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

The best rock songs of 1994

Q: What was the top rock song of 1994?

Combining 10 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1994 is "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden, which appeared on 8 of the lists.

Ten radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1994: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), KISW, Virgin Radio, Triple J and Radio & Records. Combining every list, the top rock song of 1994 is “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden, which appeared on eight of the ten countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Nine different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Longview” by Green Day (2 stations), “Self Esteem” by The Offspring, “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails, “Basket Case” by Green Day and “I Want You” by Inspiral Carpets featuring Mark E Smith and others. Green Day was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 26 times across the countdowns.

10countdowns

308songs charted

9different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1994

All 308 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 1994 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Black Hole Sun Soundgarden	742	8	#1	1
2	Closer Nine Inch Nails	725	8	#1	1
3	Self-Esteem The Offspring	704	8	#1	1
4	Interstate Love Song Stone Temple Pilots	694	8	#5	–
5	Come Out and Play The Offspring	693	8	#2	–
6	Basket Case Green Day	672	8	#1	1
7	Zombie The Cranberries	649	7	#1	1
8	Longview Green Day	634	7	#1	2
9	Seether Veruca Salt	615	9	#3	–
10	All I Wanna Do Sheryl Crow	598	8	#6	–
11	I Alone Live	578	7	#4	–
12	What's The Frequency Kenneth? R.E.M.	575	8	#2	–
13	Mr. Jones Counting Crows	568	7	#4	–
14	Loser Beck	556	8	#9	–
15	No Excuses Alice In Chains	515	8	#3	–
16	Doll Parts Hole	507	8	#2	–
17	About A Girl Nirvana	501	7	#7	–
18	Fell On Black Days Soundgarden	484	7	#11	–
19	Sabotage Beastie Boys	478	8	#10	–
20	Vasoline Stone Temple Pilots	464	7	#3	–
21	Feel The Pain Dinosaur Jr.	455	7	#16	–
22	Supernova Liz Phair	450	7	#19	–
23	Selling The Drama Live	449	6	#1	1
24	Big Empty Stone Temple Pilots	448	7	#10	–
25	Fade Into You Mazzy Star	417	6	#18	–
26	Far Behind Candlebox	408	6	#7	–
27	Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Crash Test Dummies	400	7	#6	–
28	Better Man Pearl Jam	400	6	#2	–
29	When I Come Around Green Day	400	6	#6	–
30	Yellow Ledbetter Pearl Jam	393	5	#6	–
31	Landslide The Smashing Pumpkins	389	6	#15	–
32	Stay (I Missed You) Lisa Loeb	384	7	#22	–
33	Spoonman Soundgarden	383	8	#14	–
34	Round Here Counting Crows	380	7	#20	–
35	Backwater Meat Puppets	379	7	#7	–
36	Buddy Holly Weezer	369	6	#21	–
37	Fall Down Toad The Wet Sprocket	368	5	#4	–
38	Cornflake Girl Tori Amos	368	6	#16	–
39	Einstein On The Beach (For An Eggman) Counting Crows	362	6	#11	–
40	Miss World Hole	360	7	#17	–
41	Shine Collective Soul	358	7	#24	–
42	Welcome to Paradise Green Day	357	5	#6	–
43	Undone (The Sweater Song) Weezer	354	6	#23	–
44	The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get Morrissey	351	7	#3	–
45	Bang And Blame R.E.M.	323	5	#16	–
46	Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town Pearl Jam	301	4	#15	–
47	Laid James	284	4	#12	–
48	Cut Your Hair Pavement	271	8	#34	–
49	God Tori Amos	264	5	#30	–
50	Girls And Boys Blur	249	6	#33	–
51	All Apologies Nirvana	236	3	#8	–
52	Disarm The Smashing Pumpkins	235	3	#3	–
53	Sweet Jane Cowboy Junkies	224	5	#24	–
54	Something's Always Wrong Toad The Wet Sprocket	221	6	#38	–
55	My Wave Soundgarden	221	6	#46	–
56	Get Off This Cracker	218	4	#22	–
57	Possession Sarah McLachlan	216	5	#24	–
58	Bizarre Love Triangle Frente!	211	5	#54	–
59	Sure Shot Beastie Boys	208	4	#19	–
60	Night In My Veins The Pretenders	205	5	#28	–
61	Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon Urge Overkill	204	5	#54	–
62	21st Century Digital Boy Bad Religion	202	5	#31	–
63	Until I Fall Away Gin Blossoms	200	5	#45	–
64	Sometimes Always The Jesus and Mary Chain	199	5	#31	–
65	The Man Who Sold the World Nirvana	194	3	#4	–
66	All I Want Is You U2	190	3	#32	–
67	Am I Wrong? Love Spit Love	188	4	#29	–
68	Supersonic Oasis	184	5	#42	–
69	Bull In The Heather Sonic Youth	183	7	#58	–
70	Dumb Nirvana	181	4	#39	–
71	Prayer For The Dying Seal	176	4	#14	–
72	Your Favorite Thing Sugar	170	3	#28	–
73	Labour of Love Frente!	168	4	#34	–
74	Return to Innocence Enigma	162	4	#39	–
75	Leaving Las Vegas Sheryl Crow	162	5	#36	–
76	Infected Bad Religion	158	3	#39	–
77	Always Erasure	157	5	#50	–
78	March of the Pigs Nine Inch Nails	154	4	#22	–
79	Headache Frank Black	149	3	#45	–
80	Rape Me Nirvana	145	2	#23	–
81	A Conspiracy Black Crowes	143	4	#45	–
82	Dissident Pearl Jam	142	3	#39	–
83	Parklife Blur	138	2	#1	1
84	Beercan Beck	138	3	#29	–
85	Rain King Counting Crows	134	3	#12	–
86	Spin The Black Circle Pearl Jam	134	2	#29	–
87	Sour Times Portishead	129	2	#8	–
88	You Candlebox	127	2	#35	–
89	Eurotrash Girl Cracker	110	5	#46	–
90	Liar Rollins Band	106	4	#60	–
91	Creep Stone Temple Pilots	106	2	#49	–
92	I Stay Away Alice In Chains	105	3	#60	–
93	I Want You Inspiral Carpets	100	1	#1	1
94	Do You Love Me Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds	99	2	#11	–
95	Daughter Pearl Jam	99	1	#2	–
96	Hey Student The Fall	98	1	#2	–
97	Tomorrow Silverchair	96	1	#5	–
98	Connection Elastica	94	1	#4	–
99	Andres L7	94	4	#64	–
100	Verse Chorus Verse Nirvana	94	2	#33	–

Every station’s number one of 1994

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Longview Green Day	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1994
91X	Self Esteem The Offspring	91X Top 91 Songs of 1994
Live 105	Longview Green Day	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1994
Q101	Closer Nine Inch Nails	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1994
WHFS	Basket Case Green Day	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1994
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	I Want You Inspiral Carpets featuring Mark E Smith	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1994
KISW	Seether Veruca Salt	KISW 25 Greatest Rock Songs from 1994
Virgin Radio	Parklife Blur	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1994
Triple J	Zombie The Cranberries	Triple J Hottest 100 of 1994
Radio & Records	Selling the Drama Live	Radio & Records Top 94 Songs of 1994

All 1994 countdowns in this ranking

About the 1994 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 1994 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 ten qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.