What was the top rock song of 1993?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1993 is "Cannonball" by The Breeders, which appeared on 6 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · seven countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 1993

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1993: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Virgin Radio and Triple J. Combining every list, the top rock song of 1993 is “Cannonball” by The Breeders, which appeared on six of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Six different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots (2 stations), “Daughter” by Pearl Jam, “Cannonball” by The Breeders, “Enough Is Enough” by Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation and “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M. and others. The Smashing Pumpkins was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 14 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

311songs charted

6different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1993

All 311 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 1993 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Cannonball The Breeders	561	6	#1	1
2	Creep Radiohead	522	6	#2	–
3	Linger The Cranberries	471	5	#3	–
4	Plush Stone Temple Pilots	468	5	#1	2
5	No Rain Blind Melon	460	5	#2	–
6	Soul to Squeeze Red Hot Chili Peppers	438	5	#9	–
7	Heart-Shaped Box Nirvana	426	5	#6	–
8	Regret New Order	414	7	#9	–
9	Pets Porno for Pyros	409	5	#9	–
10	Are You Gonna Go My Way Lenny Kravitz	403	5	#3	–
11	Runaway Train Soul Asylum	395	6	#6	–
12	Today The Smashing Pumpkins	386	4	#2	–
13	Daughter Pearl Jam	386	4	#1	1
14	Feed The Tree Belly	383	5	#19	–
15	Everybody Hurts R.E.M.	382	5	#1	1
16	Numb U2	375	5	#19	–
17	Ordinary World Duran Duran	374	5	#6	–
18	Hey Jealousy Gin Blossoms	357	4	#6	–
19	Two Princes The Spin Doctors	346	5	#7	–
20	Low Cracker	343	4	#9	–
21	I Feel You Depeche Mode	334	5	#11	–
22	Cherub Rock The Smashing Pumpkins	323	5	#18	–
23	All That She Wants Ace of Base	314	4	#16	–
24	Come Undone Duran Duran	301	4	#5	–
25	Break It Down Again Tears for Fears	291	4	#12	–
26	What's Up? 4 Non Blondes	281	5	#10	–
27	Disarm The Smashing Pumpkins	276	4	#20	–
28	Connected Stereo MC's	275	4	#11	–
29	Human Behaviour Björk	274	4	#20	–
30	Lemon U2	246	4	#7	–
31	Dreams The Cranberries	241	4	#2	–
32	Go Pearl Jam	234	4	#8	–
33	Sober Tool	233	4	#27	–
34	Can't Help Falling in Love UB40	227	4	#27	–
35	Killing in the Name Rage Against the Machine	225	3	#6	–
36	Man on the Moon R.E.M.	225	5	#24	–
37	Purple Haze The Cure	210	4	#22	–
38	Into Your Arms The Lemonheads	202	4	#23	–
39	Rooster Alice In Chains	197	4	#25	–
40	Walking In My Shoes Depeche Mode	195	3	#19	–
41	Black Pearl Jam	193	3	#20	–
42	Detachable Penis King Missile	188	4	#29	–
43	My Sister Juliana Hatfield	187	3	#33	–
44	All Apologies Nirvana	186	2	#5	–
45	Loser Beck	184	4	#12	–
46	Fields of Gold Sting	184	3	#22	–
47	Butterfly Wings Machines of Loving Grace	182	3	#29	–
48	Mrs. Robinson The Lemonheads	172	3	#25	–
49	Killing in the Name of Rage Against the Machine	164	2	#8	–
50	Push Th' Little Daisies Ween	164	3	#10	–
51	Rape Me Nirvana	163	5	#26	–
52	Nearly Lost You Screaming Trees	163	3	#35	–
53	Laid James	155	2	#16	–
54	I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers	154	3	#34	–
55	Found Out About You Gin Blossoms	152	3	#47	–
56	Wicked Garden Stone Temple Pilots	144	3	#23	–
57	Oh Carolina Shaggy	140	3	#46	–
58	Asshole Denis Leary	136	2	#1	1
59	Sister Havana Urge Overkill	136	3	#16	–
60	Insane in the Brain Cypress Hill	136	3	#38	–
61	Start Choppin' Dinosaur Jr.	135	5	#45	–
62	Tones of Home Blind Melon	134	3	#45	–
63	My Sister Juliana Hatfield 3	129	2	#36	–
64	Thunder Kiss '65 White Zombie	128	3	#50	–
65	Dream All Day The Posies	127	3	#49	–
66	These Are Days 10,000 Maniacs	126	3	#39	–
67	Can You Forgive Her? Pet Shop Boys	121	4	#56	–
68	If I Ever Lose My Faith In You Sting	116	3	#37	–
69	Truganini Midnight Oil	115	3	#55	–
70	The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove Dead Can Dance	111	3	#35	–
71	Black Gold Soul Asylum	109	2	#35	–
72	My Name is Mud Primus	109	2	#4	–
73	Cursed Female Porno for Pyros	106	3	#41	–
74	Candy Everybody Wants 10,000 Maniacs	105	3	#53	–
75	Enough Is Enough Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation	100	1	#1	1
76	Crank Catherine Wheel	99	2	#39	–
77	Believe Lenny Kravitz	99	3	#45	–
78	Swim Madder Rose	98	1	#2	–
79	Her Jazz Huggy Bear	96	1	#3	–
80	Rid Of Me PJ Harvey	94	1	#4	–
81	Mr. Wendal Arrested Development	94	3	#49	–
82	Stay (Faraway, So Close!) U2	93	2	#30	–
83	French Disco Stereolab	92	1	#5	–
84	The Honeymoon Is Over Cruel Sea	92	1	#9	–
85	The Crying Game Boy George	92	2	#38	–
86	Stone Me Into The Groove Atomic Swing	91	1	#10	–
87	Supermodel Superficial Voodoo Queens	90	1	#6	–
88	Soul & Fire Sebadoh	88	1	#7	–
89	Sweet Lullaby Deep Forest	88	1	#14	–
90	I Held Her in My Arms Violent Femmes	87	1	#14	–
91	Wild America Iggy Pop	86	1	#15	–
92	Crazy Mary Pearl Jam	86	3	#49	–
93	Ohio River Boat Song Palace Brothers	84	1	#9	–
94	Hits from the Bong Cypress Hill	84	1	#17	–
95	Go West Pet Shop Boys	83	1	#18	–
96	Gepetto Belly	83	3	#48	–
97	Shark Attack The Wailing Souls	83	2	#61	–
98	Government Administrator Eggs	82	1	#10	–
99	Trout Neneh Cherry	82	1	#19	–
100	Sleeping Satellite Tasmin Archer	81	2	#60	–

Every station’s number one of 1993

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Plush Stone Temple Pilots	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1993
91X	Daughter Pearl Jam	91X Top 91 Songs of 1993
Live 105	Cannonball The Breeders	Live 105 Top 105 Songs of 1993
Q101	Plush Stone Temple Pilots	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1993
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Enough Is Enough Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1993
Virgin Radio	Everybody Hurts R.E.M.	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1993
Triple J	Asshole Denis Leary	Triple J Hottest 100 of 1993

All 1993 countdowns in this ranking

About the 1993 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 1993 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all seven qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.