Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 11-8-22

Today’s playlist celebrates the November 8 birthdays of Icona Pop’s Caroline Hjelt, Eric B., Bonnie Raitt, Rickie Lee Jones, Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, Patti Page, Minnie Riperton, Wizzard’s Roy Wood, The Manhattans’ Gerald Alston, Chapterhouse’s Stephen Patman, Glass Tiger’s Alan Frew, Khia, Diana King, Sam Sparro, Thomas Rusiak, Leif Garrett, and J.J. Jackson; and the November 9 birthdays of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, Pepa, The Pretty Things’ Phil May, Peter Paul and Mary’s Mary Travers, Big Pun, Roxanne Shante, Sisqo, Scarface, French Montana, Domino, and Dorothy Dandridge.

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Throwback Thursday: 1992

It’s Throwback Thursday, and on today’s playlist we go back to 1992. Compiling this list made me notice (or remember) what a kickass year for music 1992 was. The success of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a top ten pop hit around the world months after it was sent to alternative radio, came as a complete surprise to the band’s record label and management, and seemed to kick open the doors for weirdos and freaks (I use those terms affectionately) to find their place in the sun and on the charts.

The left field entries weren’t solely from the guitar rock field. Shakespear’s Sister’s “Stay” was a song (or two songs) that stood out from the pack and was not something one would have expected from a former member of Bananarama and someone who co-wrote and sang backup on Eric Clapton’s hit “Lay Down Sally.” And Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” endures all these years later.

To me this era was a golden age for hip hop. Arrested Development, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Kris Kross, Das EFX, Sir Mix-A-Lot and House of Pain hit creative peaks, while rap duo P.M. Dawn hit number three with “I’d Die Without You,” an unexpected ballad with nary a hint of the hip or hop.

Nineteen ninety-two was the year we met Mary J. Blige and Billy Ray Cyrus. It was the year many more people got to know Red Hot Chili Peppers, k.d. lang and En Vogue. And while new names were dotting the Hot 100, there was still room for more hits from Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston and U2.

Here are thirty musical highlights from 1992, a year that most definitely was not wiggida wiggida wiggida wack.

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