Depending on your point of view, 1995 was kind of a drill to the head as far as music was concerned. According to Google search for "hit songs of 1995" adult contemporary was pretty hot on the charts as well as the precursors to boy bands (Take That, All-4-One, Blessed Union of Souls).

Rap and hip hop also had some mainstream showings there, but there were also some real crapfests like Cotton Eye Joe by the Rednex and various angry songs by Alanis Morissette.

The Rembrandt's hit the big time thanks to a little show called "Friends" and American's were just being introduced to the family circus that was Oasis with "Wonderwall" being on the charts.

There were some gems in 1995 though and I am going to cover some of them here as part of the #x-daysofmusic challenge started by @backinblackdevil I think.

Green Day - Brainstew

I came in to work this morning and I felt like I needed something to get me motivated and pumped up. It was about 6:30 AM after all and I had been up since about 4:00 AM.

I haven't listened to Green Day in a while and I thought it might be cool to listen to a couple of songs nice and loud.

I've long since lost my copy of their "International Superhits" CD, but if you want a good collection of some of their best songs, it is definitely the one to listen to.

Brainstew starts with an awesome guitar riff and then just progresses into a driving rhythm that keeps you rocking through the song.

Not knowing when it had been released, I did a quick Google search and found it was 1995. Eureka!, I now had a year for an #x-daysofmusic post.

U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

By the time Batman Forever came out, U2 was pretty significantly into their electronica phase. It really kind of started with Achtung Baby and carried over into
Zooropa. This song landed smack in the middle of Zooropa and Pop.

While I don't enjoy all of their music from that time, they did have some winners in my book and this was definitely one of them. Part of what I really like about this song is the orchestral feel to it. One thing that U2 has always done well is mix driving guitars and beats with the flowing drawn out(not in a bad way) vocals of Bono.

Bon Jovi - This Ain't A Love Song

If you haven't been following me, you probably don't know that @mrsbozz is a huge Bon Jovi fan. This song happens to be my most favorite of theirs, so I knew I had to include it when I saw it was released in 1995.

I guarantee I have highlighted this song before in another post. This is how special it is to me though that I had to include it here.

I am not sure what it is, maybe it is the story it tells or the slow buildup to the crescendo towards the end, but this song does it for me every time.

If I had to compare it to something, I think I would compare it to a wave. It slowly starts to build and grow and then finally at the end it crashes on the beach. The vocals as always from Jon are fantastic and the agonizing "yeah I'm wrong" at the end make this a definite winner.

Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise

I'm going to let you in on a little secret... I didn't listen to a lot of Rap music growing up. Besides the hit's that they played on the radio and at middle school dances like "Wild Thang" and "It Takes Two", my knowledge of this genre of music was pretty limited.

If you asked me, I would have had no clue who Tupac, Biggie, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, or any of those people were. Along comes the movie "Dangerous Minds" in 1995 and I was soon exposed to a whole new world of music.

The sound track for "Dangerous Minds" is an awesome album, but this song stands out as the main hit.

I have always said that I am a fan of all genres of music including Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues, Classical, Show Tunes, R&B, Rap, Ska, Punk, you name it. As I mentioned though, this song opened my musical pallette to a genre that until then had been closed to me. Therefore, it will always hold a special place for me.

That's all for 1995! Did you have a favorite song from 1995?

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