Recently Complex Magazine ran a "top Rap Songs Of Every Summer since 1979" List
and its a good list (even though there are some questionable additions on certain summers in the 90's.. So we at Cosmopolitan Cool decided to revisit the 90's and do a
90's R&B Songs of the summer list
Any hardcore music listener knows that there are R&B Songs that transcend the limits of the Genre and are viewed as an integral part of hip hop's cultural landscape and vice versa. So here we are going to list the song of the summer for each year of the 90's (our favorite Decade of R&B)
and it's "ballad" counterpart...(or vice versa)
Starting with Summer 1990
there were many contenders for song of summer 1990.
I mean. keep in mind that summer included.. BBD's "Poison"
Troop's "Spread my Wings" (including the Clark Kent Remix version we all know and love)
Lisa Stansfield's "All Around The world"
even Tony Toni Tone's Fee's Good" (which was bubbling that summer before it exploded fall 1990..)
the clear winner for Song of the Summer 1990 was
1990
En Vogue's "Hold On"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Johnny Gill's "My My My")
Summer 1991
There really wasn't any real competition for song of the summer of 1991
The Movie of that summer was New Jack City and the soundtrack included a sensual and dancable pop tinged powerhouse from a new group called Color Me Badd
the winner for Song of the Summer 1991 was
1991
Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex u Up"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Jodeci's "Forever My Lady")
Summer 1992 is a bit more complicated..
we had really big songs controlling the streets and clubs, songs like
Michael Jackson's "Remember The Time"
Aaron Hall's "Don't Be Afraid"
En Vogue's "My Lovin (Never Gonna Get It)"
Even TLC's "Baby Baby ABaby"
but summer 1992 came down to TWO songs
a well known group of bad boys and a sparky new girl both from Uptown records
Jodeci's "Come & Talk to Me" & Mary J Bliges "You Remind Me"
I guess the winner could be dependent upon on who you ask
if you ask us...
the winner for Song of the Summer 1992 was
1992
JODECI's "Come And Talk To Me"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Boyz II Men's "End Of The Road")
Summer 1993 is another hard one to call..
The competition of song of the summer is hard to say the least..
It seemed likely that a Ballad would hold the title in 1993 with
Jodeci's "Lately" being a strong contender..
Silk's "Freak Me" came out in the Spring and kept the #1 spot for over 2 months
Also H-Town's "Knockin the Boots" was a favorite that summer
but one woman turned that around & reigned supreme that summer
the winner for Song of the Summer 1993 was
1993
Janet Jackson's "That's The Way Love Goes"
(with the Ballad counterpart being SWV's "Weak")
Honorable mention
SWV's "Right Here/Human Nature"
(released at the end of the summer and RULED the Fall of 1993)
Summer 1994 actually was the Summer of the Ballad
Jodeci's Cry For You", Tevin Campbell's "Can We Talk"
Xscape's "Understanding"...
but the crown (arguably) goes to
the only person that could have inched out Janet Jackson's "Anytime Anyplace" in 1994
the winner for Song of the Summer 1994 was
R. Kelly's "Bump & Grind"
(with the Party counterpart being Aaliyah's "Back & Forth")
1995 saw a shift in music...Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and his Bad Boy Records made it a point to sample all the songs of the summer from the previous decade of R&B songs of the summer and had Rap songs being the clear forerunners in summer 95's race, but one song from a California native took top billing that summer.
the winner for Song of the Summer 1995 was
Montell Jordan's "This Is How We Do It"
(Amazingly the Ballad counterpart for this summer was The Notorious B.I.G's "One More Chance"
1996 is another complicated year, the easy part of this list is,
the biggest R&B songs of the year were released in the fall & winter of 1996
R. Kelly's "I believe I can Fly", Ginuwine's Pony, Black Street's "No Diggity"
Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Only Knew" & Keith Sweats "Nobody"
The tough part is, easily the song of the summer was a Rap song.
that was not so closely followed by R. Kelly's "Down low (No One Has To Know)"
& "I Cant Sleep Baby (If I)" and Keith Sweat's "Twisted"
the winner for Song of the Summer 1996 was
1996
Bone Thugs N Harmony's "Crossroads"
(Arguably it's Ballad counterpart was Monica's "Before You Walk Out Of My Life")
1997's another complicated year as the obvious song of the summer was Puff Daddy & The Family's "Missing You featuring Faith Evans & 112" but after lenghty office conversations about it we believe an even stronger presence on the streets of NYC that summer was a pair of ballads that kept jeeps bumping through all the scorching heat of 97
the R. Kelly Produced G.h.e.t.t.o.u.t by Changing Faces and
the winner for Song of the Summer 1997 was
1997
Dru Hill's "In My Bed (Remix)"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Changing Faces' "G.h.e.t.t.o.u.t")
A lot of great R&B songs were taking over the airwaves in 1998
Janet Jackson's "I Get Lonely" & Brandy & Monica's "The Boy is Mine" being obvious hits during the summer of 1998, but a group from Minnesota took hold of subwoofers in car audio systems and didn't let go that summer
the winner for Song of the Summer 1998 was
1998
Next's "Too Close"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Kelly Prices' "Friend Of Mine")
by 1999 R&B music took back control of the R&B charts..
Deborah Cox's "Nobody's supposed to be here" and Whitney Houston's Heartbreak Hotel featuring Faith Evans & Kelly Price held down the first part of the year followed by strong candidates like Destiny's Child"s "Bils Bills Bills" & Donell Jones' "You Know What's Up"
But one Group monopolized all hearts and ears to round out the decade in the of summer 1999
the winner for Song of the Summer 1999 was
1999
TLC's "Scrubs"
(with the Ballad counterpart being Maxwell's "Fortunate")
so what do you think? did we get it right?
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