Here are our picks for the best grunge song of each year from 1987 through 1996.
As with most genres and subgenres, grunge didn’t necessarily have a hard start date or an end. In fact, plenty of artists from the grunge scene still make music today and there are even newer bands forming that carry the spirit of the Pacific Northwest sound in their songs.
For the sake of this list and some other similar ones we’ve done, we narrowed the years down to when grunge truly started to pick up in momentum, when it peaked and when it started to wane. The subgenre’s beginnings go back to the mid-1980s, but ’87 was the year that bands such as Melvins and Soundgarden were actually putting out albums and songs.
Grunge peaked in the early and mid-’90s but started to slow down in momentum a few years later. By ’96, Nirvana had already been over for two years, Alice in Chains started to slow down quite a bit and much of the industry had shifted its focus toward bands such as Korn and their nu-metal comrades.
Since we’ve done a few lists on the best song of each year for some other subgenres, we figured it was grunge’s turn. Thus, below are our picks for the best grunge song of each year from 1987 to 1996.
READ MORE: The Best Grunge Album of Each Year From 1987 to 1996
For each year, we took a few things into consideration: whether the track actually was one of the best grunge songs of that year, how successful it was and whether or not it had a lasting impact. So we weren’t able to get too obscure with these with those parameters and a few artists show up multiple times throughout the list because they truly were some of the most influential groups of the era.
See our picks below.
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1987: Soundgarden, ‘Hunted Down’
“Hunted Down” was Soundgarden’s first standalone single released through Sub Pop Records in 1987. Not only was the song and its B-side “Nothing to Say” fantastic, but it was the first single Sub Pop ever released by an artist. So it was monumental for Soundgarden, for the label and for grunge in general.
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1988: Mudhoney, ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’
Mudhoney were another pivotal group to the formation of grunge in the late ’80s and their first single was “Touch Me I’m Sick,” which was also released through Sub Pop and quickly became one of the defining songs of the early grunge era. Its fuzzy guitars, aggressive energy and punk-driven sound helped establish the blueprint for a lot of grunge hits that came later.
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1989: Nirvana, ‘About a Girl’
We sort of bent the rules a little bit for this year because Nirvana’s “About a Girl” was not a massive hit in 1989. It was featured on the band’s debut album that came out that year, but it actually became one of the band’s defining songs several years later after Nevermind came out and Bleach was re-released through DGC Records. Regardless, it was still one of the most important early grunge songs.
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1990: Alice in Chains, ‘We Die Young’
Alice in Chains were actually the first grunge band to achieve major commercial success with their 1990 debut album Facelift, which was the first grunge album to land in the Top 50 of the Billboard 200 and to be certified gold. Of course, “Man in the Box” was really the breadwinner from that album because it gave the band huge exposure on the radio and MTV, but the album’s opener “We Die Young” is a visceral, two-and-a-half minute punch to the gut that’s remained one of the band’s most beloved songs among fans for decades.
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1991: Nirvana, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
Choosing a best album and a best song for the year 1991 always feels impossible because of all the amazing releases that came out that year: Screaming Trees’ Uncle Anesthesia, TAD’s 8-Way Santa, Temple of the Dog, Mudhoney’s Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, Pearl Jam’s Ten, Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger and of course, Nirvana’s Nevermind.
There really is no right answer for the year 1991, but we went with the obvious, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” If it weren’t for the success of that song, a lot of the other albums we just mentioned may not have become as legendary and widely-known as they are today. Grunge was already on its way into the spotlight, but Nevermind was what helped it break through.
For that, we owe a lot to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
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1992: Alice in Chains, ‘Would?’
Alice in Chains arguably put out the strongest grunge album of 1992: Dirt. Its closing track, “Would?,” was written as a tribute to late Mother Love Bone vocalist Andy Wood, who died in 1990 at the age of 24. Not only was it a tribute to him, but it was featured on the soundtrack for the Cameron Crowe film Singles and they actually had a cameo performing the song during the movie.
The song has an ominous vibe, complemented by Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley’s signature vocal harmonies and remains one of the most celebrated songs of the era. The band nearly left it off Dirt, but the album feels all the more complete because they didn’t.
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1993: Pearl Jam, ‘Go’
Pearl Jam were still a relatively new band in 1993, as they’d only formed three years earlier after the death of Wood and the breakup of Mother Love Bone. But ’93 was definitely their year: their sophomore album Vs. debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and its intense opening track “Go” was its lead single.
“Go” immediately set the tone for Vs. and proved that the album was louder, faster and more aggressive than much of Ten. It proved Pearl Jam didn’t want to repeat themselves — instead, they highlighted their raw energy and cemented themselves as one of Seattle’s biggest bands.
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1994: Soundgarden, ‘The Day I Tried to Live’
Soundgarden had been around for a full decade by the time their true mainstream breakthrough, Superunknown, came out in early 1994. Now, it was their turn to dominate. “Black Hole Sun” is a song known around the world but “The Day I Tried to Live” fully encapsulates everything that made Soundgarden who they were.
Packed with odd time signatures, a bold rhythm section, menacing guitar work and otherworldly vocals, “The Day I Tried to Live” showed that Soundgarden were capable of evolving and broadening their fanbase without sacrificing the complex and unusual musicianship that made them so appealing in the first place.
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1995: Mad Season, ‘River of Deceit’
At a time when grunge’s momentum was starting to slow down, Mad Season were a supergroup formed by several key players of the scene: Staley of Alice in Chains, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees (with contributions from Mark Lanegan) and John Baker Saunders. Together, they created an adventurous and hypnotic set of songs that explored the depths of blues, psychedelia and jazz more than their respective bands had ever done.
“River of Deceit” is the most well-known song of the batch, though it still doesn’t typically receive the recognition it deserves. It has an airy, delicate feel to it that’s complemented by light instrumentation that allows Staley’s soothing vocals room to breathe.
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1996: Screaming Trees, ‘All I Know’
Speaking of Screaming Trees, they released one of their strongest albums in 1996 with Dust. By this point, many of grunge’s biggest bands had either stepped out of the spotlight, broken up or were experimenting far beyond their signature sound while Screaming Trees became tighter than ever by refining the psychedelic, bluesy sound that had always set them apart from their peers.
“All I Know” is the defining track on Dust. It’s the perfect blend of swampy psychedelic rock, gritty distortion and Pacific Northwest attitude. Plus, it saw commercial success and became their only Top 10 hit. As one of the last great singles from grunge’s heyday, it’s a fitting song to close the chapter with.
