In the battle for 1991 supremacy, our runner-up came close to winning it all.  This song was HUGE back in the day, made us cry when we sang it during end-of-the-school-year concerts and remembrances, and is still just as powerful today as then.  This group’s performance of it would cement them as a force to be reckoned with going forward.  The #2 song in this 1991 countdown is It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye (to Yesterday) by Boyz to Men.

Our next song was considered the ultimate summer song of 1991, and it’s still popular today.  You can still hear the song played at summer parties, clubs, and in cars going “2mph so everybody sees you.”  Even when I was listening to these tracks, this tune made me wish it was summertime already.  Coming in at #3 is Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

This next track might surprise some of you given how high it’s placed here.  It, however, cemented this artist’s comeback after the Album of the Year winning Nick of Time, and it is still considered one of her best songs of the 90s and is also a song I just love.  If nothing else, it gives you Something to Talk About, the #4 1991 song by Bonnie Raitt.

We’re entering the top 5 now and holding the bottom is one of my favorite early 90s rap songs.  Later to be used as Mike Tyson’s entrance music, I have no doubt his arrival in boxing helped influence this song, which helped establish this artist’s supremacy in the hip-hop world.  The #5 1991 song is Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J.

Now comes the part where a song appears in my countdown that if my wife was making her own countdown she would not touch it with a 10 foot pole.  Still, while I like the song and it’s not my absolute favorite, no one can deny how much this one tune changed the face of rock in ways other songs since then haven’t been able to. Rockin at #6 is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

In the late 80s and early 90s, Tom Petty could really do no wrong as a songwriter, and this song adds further evidence to that statement.  It’s one of my favorite songs from him, and as his 2006 live concert shows, it is still a massive singalong for his fans everywhere.  Soaring into #7 is Learning to Fly by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.