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KROQ Top 106.7 Countdowns by Year
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13
Top 300 Songs of the 90s 500 Most Requested of All-Time (Memorial Day 2006) KROQ's Labor Day 90's 500 (2007) KROQ Memorial 500 (Memorial Day 2008)

Countdown commentary

The KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1990

Ranking

Artist Name

Song Title

Album Title

Click for sample

1.

Sinead O'Connor

Nothing Compares 2 U

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Click for sample

2.

Depeche Mode

Enjoy the Silence

Violator

Click for sample

3.

Jane's Addiction

Been Caught Stealing

Ritual de lo Habitual

Click for sample

4.

The Cure

Pictures of You

Disintegration

Click for sample

5.

The Stone Roses

Fools Gold

The Stone Roses

6.

Faith No More

Epic (What is It)

The Real Thing

Click for sample

7.

The Trash Can Sinatras

Only Tongue Can Tell

Cake

8.

Social Distortion

Ball and Chain

Social Distortion

Click for sample

9.

Chris Isaak

Wicked Game

-

-

10.

Midnight Oil

Blue Sky Mine

Blue Sky Mining

11.

Iggy Pop

Candy

Brick by Brick

12.

Depeche Mode

World in My Eyes

Violator

Click for sample

13.

Depeche Mode

Policy of Truth

Violator

Click for sample

14.

Charlatans UK

The Only One I Know

-

-

15.

Concrete Blonde

Joey

Bloodletting

-

16.

INXS

Suicide Blonde

X

17.

The Lightning Seeds

Pure

Cloudcuckooland

18.

Nine Inch Nails

Head Like a Hole

Pretty Hate Machine

Click for sample

19.

Billy Idol

Cradle of Love

Charmed Life

20.

The Sundays

Here's Where the Story Ends

Reading, Writing And Arithmetic

Click for sample

21.

The Jesus and Mary Chain

Head On

Automatic

-

22.

UB40

The Way You Do the Things You Do

Labour of Love II

 

23.

Peter Murphy

Cuts You Up

-

-

24.

The Soup Dragons

I'm Free

-

-

25.

Gene Loves Jezebel

Jealous

Kiss Of Life

 

26.

Primal Scream

Loaded

-

-

27.

Sinead O'Connor

The Emperor's New Clothes

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

 

28.

The Cure

Never Enough

-

-

29.

U2

Night and Day

-

-

30.

Midnight Oil

King of the Mountain

Blue Sky Mining

31.

Michael Penn

This and That

-

-

32.

House of Love

I Don't Know Why I Love You

-

-

33.

Soho

Hippychick

-

-

34.

Living Colour

Type

Time's Up

35.

They Might Be Giants

Birdhouse in Your Soul

-

-

36.

Boom Crash Opera

Onion Skin

-

-

37.

Erasure

Star

Wild!

-

38.

Jane's Addiction

Stop!

Ritual de lo Habitual

Click for sample

39.

The B-52's

Roam

Cosmic Thing

 

40.

Social Distortion

Story of My Life

Social Distortion

Click for sample

41.

Morrissey

Ouija Board, Ouija Board

Bona Drag

 

42.

The Darling Buds

Crystal Clear

-

-

43.

Billy Idol

Prodigal Blues

Charmed Life

44.

Adam Ant

Room at the Top

Manners & Physique

 

45.

Concrete Blonde

Tomorrow, Wendy

Bloodletting

-

46.

The Psychedelic Furs

House

Book Of Days

-

47.

UB40

Here I Am (Come and Take Me)

Labour of Love II

 

48.

DNA featuring Suzanne Vega

Tom's Diner

-

-

49.

Oingo Boingo

Skin

Dark at the End of the Tunnel

 

50.

The Cure

Hello I Love You

-

-

51.

Inspiral Carpets

This is How It Feels

-

-

52.

The Smithereens

Yesterday Girl

11

53.

The Lightning Seeds

All I Want

Cloudcuckooland

54.

Midnight Oil

Forgotten Years

Blue Sky Mining

55.

The Sundays

Can't Be Sure

-

-

56.

Sisters of Mercy

More

-

-

57.

The Ocean Blue

Drifting Falling

The Ocean Blue

58.

Happy Mondays

Step On

-

-

59.

Michael Penn

Brave New World

-

-

60.

Public Image Ltd.

Don't Ask Me

The Greatest Hits, So Far

 

61.

The Pretenders

Never Do That

Packed

62.

The Pixies

Dig for Fire

-

-

63.

Electronic

Getting Away With It

Electronic

64.

INXS

Bitter Tears

X

65.

Lenny Kravitz

I Built This Garden For Us

Let Love Rule

-

66.

The Beloved

Hello

-

-

67.

U2

Unchained Melody

-

-

68.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Show Me Your Soul

-

-

69.

The Church

Metropolis

-

-

70.

Aztec Camera

Good Morning Britain

-

-

71.

Candy Flip

Strawberry Fields Forever

-

-

72.

The Trash Can Sinatras

Obscurity Knocks

Cake

73.

The Cure

Harold and Joe

-

-

74.

Faith No More

Falling to Pieces

The Real Thing

75.

Duran Duran

Serious

Liberty

-

76.

Jesus Jones

Move Mountains

Liquidizer

77.

Mission UK

Butterfly on a Wheel

-

-

78.

Morrissey

November Spawned a Monster

Bona Drag

 

79.

Concrete Blonde

Everybody Knows

Ghost of a Texas Ladies' Man

-

80.

Too Much Joy

That's a Lie

-

-

81.

Lloyd Cole

Downtown

-

-

82.

Happy Mondays

Kinky Afro

-

-

83.

Eddy Grant

Gimme Hope Joanna

-

-

84.

David J.

I'll Be Your Chauffeur

-

-

85.

808 State

Cubic

-

-

86.

The Railway Children

Every Beat of the Heart

-

-

87.

House of Love

Beatles and Stones

-

-

88.

World Party

Way Down Now

-

-

89.

The Human League

Heart Like a Wheel

Romantic?

-

90.

The Stone Roses

One Love

-

-

91.

Depeche Mode

Halo

Violator

92.

The Posies

Golden Blunders

-

-

93.

The Creatures

Fury Eyes

-

-

94.

EMF

Unbelievable

Schubert Dip

Click for sample

95.

Pet Shop Boys

So Hard

Behavior

 

96.

Hunters and Collectors

When the River Runs Dry

-

-

97.

The Charlatans UK

Then

-

-

98.

Duran Duran

Violence of Summer

Liberty

-

99.

INXS

Disappear

X

100.

The Heart Throbs

Dreamtime

-

-

101.

New Order

World in Motion

-

-

102.

Sonic Youth

Kool Thing

Goo

-

103.

Real Life

God Tonight

-

-

104.

Ultra Vivid Scene

Special One

-

-

105.

The Replacements

Someone Take the Wheel

All Shook Down

-

106.

Cocteau Twins

Iceblink Luck

-

-

106.7.

Lewisidal Tendencies

Silent Night

-

-

Commentary

bulletDid anyone else think that the Lightning Seeds' Pure (#17) was the Pet Shop Boys or am I crazy?
bulletU2's Night and Day (#29) is among my favorite U2 songs ever, and I feel like it's been largely and unfairly forgotten.  One thing I like is that it sort of shows the direction they were heading with Achtung Baby, which is my favorite album of theirs.  I also wasn't familiar with the tune and didn't realize it was an old standard until years later.
bulletNine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine came out in 1989, and which includes the great Head Like a Hole (#18), is another album that I don't think people appreciated until later.  Pretty Hate Machine more or less is the blueprint for all of NIN's later work, plus all the imitators of course.  It's all there--the music, the relentlessly downbeat lyrics, you name it.  In my mind he really hasn't progressed too much since, but in fairness a big reason is that he was ahead of his time.