5 Songs that You've Probably Forgot About Until You Read This Article

5 Songs that You’ve Probably Forgot About Until You Read This Article

By: Brian Cotnoir

I was an 80’s kid (Born 4 days before they tore down the Berlin Wall), who was raised in the 1990’s, and went through puberty in the 2000’s.  In that time I was introduced to so many different musical artists and tracks.  Some of them have stood the test of time and can still be hear on the radio today.  Other’s disappeared into obscurity as One-Hit Wonders, and then there were a few of them who had their 15 minutes of fame—Literally!  Some of these artist were like the biggest deal one minute—getting played on the radio and having their music videos shown on MTV & VH1—and then the next minute they faded away into obscurity never to be heard from again.  Then every now and then you’ll get a cool, good DJ on the radio who will start playing this one song that you remember LOVING when it first came out, and until the moment you heard it playing on the radio had forgotten that song had ever existed, and today I am here to invoke memories of some of those Nostalgic Tracks of not too long ago, and hopefully get you thinking about those bands and artists again, and get you listening to them once again.

1.) Upside Down by the A-Teens (2000)

In the late 90’s-early 2000’s when the airwaves and MTV were dominated with Boy Bands like the Backstreet Boys and N-Sync, and Pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, an unlikely pop-group form Sweden emerged and became popular with pre-teens and anyone who watched Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel.  This group was known as the A-Teens, and it consisted of four teenagers from Sweden, who did Pop covers of one of Sweden’s Most Popular All-Time Groups, ABBA.  They started in the late 90’s with covers of popular ABBA tracks like “Mama Mia” and “Dancing Queen”.  However, the biggest hit they had was an original song known as “Upside Down”, which I remember being the first time we ever heard the two male members of the group actually sing lines in one of the songs (because in all their previously released songs you could only hear the two girls in the band sing).  A-Teens popularity in the U.S. really fizzled out by the early 2000’s, as they were seen more as a Radio Friendly Musical Act performing songs for Disney Movies and Disney TV Specials.  However, I remember liking them as a kid, and I still think this is a good song today as well.

2.)  Butterfly by Crazy Town

Before Linkin Park the White Boy Rap Metal Group of choice was Los Angeles’s Crazy Town.  Crazy Town’s biggest hit “Butterfly” was released in late 2000 and featured the bands two front men Seth “Shifty” Binzer and Bret “Epic” Mazur rapping about a girl they love who they view as a beautiful butterfly.  Crazy Town managed to make “Buttefly” even more popular by sampling another L.A. bands song “Pretty Little Ditty” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  “Butterfly” may be corny and cheesy by today’s standards, but it still hit #1 in 15 different country’s (including the U.S.) upon its release, so it has to have some merit.

3.)  Another Dumb Blonde by Hoku

Do you remember the movie “Snow Day”?  That feature-length live action movie that Nickelodeon Studios released in the winter of 2000 that featured Josh Peck, Chevy Chase, and Iggy Pop?  There was a song that was being played on Nickelodeon an awful lot that was being used to co-promote the film, and that song was “Another Dumb Blonde” by Hoku.  Hoku is actually the daughter of Popular Hawaiian musician Don Ho, and during a time when there was so much controversy over the “over sexualization” of teen pop-stars like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Mandy Moore, Hoku’s squeaky clean image was a welcomed change by many parents.  So why didn’t Hoku turn into a huge star like the other Pop Diva’s.  Well to be honest—in Retrospect—this isn’t really that good of a song, and more importantly it had absolutely NOTHING to do with the plot of the film.  Every time you saw the trailer for this film as a kid, this song was always playing in the background, and the music video for “Another Dumb Blonde” was constantly being shown on TV featured clips from the movie, but again they had almost nothing to do with one another.  Having “Another Dumb Blonde” on the soundtrack for “Snow Day” makes about as much sense as hearing Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” in the trailer for “Amistad”.  So if you forgot about, this song all together, it’s understandable, because it was pretty underwhelming track.

4.) Fill Me In by Craig David

Before Chris Brown and Trey Songz, but after R. Kelly and Usher we had Craig David, an English R&B singer (who many people thought was actually American).  “Fill Me In” was the first single released off of Craig David’s debut album Born To Do It, and was also the first of two #1 singles he would have (the other being “7 Days”.  I mean, it’s amazing that with all the success he had with his debut album, and all the radio play he received in the early 2000’s, and he still couldn’t manage to stay popular in the U.S.  I find that to be very sad because I wish more American Pop Radio stations would play artist like Craig David because he is an wonderful singer in my opinion.

5.)  Shaniqua (Don’t Live Here No More) by Little T & One Track Mike

Probably the Most Obscure track on this list, but I remember seeing the music video for this song being played a lot on MTV in the summer of 2001.  Little T & One Track Mike are a Hip-Hop Duo from New Jersey, and I can only describe the two of them as the Text Book Definitions of “Wiggers”.  This song is stupid, it’s immature, and the Music Video that accompanies the song is even more stupid and more immature.  I think if Youtube, had been around when this song was recorded than Little T & One Track Mike could’ve become Internet Celebrities like Denny “Blazen” Hazen, and would most likely have received a “Web Redemption” on Tosh.0.  This song is 100% novelty and easily one of the dumbest and worst songs ever recorded.

So I hope this list brought back some fond nostalgic memories for all of you, and if you think there are other “forgotten” songs that you think I should talk about on Asylum for Nerds, just leave me a vid link in the comment section.  Thank You All, and I hope you enjoyed this list.