3 Rock Songs From 1994 You Heard While Shopping at the Mall With Your Friends

Remember what it was like to be a 90s teen, hanging out at the mall, often with no intention to buy a darn thing? Mall culture is waning nowadays. But back in the 90s, the shopping center was starting to become the go-to third place for many a young person. And if you were one of those young people, you definitely jammed out to these 1994 rock songs while chilling with your pals at your local mall.

“Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots from ‘Purple’

Stone Temple Pilots was enjoying quite a time in the mid-1990s. And this track from Purple ended up becoming quite the success for the band. This country rock-flavored grunge track was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. It even broke records by staying at No. 1 for a whopping 15 weeks. There was no way this song didn’t make it to your local mall’s speakers at least a few times back in 1994.

“Far Behind” by Candlebox from ‘Candlebox’

How about a little bit of a deep cut? It’s pretty crazy to me that the grunge band Candlebox didn’t become more of a household name. Especially considering how successful some of their songs were. “Far Behind” remains the band’s biggest hit, peaking at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also reached No. 4 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Like several hit grunge songs from the era, “Far Behind” was written as a tribute to Mother Love Bone and Malfunkshun singer Andrew Wood, who passed away in 1990.

“I wrote ‘Far Behind’ for Andy Wood,” said Candlebox’s frontman, Kevin Martin. “I was a huge Malfunkshun fan and a huge Mother Love Bone fan and I got to know Andy early on in his career when I was working in a shoe store with Susan Silver who was managing Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains.”

“Disarm” by The Smashing Pumpkins from ‘Siamese Dream’

This Smashing Pumpkins track was one of those rock songs that got a ton of radio play back in 1994, and there’s no way you could avoid hearing it at the mall. “Disarm” was released as one of the singles off Siamese Dream and detailed Billy Corgan’s difficult relationship with his parents. Listeners resonated with it, to say the least. This alt-rock classic made it to No. 5 on the Mainstream Rock chart in the US.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images