(Word of warning: To make our list more authentic to the experience of living through 1997 pop, we counted songs as eligible if they peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 -- … single artist company; 1: candle in the wind '97 / something about the way you look tonight: elton john: polygram: 2: barbie girl: aqua 2-peaking singles -- they had three, remarkably, without a single Hot 100 No. "MMMBop" was alt-rock in construction but pure pop in impact, with a non-verbal chorus that stands as one of the most iconic of the entire decade, and an irrepressibly positive energy that disguised the fact that the song was three teens singing about the ephemeral nature of life and the inevitability of death. … The '90s were the golden age for the Jock Jam (this megamix came courtesy of The tranquil stillness and shrugging lyrics of "On & On" aren't usually the stuff that top 20 crossover hits and MTV buzz clips are made of, but Erykah Badu wrapped a tablecloth around her head and pulled the mainstream towards her. "Barbie Girl" was like the cartoon rendering of Jill Sobule's more obviously snarky The first taste of Daft Punk on the Hot 100 came via this mercilessly catchy A drum fill, three chords and a "doo-doo-doo" chant, and by the time of the first verse, Third Eye Blind had locked up being the biggest new band of 1997. Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart for 1997. The list on this page is for all #1 hit Country singles for 1997 using proprietary methods. Unsurprisingly, it was far too British to go anywhere in the U.S., but in the U.K. it went top 40 and became something of a house music standard, even getting covered this year by underground soul phenom Sampha at the Sarah McLachlan's ethereal alt-pop went mainstream in a big way in '97, not just with the iconic all-female Lilith Fair tour that she co-founded, but with her multi-platinum If this seems too high to you for a novelty single, then it's probably been too long since you actually listened to the damn thing. "One of the great pop careers of the last two decades kicked off in earnest with "You Make Me Wanna...," a relatively unassuming mid-tempo acoustic jam that Usher owns with burgeoning vocal mastery: Notice how no two lines in the verses follow the same melody, rhythm or tempo, the singer allowing each lyric to take its own appropriate shape. 1 -- but still a tower of power from one of the most purely skilled girl groups in history, and one that both helped make Do Better Than Ezra remember running through the wet grass, falling a step behind? Listen on demand and play the songs using no wifi internet with a subscription. The thing didn't have to lead to the Backstreet Boys taking over the globe, but it's not shocking that it did, either: The song's mastery of structure and dynamics -- stuff like how the chord structure takes an unexpected drop on the last pre-chorus, in order to properly prime that final chorus -- shows how good maestro Max Martin already was at this stuff, and in BSB he found the perfect voices and personalities to peddle his immaculate confections.Where memories of other one-hit wonders of 1997 have faded over the years, the love for Mark Morrison's "Return of the Mack" has intensified to the point that its practically been reduced to a cliche of '90s nostalgia, even being resurrected by Swedish DJ Nevada (along with Fetty Wap and Morrison himself) for a 2016 trop-house hit. But by '97, most of the leading lights for both genres had either faded, gone on hiatus or left the game altogether, creating a void at the mainstream's center that badly needed filling.What came along to fill it was the return of mega-pop: Massive, barnstorming, top 40-geared breakouts from groups like Spice Girls, Hanson and Backstreet Boys -- artists that bore some of the sonic signifiers of decade's beginning, but lacked any connection to the angst of grunge or the edge of G-funk. For detailed information on how Billboard compiled the charts, see the Wikipedia article "Billboard Hot 100". Stick around for the song's too-perfect spoken-word breakdown: "If you ain't dippin'/ You GOTS to be trippin'! It didn't have the chart success of Plenty of Other Woman ballads to go around in country history, but "The Fool" belongs to that rare "Jolene" class of woman-to-woman songs sung to rivals who aren't necessarily even trying to be competition: "I'm the fool in love with the fool/ Who's still in love with you." Still nothing like the real thing: From its first seconds, "Return" busts through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man, and just picks up stream from there, more undeniable in its boom-bap strut with each "Simply one of the most irresistible songs in pop history -- partly because singer Nina Persson goes so extra in her crying, praying and begging for your affection.