Regular readers know I’m fond of dipping back into the bountiful waters of great music of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s to revisit “lost classics” that we may have neglected or forgotten. These lost classics now include songs from the 1990s, which (hard to believe) are now more than 30 years old.

In the ’90s, I was in my 30s and raising children, so I admit I wasn’t tuned in as closely to what was being released and played on the radio…but I was still buying new music (on CD at that point), and there was certainly plenty of really great music from those years that deserves our attention. I’m guessing the songs found below may be completely unfamiliar to many readers. You might know the artists, but not the tunes, so here’s your chance to get on board with a dozen choice tracks from the 1990s. Crank them up on the Spotify playlist as you read about them!

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“I Love You Goodbye,” Thomas Dolby, 1992

Most US music listeners know Dolby only from his quirky 1983 single “She Blinded Me With Science,” which reached #5 as his only entry on US pop charts, but he had several other successful singles and albums in his native England. A friend of mine who followed Dolby’s work turned me on to his overlooked 1992 LP “Astronauts & Heretics,” and its single “I Love You Goodbye,” and I became obsessed with the song. The UK music industry periodical Music Week called it “a strange, eclectic piece with folksy violins, a pleasant hodgepodge of synthesized sounds, and poised and polished vocals.” The lyrics tell the semi-fictional story of a drive he once took from New Orleans to the Florida Everglades. More recently, Dolby has been involved in producing and contributing to other artists’ work, and has spent decades as an entrepreneur in the audio equipment arena.

“Jeremiah Blues (Part 1),” Sting, 1991

Following the release of Sting’s second solo LP “Nothing Like the Sun” in 1987, his father died, which affected him profoundly and caused him to suffer from writer’s block, a difficult and frustrating affliction for a composer. It took him more than three years, but he finally came out of it by composing songs inspired by his father and his love of ships and sailing. The resulting album, “The Soul Cages,” was a huge success here, reaching #2 on the strength of “All This Time,” a #5 single on US charts. One of my favorites from the album is a lyrically ambiguous tune called “Jeremiah Blues (Part 1).” Said Sting, “I’ve been called a Jeremiah for sometimes being a bit preachy about the ecology thing, but with this song, I took a side-long look at it and kept the meaning intentionally murky.”

“Mysteries We Understand,” Sophie B. Hawkins, 1992

New York City-based Hawkins was a Best New Artist nominee in 1992 thanks to the dynamic single “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,” which reached #5 on US pop charts that year. The debut LP, “Tongues and Tails,” had a number of strong originals, including “California Here I Come” and a convincing cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Want You.” I’ve always been partial to the enigmatic “Mysteries We Understand,” carried by a relentless groove, wah-wah guitar work, and strong vocals that sound not unlike Madonna in the ’90s. Hawkins returned to the Top 10 in 1994 with “As I Lay Me Down” from her “Whaler” LP, but her strong-willed defiance and outspoken activism put her at odds with her record label, and subsequent LPs failed to capture much attention.

“Somebody’s Daughter,” Tasmin Archer, 1992

If her name is unfamiliar to you, you’re not alone, but I think you’ll be intrigued by her voice and songs. The Jamaican-born British singer-songwriter found initial success in the UK in 1992 with her debut LP “Great Expectations” and its #1 single “Sleeping Satellite,” but curiously, that song managed to reach only #32 in the US, despite its contagious melody and Archer’s powerful vocal performance. The album has several other jewels like “Somebody’s Daughter” that are well worthy of your time. Sadly, her second effort couldn’t match its predecessor’s quality and Archer seemed to disappear, and although she came back with two new releases in 2006 and 2025, neither charted in the UK nor the US.

“Way of the World,” Genesis, 1991

Apparently burned out on Genesis and Phil Collins after their ubiquitous presence throughout the ’80s, critics were really hard on the 1991 LP “We Can’t Dance,” but that didn’t stop fans from making it another huge commercial success. I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of the hit singles “No Son of Mine,” “Jesus He Knows Me” or “I Can’t Dance,” but there are some really great tracks to be found here. The 10-minute Collins opus “Driving the Last Spike” is a keeper, as is Tony Banks’s layered “Living Forever” and the catchy Mike Rutherford tune “Way of the World.” The latter offers a smooth melody/rhythm combination that goes down easy and would’ve made a better choice as a single, to my ears. This would be the band’s last LP with Collins, and the final Genesis product, 1997’s “Calling All Stations,” was a dud.

“Revolution,” The Pretenders, 1994

At age 22, Akron, Ohio-born Chrissie Hynde chose to relocate to London in 1973 to form a band and launch her impressive career, hitting the top of the charts right out of the box with the debut LP “Pretenders.” Although The Pretenders have had numerous personnel changes over the past 40 years, Hynde is still the undisputed leader, writing most of the group’s enviable catalog of hits and deep tracks. The group’s sixth LP, 1994’s “Last of the Independents,” is actually Hynde with a revolving door of sidemen. The single “I’ll Stand By You” reached #16 on US pop charts, and the album also includes a solid cover of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young,” but I’ve always enjoyed the rich production of the deep track “Revolution” (no relation to The Beatles classic), carried by one of Hynde’s finest vocals ever.

“Allison Road,” Gin Blossoms, 1992

The backstory of the Arizona-based alt-rock band Gin Blossoms is both tragic and ironic. The group’s founder was lead guitarist and chief songwriter Doug Hopkins, who named the band after the slang term for a skin condition where dilated blood vessels appear in the cheeks and nose, often of those people who abuse alcohol. Hopkins wrote most of the group’s songs, including their hit singles “Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You,” but his heavy drinking and consequent depression ended up causing his dismissal from the group, and he committed suicide at age 32. Meanwhile, lead singer Robin Wilson had begun writing songs as well, and his jangly pop tune “Allison Road,” originally released on an early EP, became a minor hit from their multi-platinum “New Miserable Experience” LP in 1992.

“Human Touch,” Bruce Springsteen, 1992

In the first 15 years of his career, Springsteen always claimed he found salvation and comfort through music, and many of the songs he wrote for his first seven albums reflected that philosophy. But when he disbanded the E Street Band in 1989, divorced his first wife, married Patti Scialfa and had two children with her, he began writing songs that were all about interpersonal connection, reflecting his new life as a family man. At the top of that list was the satisfying title track from his 1992 LP “Human Touch,” which reached #16 on US pop charts. Frankly, it’s one of only a few songs of that period that have withstood the test of time; even Springsteen concedes the album and the “Lucky Town” album, released the same day, have only “maybe three or four songs that I play in concert anymore.”

“Strange Groove,” World Party, 1997

Throughout rock history, there have been examples of “bands” that are actually just one person, usually an ubertalented multi-instrumentalist who writes and plays everything on the albums. One of those is World Party, the British band-in-name-only that is really the work of Karl Wallinger on his own. His work was hugely popular with critics, especially 1990’s “Goodbye Jumbo,” but thanks to a record label that insisted on more new studio albums instead of tours to promote existing music, it wasn’t as commercially successful as it should have been. Same goes for 1997’s “Egyptology,” which was jam-packed with contagious indie pop and alt rock. I vacillated on which song to include here (“Beautiful Dream,” “She’s the One,” “Always” or “Strange Groove”), finally selecting the latter for, well, its strangely satisfying groove.

“Dance of the Bad Angels,” Tim Booth, 1996

The British band known as James, formed in the mid-1980s and still active today, have been hugely successful in their native country, placing nearly all of their 18 albums in the Top Ten on UK pop charts, thanks in large part to the compelling lead vocals of Tim Booth. In America, however, their commercial success has been pretty much limited to their 1993 LP “Laid” (produced by Brian Eno) and its title song, which became wildly popular through college radio airplay. Booth chose to do a solo project in 1996, collaborating with film music composer/arranger Angelo Badalamenti (known best for the haunting “Twin Peaks” soundtrack). That album, “Booth and the Bad Angel,” really captured my attention on songs like “Hit Parade,””Stranger” and especially the moody “Dance of the Bad Angels.”

“29 Palms,” Robert Plant, 1993

From the beginning of his solo career in 1982 after the dissolution of Led Zeppelin in 1980, Robert Plant has exceeded my expectations with consistently strong LPs, melodious singles and compelling vocals. He collaborated with guitarist Robbie Blunt on his first three albums and then partnered with guitarist Phil Johnstone on the next three releases, culminating in the exceptional LP “Fate of Nations” in 1993. You’ll find some energetic, innovative rockers like “Calling To You” and “Network News,” but there are also some tracks that lean more acoustic, like the cover of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter” and originals like “I Believe” and the marvelous “29 Palms,” named after the small town near Joshua Tree in the California desert: “It comes kinda hard when I hear your voice on the radio… I feel the heat of your desert heart taking me down the road that leads back to you…”

“Happy Endings,” Better Than Ezra, 1996

Aggressive alternative rock is the genre that Better Than Ezra is primarily known for, especially on singles like “Good,” “Desperately Wanting” and “King of New Orleans,”which performed well on Alternate Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts in the mid-1990s. When I first heard their album “Friction, Baby,” my ears perked up at the tracks which featured a lighter touch, such as “Normal Town,” “WWOZ” and “Happy Endings.” Virtually every tune in Better Than Ezra’s catalog is the work of guitarist/singer Kevin Griffin, who said that although he knew it was the rockers that most fans came to hear, he enjoyed writing mellower songs to balance out the uptempo numbers. Here’s the romantic vibe on “Happy Endings”: “I thought that you’d like to know I’m finally letting her go, /You always said, ‘Tell me when you’re ready at last to begin,’ /And love is real, reading your eyes in the glow, /Play on, play on, happy endings…”

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Back in April, I offered my annual selections of the best 15 album of fifty years ago. Overall, 1975 was a pretty decent year for music, and I wanted to revisit that year one more time with a batch of long-forgotten tracks that made an impact on me. The dozen “lost classics” I’ve selected, culled exclusively from albums released in 1975, provide a healthy cross section of the kind of rock, blues, R&B, jazz and country music I was listening to at that time.

As with most of my lost classics, you might not be even remotely familiar with them…or you might have heard them once or twice back in the day but they’ve been under your radar ever since. By shining a light on them here, I hope to bring these quality 50-year-old songs to your attention. I recommend you punch in the Spotify playlist at the bottom and listen along as you read. I’m wagering you’ll find them worthy of your time.

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“Birmingham Blues,” The Charlie Daniels Band

Daniels is best known for his remarkable fiddle playing, but as his 25-album career clearly demonstrates, he was a solid singer and songwriter as well. He and his band deftly merged country, blues, rock and even jazz, sometimes cracking the Top 20 but mostly just turning out solidly dependable, modestly successful albums that kept them on the concert circuit for decades. Early on in their repertoire came the LP “Nightrider,” which includes the ferocious “Birmingham Blues,” easily my favorite song in their entire repertoire. It focuses on a Southern man who travels to L.A. in search of fame and fortune but ends up alone after his woman back home betrays him: “Sittin’ here in L.A., looking down at my shoes, /Drownin’ my troubles on small talk and blues, /Sittin’ here wonderin’ if I could have been born to lose, /I think movin’ is losin’, and now I can see I let a false-hearted woman make a fool outta me, /And now all I got left now is a bad case of Birmingham Blues…”

“There Will Be Love,” Jefferson Starship

When Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin rejoined his old colleagues in their new Jefferson Starship lineup for their “Red Octopus” album in 1975, he brought with him (to no one’s surprise) his predilection for love ballads to complement the counterculture concerns found in the songs by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick. The fact that Balin’s romantic approach dominates the proceedings was evident in the #1 chart success of “Miracles” as well as the big red heart in the album cover artwork. Hidden at the end of Side Two is “There Will Be Love,” another of Balin’s significant contributions, a power ballad co-written by Kantner and guitarist Craig Chaquico, and carried by those time-honored Airplane/Starship vocal harmonies.

“Dreaming From the Waist,” The Who

Following the phenomenal four-album run of “Tommy,” “Live at Leeds,” “Who’s Next” and “Quadrophenia,” The Who’s composer Pete Townshend was showing signs of burnout and exhaustion. The songs on “The Who By Numbers,” released in November 1975, “were written with me stoned out of my brain in my living room, crying my eyes out, detached from my own work and from the whole project… I felt empty.” He had just turned 30 and was troubled by whether he was getting too old to play rock and roll anymore. He also acknowledged he was drinking too much (the subject of “However Much I Booze”) and was challenged by his sexual urges, which he wrote about on “Dreaming From the Waist.” He said he didn’t like performing the song in concert, but the rest of the band really embraced the track.

“Before You Came,” Jesse Colin Young

Young is probably best known for the anthemic single “Get Together” he wrote and sang while with The Youngbloods in the 1960s. I was enamored of the solo albums he recorded in the mid-1970s — “Song For Juli,” “Light Shine” and “Songbird.” About the latter LP, Young said, “Really the heart of that album was a song called ‘Before You Came.’ I had visited the Black Hills of South Dakota and befriended some American Indians there and learned more about their plight and their sad history. After I returned to California, I was up on our ridge top overlooking Drakes Bay near San Francisco, and I saw a four-masted schooner anchored there. I thought I had all of a sudden stepped back in time, and that I was watching the first landing of white settlers. That’s where the idea for ‘Before You Came’ originated.” The music has a jazzy groove that’ll have you fully involved.

“Black Country Woman,” Led Zeppelin

As they were recording songs for their next LP in 1974, the members of Led Zeppelin found themselves with more material than would fit on a single LP, so they decided to make it a double by resurrecting several tracks they’d worked on but shelved during sessions for previous LPs. One of those, “Black Country Woman,” is an acoustic blues romp recorded in 1972 at Stargroves, the English manor owned by Mick Jagger. The microphones picked up the sound of an airplane flying overhead, which made producers reject the track, but Jimmy Page and Robert Plant liked it and left it in. I’m not a big fan of the “Physical Graffiti” album except for a handful of songs like “Kashmir,” “Night Flight,” “Ten Years Gone” and this fun diversion, which would’ve fit well on the largely acoustic “Led Zeppelin III.”

“Right,” David Bowie

The man who sold the world a hunky-dory image of himself as a space-age glam rocker named Ziggy Stardust made his first chameleon-like career change in 1975 with the release of “Young Americans,” his convincing “blue-eyed soul” LP. It proved to be remarkably authentic R&B music for a British rocker like Bowie, first on the marvelous title track and then on his iconic pairing with John Lennon on the #1 hit “Fame.” Forgotten underneath those two tunes were several other fine soul offerings, most notably “Right,” carried by prominent percussion and bass and the earworm repetition of the main lyric (“Taking it all the right way / Never no turning back”). Bowie famously said, “People forget what the sound of Man’s instinct is — it’s a drone, a mantra. And people say, ‘Why are so many things popular that just drone on and on?’ But that’s the point, really.”

“Rose Darling,” Steely Dan

The seven albums Steely Dan released during their initial 1972-1980 run had MAYBE five tracks that could be considered duds.  That’s five out of 63 songs — quite an impressive success ratio!  To my ears, everything else they wrote and recorded is simply awesome music.  On their 1975 masterpiece “Katy Lied,” they could’ve dispensed with the aptly titled “Throw Back the Little Ones,” but otherwise, flawless:  “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers,” “Daddy Don’t Live in New York City No More,” “Doctor Wu,” “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies,” “Your Gold Teeth II,” “Chain Lightning,” “Any World That I’m Welcome To.”  For this list, I’ve singled out the irresistible “Rose Darling,” which gives us the great Dean Parks on guitar and a young Michael McDonald making his first appearance with Steely Dan on vocal harmonies.  

“Carol,” Al Stewart

Combining folk-rock songs with tales of characters and events from history, Stewart released five LPs between 1967 and 1973 to little acclaim or sales, but once he hooked up with producer Alan Parsons on 1975’s “Modern Times” LP, his career took off, especially in the US, where “Year of The Cat” and “Time Passages” were Top Ten smashes in 1977-1978. “Modern Times” managed to reach #30 on US album charts even without a hit single, although the opening track “Carol” should’ve filled that bill. An infectious melody and some fine ensemble playing complement Stewart’s intriguing character study of a woman seeking to overcome her unsatisfying childhood: “I know your daddy said he’d talk to you, but he never really found the time, /And your TV mother with her cocktail eyes could never really reach your mind, /Oh Carol, I think it’s time for running for cover…”

“First Things First,” Stephen Stills

All four singer-songwriters in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young enjoyed successful solo careers, which served to assuage the disappointment fans felt that the foursome couldn’t seem to stick together longer. Stills in particular was pretty prolific, with his Top Five “Love the One You’re With” single in 1970, two solo LPs and the remarkable Manassas double album in 1972. He was near completion of his third solo album in early 1974, but he put the project on hold for the legendary CSNY reunion tour that summer (I saw their three-hour set at Cleveland Stadium), where they each debuted several not-yet-released tracks. One of those was the Stills tune “First Things First,” which ended up appearing on “Stills” in 1975. It had been recorded in late 1973, with David Crosby and Graham Nash providing their trademark harmonies.

“Have a Good Time,” Paul Simon

Simon’s 1973 LP “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” was a buoyant, rousing success with upbeat singles (“Kodachrome” and “Loves Me Like a Rock”) and tracks brimming with love and optimism. It came as quite a contrast, then, when his 1975 follow-up, “Still Crazy After All These Years,” was so downbeat and melancholy. Simon had just been through a divorce from his first wife, and several of the tunes reflected that difficult emotional upheaval. Even the #1 hit “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” with its catchy beat and whimsical lyrical approach, was still about a romantic breakup. The album’s lone moment of hope came on the languid deep track “Have a Good Time,” which urged listeners to set aside their troubles and enjoy life: “I don’t believe what I read in the papers, they’re just out to capture my dime, /I ain’t worrying and I ain’t scurrying, I’m having a good time, /Good time baby, good time, child…”

“Lighthouse,” James Taylor

There are so many great tunes on James Taylor’s many albums that it’s a challenge to choose which one to highlight. Since this playlist focuses on lost classics from 1975, I took a closer look at “Gorilla,” his album from that year, which featured his Top Five cover of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and “Mexico.” Every track on the LP is worthy of your attention, but I selected “Lighthouse,” which features a winning melody and the stunning harmonies of (who else?) David Crosby and Graham Nash. Lyrically, Taylor humanizes a lighthouse at the edge of the continent, whose job is to warn ships of the dangerous rocky coastline: “I’m a lonely lighthouse, not a ship out in the night, I’m watching the sea, /She’s come halfway round the world to see the light and to stay away from me, /There is a shipwreck lying at my feet, some weary refugee from the rolling deep, /Ah, could you lose it all and fall for me?…”

“Meeting Across the River,” Bruce Springsteen

On an album as high-profile and legendary as Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” it’s easy to forget there’s a deep track that sounds unlike the rest of the LP and yet absolutely belongs there. The pensive “Meeting Across the River” utilizes just piano, trumpet, light bass and Bruce’s plaintive voice to create what one critic called “a film noir jazz ambience.” The lyrics tell the story of two would-be gangsters (the narrator and Eddie), desperate for a big score, who have to travel to the other side of the Hudson River to close a shady deal that will reap them big bucks and make their girlfriends proud (“And when I walk through that door, I’m just gonna throw that money on the bed, /She’ll see this time I wasn’t just talking, /Then I’m gonna go out walking…”). We don’t learn if they were successful, but that’s almost beside the point. It’s about the calm before the storm, and the music nails the feeling that juxtaposes hope and dread.

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