As regular readers of my column and anyone who’s sat near me for any length of time know, my musical tastes are stuck in the ’90s, along with my fashion sense. It’s the second best decade of music in American history behind the ’60s, and I will die on that hill.

Back in 2018, when I listed my top five songs of each year, this affinity was made evident by the fact that I regularly listed 10 songs and had honorable mention lists with another 10 to 15 on top of that. My list for 1993, for example, had 23 songs in total without repeating artists. And I left quite a few off.

Because it’s the last Saturday of January and thus my last chance to do new year stuff without seeming lazy, I’m amending that original list with another 10 songs from 30 years ago that I didn’t add the first time because I didn’t want to be too excessive.

Bikini Kill — “Rebel Girl”

I did keep my notes from 1993, which is where these songs came from, but unfortunately, I didn’t document why they were left off the original list. Why would I do that? Perhaps I foolishly thought I would remember. Perhaps I was lazy. Perhaps I meant to include it in the honorable mentions and forgot.

I do remember that I was between this Bikini Kill song and “Cannonball” by The Breeders on the main list, and that I picked “Cannonball” because I listen to the song more often, so theoretically that means I like it more. In retrospect, “Rebel Girl” is a better song so, who knows? But here it is now.

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”

This one isn’t from my notes, but rather one I didn’t realize that Tom Petty first released it in 1993.

“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” actually first came out on a greatest hits album, and when looking over what albums were released in each year, I just kind of skipped those. Apparently, Tom Petty recorded it during the Wildflowers sessions, but that album wasn’t released until the next year. And it was good enough to be a single in its own right, so I’m not sure how it got relegated to bonus track status. You’d have to ask producer Rick Rubin.

Geto Boys — “Six Feet Deep”

The year 1993 saw new albums by Tupac, Wu-Tang, Salt N Pepa, Snoop, Cypress Hill and Naughty By Nature. And the Wu-Tang album was 36 Chambers. So, yeah, the hip-hop portion of my list filled up pretty quickly. As much as I love Geto Boys, I tried to have a mix of genres. Otherwise, they’d have to bump someone like Nirvana or Radiohead.

Seriously, 1993 was such a great year for music.

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Bad Religion — “Recipe for Hate”

In my head, Bad Religion is pretty much synonymous with 1996’s The Gray Race, so everything else slips my mind. Its other stuff is good, though! It always annoys me when people judge a band’s output by its best because that’s not fair if its worst album is better than most bands’ hit singles—but then I repeatedly do the same thing.

Anyway, I’m fixing my mistake right here: Listen to “Recipe for Hate” because it’s still good.

Souls of Mischief — “93 ‘Til Infinity”

The reason Souls of Mischief didn’t make the original list is because I wasn’t familiar with them at the time, despite me being a huge East Bay homer and the group being from Oakland. In fact, its members are also part of the legendary collective Hieroglyphics with Del the Funky Homosapien, Pep Love, Casual, DJ Toure and Domino.

I eventually ran across them while researching a column about Oakland hip-hop. I started listening to them, and now they’re in my regular rotation. So, sorry Souls of Mischief—my ignorance of your talent has been rectified.

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James — “Laid”

“Laid” used to annoy me quite a bit when it came on SiriusXM Lithium, so I excluded it out of spite. That said, in the intervening four and a half or so years, James‘ biggest hit grew on me quite a bit. It’s possible I’m just getting soft in my old age, so the more shoegazy Brit-pop doesn’t grate on me so much.

I do kind of resent it for being proto-hipster. Naming your band James is a definite hipster move, and I don’t appreciate it.

Tag Team — “Whoomp! (There It Is)”

I’ve said it before, but this song is inexorably tied in my mind with middle school dances. And I hated middle school dances. Like all right-minded people, I hated middle school in general, but I especially hated the dances. Terrible. Still bitter about them. The song is catchy, though, and I do enjoy listening to it outside the cafeteria of Oak Grove Middle School. It had a resurgence with that great commercial Tag Team was in. OK, fine, you can be on the list now.

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Los Del Rio — “Macarena”

I had no idea the song behind the world’s least interesting dance craze came out in 1993, four or five years before it actually became popular. The Bayside Boys remix became a club staple, which turned into the catchy and annoying bit of pop culture ephemera you know and probably mostly tolerate.

Sheryl Crow — “All I Wanna Do”

Ugh. Yes, this is a song that hung around the public consciousness. Yes, it’s good. But it’s such a replacement-level pop song, you know? And in a year with so much amazing music, replacement-level just doesn’t cut it for a list of the best of the best.

But now? This list? We had the nine best of the best, then the 14 next-best and now 10 more of the third tier (and a couple I just forgot about). So it can be on this one. I’ll give it third tier.

Now cue the Sheryl Crow stans clogging my Twitter mentions for a week…

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Ace of Base — “All That She Wants”

Finally, Swedish pop superstars Ace of Base. Because I wanted a nice round 10. I remember the song. I don’t change the radio station when I hear it. It was and remains popular, and it was released in 1993. That’s the list of nice things I can say about it to justify its inclusion.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.