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

The best rock songs of 1995

Q: What was the top rock song of 1995?

Combining 10 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1995 is "Lump" by The Presidents of the United States of America, which appeared on 8 of the lists.

Ten radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1995: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, John Peel (BBC Radio 1), Virgin Radio, Triple J, Radio & Records and WDRE Philadelphia. Combining every list, the top rock song of 1995 is “Lump” by The Presidents of the United States of America, which appeared on eight of the ten countdowns. Five different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Lightning Crashes” by Live (3 stations), “Wonderwall” by Oasis (3 stations), “Tomorrow” by Silverchair (2 stations), “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” by The Smashing Pumpkins and “Common People” by Pulp. Bush was the year’s most-charted artist, with four different songs placing 24 times across the countdowns.

10countdowns

310songs charted

5different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1995

All 310 songs →

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

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Lump The Presidents of the United States of America	749	8	#2	–
2	Lightning Crashes Live	733	8	#1	3
3	You Oughta Know Alanis Morissette	730	8	#2	–
4	Bullet With Butterfly Wings The Smashing Pumpkins	629	7	#1	1
5	My Friends Red Hot Chili Peppers	587	8	#7	–
6	Wonderwall Oasis	570	7	#1	3
7	Tomorrow Silverchair	548	6	#1	2
8	I'll Stick Around Foo Fighters	532	8	#2	–
9	Name Goo Goo Dolls	530	6	#2	–
10	Everything Zen Bush	518	7	#3	–
11	Good Better Than Ezra	504	6	#3	–
12	Carnival Natalie Merchant	497	7	#9	–
13	Hand In My Pocket Alanis Morissette	496	7	#14	–
14	Possum Kingdom Toadies	479	6	#5	–
15	All Over You Live	475	7	#9	–
16	I Got a Girl Tripping Daisy	474	7	#19	–
17	Little Things Bush	471	6	#16	–
18	Connection Elastica	468	7	#7	–
19	December Collective Soul	466	6	#8	–
20	Run-Around Blues Traveler	455	6	#5	–
21	Hey Man Nice Shot Filter	447	6	#6	–
22	Comedown Bush	436	5	#4	–
23	This Is A Call Foo Fighters	428	7	#10	–
24	Geek Stink Breath Green Day	414	7	#16	–
25	Time Bomb Rancid	411	7	#24	–
26	Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me U2	403	7	#19	–
27	Plowed Sponge	400	6	#20	–
28	More Human Than Human White Zombie	397	7	#13	–
29	One of Us Joan Osborne	385	6	#14	–
30	1979 The Smashing Pumpkins	383	5	#5	–
31	Hurt Nine Inch Nails	378	6	#2	–
32	Sick of Myself Matthew Sweet	371	7	#12	–
33	Say It Ain't So Weezer	353	5	#12	–
34	In The Blood Better Than Ezra	348	6	#12	–
35	Better Man Pearl Jam	344	6	#11	–
36	Live Forever Oasis	340	6	#18	–
37	When I Come Around Green Day	337	5	#2	–
38	A Girl Like You Edwyn Collins	336	6	#26	–
39	Down by the Water PJ Harvey	335	7	#17	–
40	Warped Red Hot Chili Peppers	331	7	#24	–
41	She Green Day	329	5	#21	–
42	Ode To My Family The Cranberries	327	6	#15	–
43	What Would You Say Dave Matthews Band	319	5	#11	–
44	Stutter Elastica	298	6	#14	–
45	Kitty The Presidents of the United States of America	293	5	#4	–
46	Corduroy Pearl Jam	291	4	#5	–
47	Natural One Folk Implosion	289	5	#15	–
48	Violet Hole	282	6	#12	–
49	Wynona's Big Brown Beaver Primus	281	7	#40	–
50	Glycerine Bush	276	6	#3	–
51	Stars Hum	271	6	#30	–
52	Common People Pulp	262	4	#1	1
53	Date Rape Sublime	253	4	#6	–
54	Til I Hear It From You Gin Blossoms	253	6	#31	–
55	Queer Garbage	252	6	#21	–
56	Molly (Sixteen Candles) Sponge	246	4	#10	–
57	The Man Who Sold the World Nirvana	245	5	#10	–
58	Misery Soul Asylum	244	6	#30	–
59	Love Spreads The Stone Roses	238	4	#28	–
60	I Got Id Pearl Jam	226	3	#20	–
61	All I Really Want Alanis Morissette	222	5	#34	–
62	It's Oh So Quiet Björk	217	4	#5	–
63	Buddy Holly Weezer	210	4	#8	–
64	Ants Marching Dave Matthews Band	195	4	#25	–
65	Hook Blues Traveler	189	5	#38	–
66	Friends of P The Rentals	187	6	#49	–
67	J.A.R. Green Day	181	3	#15	–
68	White, Discussion Live	180	4	#38	–
69	Just A Girl No Doubt	174	3	#6	–
70	Pure Massacre Silverchair	173	3	#30	–
71	Strange Currencies R.E.M.	171	5	#31	–
72	Molly Sponge	159	2	#17	–
73	I Kissed A Girl Jill Sobule	158	5	#18	–
74	Ridiculous Thoughts The Cranberries	157	4	#42	–
75	Ruby Soho Rancid	155	3	#23	–
76	Sour Times Portishead	154	4	#46	–
77	Alright Supergrass	148	3	#6	–
78	Crush With Eyeliner R.E.M.	148	4	#50	–
79	Last Goodbye Jeff Buckley	141	4	#14	–
80	Vow Garbage	137	3	#15	–
81	Need You Around Smoking Popes	136	3	#27	–
82	Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead	135	6	#42	–
83	Immortality Pearl Jam	132	4	#25	–
84	River of Deceit Mad Season	132	3	#48	–
85	J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva) Green Day	131	2	#29	–
86	Wonder Natalie Merchant	130	4	#43	–
87	Grind Alice In Chains	129	5	#62	–
88	Nothingman Pearl Jam	128	2	#23	–
89	Black Steel Tricky	123	2	#22	–
90	Here And Now Letters To Cleo	119	4	#44	–
91	Don't Stay Home 311	115	5	#65	–
92	Galaxie Blind Melon	112	5	#50	–
93	The Diamond Sea Sonic Youth	110	2	#42	–
94	Smash It Up The Offspring	106	3	#57	–
95	Good Intentions Toad The Wet Sprocket	106	4	#29	–
96	Mockingbird Girl Magnificent Bastards	105	5	#53	–
97	The World I Know Collective Soul	104	3	#44	–
98	Somebody's Crying Chris Isaak	104	2	#39	–
99	Liar The Cranberries	98	2	#48	–
100	Sorted For E's and Wizz Pulp	98	1	#2	–

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
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Common People Pulp	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995
Virgin Radio	Wonderwall Oasis	Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 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 ten qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.