Okay: Bad Reputation. Today’s FReedy FRiday selection is the closest thing in his catalog to a hit and the only song likely to ring a bell with non-believers. I rank it thusly in my quick, assembled-right-before-my-mac-and-cheese-is-ready list of the best radio singles of the 1990s:
- Feel Alright - Steve Earle
- The Way - Fastball
- Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet
- Bad Reputation - Freedy
- Wonderwall - Oasis
- Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen
- That’s Just What You Are - Aimee Mann
- The Lucky One - Freedy
- 13 Steps Lead Down - Elvis Costello
- Come As You Are - Nirvana
- Red Dragon Tattoo - Fountains of Wayne
- Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
- Drive - R.E.M.
- Buddy Holly - Weezer
- Walls (Circus) - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
- Closing Time - Semisonic
- (tie) One - U2 and November Fuckin’ Rain - Guns N’ Roses
Sheryl Crow’s All I Wanna Do just misses the list at #37,262. Was Black Star by Radiohead ever a single? Others that don’t make the list because they weren’t released commercially: Ben Folds Five’s Don’t Change Your Plans, some of the Lemonheads ditties (Paid to Smile, Kitchen), most everything off Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and Tomorrow the Green Grass. I’m a purist that way.
Every day should be a FReedy FRiday. Buy Bad Reputation here. And here’s a bonus Freedy video with lots of moody images and art direction.
