Song #96: "Down" by 311

Today we continue with the countdown of the Top Songs of the 1990s with number 96, "Down" by 311. "Down" was released in 1996 and was the first single from 311 with widespread mainstream success. With heavy guitar riffs and rap style lyrics, 311's "Down" garnered a lot of attention. Coming off their self-title (blue) album, "Down" stayed at #1 on the modern rock charts for 4 weeks and topped out on the Hot 100 at #37. With the help of "All Mixed Up", the blue album went on to sell over three million copies.

311 is alternative rock back from Omaha, Nebraska. With their rebel attitude and mix of several different styles of music, they were able to maintain continued success over the years. They have released five albums since the blue album and have charted fourteen more singles on the Modern Rock Charts as well as another #1 hit with their cover of The Cure's "Love Song". They seem like they are constantly touring around the US and are known for being a great live band. They are planning a spring tour scheduled for this year, and are currently working on their next album. As long as they maintain their loyal fan base, there is no telling how long they will stick around.

The music video for this one is pretty simple. It features all the members of the band just performing the song. They play around with some special effects, including distorting the picture. It also features the band in some sort of mediating state when the lyrics "Keep my feet on the ground / Keep my head in the clouds" are sung. It is a fairly formulaic video and understandably as their first big single. Check it out and be stay tuned for the next song on the countdown.

Interested in other songs from the countdown? Check out the other Top Songs of the 1990s here


Top 100 Songs of the 90s

After watching VH1's Greatest Songs of the 90s, I was inspired to start up a series of posts with my picks for the Top 100 Songs of the 1990s. I am going to skip out on the rap songs since I am not that big of an expert on that field of music. I am tempted to include some pop from the 90s but we will see if any of it actually makes the list. I am going to set out a few ground rules for the list and link back to this post for every entry.

Rules (subject to change):
1) An artist can only have up to a maximum of three songs on the list.
2) No rap, Hip-Hop, or R&B will be included on this list.
3) Only singles will be considered for this list.
4) I will accept suggestions but this list is in no way comprised of results from a poll or any form of voting process. It is strictly the opinion of Rizzo Music.
5) And obviously the song must have been released between Jan 1st 1990 and Dec 31st 1999.

Each song will get it's own post with a little history of the song (chart positions, band trivia, song trivia ect.) and the music video. I will constantly update this post with links to each post so that this article may be used to find any song on the list. With each article I will link back to this article so to provide easy access to each song. I hope to write about 1 article pertaining to this list a week so that should set a preliminary completion date for the list on August 20, 2009. It would be nice to finish the list before then but that seems like a realistic date for the amount of work required for this sort of project. Comments? Suggestions? I would love to hear them. Thanks!

Links (More Coming Soon)
Songs 100-91
Song #100: "Take A Picture" by Filter
Song #99: "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn
Song #98: "How Bizarre" by OMC
Song #97: "Meet Virginia" by Train
Song #96: "Down" by 311
Song #95: "Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms
Song #94: "Greedy Fly" by Bush
Song #93: "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Song #92: "Don't Go Away" by Oasis
Song #91: "Touch, Peel and Stand" by Days Of The New
Songs 90-81
Song #90: "Hanginaround" by Counting Crows
Song #89: "Man on the Moon" by R.E.M.
Songs 80-71
Songs 70-61
Songs 60-51
Songs 50-41
Songs 40-31
Songs 30-21
Songs 20-11
Songs 10-1

Be sure to sign up for email updates or subscribe with your favorite feed reader to stay up to date with all of the latest additions to the list. If you are having any trouble with this, feel free to email me at "web at rizzomusic dot com".


Top 10 Songs You Should Know Playlist: Week #5

It's Monday again and I have prepared a new playlist. This one is definitely up to par with the others. There are a lot of good songs that you probably have never heard. This will be the last of the playlists where I stick to strictly previously unmentioned artist. There are just too many good songs to pass up any longer. I will stick to keeping it to ten different artists per playlist though. My favorite song on this playlist would have to be "Rocket Ship" by Guster so be sure to check out. Hope you enjoyed this edition of "Top 10 Songs You Should Know" and be sure to come back next week.

Top 10 Songs You Should Know - Week 5 - Dec. 11-17 2006
1. Waiting for the Light to Change - Tonic
2. Summer Skin - Death Cab for Cutie
3. Which Way to the Top - Fastball
4. Little Things - Bush
5. Why Worry - All-American Rejects
6. Blue & Yellow - The Used
7. Bittersweet - Fuel
8. Random - 311
9. 83 - John Mayer
10. Rocket Ship - Guster

Looking for more playlists? We've got plenty.