Listosaurus Rex

I’m not sure exactly when they released it, but here is VH1’s list of the greatest songs from the 1990s. It was originally a TV special, which I did not watch, so I do not have the full context, but they did release the list itself.

Drumroll, please. The top ten:

1. Nirvana - “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
2. U2 - “One”
3. Backstreet Boys - “I Want It That Way”
4. Whitney Houston - “I Will Always Love You”
5. Madonna - “Vogue”
6. Sir Mix-A-Lot - “Baby Got Back”
7. Britney Spears - “…Baby One More Time”
8. TLC - “Waterfalls”
9. R.E.M. - “Losing My Religion”
10. Sinéad O’Connor “Nothing Compares 2 U”

I definitely follow VH1’s reasoning… for two songs. Nirvana and U2: safe picks, great songs. Much has been written about how “Teen Spirit” shook up the entire music industry with its sound, lyrics, video, and attitude. And not since “Like a Rolling Stone” by Dylan has a more powerful, sublime hate song been written than U2’s “One.”

But, Backstreet Boys at number three. While that song encompasses everything that was good about the boy bands (catchy melodies, great vocals) while leaving out most of what was wrong with them, putting them at #3 is a big stretch.

The rest of the top ten is a little bit sketchy, too. I understand people accept Madonna as a very important figure in the industry, but I don’t really like “Vogue.” “Baby Got Back” is an acceptable guilty pleasure, in my opinion, but holds more camp value than anything else. Why not a Dre, Tupac, Nas, Jay-Z, or Eminem cut at that spot instead?

“…Baby One More Time” was, in all honesty, a good song. Good. Not great. Seriously, can any song which was on an album alongside a song called “E-Mail My Heart” be eligible for any sort of top ten?

Scanning the rest of the list, you definitely see some great songs, but also questionable picks. Spice Girls ahead of Oasis? Color Me Badd ahead of The Fugees? Christina Aguilera ahead of Weezer? I don’t know, man.

Overall, it’s a very interesting list with some great picks but also some duds. It seems like VH1 was using a combination of campiness and overall quality in making the picks. As the inclusion of MC Hammer proves.

One more time, the link.

I stumbled across this enormous list of The 100 Best NES Games Ever. It is quite comprehensive and excellent, featuring blurbs from several writers about each of the games. Here is their top ten:

1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Final Fantasy
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Mega Man 3
5. Mega Man 2
6. Bubble Bobble
7. Contra
8. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
9. Battletoads
10. Super Mario Bros

Kudos to them for being different from pretty much every video game site on the net and picking something besides the original Mario Bros. as their number one.

The site has a bit of a hardcore gamer spin to it, as opposed to someone like me, who’d classify himself as a “casual emulator” of NES games. The inclusion of the maddeningly hard Battletoads in the top ten is proof alone of that. But I think you have to be a bit hardcore to produce a list as extensive and detailed as theirs.

As someone who can really only list a couple dozen NES games off the top of my head, I think this list is an excellent resource at beginning to delve into the substantial library of old Nintendo gems. I plan to go scan some ROM sites tonight and check some of these games out.

Particularly cool is that they have plenty of little-heralded games up near the top with the big-name classics like Zelda, Mario, and FF. At #11 they have TMNT 2, at #17 they have something called Maniac Mansion which I’ve never heard of, at #28 a Duck Tales platformer which I never knew existed, and at #27 the generically-titled but awesome-looking robot-baseball game Base Wars. I look forward to trying all of these hidden gems out.

Funny, comprehensive, and well-done, this list is worth a look. You just might want to set aside an hour if you want to read everything they’ve written. Here’s the link again.