These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’90s: Do you agree?
The ’90s were a strange and glorious decade for heartbreak. Radio could hand you grunge alienation and R&B devastation in the same hour, and somehow both felt equally true. Breakup songs arrived raw, specific, and sometimes furious in ways that older ballads had carefully avoided. That willingness to let the hurt show unfiltered is exactly why so many of them still hit hard today.
This was the decade that proved a breakup song did not need a string section to make you cry at the wheel. It needed a voice willing to go somewhere uncomfortable. From the aching quiet of a single-camera apartment video to a three-chord throat-shred on Jagged Little Pill, the ’90s gave us some of the most emotionally honest farewells ever put on tape. These were five of the favorites.
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“Nothing compares 2 u” by Sinéad O’Connor (1990)
Prince wrote the song for his side project, The Family, in 1985, where it went almost completely unheard. Sinéad O’Connor turned it into one of the most devastating vocal performances of the decade. The song topped the Hot 100 for four weeks and hit number 1 in 17 countries. Billboard named it the number one World Single of 1990. The tear in the iconic close-up video came from O’Connor thinking about her mother, who died in 1985.
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“You oughta know” by Alanis Morissette (1995)
Few debut singles landed with the force of “You Oughta Know”. Flea and Dave Navarro of the Red Hot Chili Peppers played bass and guitar, but the real weapon was Morissette herself, delivering what she described as coming from a very devastated time. It hit number 1 on the Modern Rock chart and won two Grammys in 1996. The identity of the man it was written about has never been confirmed.
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“Don’t speak” by No Doubt (1996)
Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric originally wrote “Don’t Speak” as a love song. After bassist Tony Kanal ended his seven-year relationship with Gwen, she rewrote it into something quieter and more resigned. Never released as a commercial single, it could not chart on the Hot 100 under Billboard’s rules, yet it dominated airplay for 16 consecutive weeks at number 1. Tragic Kingdom sold approximately 15 million copies.
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“Stay (I missed you)” by Lisa Loeb (1994)
The song holds a distinction no other song on this list can claim: it reached number 1 on the Hot 100 while Lisa Loeb had no record deal. Her neighbor, Ethan Hawke, passed a demo to Ben Stiller, who placed it over the closing credits of Reality Bites. The music video was Hawke’s directorial debut, shot in one continuous take in a SoHo loft.
Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.
“Un-break my heart” by Toni Braxton (1996)
Songwriter Diane Warren has said that Toni Braxton initially refused to record “Un-Break My Heart”, fearing it would lock her into an adult contemporary image she was trying to escape. She recorded it anyway. The song spent 11 consecutive weeks at number 1 on the Hot 100 and won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997. It has since passed 500 million views on YouTube.
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Wrap up
The ’90s breakup song was not one thing. It was O’Connor’s grief and Morissette’s rage and Stefani’s exhaustion and Loeb’s confusion and Braxton’s reluctant devastation, all on the same radio dial. Which of these five still gets under your skin the most?
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Related:
- 12 songs from the ’80s that have aged really badly
- These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’80s
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