Category Archives: 1990s songs

The best 500 songs from the 1990s. Lyrics, meanings and interpretations from your favorite musicians. Radiohead, REM, Weezer, No Doubt, Alanis, Jewel, and Guns and Roses. See which of your favorite 90s bands and artists rank highest on the greatest songs of all-time lists.

1990s songs, toxic relationship

#472 I Don’t Wanna Wait- Paula Cole

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I don’t want to to wait for our lives to be over/
I want to know right now what will it be.

Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Wanna Wait” is a super popular song that gets a somewhat bad reputation because it was the theme song of Dawson’s Creek. (Even though Dawson’s Creek was awesome, it was not for everyone.) So you won’t find this song on other top 500 lists.

I Don't Wanna Wait Meaning — Dawson’s Creek Cast

This song is about a young mother whose husband is away in world war two. She worries whether her kids will ever meet their father. Luckily, the husband eventually returns home, but he is a mess-both physically and mentally. It takes a toll on the marriage, but they do persevere to the later stages of their marriage (“and now he has granddaughters”).

The main issue with their marriage seems to be that he carries a lot of mental anguish from the war-still after all this time. It manifests itself in anger, and the woman fears it may ruin the relationship. She wants to break the cycle of anger and anguish that runs in the family and tells him to look at her and breath deeply. But ultimately, she doesn’t want to wait forever, will they overcome this?

“I Don’t Wanna Wait” is a great song about the anguish of war and couples relying on each other. The melody is super catchy and Paula Cole’s voice is superb throughout.

I Don’t Wanna Wait Lyrics

So open up your morning light,
And say a little prayer for I.
You know that if we are to stay alive,
And see the peace in every eye.

She had two babies,
One was six months one was three,
In the war of ’44.
Every telephone ring,
Every heartbeat stinging,
When she thought it was God calling her.
Oh, would her son grow to know his father?

I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
I want to know right now,
What will it be.
I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
Will it be yes or will it be sorry?

He showed up all wet,
On the rainy front step,
Wearing shrapnel in his skin.
And the war he saw,
Lives inside him still
It’s so hard to be gentle and warm.
The years passed by and now
He has a granddaughter.

I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
I want to know right now,
What will it be?
I don’t want to wait,
For our lives to be over,
Will it be yes or will it be…

Oh, so you look at me
From across the room.
You’re wearing your anguish again.
Believe me I know the feeling,
It sucks you into the jaws of anger.
Oh, so breathe a little more deeply my love,
All we have is this very moment.
And I don’t want to do what
His father and his father and his father did,
I want to be here now.

So open up your morning light,
And say a little prayer for I.
You know that if we are to stay alive,
And see the peace in every eye.

I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
I want to know right now,
What will it be?
I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
Will it be yes or will it be…

I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
I want to know right now,
What will it be?
I don’t want to wait
For our lives to be over,
Will it be yes or will it be sorry?

So open up your morning light,
And say a little prayer for I.
You know that if we are to stay alive,
And see the love in every eye.

written by: Paula Cole

1990s songs, death

#460 Awaiting Eternity- Rose Chronicles

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The violets adorned her, and wishers would mourn for hours/
but fountains of joy have hollowed her eyes.

Rose Chronicles “Awaiting Eternity” is an obscure song by- and it will not appear on other top 500 lists, but you’ll find it belongs here. The song is haunting and beautiful. The lyrics are purposely obscured, but we know the song is about a woman dying or dead. I am not sure it really matters. The experience I have listening to this song is similar to an opera- you can appreciate it without knowing the words.

Awaiting Eternity Meaning — Kristy Thirsk

“Awaiting Eternity” might have the largest vocal range of any in pop or rock. It is not a sing-along. It sounds like a typical rock song until Kristy Thirsk decides to hit the high notes. They are insane. They don’t sound gratuitous-like those crazy ‘runs’ you find in Mariah Carey songs. These sound like the woman is being vaulted into eternity propelled by the emotion escaping from Thirsk’s voice!

Awaiting Eternity Lyrics

A violent encounter
The red sky was bleeding
Glimpses of heaven
In sections of seven
Awaiting eternity

The violets adorned her
And wishers would mourn for hours
But fountains of joy
Have hollowed her eyes

Soul bound in my body
My eyes are broken windows
Go inside of me
Awaiting eternity

Her breath was all given
And torn by a living heartache
Who’s choking despair
Wrenched with claws she could not bear
Awaiting eternity

Her death withdrew sunshine
Now drops of the separation
Find sharp, jagged mountains
To echo her cries

Soul bound in my body
My eyes are broken windows
Go inside of me
Awaiting eternity

written by: Kristy Thirsk / Judd Cochrane / Richard Maranda / Steven Van Der Woerd

1990s songs, looking for love

#439 Sway- Bic Runga

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My head is battling with my heart/
My logic has been torn apart.

“Sway” is a beautiful song by Bic Runga about the difficulties of communicating with the opposite sex-specifically with a crush. In Runga’s heart she wants to tell him to “come stay with me all the time” but she needs to practice saying his name out loud because she loses the nerve to say these things when she is around him.

Instead she’ll say less direct things like “sway my way”. That is, if you feel like it, come hang out with me. Her mind is hedging and protecting her from getting hurt but by doing so she is not expressing what she feels. It may work, it may not. We don’t find out.

The song has an easy 90s sound that is not over-produced. The mix brings Runga’s raw voice to the forefront and we hear the indecision in her voice. Should I tell him my feelings or should I hide them? We can hear that struggle.

Sway Lyrics

Don’t stray, don’t ever go away.
I should be much too smart for this,
You know it gets the better
Of me, sometimes.

When you and I collide,
I fall into an ocean of you,
Pull me out in time
Don’t let me drown.
Let me down…
I say its all because of you.

And here I go
Losing my control,
I’m practicing your name
So I can say it to your face.

It doesn’t seem right,
To look you in the eye.
And let all the things you mean to me,
Come tumbling out my mouth indeed its time.
Tell you why I say its infinitely true.

Say you’ll stay, don’t come and go
Like you do,
Sway my way, yeah I need to know
All about you.

And there’s no cure,
And no way to be sure.
Why everything’s turned inside out
Instilling so much doubt.

It makes me so tired,
I feel so uninspired.
My head is battling with my heart,
My logic has been torn apart.

And now, it all turns sour,
Come sweeten every afternoon.

Say you’ll stay, don’t come and go,
Like you do.
Sway my way, yeah I need to know
All about you.

Say you’ll stay, don’t come and go,
Like you do.
Sway my way, yeah I need to know
All about you.
Its all because of you.
Its all because of you.

Songwriters: Bic Runga

Top 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All-time