90 essential songs for ’90s Night at a sporting event
Following up on this space’s last submission, this is simply a proposed playlist for if and when a pro sports team decides to give its fan base a real throwback to their venue’s ’90s game-day experience.
The scope of songs constitutes a surplus of choices to fill every stage of the evening from the hourlong pregame period after the gates open to when the most loyal linger after the final play.
These tracks need not have been released in the ’90s, though the majority of them were. Those who gained an unprecedented association with sporting events during the canned music boom are fair game too. Other selections are ’90s tunes that have always been suitable for a sports atmosphere but maybe didn’t get their due in that setting.
All album information is per Discogs.
“Get Ready for This” by 2 Unlimited – Most venues paired this with Michael Buffer’s trademark bellow before the opening play or when introducing the home starters. Others played an arguably lesser-known lyric-laden version sans Buffer.
“Whoomp! There It Is” by Tag Team – Synonymous with the Houston Rockets’ back-to-back NBA championships in between the Chicago Bulls’ two three-peats.
“Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project – Synonymous with the dynastic Bulls, and aped ad nauseam by almost anyone who didn’t use 2 Unlimited for their intro.
“Welcome to Paradise” by Green Day – It comes from the right era and has the right pace for the setting. As a bonus, the title hook matches the mood for greeting ’90s nostalgia buffs to this scenario.
“Right Now” by Van Halen – The 1992 single was an immediate breakout player in the pump-up department.
“Ready to Go” by Republica – Two mixes of this instant-classic pump-up song appeared in the Jock series — one on Jock Jams Volume 3, the other on Jock Rock 2000.
“Firestarter” by Prodigy – If you’re acting like it’s 1999 and going for an opening-play melody that would have seemed less cliché than “Get Ready for This” that year, this is a prime option. And it can come with or without the words of another boxing emcee in Mills Lane.
“Right Here Right Now” by Fatboy Slim – The 1998 release’s opening crescendo makes it work for if, again, you want to immerse the audience in the decade’s dusk and use one of the era’s less overworked intro selections.
“This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan – It’s how you do ’90s Night when it coincides with Flashback Friday.
“Saturday Night” by Whigfield – Recently resurged as Scotland soccer’s adopted anthem more than a quarter-century after its release, this was (and can still be) a go-to warmup tune at a Sunday Eve game.
“Get Ready to Bounce” by Brooklyn Bounce – Another later-arriving (1997) and therefore comparatively underutilized-at-the-time “Ready” song perfect for a warm-up period or prelude to a bigger pump-up number.
“We Will Rock You” by Queen – The longtime opening-faceoff song of the Chicago Wolves (established 1994), among other things.
“Raise the Roof” by Luke – The fast-paced titular refrain blended with a background siren begins right after Luke asks “What time is it?” and gets the answer “Game time!”
“Strike it Up” by Black Box – In its prime, this utility player was used to accompany a starting lineup announcement or to fill the gap between the national anthem and the start of the action.
“Come Baby Come” by K7 – This song had a way of taking shifts on sound systems without even getting around to its home run and batter metaphor.
“It Takes Two” by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock – Doubles, double plays, or back-to-back home runs in baseball. Double-sink free throws in basketball. A 5-on-3 power play in hockey. It seems every sport has a situation for this titular hook.
“Gonna Make You Sweat” by C&C Music Factory – When Martha Wash suggests “Everybody dance now,” millennials, Gen Xers, and honorary ’90s kids are inclined to listen.
“Hip Hop Hooray” by Naughty by Nature – Fan bases who knew what they were doing back in the day got on their feet and swayed their raised arms in accordance with the “Hey! Ho!” refrain.
“Pump Up the Volume” by M/A/R/R/S – The well-positioned Side 2 leadoff on the Jock Jams Volume 1 cassette had the right tempo for lulls during halftime or intermission. It still does.
“The Power” by Snap! – As has been mentioned in this space before, this song was irresistible when it had less competition among lyrics that could signify a power play.
“Unbelievable” by EMF – The hook is always at the ready for a stupefying save or catch.
“Pump Up the Jam” by Technotronic – If you want a succession of “Pump Up…” songs, this is a good M/A/R/R/S follower as the action gets closer to resuming.
“Twilight Zone” by 2 Unlimited – Again, take your pick of the de-lyricized Jock Jams version or the duet’s original vocal-heavy mix.
“No Limit” by 2 Unlimited – The title said it all regarding 2 Unlimited’s contribution to the burgeoning stadium anthem genre.
“Tribal Dance” by 2 Unlimited – The duet’s third full-length leadoff hit in as many Jock Jams albums. Following the tune’s anointment by ESPN, DJs spent the last quarter of the ’90s taking their unlimited pick of opening themes.
“Macarena” by Los Del Rio – Once again, any ’90s party is incomplete without this.
“I Like To Move It” by Reel 2 Real – Besides sports venues and sports albums, this hit got a coveted slot on Totally ’90s.
“Give It Up” by The Goodmen – Plenty of Jock Jams like the mostly instrumental mix of “Get Ready for This” and the now rightly banished “Rock and Roll Part 2” made the most out of little on the lyrics front. This was another example.
“What’s Up” by DJ Miko – It’s hard to determine which took less time: DJ Miko’s turnaround in recording this energetic 1993 cover of a 1993 4 Non Blondes original or for said cover to become synonymous with sports.
“Boom Boom Boom” by The Outhere Brothers – If this says anything about its popularity on PA systems, this song appeared in full on Jock Jams Volume 2, then in part within the mash-ups capping Volumes 3 and 4.
“Come On and Ride It (The Train)” by Quad City DJs – It was no small feat when “Space Jam” came to overshadow this catchy tune among the Quad City DJs’ sound-system contributions.
“Jump!” by The Movement – Spilling over into the wee years of the aughts, frequent game-goers stood a decent chance of hearing the spoken/shouted “Are you readyyyyy?” and knowing where it came from. Of course the title hook has value as well, either for a pick-me-up or a celebratory moment in the game.
“Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool – Buffalo already gave this number a second wind as the new Sabres goal song in the mid-2010s. Almost everywhere else, it’s ripe for a revival at more random moments.
“Cotton Eyed Joe” by The Rednex – Now a borderline timeless tune in many less mainstream venues, and can’t-miss throwback fodder anywhere else.
“Mo Money Mo Problems” by Notorious B.I.G. – Sports sound crews were among those who lent a posthumous honor to the primary artist through regular use of this song.
“Space Jam” by Quad City DJs – The sport at hand didn’t even need to be basketball for this song to stimulate ticketholders.
“Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” by Will Smith – Through this jam, you could hear Smith at the stadium the same weekend you saw him at the cinema via Men in Black.
“Going Out of My Head” by Fatboy Slim – It maximizes the same fundamental asset as “Get Ready for This” and “Give It Up”, and it just has the flow and feel of a scoring-play song.
“Push It” by Salt n Pepa – This late-’80s hit had its most prominent sporting-event adhesive at Yankee Stadium, where the instrumental hook kept serving as a home-run song for years beyond the ’90s.
“Jump Around” by House of Pain – Still prominently used at college football games, and poised to triumphantly come out of retirement elsewhere.
“Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba – The one-hit wonder has hung around in some places as a designated perseverance rally cry.
“Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger – In a sign of the times at the dusk of the decade, this song found an immediate position on PA systems and ultimately Jock Rock 2000 plus the then-newfangled U.S. version of the Now! That’s What I Call Music series.
“One Week” by Barenaked Ladies – If you cue it when you can prolong its shift, you’ll amplify the impact through rapid-fire references to The X-Files and other definitive ’90s entities.
“Rockafeller Skank” by Fatboy Slim – See “Flagpole Sitta” — except Fatboy Slim had to wait until the third volume for his turn on Now!
“Block Rockin Beats” by Chemical Brothers – Another instant niche hit that made the most out of few lyrics beyond the title.
“Pump it Up” by Elvis Costello – Sound systems around the continent tapped into this for a dash of veteran presence among the nucleus of then-current house and dance hit listers. The Jock Rock 2000 track list reflected that trend.
“Party” by Dis n Dat – Another comparatively fresh, yet era-appropriate choice to punctuate a big scoring play.
“Hard to Handle” by the Black Crowes – If young ticketholders heart any version of this song at games in the ’90s, it probably wasn’t their parents’ Otis Redding original.
“Good Vibrations” by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch – Arguably the most outstanding omission from the Jock Jams series, especially since another Loleatta Holloway sampler (Cevin Fisher’s “Burnin’ Up”) did appear on Volume 5.
“Song 2” by Blur – Another longstanding carry-over into this century wherever the powers that be have not tired of using its hook in a celebratory context.
“Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones – One of the more popularly played tracks from 1994’s Jock Rock Volume 1 in the five-plus years after that compilation hit stores.
“Mony Mony” by Billy Idol – Yes, the first Jock Rock went with the original Tommy James and the Shondells version. But many arena DJs chose Idol’s more energized cover.
“Tequila” by The Champs – A boomer childhood hit introduced to echo boomers through Jock Rock and the like.
“What I Like About You” by The Romantics – Synonymous enough with sporting events by the mid-’90s to appear on both America’s Jock Rock Volume 1 and Canada’s Contact! The Second Period.
“Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf – See “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Tequila”.
“Takin Care of Business” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive – See above.
“Bang the Drum All Day” by Todd Rundgren – See above, just one more time, except this was a Gen-X childhood hit.
“Rock and Roll All Nite” by KISS – A tone-setting first full-length track to the second Jock Rock compilation.
“Hot Hot Hot” by Buster Poindexter – Even if pro sports constituted your only slice of ’90s nightlife, you likely heard this song’s extended lease on life beyond its late-’80s peak.
“Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger – Roughly a generation after its release in the ’70s, this tune’s game-night play could have easily made it fit into Jock Rock or even as a token throwback on a Jock Jams album.
“Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor – Was it already trite by the ’90s? Perhaps, but that didn’t stop it from appearing on arena DJ playlists or sports-themed compilation albums. It still hasn’t much since then.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana – This song has never really gone away, and may have been cued up at games more frequently in this century than in its birth decade. Regardless, ’90s Night is incomplete without it.
“Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne – The sound of Osbourne’s “All aboard!” cry and cackle represented the conductor whose vehicle started making ’80s hits a sound-system staple leading up to and after the turn of the millennium.
“Wild Thing” by The Troggs – Right before the Jock series began, sound-system song selections were sparse, and this was one that took repeated shifts at games. “We Will Rock You” had the same status for a few years.
“Wild Thing” by Run DMC – Same title as the song above, different lyrics, and almost the same frequent infusion into sporting atmospheres.
“I Got You (I Feel Good)” by James Brown – See “Wild Thing” by The Troggs.
“Walking on the Sun” by Smash Mouth – The band in question’s first hit, though now remembered as a prelude to their bona fide mainstream breakout two years later.
“All Star” by Smash Mouth – Its May 1999 release might make it a little late in the decade to fit into this hypothetical occasion. That said, it effortlessly became synonymous with sports and can certainly evoke the summer and fall of 1999.
“Machinehead” by Bush – It’s had a steady life on sound systems in this century, but not before gaining traction just in time for 1999’s Jock Rock 2000.
“La Bamba” by Los Lobos – Many millennial sports fans born too late to absorb this Ritchie Valens cover’s release got caught up on it by grade school, courtesy of their local stadium or arena DJ.
“This Is Your Night” by Amber – For what it’s worth, this was the first Volume 2 track sampled on the “Jock Jam Megamix” that capped the series’ third compilation.
“What Is Love” by Haddaway – At a sporting event or elsewhere, a half-minute of the hook alone always satisfied those needing a reason to groove real quick.
“Tootsee Roll” by 69 Boyz – The cleanup batter on the first Jock Jams track lineup wastes no time boasting its birth year of 1994.
“Ray of Light” by Madonna – The New Jersey Devils, for one, were playing this during breaks in the action even before it landed on Jock Jams Volume 5.
“Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz – Fast action made this 1998 single another instant PA-system fixture before the ’90s literally, let alone spiritually dissipated.
“Turn It Up/Fire It Up” by Busta Rhymes – Since the final quarter of the ’90s, stadium sound specialists have had this top-notch chorus for when they want to engage the fans in a call and response.
“I’m Gonna Get You” by Bizarre Inc. – This 1993 release got a little delayed gratification when it was featured on 1999’s Jock Jams Volume 5.
“Feel It” by The Tamperer featuring Maya – In the two-plus years before the turn of the millennium, the bell-ringing hook cemented a one-hit wonder’s legacy.
“The House Is Rockin” by Stevie Ray Vaughn – One of Vaughn’s last tracks before his tragic death in a 1990 helicopter crash, this song gained a near-instant life as a straightforward directive to sports crowds.
“Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis – There had to have been a few boomer parents pleased to hear an unknown stadium DJ introduce this oldie to their echo boomer kids.
“Nobody But Me” by The Human Beinz – A Jock Rock Volume 2 constituent whose lyrics could be appropriated to convey confidence in one’s athleticism.
“YMCA” by Village People – Funny how this song acquired its athletic connotation amidst an attempt to reanimate the spirit of the disco era, and now could help to revive the aura of the ’90s game-day experience.
“Move This” by Technotronic – As far as Technotronic hits and sporting-event crossovers go, this was a silver medalist with nothing to be ashamed of.
“Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood and the Destroyers – One of, if not the first choice for when someone stirred trouble on the playing surface.
“The Bomb” by the Bucketheads – The distinctive hook’s repetition at the song’s outset was usually sufficient to fill a half-minute break in the action.
“The Jock Jam” by Various – The first Jock Jams hodgepodge blends portions of more than a dozen of the aforementioned songs plus catchphrases from three ESPN personalities who fueled the network’s golden age.
“Son of a Jock Jam (Megamix) by Various – Same concept as “The Jock Jam.”
“Unlimited Megajam” by 2 Unlimited – Same concept as the two at-large Jock Jams mash-ups, but specific to all of 2 Unlimited’s contributions to the series, and then some.
“We Like to Party” by Vengaboys – Not the worst choice in victory songs, in this author’s humble opinion.
“Closing Time” by Semisonic – This 1998 single has the right timing and the right title for when the crowd files out and reenters the reality of the 21st century.