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Every Billboard Modern Rock No. 1, 1988–1999: The College-Radio Chart

Before it was called Alternative Airplay, Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart was where the 80s underground met the radio. It began in September 1988 and ranked what alternative and college stations were playing. 166 songs reached the top by the end of 1999.

The first number one was Siouxsie and the Banshees with “Peek-a-Boo”. U2 had the most chart-toppers in this era with 7. The longest single run belongs to Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Scar Tissue” held No. 1 for 16 weeks. Jump to a year: 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999.

1988

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
September 10	Peek-a-Boo	Siouxsie and the Banshees	2	♪
September 17	Just Play Music!	Big Audio Dynamite	1	♪
October 1	All That Money Wants	The Psychedelic Furs	3	♪
October 22	Desire	U2	5	♪
November 26	Orange Crush	R.E.M.	8	♪

1989

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 21	Charlotte Anne	Julian Cope	1	♪
January 28	Stand	R.E.M.	2	♪
February 11	Dirty Blvd.	Lou Reed	4	♪
March 11	I'll Be You	The Replacements	1	♪
March 18	Veronica	Elvis Costello	2	♪
April 1	Mayor of Simpleton	XTC	5	♪
May 6	Fascination Street	The Cure	7	♪
June 24	So Alive	Love and Rockets	5	♪
July 29	Disappointed	Public Image Ltd	1	♪
August 5	Channel Z	The B-52's	3	♪
August 26	Come Anytime	Hoodoo Gurus	3	♪
September 16	Love Shack	The B-52's	4	♪
October 14	Sowing the Seeds of Love	Tears for Fears	1	♪
October 21	Pictures of Matchstick Men	Camper Van Beethoven	3	♪
November 11	Proud to Fall	Ian McCulloch	4	♪
December 9	Love and Anger	Kate Bush	3	♪
December 30	Blues from a Gun	The Jesus and Mary Chain	3	♪

1990

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 20	House	The Psychedelic Furs	3	♪
February 10	Cuts You Up †	Peter Murphy	7	♪
March 31	Nothing Compares 2 U	Sinéad O'Connor	1	♪
April 7	Blue Sky Mine	Midnight Oil	1	♪
April 14	Metropolis	The Church	1	♪
April 21	Enjoy the Silence	Depeche Mode	3	♪
May 12	The Emperor's New Clothes	Sinéad O'Connor	1	♪
May 19	Forgotten Years	Midnight Oil	1	♪
May 26	Here's Where the Story Ends	The Sundays	1	♪
June 2	Policy of Truth	Depeche Mode	1	♪
June 9	Way Down Now	World Party	5	♪
July 14	Joey	Concrete Blonde	4	♪
August 11	Jealous	Gene Loves Jezebel	2	♪
August 18	I'll Be Your Chauffeur	David J	1	♪
September 1	Stop!	Jane's Addiction	2	♪
September 8	Every Beat of the Heart	The Railway Children	1	♪
September 22	Suicide Blonde	INXS	1	♪
September 29	Never Enough	The Cure	3	♪
October 13	Merry Go Round	The Replacements	4	♪
October 27	Been Caught Stealing	Jane's Addiction	4	♪
December 15	More	The Sisters of Mercy	5	♪

1991

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 19	Kinky Afro	Happy Mondays	1	♪
January 26	All This Time	Sting	2	♪
February 9	Right Here, Right Now	Jesus Jones	5	♪
March 16	Losing My Religion	R.E.M.	8	♪
May 11	See the Lights	Simple Minds	2	♪
May 25	The Other Side of Summer	Elvis Costello	4	♪
June 22	Get the Message	Electronic	2	♪
July 6	Kiss Them for Me	Siouxsie and the Banshees	5	♪
August 10	Rush †	Big Audio Dynamite II	4	♪
September 7	Until She Comes	The Psychedelic Furs	2	♪
September 21	So You Think You're in Love	Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians	5	♪
October 26	Give It Away	Red Hot Chili Peppers	2	♪
November 9	The Fly	U2	2	♪
November 23	Smells Like Teen Spirit	Nirvana	1	♪
November 30	Mysterious Ways	U2	9	♪

1992

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
February 1	Sax and Violins	Talking Heads	1	♪
February 8	What's Good	Lou Reed	3	♪
February 29	Hit	The Sugarcubes	5	♪
April 4	One †	U2	1	♪
April 11	High	The Cure	4	♪
May 9	Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)	Cracker	2	♪
May 23	Weirdo	The Charlatans	1	♪
May 30	The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead	XTC	2	♪
June 13	Friday I'm in Love	The Cure	4	♪
July 11	Good Stuff	The B-52's	4	♪
August 8	Midlife Crisis	Faith No More	1	♪
August 15	Tomorrow	Morrissey	6	♪
September 26	Digging in the Dirt	Peter Gabriel	2	♪
October 10	Blood Makes Noise	Suzanne Vega	1	♪
October 17	Drive	R.E.M.	5	♪
November 21	These Are Days	10,000 Maniacs	2	♪
December 5	Somebody to Shove	Soul Asylum	1	♪
December 12	Steam	Peter Gabriel	5	♪

1993

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 16	Not Sleeping Around	Ned's Atomic Dustbin	1	♪
January 23	The Devil You Know	Jesus Jones	6	♪
March 6	Feed the Tree	Belly	3	♪
March 27	I Feel You	Depeche Mode	5	♪
May 1	Regret †	New Order	6	♪
May 15	Walking in My Shoes	Depeche Mode	1	♪
June 19	Pets	Porno for Pyros	5	♪
July 24	Break It Down Again	Tears for Fears	3	♪
August 14	Soul to Squeeze	Red Hot Chili Peppers	5	♪
September 11	My Sister	The Juliana Hatfield Three	1	♪
September 18	No Rain	Blind Melon	3	♪
October 16	Heart-Shaped Box	Nirvana	3	♪
November 6	Into Your Arms	The Lemonheads	9	♪

1994

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 8	Daughter	Pearl Jam	1	♪
January 15	Found Out About You	Gin Blossoms	1	♪
January 22	All Apologies	Nirvana	2	♪
February 5	Loser	Beck	5	♪
March 12	Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm	Crash Test Dummies	1	♪
March 19	God	Tori Amos	2	♪
April 2	The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get	Morrissey	7	♪
May 21	Selling the Drama	Live	3	♪
June 11	Longview	Green Day	1	♪
June 18	Fall Down	Toad the Wet Sprocket	6	♪
July 30	Come Out and Play	The Offspring	2	♪
August 13	Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)	Counting Crows	1	♪
August 20	Basket Case	Green Day	5	♪
September 24	What's the Frequency, Kenneth?	R.E.M.	5	♪
October 29	Zombie	The Cranberries	6	♪
December 10	About a Girl	Nirvana	1	♪
December 17	Bang and Blame	R.E.M.	3	♪

1995

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 7	When I Come Around	Green Day	7	♪
February 25	Lightning Crashes	Live	9	♪
April 29	Good	Better Than Ezra	5	♪
June 3	Misery	Soul Asylum	3	♪
June 24	Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me	U2	4	♪
July 22	You Oughta Know	Alanis Morissette	5	♪
August 26	J.A.R.	Green Day	1	♪
September 2	Tomorrow †	Silverchair	3	♪
September 23	Comedown	Bush	2	♪
October 7	Name	Goo Goo Dolls	4	♪
October 14	Hand in My Pocket	Alanis Morissette	1	♪
October 21	Lump	The Presidents of the United States of America	1	♪
November 18	My Friends	Red Hot Chili Peppers	4	♪
December 16	Glycerine	Bush	2	♪
December 30	Wonderwall	Oasis	10	♪

1996

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
March 2	1979	The Smashing Pumpkins	1	♪
March 16	Ironic	Alanis Morissette	3	♪
April 6	Champagne Supernova	Oasis	5	♪
May 11	Salvation	The Cranberries	4	♪
June 8	Mother Mother	Tracy Bonham	3	♪
June 29	Counting Blue Cars	Dishwalla	1	♪
July 6	Pepper †	Butthole Surfers	3	♪
July 27	Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand	Primitive Radio Gods	6	♪
September 7	Who You Are	Pearl Jam	1	♪
September 14	Down	311	4	♪
October 12	Novocaine for the Soul	Eels	2	♪
October 26	What I Got	Sublime	3	♪
November 16	Swallowed	Bush	7	♪

1997

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
January 4	#1 Crush	Garbage	4	♪
February 1	Discothèque	U2	4	♪
March 1	Lakini's Juice	Live	1	♪
March 8	One Headlight	The Wallflowers	5	♪
April 12	Staring at the Sun	U2	3	♪
May 3	The Freshmen	The Verve Pipe	3	♪
May 24	Semi-Charmed Life †	Third Eye Blind	8	♪
June 28	The Impression That I Get	The Mighty Mighty Bosstones	1	♪
July 26	Push	Matchbox Twenty	1	♪
August 2	Fly	Sugar Ray	8	♪
September 27	Walkin' on the Sun	Smash Mouth	5	♪
November 1	Tubthumping	Chumbawamba	7	♪
December 20	Everything to Everyone	Everclear	1	♪
December 27	Sex and Candy †	Marcy Playground	15	♪

1998

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
April 11	The Way	Fastball	7	♪
May 30	Closing Time	Semisonic	5	♪
July 4	Iris	Goo Goo Dolls	5	♪
August 8	Inside Out	Eve 6	4	♪
August 22	One Week	Barenaked Ladies	5	♪
October 10	Celebrity Skin	Hole	4	♪
October 31	Slide	Goo Goo Dolls	2	♪
November 21	Fly Away	Lenny Kravitz	2	♪
December 5	Never There	Cake	3	♪
December 26	What It's Like	Everlast	9	♪

1999

First week at #1	Song	Artist	Weeks	Listen
February 20	Every Morning	Sugar Ray	6	♪
April 10	My Own Worst Enemy †	Lit	11	♪
June 26	Scar Tissue	Red Hot Chili Peppers	16	♪
October 16	Higher	Creed	3	♪
October 23	The Chemicals Between Us	Bush	5	♪
November 6	Learn to Fly	Foo Fighters	1	♪
December 18	Re-Arranged	Limp Bizkit	1	♪
December 25	All the Small Things	Blink-182	8	♪

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Chart data: Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart (now Alternative Airplay), as compiled on Wikipedia. “Weeks” counts all weeks at number one, including returns. † marks a Billboard year-end number one. Hey DJ 4U is not affiliated with Billboard. Previews are short clips supplied by Apple. How we handle the data.