“Two Princes” by The Spin Doctors

"Two Princes" came from the Spin Doctors' 1991 debut, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, and when Epic sent it to American radio as the album's second single in January 1993, it became a major hit. All four members wrote it, and it was produced by Frank Aversa, Peter Denenberg and Frankie LaRocka with the band.

Chris Barron's voice yelps and pleads over a bouncing, funky groove, Eric Schenkman's guitar skips along, Mark White's bass does a lot of the heavy lifting and Aaron Comess handles drums, percussion and Hammond organ. John Popper drops in on backing vocals. It's the kind of song that sounds like a party, built on a chorus you can't help but sing along with.

It peaked at seven on Billboard's Hot 100 and climbed to three on Cash Box, topped the charts in Iceland and Sweden and reached the top ten in 13 other countries, and the Grammys shortlisted the band for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group on the strength of it. Opinions have always been split, though: VH1 put it at number 41 on its list of the best songs of the '90s, while Blender placed it at number 21 among the worst songs ever. Two videos were shot for it, one of them in black and white.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.