on Friday, he’s in love. And literally while I was writing this review, I read that apparently Robert Smith thought this chord progression sounded great and was shocked to learn that it had never been used before—that feels INSANE. Given how accessible and likeable this sounds, it feels like this chord progression has always existed. But more than anything, this is just a very happy song that always makes me smile. Utterly fantastic, so what could be better?

But before we get to that, here are a couple of ineligible honorable mentions!

IHM #1: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (YE: #39, PEAK: #2)

Yeah, riding a feature in the movie Wayne’s World and Freddie Mercury’s death, “Bohemian Rhapsody” reached a new peak of #2, lasting long enough to make the YE for 1992. It wasn’t bigger in 1992 than it was in 1976 (hence why it’s not eligible for this list) but it’s still absolutely great. It’s a song that almost everyone has already hailed as one of the all-time greatest songs and it feels cliche to point out everything that earns this song all the critical acclaim—taking the strongest elements of prog rock and fusing them together in a multi-part epic in a very digestible way. Sean Fay-Wolfe has said that Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE” is the modern version of this track even if Travis Scott isn’t our generation’s Freddie Mercury, and I’d be hard-pressed to disagree. It’s super engaging in each of its sections. It’s like what “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses would’ve been if, you know, it wasn’t awful. I can’t say this would’ve topped this list if it were eligible though—it’s definitely a song I respect more than like. It’s missing a concrete emotional connection I can latch onto—still a great song, though.

IHM #2: Angela Lansbury - Beauty And The Beast (YE: N/A, PEAK: N/A)

I know the movie came out in 1991, but I still feel like I can highlight this song as an IHM for 1992 because the pop cover by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson was an actual hit this year. And while I do think that version is very good, there’s absolutely no denying that Angela Lansbury’s version from the movie is farrrrrrrrrrrr better. The arrangement is genuinely stunning, with the masterful orchestral violins and the dynamics of how the melodies rise and fall note perfectly. And then I have to talk about the delivery—Lansbury was apparently hesitant to sing this song because she thought she was too old for her voice to give this song the power it needed. And apparently this is the literal only take of Lansbury singing out there because the producers thought that it was absolutely perfect. And they were 1000% correct. Lansbury’s age gives her voice a sort of wisdom that beautifully complements the lyrics, which are all about the gradual growing connection between two strangers who turn into lovers. Not only does this work magnificently in the movie’s context, but Lansbury’s voice makes it sound like you’re hearing words of advice from an old soul. The wonderful arrangement, lyrics that work both in and out of context, and delivery that beautifully captures the magic of those lyrics, when put together make for a song that genuinely makes me tear up. Even disregarding the fact that I was in two school productions of Beauty & The Beast, this would still be one of, if not the, best songs Disney has ever made. It absolutely would’ve topped this list had it been eligible and it wouldn’t have been particularly close.

But as for what actually topped the list...

1...

Huh.

Ugh...

Ughhhhhhhhhhh...

You know what, fuck it, I made Eric Clapton my #1 anyway...

1. Eric Clapton - Tears In Heaven (YE: #6, PEAK: #2)

I think Eric Clapton’s anti-vaxxer turn in 2021 has alienated a lot of folks and made many people, myself included, a bit hesitant to praise his music. But I do hold the belief that artists with bad politics are still capable of making great music. And me putting “Tears In Heaven” at the top of my best list has nothing to do with anything I feel about his politics—no, it’s at the top of this list because it’s one of the most raw and devastating songs I’ve ever heard. Clapton wrote this song after his 5-year-old son died from falling out of a 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment. And that context is really what gives this song its raw power. You can hear how vulnerable the lyrics are to Clapton. I appreciate how he doesn’t “objectively” sound technically at his best here—you can hear how much he’s reeling from this loss. I have said many times on this blog in the past that I have a huge soft spot for songs about loss (as much as I have kinda raised my standards for such over the years), but even if I didn’t, this song would absolutely still wreck me because of how honest it is. It’s cliche to say that the worst fear for a parent is that they have to bury their own kid, but Clapton’s pure heartbreak here crystallizes why that cliche is reality. It’s a truly moving piece that, knowing the context of its creation, moves me to tears, like “Beauty And The Beast” by Angela Lansbury. And like that song, the person singing the song gives it its power. This is truly a masterpiece whose impact no amount of bad politics or problematic baggage can dampen. “Tears In Heaven” by Eric Clapton: the best hit song of 1992.

Alright, that’s 1992 in the books! 1993 lists should come next month, but my next article should be my Chill Pick article. So in the meantime, if you’ve got your own lists of the best hit songs of 1992, feel free to comment them down below! And until the next article, remember to keep it Fire!!