And that's a wrap. Here's a recap the third and final segment:
50 Vanessa Williams - Save The Best For Last
49 Mariah Carey featuring Trey Lorenz - I'll Be There
48 Goo Goo Dolls - Slide
47 Janet Jackson - Again
46 Jewel - Foolish Games
45 Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet
44 Everything But The Girl - Missing
43 Alanis Morissette - Ironic
42 Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply
41 Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love II You
40 Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle
39 Mariah Carey - Hero
38 Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
37 Madonna - Take A Bow
36 The Rembrandts - I'll Be There For You
35 Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories - Stay (I Missed You)
34 Smash Mouth - All Star
33 Santana featuring Rob Thomas - Smooth
32 Shawn Mullins - Lullaby
31 Janet Jackson - That's The Way Love Goes
30 Alanis Morissette - You Learn
29 Mariah Carey - Fantasy
28 Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
27 Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time
26 Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
25 Boyz II Men - End Of The Road
24 Boyz II Men - On Bended Knee
23 Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca
22 Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do
21 Real McCoy - Another Night
20 Ace Of Base - Don't Turn Around
19 Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
18 Jewel - You Were Meant For Me
17 Barenaked Ladies - One Week
16 Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
15 Sugar Ray - Fly
14 Sugar Ray - Every Morning
13 Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
12 The Cardigans - Lovefool
11 Celine Dion - Because You Loved Me
10 Mariah Carey with Boyz II Men - One Sweet Day
9 Hanson - MMMBop
8 Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
7 Seal - Kiss From A Rose
6 Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
5 Ace Of Base - The Sign
4 Dionne Farris - I Know
3 No Doubt - Don't Speak
2 Natalie Imbruglia - Torn
1 Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever
Now, a little bit on how the chart was tabulated.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this chart based on my version of the pop chart. My pop chart (a top 50, launched at the beginning of 1992) is based, primarliy, on R&R and Billboard's pop charts, along with a few other charts occasionally thrown into the mix (Gavin, FMQB, Cashbox, and sometimes a nationally syndicated radio countdown or two). Since chart methodologies for the bulk of my source material changed so drastically throughout the 90s (comparing a 1990 chart to a 1999 chart is like comparing apples and oranges -- two completely different animals), tabulating the decade's biggest hits is nothing short of a difficult feat. So for this, I stuck to songs that hit number 1. I took two primary factors into consideration -- number of weeks at number 1 and total number of weeks on the chart -- and calculated points via a formula using that info. To break any ties, I then considered the total number of weeks in the top 10. If it was still deadlocked, I considered top 5 weeks. If that was hopeless, I took to favoring R&R over Billboard. But didn't I just say that my chart started in '92? So where did '90 and '91 come from? For those years I had to go with "projected" chart performance based on the pop resources that I had at my disposal. I felt that I could retroactively project the info I needed for ranking with relative accuracy so I went with it.
In the end, my goal was to create a "more balanced" chart than what we got from the syndicated shows. Rick Dees' 90s chart (for anyone interested:
www.rick.com/80of1990s_chart.html) is crap since many songs are missing (how on Earth did he manage to omit Ace Of Base?). And Casey's decade-end chart, while nicer looking than Rick's, still felt as though it were missing a few big songs that really should've been there. "Balance" is also pretty subjective. It seems that no matter what you do, a 1990s chart can't help but tend to favor the second half of the decade. Can't be helped. That's just how the charts behaved. Conversely, a 1980s chart (hey, if I'm feeling ambitious enough, I might do that at some point) would probably favor the first half of the decade for similar reasons.
Anywho, thanks for playing.
As a famous pig once said -- "b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b, that's all folks!"