Various Artists - Atlantic's Year in Review: 1995 (1995)

Promotional CD

Atlantic's top money makers of 1995. And I know most all of them! I thought I stopped listening to Top 40 radio around 1993, but it looks like I was wrong (again). This is a can't miss CD to use in 2025 at any high school's 30 year reunion.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

1. Only Wanna Be With You (LP Version) - Hootie & The Blowfish (#6 pop, #2 Album Rock, #22 Modern Rock, #3 Adult Contemporary). My favorite Hootie song, if that means anything.
2. December (Edit) - Collective Soul (#20 pop, #1 Album Rock, #2 Modern Rock, #14 Adult Contemporary).  Not a bad tune, I just wish singer Ed Roland had a better voice. But, hey, it was the nineties.
3. Missing (Remix Edit) - Everything But The Girl (#2 pop). Love it. I not only bought the album and the CD single, I consider the album to be one of the top ten albums of the decade.
4. I Can Love You Like That (LP Version) - All-4-One (#5 pop, #2 AC, #40 R&B). To me, this plays like a '90s update of Gregory Abbott's Shake You Down. Nice performance, though.
5. Solitude (Radio Edit) - Edwin McCain (#72 pop) No memory of hearing this in '95 and, in about 30 minutes, I'll have no memory of hearing it today.
6. Brokenhearted (Radio Edit) - Brandy (#9 pop, #2 R&B). Another one I don't remember. And I'm okay with that. However, it does make me want to listen to some Toni Braxton.
7. The Bomb (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind) (Radio Edit) - The Bucketheads (#49 pop, #1 dance). This song is the bomb. (Too easy. Apologies.) If this disco cutup tune never appeared on a Jock Jams CD, it should have. For all the samples, click here.
8. Let Her Cry (Radio Edit) - Hootie & The Blowfish (#9 pop, #9 Album Rock, #34 Modern Rock, #6 AC). Not my thing from the get-go.
9. Hold On (LP Version) - Jamie Walters (#16 pop, #9 AC). And now I remember what TV show I was watching in 1995: Beverly Hills 90210. SMH. And now I'm reminded of Jeremy Jordan's The Right Kind Of Love (which isn't half bad - if it sounds like a Robbie Nevil song, it's because it is). Wow, that took a left turn, huh?
10. Runaway (Radio Mix) - The Corrs (#68 pop, #20 AC).  Another 90210 connection (The Corrs were once the New Year's Eve headline act at The Peach Pit After Dark). Loved this tune and bought the album (produced by David Foster). Good stuff. I should get out that CD this afternoon.
11. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (Edit) - U2 (#16 pop, #1 Album Rock, #1 Modern Rock). Haven't heard this since '95 and it's better than I remember.  Certainly better than the movie it's from.
12. Time (LP Version) - Hootie & The Blowfish (#14 pop, #3 AC). More Hootie! They seemed to be Atlantic's meal ticket in '95. This isn't a bad tune, just lyrics that are depressing as hell.
13. The World I Know (Edit) - Collective Soul (#19 pop, #31 AC). This song always had me scrambling to switch the radio station.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: In 1995, I was a stay-at-home dad and I miss every minute of that experience. I remember listening to a lot of Erasure around that time.