Decade consensus · Hard Rock & Metal · 4 year-end countdowns

The best hard rock songs of the 1990s

This ranking of the 1990s combines 4 year-end countdowns from 1990 through 1999. The top song of the '90s is “Touch, Peel, and Stand” by Days of the New, which charted on 3 countdowns and reached number one one times. The decade’s most-charted artists are Metallica, Soundgarden, Aerosmith, Foo Fighters and The Offspring.

203songs charted

4year-end countdowns

0decade countdowns

Top 100 songs of the '90s

Top 1000 →

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s	Year
1	Touch, Peel, and Stand Days of the New	252	3	#1	1	1997
2	My Own Prison Creed	238	3	#5	–	1998
3	Gone Away The Offspring	225	3	#3	–	1997
4	Pink Aerosmith	194	3	#3	–	1997
5	Trust Megadeth	193	2	#3	–	1997
6	Everlong Foo Fighters	179	3	#1	1	1997
7	Stinkfist Tool	175	2	#12	–	1996
8	Hero of the Day Metallica	171	2	#8	–	1997
9	King Nothing Metallica	170	2	#2	–	1997
10	Monkey Wrench Foo Fighters	166	3	#11	–	1997
11	Song 2 Blur	164	2	#6	–	1997
12	Fuel Metallica	162	3	#2	–	1997
13	Cemetery Gates Pantera	157	2	#16	–	1997
14	Glycerine Bush	151	2	#7	–	1995
15	Little White Lies Sammy Hagar	148	2	#16	–	1997
16	If You Could Only See Tonic	148	2	#11	–	1997
17	One Headlight The Wallflowers	147	2	#27	–	1997
18	Black Hole Sun Soundgarden	142	2	#1	1	1994
19	Almost Honest Megadeth	138	2	#17	–	1997
20	Better Man Pearl Jam	130	2	#2	–	1995
21	Back on Earth Ozzy Osbourne	118	2	#39	–	1997
22	Volcano Girls Veruca Salt	115	2	#14	–	1997
23	Superman's Dead Our Lady Peace	114	2	#30	–	1997
24	Closer Nine Inch Nails	112	2	#8	–	1994
25	Lakini's Juice Live	108	2	#12	–	1997
26	Jungle Kiss	106	2	#33	–	1997
27	The Impression That I Get The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	106	2	#11	–	1997
28	Me Wise Magic Van Halen	105	2	#30	–	1997
29	Last Cup of Sorrow Faith No More	103	2	#19	–	1997
30	Cowboys from Hell Pantera	100	1	#1	1	1997
31	Beautiful Marilyn Manson	99	1	#2	–	1997
32	Bleeding Me Metallica	97	1	#4	–	1997
33	Blind Korn	97	1	#4	–	1995
34	The Memory Remains Metallica	96	3	#22	–	1997
35	One Metallica	96	1	#5	–	1997
36	Would? Alice In Chains	95	1	#6	–	1992
37	Loser Beck	95	2	#15	–	1994
38	Devil Boy Seven Mary Three	94	1	#7	–	1997
39	Bullet The Smashing Pumpkins	94	1	#7	–	1997
40	Grey Flap Piston	93	1	#8	–	1997
41	Fritz's Corner Local H	92	1	#9	–	1997
42	No Excuses Alice In Chains	92	1	#3	–	1994
43	High Jimmie's Chicken Shack	92	2	#54	–	1997
44	Aint My Bitch Metallica	92	1	#9	–	1997
45	Rhinosaur Soundgarden	91	1	#10	–	1997
46	More Human Than Human White Zombie	91	1	#10	–	1995
47	Driven Rush	88	1	#13	–	1997
48	Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Green Day	88	1	#4	–	1998
49	The Man Who Sold the World Nirvana	88	1	#4	–	1995
50	Fly Sugar Ray	88	1	#13	–	1997
51	Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Marilyn Manson	87	1	#14	–	1996
52	Down 311	85	2	#47	–	1996
53	Interstate Love Song Stone Temple Pilots	84	1	#5	–	1994
54	Precious Declaration Collective Soul	84	1	#18	–	1997
55	Clean My Wounds Corrosion of Conformity	82	1	#18	–	1997
56	Marching to Mars Sammy Hagar	82	1	#20	–	1997
57	Perry Mason Ozzy Osbourne	81	1	#19	–	1997
58	A Taste of India Aerosmith	81	1	#21	–	1997
59	When I Come Around Green Day	80	1	#6	–	1994
60	Eddie Vedder Local H	80	1	#22	–	1997
61	A.D.I.D.A.S. Korn	79	1	#21	–	1997
62	I Choose The Offspring	79	1	#23	–	1997
63	Been Caught Stealing Jane's Addiction	78	1	#22	–	1990
64	Sex and Candy Marcy Playground	77	2	#7	–	1997
65	Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees) Aerosmith	77	1	#25	–	1997
66	Back in Black AC/DC	76	1	#24	–	1980
67	Anybody Seen My Baby? The Rolling Stones	76	1	#26	–	1997
68	Man in the Box Alice In Chains	74	1	#26	–	1997
69	Hole in My Soul Aerosmith	74	2	#49	–	1997
70	Greedy Fly Bush	74	1	#28	–	1997
71	Bulls on Parade Rage Against the Machine	73	1	#27	–	1996
72	My Own Summer (Shove It) Deftones	72	2	#20	–	1997
73	Burden in My Hand Soundgarden	71	1	#31	–	1996
74	My Hero Foo Fighters	70	2	#9	–	1998
75	Dirty Eyes AC/DC	70	1	#32	–	1997
76	Walk Pantera	69	1	#31	–	1997
77	Walkin' On The Sun Smash Mouth	68	1	#32	–	1997
78	Lightning Crashes Live	68	1	#9	–	1995
79	Down in a Hole Alice In Chains	67	1	#35	–	1997
80	Trippin' Through a Hole in a Paper Heart Stone Temple Pilots	66	1	#36	–	1997
81	Crazy Train Ozzy Osbourne	66	1	#34	–	1980
82	The Beautiful People Marilyn Manson	65	1	#37	–	1996
83	Big Balls AC/DC	65	1	#35	–	1997
84	Blow Up the Outside World Soundgarden	64	1	#38	–	1996
85	Sabotage Beastie Boys	64	1	#10	–	1994
86	Karma Police Radiohead	64	1	#10	–	1998
87	1979 The Smashing Pumpkins	64	1	#36	–	1996
88	Muzzle The Smashing Pumpkins	62	1	#40	–	1996
89	No Place to Hide Korn	62	1	#38	–	1996
90	Discotheque U2	61	1	#41	–	1997
91	Fell On Black Days Soundgarden	61	1	#39	–	1994
92	Self-Esteem The Offspring	60	1	#11	–	1994
93	Cumbersome Seven Mary Three	60	1	#40	–	1995
94	Sign o' the Times Queensryche	59	1	#43	–	1997
95	Aenema Tool	59	1	#41	–	1997
96	Planet Caravan Pantera	58	1	#42	–	1997
97	The Freshmen The Verve Pipe	57	1	#45	–	1997
98	Open Up Your Eyes Tonic	57	1	#43	–	1997
99	Flip the Switch The Rolling Stones	56	1	#46	–	1997
100	Big Empty Stone Temple Pilots	56	1	#12	–	1994

About this ranking

The 1990s ranking adds together two kinds of evidence: the year-end countdowns from each year of the decade, and the retrospective “songs of the decade” countdowns that stations aired afterwards. Year-end lists capture what listeners loved at the time; decade countdowns capture what lasted. Every appearance earns percentile-based points, and the totals are ranked. See the methodology for details.