3 Overplayed Songs From the 90s You Want To Forget but Can’t

Repetition keeps things locked in the brain. It’s like practicing an instrument, a sport, or any activity enough times, and you won’t forget it. But in a world of overplayed songs, tunes get drilled into your brain whether you welcome them or not.

Videos by American Songwriter

In the 90s, there were songs that radio DJs, MTV, grocery stores, malls, restaurants, doctors’ offices, and clubs cranked into your skull with headache-inducing rotation. If I were the one collecting those 90s royalties, I’d have turned up the repeat dial, too.

As if you needed a reminder, here are three of the most overplayed songs from the 90s you want to forget but can’t.

“(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams, producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, and composer Michael Kamen wrote one of the most-played soft rock power ballads of all time. The song appeared on the soundtrack to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as well as Adams’s 1991 album, Waking Up The Neighbours. This isn’t the kind of song that will wake the neighbors, though. You’ll need “Summer Of ’69” if you want to jolt them from the couch. Also, I forgot how long this track is. It keeps going well past six minutes while Adams delivers ad-libs over a searching guitar solo.

“Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin

This track was everywhere in 1999. Ricky Martin had released his first English-language album, and the former Menudo star cleared a path for other Latin artists to crossover into the mainstream. Martin, along with Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Christina Aguilera, and Shakira, launched a new movement, and this salsa groove and heavy surf riff helped kick-start it. The U.S. wasn’t the only market with Ricky fever; “Livin’ La Vida Loca” reached No. 1 in several countries.

“Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…)” by Lou Bega

German singer Lou Bega sampled Dámaso Pérez Prado’s 1949 instrumental “Mambo No. 5” and built a flirty anthem from it. Bega’s blockbuster topped the charts worldwide and soon became a wedding staple. It also found a superfan in Stephen King, who played it so much, his wife threatened to leave him if he didn’t knock it off. A colossal summer hit in 1999, Bega’s subsequent releases have failed to replicate its success. Just don’t tell your relatives at the next wedding, after they’ve sunk two plastic cups of Tom Collins.

Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage