Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · 13 countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 1995

Q: What was the top rock song of 1995?

Combining 13 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1995 is "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which appeared on 11 of the lists.

13 radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1995: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, 103.1 The Buzz, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Radio 104.1, Virgin Radio, WBER, Triple J, Radio & Records and WDRE Philadelphia. Combining every list, the top rock song of 1995 is “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette, which appeared on eleven of the 13 countdowns. Seven different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Lightning Crashes” by Live (4 stations), “Wonderwall” by Oasis (3 stations), “Tomorrow” by Silverchair (2 stations), “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins and “Roll to Me” by Del Amitri and others. Bush was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 34 times across the countdowns.

13countdowns

346songs charted

7different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1995

All 346 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 1995 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	You Oughta Know Alanis Morissette	1,002	11	#2	–
2	Lump The Presidents of the United States of America	974	11	#2	–
3	Lightning Crashes Live	961	11	#1	4
4	Bullet With Butterfly Wings The Smashing Pumpkins	908	10	#1	2
5	Name Goo Goo Dolls	777	9	#2	–
6	My Friends Red Hot Chili Peppers	757	11	#6	–
7	Wonderwall Oasis	745	9	#1	3
8	Possum Kingdom Toadies	734	9	#4	–
9	Tomorrow Silverchair	732	8	#1	2
10	Good Better Than Ezra	713	9	#3	–
11	I'll Stick Around Foo Fighters	678	11	#2	–
12	Comedown Bush	670	8	#2	–
13	Carnival Natalie Merchant	655	9	#9	–
14	December Collective Soul	651	8	#3	–
15	Hey Man Nice Shot Filter	641	9	#6	–
16	Hand In My Pocket Alanis Morissette	635	9	#14	–
17	Everything Zen Bush	630	10	#3	–
18	Run-Around Blues Traveler	618	8	#5	–
19	Molly (Sixteen Candles) Sponge	602	9	#6	–
20	Time Bomb Rancid	599	10	#17	–
21	I Got a Girl Tripping Daisy	589	9	#11	–
22	Little Things Bush	572	8	#16	–
23	One of Us Joan Osborne	560	9	#14	–
24	All Over You Live	557	9	#9	–
25	More Human Than Human White Zombie	554	9	#9	–
26	Connection Elastica	542	9	#7	–
27	This Is A Call Foo Fighters	538	9	#10	–
28	Geek Stink Breath Green Day	534	9	#16	–
29	Say It Ain't So Weezer	522	7	#12	–
30	Sick of Myself Matthew Sweet	512	10	#12	–
31	Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me U2	507	9	#19	–
32	Plowed Sponge	489	9	#20	–
33	Live Forever Oasis	476	8	#17	–
34	Hurt Nine Inch Nails	468	8	#2	–
35	The Man Who Sold the World Nirvana	462	8	#10	–
36	1979 The Smashing Pumpkins	461	6	#5	–
37	A Girl Like You Edwyn Collins	458	8	#26	–
38	She Green Day	446	7	#12	–
39	Better Man Pearl Jam	438	7	#7	–
40	In The Blood Better Than Ezra	433	8	#12	–
41	J.A.R. Green Day	433	7	#15	–
42	What Would You Say Dave Matthews Band	422	7	#4	–
43	Glycerine Bush	418	8	#1	1
44	Down by the Water PJ Harvey	418	9	#17	–
45	Natural One Folk Implosion	412	8	#15	–
46	Wynona's Big Brown Beaver Primus	407	10	#28	–
47	Ode To My Family The Cranberries	391	7	#15	–
48	Love Spreads The Stone Roses	371	6	#19	–
49	Corduroy Pearl Jam	370	5	#5	–
50	Til I Hear It From You Gin Blossoms	369	8	#31	–
51	Violet Hole	367	8	#12	–
52	Stars Hum	367	9	#30	–
53	Ants Marching Dave Matthews Band	343	6	#15	–
54	Warped Red Hot Chili Peppers	342	8	#24	–
55	When I Come Around Green Day	337	5	#2	–
56	Stutter Elastica	319	8	#14	–
57	It's Oh So Quiet Björk	309	5	#5	–
58	Friends of P The Rentals	308	9	#19	–
59	Queer Garbage	306	8	#21	–
60	Kitty The Presidents of the United States of America	293	5	#4	–
61	Cumbersome Seven Mary Three	291	6	#15	–
62	Misery Soul Asylum	286	7	#30	–
63	Buddy Holly Weezer	279	6	#8	–
64	Common People Pulp	262	4	#1	1
65	Date Rape Sublime	253	4	#6	–
66	Just A Girl No Doubt	253	4	#6	–
67	Santa Monica Everclear	245	5	#9	–
68	Sour Times Portishead	237	7	#46	–
69	Pure Massacre Silverchair	235	4	#30	–
70	All I Really Want Alanis Morissette	231	6	#34	–
71	Strange Currencies R.E.M.	229	6	#31	–
72	I Got Id Pearl Jam	226	3	#20	–
73	Ridiculous Thoughts The Cranberries	224	6	#42	–
74	Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead	223	8	#11	–
75	Ruby Soho Rancid	214	4	#23	–
76	Hook Blues Traveler	211	6	#38	–
77	Walk This World Heather Nova	202	5	#42	–
78	Here And Now Letters To Cleo	200	6	#24	–
79	Breakfast At Tiffany's Deep Blue Something	197	5	#7	–
80	River of Deceit Mad Season	189	5	#48	–
81	Don't Stay Home 311	189	7	#29	–
82	Grind Alice In Chains	189	6	#42	–
83	Smash It Up The Offspring	187	5	#57	–
84	Crush With Eyeliner R.E.M.	182	6	#50	–
85	White, Discussion Live	180	4	#38	–
86	I Kissed A Girl Jill Sobule	178	6	#18	–
87	Wonder Natalie Merchant	168	5	#43	–
88	Army of Me Björk	165	4	#13	–
89	Starseed Our Lady Peace	165	5	#54	–
90	Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Marilyn Manson	160	2	#3	–
91	Gotta Get Away The Offspring	157	3	#18	–
92	Alright Supergrass	148	3	#6	–
93	Good Intentions Toad The Wet Sprocket	145	6	#29	–
94	Need You Around Smoking Popes	141	4	#27	–
95	Last Goodbye Jeff Buckley	141	4	#14	–
96	I Alone Live	139	4	#34	–
97	Vow Garbage	137	3	#15	–
98	Immortality Pearl Jam	132	4	#25	–
99	Galaxie Blind Melon	131	7	#50	–
100	Country House Blur	130	3	#7	–

Every station’s number one of 1995

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Lightning Crashes Live	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1995
91X	Bullet With Butterfly Wings The Smashing Pumpkins	91X Top 91 Songs of 1995
Live 105	Wonderwall Oasis	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1995
Q101	Tomorrow Silverchair	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1995
WHFS	Lightning Crashes Live	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1995
103.1 The Buzz	Roll to Me Del Amitri	The Buzz Top 103 Alternative Songs of '95
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Common People Pulp	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995
Radio 104.1	Lightning Crashes Live	WMRQ Top 104 Songs of 1995
Virgin Radio	Wonderwall Oasis	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1995
WBER	Glycerine Bush	WBER Listener Countdown 1995
Triple J	Wonderwall Oasis	Triple J Hottest 100 of 1995
Radio & Records	Tomorrow Silverchair	Radio & Records Top 95 Songs of 1995
WDRE Philadelphia	Lightning Crashes Live	WDRE Top 103.9 Songs of 1995

All 1995 countdowns in this ranking

About the 1995 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 1995 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 13 qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.