Songs turning 25 in 2022 that everyone should listen to

Men in Black invaded theaters in July 1997, and along with it, "Men in Black" hit the airwaves. The film's theme song had a spot on Smith's debut solo album Big Willie Style, released November 1997. The project peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and housed major smashes "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" and "Miami"—each released as singles in 1998, peaking at No. 1 and No. 17, respectively, on the Hot 100.

Smith won best rap solo performance with "Men In Black" at the 40th Grammy Awards, and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" claimed the same category at the following year's Grammys.

"Spice Up Your Life" was the first single off the Spice Girls' 1997 sophomore album Spiceworld, which had big shoes to fill after the iconic girl group's 1996 debut album Spice hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent a whopping 105 weeks on the chart. While '96 generational single "Wannabe" cracked No. 1 on the Hot 100, "Spice Up Your Life" managed a very respectable No. 18 Hot 100 spot.

Tragically, Biggie was murdered on March 9, 1997. Life After Death was released on March 25, a previously scheduled date, as his sophomore album. Lead single "Hypnotize" posthumously became his first No. 1 on the Hot 100. More importantly, it became a cultural touchstone and remains unequivocally one of hip-hop's greatest songs.

"MMMBop" elicits an instant reaction as soon as you hear the first beat, and the nostalgia swells to an overwhelming rate by the last note. Brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson solidified themselves as Hanson with "MMMBop," the breakout No. 1 single from their debut major-label album Middle of Nowhere. And ironically, once it dropped, Hanson was suddenly everywhere.

"A lot of people ask what MMMBop means, we've talked a lot about time," Zac Hanson told E! in October 2018. "Well MMMBop as a word, it represents time. It represents the fact that time passes very quickly. ... And so in a story about reaching for what's important and kind of driving towards the impossible dream, MMMBop is telling you go now, go now, go now, because in a moment, in an MMMBop, life will be over and have passed you by."

If "MMMBop" propelled Hanson, then the Backstreet Boys rocket-launched to the moon in 1997 with a string of hits from Backstreet Boys—not to mention 1996's "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) that climbed up to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and charted for 43 weeks in '97. "As Long as You Love Me" infiltrated the charts, too—Adult Contemporary, for example—just not until '98. "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" also made a mark on the Hot 100 at No. 4. All of it set the stage for 1999's Millennium, producing "I Want It That Way," which surpassed one billion YouTube views last November.

In August 1997, 311 released Transistor. The album went certified Platinum and became their second-highest-charting album (No. 4 on the Billboard 200), second only to 2009's Uplifter (No. 3). "Beautiful Disaster" is best described by Dan Weiss for Billboard in July 2017: "'Beautiful Disaster' has it all, and for once that’s a good thing: nasty riffs, dueling twin-guitar solos in the Santana mold, ominous ska verses, and a chorus that’s as bubble-gummy as it is crunchy with overdriven amps. Best of all, there isn’t a rap in sight. Plus, 'Beautiful Disaster' as a title is a good, honest summation of the 311 aesthetic."

There was a time in 1997 when you couldn't drive anywhere, even the quickest of errand, without turning on the radio and hearing Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life." Even now, as soon as you hear that "Doo doo doo, doo do-doo-doo," it will be stuck in your head for the rest of that day. Don't forget, though: as catchy and lighthearted as it sounds, "Semi-Charmed" is about doing crystal meth.

At any rate, the infectious tune held strong at No. 1 on Alternative Airplay for eight weeks and peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100. Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut album also featured "Jumper" (No. 9 on the Hot 100) and "How's It Going To Be" (No. 9 on the Hot 100).

If Aqua does nothing else for the rest of time, they've done enough because they gave us "Barbie Girl," though Mattel would disagree. The Danish dance-pop group released their debut album Aquarium in March 1997, and "Barbie Girl" made it to No. 7 on the Hot 100 by September. Funny enough, Aquarium also peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200.

"We were actually sitting in a small kind of studio in Denmark when we did the first album, and we were working our butts off just to survive," lead vocalist Lene Nystrøm told Nylon around the 20th anniversary. "And you can’t really predict anything like that. Our first goal—our main goal, actually—was to try to make it in Denmark, and in my home country, Norway. But everything just kind of happened at the same time. When “Barbie Girl” came out, it instantly became a number one hit all around the world. So we knew we had a good card on our hands, definitely."

"Fly" was so influential that Sugar Ray included it twice on Floored—once as its own track and again as "Fly (Remix)" featuring Super Cat. Both versions, of course, boast Mark McGrath's delivery of the simplest chorus line, "I just wanna fly" that overwhelmed the mainstream in 1997, claiming No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart. 

McGrath and Sugar Ray are forever synonymous with "Fly," but the frontman discussed the band's under-appreciated range with People around The Masked Singer's fifth season in early 2021: "I don't think people look at Sugar Ray as a hard rock band. Certainly not the radio songs and certainly not the music most people have heard. Though the origin of this band comes from a hard rock background, so it's something I can do."

Usher made the entire world want to love him with the release of "You Make Me Wanna...," the lead single off his September 1997 sophomore album My Way. The dynamic, swoon-worthy pop/R&B ode propelled to No. 2 on the Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for best male R&B vocal performance—paving the way for his nine No. 1 hits since—and My Way peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

Of course, all of this took a backseat once Confessions rocked the earth to its core—the eight-time Grammy winner's first of four No. 1 albums that charted for 129 weeks—but at the time, "You Make Me Wanna..." was a seminal moment.

Regardless if it's been 25 days or 25 years since 112 dropped "Cupid," the evergreen, harmonic R&B ballad that had pop-level reach. From their stellar 1996 self-titled debut album, "Cupid" landed at No. 13 on the Hot 100 and obtained Platinum status . While Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's marriage has dissolved, West's 2019 gesture to have 112 sing "Cupid" for Kardashian serves as further proof that the song will never die.

Missy Elliott is an icon, and she got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November to prove it. More than that, the four-time Grammy winner became the first female rapper to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2019.

Missy had begun trailblazing in the early 1990s as a songwriter, but her record-breaking streak as a forward-facing artist officially started with her 1997 debut album Supa Dupa Fly—the Platinum-certified home to debut single "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)," which produced the first of many legendary music videos. "The Rain" was nominated at the 40th Grammy Awards for best rap solo performance, and Supa Dupa Fly received a nod for best rap album.

Mariah Carey has the most No. 1 singles (19) of any solo U.S. artist in history—spanning four decades—and "Honey" debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 as the lead single from Carey's sixth studio album Butterfly (another No. 1), set free in late August 1997.

Not for nothing, '97 was also the year Carey and then-husband Tommy Mottola publicly announced their separation. Mottola was serving as the label head at Sony, where Carey had been signed since her self-titled debut in 1990. So, in more ways than just the music, Butterly and "Honey" were pivotal in Carey's growth.

"I really meant that album," Carey told Pitchfork in November 2018. "I still remember the sessions from it, and how I was living vicariously through the music, because nobody was there to tell me, “You can’t do this, creatively. You can’t express yourself in this way.” I just did it. I fought for that for so long."

"How Do I Live" was released by both LeAnn Rimes and Trisha Yearwood on the same day in May 1997 because the powers that be behind Con Air bailed on Rimes to include Yearwood's "How Do I Live" on the soundtrack (h/t The Ringer).

Yearwood's version topped Rimes' to win best female country vocal performance at the 40th Grammy Awards. But '97 was far from a loss for Rimes, who in February of that year became the youngest-ever individual winner at the 39th Grammys. Then 14, she earned best new artist and best female country vocal performance ("Blue").

"Dammit" was the lead single for blink-182's Platinum sophomore album Dude Ranch and included again on the trailblazing punk trio's 2005 Greatest Hits compilation album. Stereogum ranked "Dammit" as blink's all-time best song, calling it, "a generational anthem to express the discontinuity between the passage of time in the external world and your own internal hourglass" from a group that made its name on a reputation as "emotionally stunted songwriters who weren’t dangerous enough for punk and refused to 'act their age.'"

In hindsight, what's more poignant than the song itself is that it came before Travis Barker replaced Scott Raynor as blink's drummer—forging a monumental punk trio with Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus that made massive mainstream waves with 1999's Enema of the State and 2001's Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

Sarah McLachlan's multi-Platinum album Surfacing arrived in July 1997, her fourth overall, and with it came singles "Building a Mystery" and "Angel," though the latter wasn't released as a single until '98.

Because of that soul-crushing ASPCA dog commercial, "Angel" overshadowed "Building a Mystery."

"I got a whole new audience out of it,” McLachlan said in late 2015 (h/t People) of the impact of "Angel" featuring for ASPCA. “I swear I’d be at Target in Missouri at 10 o’clock at night getting off the tour bus and I’d be going down the aisle and these two little old ladies would be like, ‘Are you that dog lady? I love that song!’ Daily. Daily this would happen.”

But "Building a Mystery" deserves just as much shine. The alt-pop track charted on the Hot 100 for 22 weeks in '97.

U2's impact, like many other artists on this list, can't be contained in this caption. No other duo or group in history has more Grammys than U2 (22), and as of March 2021, they were the only group to have won a Grammy for album of the year on two occasions (h/t Billboard). Plus, who could ever forget 2014's Songs of Innocence album automatically downloading to everyone's iPhone and/or iTunes account? 

So, relatively speaking, 1997's Pop album was U2's slump era. But "Staring at the Sun" was a bright spot. The acoustics-driven jam isn't one of U2's six top-10 singles, but it did land at No. 26 and chart for 18 weeks on the Hot 100.

When Bob Dylan released "Make You Feel My Love" on his 1997 album Time Out of Mind —album of the year at the 40th Grammys—it was considered nothing more than a deep cut. In fact, Dylan's version didn't chart, but Billy Joel's cover of the song placed on his '97 Greatest Hits, Volume III went on to hit No. 50 on the Hot 100 and No. 9 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

With each of the last 25 years passing by, "Make You Feel My Love" has grown stronger and now stands as one of Dylan's classics. It enjoyed a whole new modern life when Adele included her cover of the romantic ballad on her 2008 debut album 19. She even sang it during her November CBS primetime special Adele One Night Only after orchestrating an unforgettable proposal mid-show.

Loneliness never sounded so good. Boyz II Men's Evolution produced soothing R&B juggernauts in "4 Seasons of Loneliness" and "A Song For Mama," so this is really just a matter of preference. Evolution, Boyz II Men's third album, went double Platinum and earned a Grammy nomination for best R&B album. "A Song For Mama" was nominated the same year for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal.

Both "4 Seasons of Loneliness" and "A Song For Mama" went Platinum. They both owned the No. 1 spot on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, for eight and seven weeks, respectively. "A Song For Mama" clocked No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while "4 Seasons of Loneliness" hit No. 2 on the chart.

No song has a history quite like "Something About the Way You Look Tonight." It was originally a track of its own on Elton John's September 1997's The Big Picture —his eye-popping 26th album. At Princess Diana's funeral on Sept. 6, 1997, John performed "Candle in the Wind," which has recently resurfaced in the news.

The two were combined for the double-sided single "Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight," and beginning in October, that edition catapulted Sir Elton to No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks—the longest-lasting of his nine No. 1s by far. ("Candle in the Wind 1997" won the Grammy for best male pop vocal performance.)

In 1997, Sean Combs was known as Puff Daddy, and he released his debut studio album No Way Out. Sure, it hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but the project's crowning achievement was the evocative single "I'll Be Missing You"—a tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. nearly three months after he was murdered in March of '97.

"The multi-platinum single wasn’t just heartfelt, it was a huge hit, selling more than 8 million copies and debuting at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after its official release on May 27, 1997," Rob Markman of Genius reflected in May 2016. "And though Puffy was at the center of it all, 'I’ll Be Missing You' was indeed a family affair. It featured Biggie’s widow Faith Evans and his labelmates 112 on the hook, a popular Police sample and simple-yet-somber lyrics written by Brooklyn MC Sauce Money." (Evans and Biggie had married in 1994.)

"I'll Be Missing You" held strong at No. 1 on the Hot 100 for 11 weeks.

Beyond "Together Again" spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, "Together Again" was Janet Jackson's way of honoring her friends who had died of AIDS (as well as all AIDS victims).

"Very personal for me," Jackson once told the website New Now Next. "I lost a lot of friends and people that I worked with to this disease. "I caught drama for that too. Before I wrote the song, I told some of the people at the label the concept for the song, and they didn't think it was a good idea. ... 'I don't think you should do that.' I said, 'Why shouldn't I?' ... Because whatever, whatever. I thought, 'You know, this is really stupid.' It was in my heart."

"Together Again" lived on the tracklist of The Velvet Rope, which also went No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Lead single "Got 'Til It's Gone" featuring Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell won best short-form music video at the 40th Grammy Awards.

OK Computer was a powerhouse of an album in 1997, nominated for album of the year at the 40th Grammy Awards but losing out to Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind. And with it, Radiohead was well ahead of their time.

"Though [frontman Thom] Yorke insists that OK Computer was inspired by the dislocation and paranoia of non-stop travel, it’s now largely understood as a record about how unchecked consumerism and an overreliance on technology can lead to automation and, eventually, alienation (from ourselves; from one another)," Amanda Petrusich of The New Yorker reflected around the album's 20th anniversary in 2017. (Radiohead dropped anniversary album OKNOTOK to commemorate those 20 years, including both bonus and remastered tracks.)

Lead single "Paranoid Android" was, and still is, the total embodiment of that scarily thin line between the full scope of human emotion and the temptation to distract yourself from it.

The Foo Fighters were as strong as ever in 2021. They released Medicine at Midnight and, in their first year of eligibility, they were officially being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame . Not to mention, Dave Grohl's memoir The Storyteller or the band's forthcoming STUDIO 666 horror comedy film.

At the Rock & Roll Hall induction ceremony, Foo Fighters performed "Everlong," "My Hero" and "Best of You," and of course, "Everlong" and "My Hero" are standout tracks from 1997's The Colour and the Shape.

YB's own Jeff Mezydlo makes the case here for "Everlong" as the one to remember from that time: "Arguably one of the best rock songs of the 1990s, 'Everlong' is the perfect set closer, encore finisher, or, in this case, way to conclude a definitive song list. While there are still some critics and hardcore grunge fans who feel this track is too mainstream and not as gritty as the songs off the band's first album—or even a piece like 'Monkey Wrench' off The Colour and the Shape, 'Everlong' might be the most defining musical moment on Foo Fighters' Hall-of-Fame legacy."

"I'm Afraid of Americans" was David Bowie's last song to crack the Hot 100 (No. 66) before he died from cancer on Jan. 10, 2016. (The iconic British multi-hyphenate had 28 Hot 100 singles overall.) The critical track technically debuted in the Showgirls soundtrack in 1995, but it truly made its mark as a single on Bowie's Grammy-nominated album Earthling in 1997.

"I was traveling in Java when the first McDonald's went up: it was like, 'for f***'s sake,'" Bowie explained of the song's inspiration in a press release at the time (h/t VICE). "The invasion by any homogenized culture is so depressing. It strangles the indigenous culture and narrows expression of life."

If there was one thing Bowie knew how to do, it was the uninhibited expression of life—mastering the delicate balance of highbrow art and shock value.