Tyler: So, Peter, we’ve reached #25 on the list.  Do you recall a certain balladeer by the name of Richard Marx?

Peter: I do!

Tyler: Well, here we are with his “Now And Forever.”

I don’t really recall this tune, not like “Right Here Waiting.”

Peter: I also do not remember this song. Huh…

It’s very Richard Marx-y.

There’s a very stately instrumental section. Nice. It’s nice.

Tyler: From one excessively early-‘90s male pop vocalist to another—at #23 we have Jon Secada!

“If You Go.”

This is another one I barely remember.

Peter: Secada, eh? That guy probably has a hit every 13 or 17 years.

I also don’t remember this one.

Tyler: What kind of hits are these??

Peter: It’s a good question!

Tyler: There is no arguing with our next selection.  Number 22.  Peter?  Mount up.

It’s Warren G and Nate Dogg, essaying the immortal “Regulate.”

Peter: This one I remember.

Tyler: I should certainly hope so.

Peter: Still slaps.

Tyler: Yes.  Oh, yes it does.

In recent months I was asked by some colleagues for my favorite hip-hop track of all time.  After desperately thinking of no more than, like, three songs, I feebly offered “Regulate.”  I still don’t know if this was a correct answer.

It should be!  This bangs.  Nate Dogg could’ve sung on everything.

Peter: Yeah, this wasn’t my scene at the time, but “Regulate” was just so irresistible, it was impossible to dislike.

Tyler: I love it.  For God’s sake, it takes a Michael McDonald riff and turns it into this.

Peter: There’s a Michael McDonald sample? I did not know that.

Tyler: Dear God, man.

Immediately pause the 1994 glories and queue up “I Keep Forgettin’.”

Peter: I’m sorry! I’m just reading about it on Wikipedia now!

Tyler: Don’t apologize to me.  Apologize to yourself.

Peter: Oh yeah. Okay. Listening to it now.

I can hear it now as a Michael McDonald song. That’s too funny.

Tyler: Prepare yourself, then, for another reinterpretation of a soft-rock classic.  Big Mountain coming in all the way up at #21 with their reggae-lite rendition of Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way.”

Peter: Pass.

Tyler: It ain’t great!

Peter: Can I pass? Is that part of this? No, I kid.

I agree though. It’s not great.

Tyler: My dad loves this song.  We owned the CD single.

Peter: Wow! Now I feel bad! I’ve spat upon your childhood memory.

Tyler: No, you have not.

Parents love stuff!  Like Yellowstone.

Peter: Good point. Okay, what’s next?

Tyler: Got some more hip-hop!  It’s Coolio!  “Fantastic Voyage” soaring to number 20.

Peter: Love it.

This is another one that was just undeniable. You couldn’t not like it.

Tyler: I became familiar with ol’ Coolio through later jams like “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New),” to get all parenthetical on you.  “Fantastic Voyage” was a discovery for me in retrospect.

RIP!  That dude should not have passed so young.

Peter: For sure. A shame.

Tyler: Moving to another fizzy effort at #19: our man Prince—I believe he was using the symbol at the time—with “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.”

I absolutely remember the hell out of this one.

Peter: Yes! It was a big moment for him.

His last big hit?

Tyler: When did “7” drop?

Peter: Good question.

1992!

Tyler: Oh wow.  That’s 32 years ago.

Listening to it now, “Most Beautiful Girl” isn’t a major effort.  Glorious chorus, though.

Peter: Yeah, I’ve never been a big fan of this one. Good for him, though. It was big.

Tyler: Number 18 is a little different.  It’s mid-career Elton, with his original version of a song he and Tim Rice wrote for a total box office bomb called The Lion King.

Peter: “Circle of Life?”

Tyler: Jest!  Jokez!  “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” and Lion King were both enormous hits.

Peter: Ah, yes! I don’t like this song.

I feel like 80s and 90s production did not suit him. It makes him too syrupy.

Tyler: It does.  I love Elton, and am very glad that this song exists, and that Lion King was an achievement that changed the game.  But this production style, this MOR nothingness, does not appeal to me.

Peter: I miss the gritty 70s Elton!

Just kidding. He was never gritty. But his best work avoids the schmaltz.

Tyler: His early work with producer Gus Dudgeon has a toasty warmth to it.  That’s lacking here.

Peter: I agree.

It’s starting to feel like this is going to be a four-parter.

Tyler: I know.  So many hits!  Hot hits!

Peter: We’re going to be stuck in 1994 forever! It’s a spooky tale! Like Halloween! We’re timely!

We’re seasonal? Whatever. Yes, hot hitz!

Tyler: Our next selection was a big one.  At #16, Mariah Carey fairly crushing “Without You.”

Badfinger’s original begat Nilsson’s immortal version, which led to Mariah’s.

Peter: Oh, geez. Yeah. I remember this. It was huge.

Tyler: That woman can sing.

Peter: For sure. She can wail.

To be honest I probably changed the station when this came on. I’m just keeping it real here, Tyler. It’s a safe space, no?

Tyler: You were in high school!  You hip hep cat and your growth!

I dunno.  This was one I heard from the back of my mom’s car.

Like a lot of the mellower tracks here, I should really note.

There’s a double A-side to “Without You,” called “Never Forget You,” but it doesn’t ring any bells for me.

Peter: Ironic.

Tyler: Another cover straight ahead!  Number 15 finds a very popular, very VH-1 biggie, John Mellencamp bringing in Meshell Ndegeocello for a lively take on Van the Man’s “Wild Night.”

Having never heard the original, I quite liked this at the time.

Peter: I don’t want to sound like a hater, but I don’t like this one either. Do I sound like a hater? In general? I feel like I do.

It’s very bouncy!

Tyler: Oh, not at all.  This is another one that chugs along straight down the middle of the road.  In retrospect, it’s got nothing on the original, but it introduced a new audience to something by Van Morrison—never hurts—while also getting them bopping along to work by a queer Black musical mainstay of her era.  In some ways, it bears comparison to Luke Combs’s recent version of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.”  Combs performs the song very much in the style of the original, not reinventing, and the same could be same of Mellencamp and Ndegeocello.  In a vacuum, the remakes aren’t especially special, but, for what they are in the library of pop-rock, they do the job.

Peter: Wow, I was joking, but now I really do feel like a hater!

Tyler: You do hate.  On yourself!

Peter: Well, that’s interesting stuff. You’re really bringing your A game tonight. Normally I do research too, people!

Come back when we’re doing an album!

Tyler: Oh, Peter.  Don’t be so down on yourself.  I doubt that Ms. Peter would deny you the status awarded by the artists performing our next track: you are, indeed, “Whatta Man.”

Peter: Nice segue.

Tyler: Oh yeah.  Real masterful.

It’s Salt, and PEPA again!  This time featuring the grand dames of En Vogue.

I’m sure Ms. Peter and you, Peter, are on board with this song being absolutely bomb.

Peter: Salt-N-Pepa had a real moment in ’94. I loved “Push It,” all the way back in the 80s, but after that they kind of disappeared for a while. It seemed that way to me, anyway. But they were huge again in ’94.

Tyler: They had a big MTV hit in between those milestones with “Let’s Talk About Sex.”  Baffling to my pre-adolescent mind.

Peter: Oh, right. That’s true.

Don’t call it a comeback!

Tyler: “Whatta Man” is out of this world.  En Vogue were no small deal at the time themselves.  This collaboration is a high point for both groups.

Peter: It was a pretty huge collab. And it paid off. Big hit.

Tyler: It holds up!

Peter: Yeah. This one I like! Great pairing.

Tyler: Not so much a hit: the movie With Honors.  Recall that one?  Brendan Fraser, Joe Pesci, Moira Kelly?  Madonna’s “I’ll Remember?” That’s the big song from the film, and it’s high on the list here at #13.

Peter: I never saw that, but I certainly remember the song.

Tyler: I saw it in the theater!  I was very young and very bored.

Peter: There’s a quote for the re-release poster!

I kind of like “I’ll Remember.”

Tyler: It’s lowkey Madge.  I call her Madge because we’re buddies.

Peter: You and Madge.

Like Prince, another 80s star scoring big in ’94!

Where were Dexys Midnight Runners?

Tyler: Need some Falco up in this year.

Now, we’ve already discussed Janet, who appears again here at #12.  I wanted to highlight this song, “Again,” because even to my middle-school ears was it an exceptionally tender ballad from an artist I knew most notably from “Rhythm Nation” and “Miss You Much.”

Peter: Yeah, that album, Janet, really leaned into her more sensual, sexy side.

She sounds a little like Michael on this one.

Now that guy was sexy!

Just kidding. I’m sorry. Sorry about that.

Tyler: Don’t be sorry.  It’s a testament to Janet’s talents that any kind of Jackson eroticism is effective.

Peter: Good point.

Anyway, it’s a nice ballad. I like it.

Tyler: You can say that again!  HAW.

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