FORGOTTEN MUSIC #101: TOTALLY HITS 2002

HOLLYWOOD – JUNE 27, 2002: KIIS FM D.J. Ellen Kaye poses at the Totally Hits 2002 lip-sync karaoke contest at Tower Records on June 27, 2002 in Los Angeles, California. The Totally Hits 2002 compilation CD is charting in the top 3 on the Billboard 200 for the second week in a row. (Photo by Robert Mora/ Getty Images)

It’s hard to believe these “hits” are 18 years old! I can barely remember 2002. But, I do remember Fat Joe and Ashanti singing “What’s Luv?” It was a staple on MTV and VH1 (remember them?). And, of course, there’s Pink’s classic “Get the Party Started.” I’m a fan of Michelle Branch’s “Everywhere.” My son Patrick played a lot of Alanis Morissette so I’m very familiar with “Hands Clean.” “A Woman’s Worth” by Alicia Keys had a lot of radio play in 2002. The same with LeAnn Rimes’ “Can’t Fight the Moonlight.” Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

  1. Fat Joe featuring Ashanti – “What’s Luv?” (3:51)
  2. Tweet featuring Missy Elliott – “Oops (Oh My)” (Radio Edit) (3:55)
  3. Pink – “Get the Party Started” (3:10)
  4. Brandy – “What About Us?” (Radio Mix) (3:57)
  5. Craig David – “7 Days” (3:52)
  6. Fabolous – “Young’n (Holla Back)” (3:26)
  7. Outkast featuring Killer Mike – “The Whole World” (4:17)
  8. Michelle Branch – “Everywhere” (3:33)
  9. The Calling – “Wherever You Will Go” (3:25)
  10. Default – “Wasting My Time” (4:27)
  11. P.O.D. – “Youth of the Nation” (4:04)
  12. Alanis Morissette – “Hands Clean” (4:27)
  13. Natalie Imbruglia – “Wrong Impression” (4:14)
  14. Jewel – “Standing Still” (4:29)
  15. O-Town – “We Fit Together” (3:57)
  16. Faith Evans – “I Love You” (4:00)
  17. Alicia Keys – “A Woman’s Worth” (4:16)
  18. LeAnn Rimes – “Can’t Fight the Moonlight” (Graham Stack Radio Edit) (3:36)
  19. Busta Rhymes with P. Diddy & Pharrell – “Pass the Courvoisier, Part II” (4:10)
  20. Jaheim featuring Next – “Anything” (4:04)

23 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN MUSIC #101: TOTALLY HITS 2002

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    Finally a collection of songs I don’t know Except for the ones by Pink and Alanis Morissette. I stopped listening to top 40 radio long before 2002. I know who most of these performers are but have no interest in them and don’t know their songs.

    Reply
    1. wolf

      Same here, maybe darkly remember two or three of these names but know nothing at all about them or their songs.
      We’re stll listening to Blues, Rock – and some Folk and Jazz.
      And we never watched MTV etc – found it horrible cr*p …
      A bit OT but describing the “new music”:
      Some years earlier there was a very successful “German” group consisting of three good looking and dancing black guys.
      Later it was found out that these dancers where just lip synching to their producer’s and another guy’s singing – most was done on the computer.
      Forgot the names …

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Wolf, in the 1990s, pop music–and its performers–started to go digital. The music, the videos, the concerts, the CDs all became synthetic.

    2. george Post author

      Steve, around this time, 2002, radio ratings started to decline as listeners migrated to the Internet…and in later years, to their cell phones.

      Reply
  2. Deb

    By the time 2002 rolled around, I was well beyond listening to new/popular music. The only song I know here is Pink’s “Get This Party Started”—which I like—but has it really been 18 years? Wow!

    Wolf—you may be thinking of Milli Vanilli (although I think there were only two of them). Their “fraud” was exposed when a tape machine malfunctioned mid-song at a concert and they looked at each other like, “What do we go now?” Amazingly, they had just beaten out Tracy Chapman for the Best New Artist Grammy. VH-1 profiled them for an episode of “Behind the Music” and their post-Milli Vanilli life was very downbeat—one of them committed suicide, iirc.

    Reply
    1. Steve Oerkfitz

      Best new artist grammy winners are often one hit wonders. Christopher Cross beat out The Pretenders. A Taste of Honey beat out Elvis Costello. And Marvin Hamlisch beat out anybody. And who remembers The Swingle Singers or Fun. Actually Tracy Chapman did win for best new artist. Milli Vanilli beat out the Indigo Girls the year after.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Steve, your excellent comment on Grammy Winners shows why I tend to ignore Awards. The best judge of talent is Time.

    2. george Post author

      Deb, I had the same reaction to listening to TOTALLY HITS 2002…has it really been 18 years??? I enjoy Pink’s music and “Get This Party Started” shows up on commercials and TV shows from time to time.

      Reply
  3. Michael Padgett

    Sometimes these compilations are good for placing you on the timeline. I remember less than a third of the artists and none of the songs. If they all paraded through my house the only one I’d recognize is Alanis Morissette, who I actually sorta liked.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Michael, a Broadway musical of Alanis Morissette’s JAGGED LITTLE PILL was supposed to open in Spring 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic wrecked those plans.

      Reply
  4. Patti Abbott

    I guess we are in the same boat. I stopped listening to popular music for the second time (after my kids were grown) in the late nineties. I have heard of a few of these but couldn’t hum a single bar.

    Reply
  5. Jeff Meyerson

    Oh, f#ck no. I know some of the “artists” but could not identify a single song on the list.

    Reply
  6. Beth Fedyn

    Pink and Alicia Keyes are the only ones I recognize here.
    In the 90s, I was still listening to Classic Rock almost exclusively.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Beth, we’re down to one “Oldies” station here. There’s a Canadian radio station that plays 1980s, 1990s, and 2000 songs. The rest of the radio stations are Talk Radio (mostly conservative) and Religious radio programming. A vast wasteland! Since there are no reals Sports, the Sports Talk radio stations are withering away.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Steve, I’m considering renewing Sirius/XM Radio. We let it lapse since we only listened to it while driving and when the coronavirus hit, we weren’t driving much.

  7. Fred Blosser

    Following up on Deb and Wolf . . . I saw Milli Vanilli in concert in 1989 or 1990. Memory is hazy here, but it was before the scandal. My younger daughter wanted to see them at age 12. We also saw Young MC and Vanilla Ice in concert. Memory is even hazier here as to whether it was all one concert, or two. Pink’s is the only song I recognize on this CD. Gotta admire the diversity of a playlist that includes both Busta Rhymes and Lee Ann Rimes.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Fred, I remember taking my daughter and her friends to see Christina Aguilera in concert. My favorite moment was when Christina Aguilera rose through the mists and popped out of a giant bottle to sing “Genie In a Bottle.”

      Reply

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