For the third installment of Hits, Cult Classics & Obscurities we are going back 20 years to 1995.
You can find all previous posts in this series here, so let's not waste time with introductions and go straight to the music with The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". Released on October 24, 1995, it was the lead single off the band's third album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and became their first Top 40 hit in the US, while also reaching the Top 20 in the UK:
San Diego's Rocket From The Crypt have given us several excellent albums and singles throughout the '90s and "Born in '69", the lead single off their major-label debut "Scream, Dracula, Scream!", is certainly among their best. Enjoy John Reis and company in top screaming form in our selection for the cult classic of 1995:
Scarce, the power trio featuring Anastasia Screamed singer/guitarist Chick Graning and bassist Joyce Raskin, could have easily found success on the strength of their astonishing debut album "Deadsexy", but a near fatal brain aneurysm stopped them in their tracks. Thankfully Graning was able to pull through, but the momentum for the band was lost and they eventually split up two years later without any more releases until their reformation in 2008. As luck would have it, without any promotion their excellent 1995 single "Glamourizing Cigarettes" as well as the album did not reach many ears, but those of us who own a copy of "Deadsexy" will always cherish it.
The monthly series of posts featuring our favorite singles from each year of the '90s is moving on to the second half of the decade, the post-grunge years, with 1995’s Top 50 list.
PJ Harvey, who reinvented herself as a goth diva for her third album "To Bring You My Love", claims another Single of the Year (she was also at the top of our 1992 list) with the stunning, futuristic blues of "Down by the Water", the lead single from the album which was released to great artistic and commercial success in February '95.
Grunge was already history by then, but there are still plenty of kick-ass rock tunes to choose from and several of them by the likes of Hole, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rocket From The Crypt, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and the ill-fated but excellent Scarce, have stormed to the top of our list. 1995 was also a landmark year for britpop that culminated with the Blur vs. Oasis chart battle in the summer, but although we do have quite a few of the genre's hits scattered throughout our list, it’s only the post-punk and new wave influenced sounds of Elastica that have what it takes to crack our idiosyncratic Top 10. Check it out below and then click here for the complete Top 50 of 1995:
