Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth. In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.
We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1998, the year I turned 24. The chart formula for the Hot 100 changed again in December, allowing songs to chart based on airplay alone if there was no commercial single released. Thanks to my newly acquired hour plus commute, you’d think I’d have picked up more of the music of the day, but the numbers keep going down. A mere 21 songs remain familiar to me today, with just twelve of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.
#87: Jewel – You Were Meant for Me
iTunes stats: 37 plays
Jewel hits the year-end chart for the second straight year thanks to a total of 65 weeks in the Hot 100.
#81: Spice Girls – Spice Up Your Life
iTunes stats: 9 plays
The lead single from the group’s sophomore album, it peaked at #18 on the Hot 100 in just its fourth week on the chart.
#79: The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
iTunes stats: N/A
Considered one of the defining songs of the Britpop era, it reached #12.
#74: Edwin McCain – I’ll Be
iTunes stats: 16 plays
McCain’s second charting single, it went to #5, becoming his first and only top ten hit.
#58: Lisa Loeb – I Do
iTunes stats: 16 plays
Peaking at #17, it became Loeb’s second-highest charting single, following her debut single.
#57: Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
iTunes stats: 18 plays
The highest charting single about a crystal meth addiction, it reached #4 and spent a total of 43 weeks on the chart.
#51: Barenaked Ladies – One Week
iTunes stats: 17 plays
True to its name, it spent a single week atop the Hot 100 in October.
#35: Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
iTunes stats: 32 plays
The group’s only charting single in the US, it spent two of its 31 weeks on the Hot 100 at #6.
#28: Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy
iTunes stats: N/A
The top Modern Rock Tracks song of the year, thanks to a then-record fifteen weeks at #1, it peaked at #8 on the Hot 100.
#25: Faith Hill – This Kiss
iTunes stats: 12 plays
Hill’s fifth #1 on the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, it reached #7 on the Hot 100.
#23: Aerosmith – I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
iTunes stats: 13 plays
The band’s first, and only, chart topping hit, it spent four weeks at #1 in September.
#22: Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
iTunes stats: N/A
The group’s second top ten hit, it spent 22 weeks on the chart, topping out at #4.
#20: Sarah McLachlan – Adia
iTunes stats: N/A
Peaking at #3, it became McLachlan’s first top ten hit in the US.
#14: Will Smith – Gettin’ Jiggy wit It
iTunes stats: 19 plays
Spending three weeks on top of the Hot 100 in March, the track won the 1999 Grammy Award for the Best Rap Solo Performance.
#13: Celine Dion – My Heart Will Go On
iTunes stats: N/A
The love theme from Titanic, it spent two weeks at #1 at the end of winter.
#11: Third Eye Blind – How’s It Going to Be
iTunes stats: N/A
Spending a full year on the Hot 100, it topped out at #9.
#10: Paula Cole – I Don’t Want to Wait
iTunes stats: 20 plays
Used as the theme song to Dawson’s Creek, this second single from Cole’s sophomore album reached #11 and remains her last charting hit.
#8: Elton John – Candle in the Wind 1997
iTunes stats: N/A
A re-working of his 1973 hit in tribute of the deceased Princess Diana, it spent fourteen weeks atop the Hot 100, John’s ninth and final #1 hit.
#4: Savage Garden – Truly Madly Deeply
iTunes stats: N/A
The track spent a full year on the Hot 100, becoming the first song in the chart’s history to spend its first 52 weeks in the top 30. It spent half a year in the top ten, peaking at #1 in January.
#3: Shania Twain – You’re Still the One
iTunes stats: 12 plays
The highest-peaking single by a country artist in the 1990s, it spent eight consecutive weeks at #2.
#2: Brandy and Monica – The Boy is Mine
iTunes stats: N/A
The duet, which spent thirteen weeks atop the charts, was the first #1 hit for both singers.