Duncan Sheik — "Barely Breathing"
Duncan Sheik's brooding acoustic single became one of the defining adult-alternative hits of 1997 — and one of the longest-charting songs in Billboard history, quietly clinging to the Hot 100 for more than a year.
#Adult Alternative
5 items
The Fray — "Over My Head (Cable Car)"
The piano-rock breakout that introduced The Fray to the world — a mid-2000s radio staple about a falling-out with a brother, its title borrowed from his childhood nickname.
Eagle-Eye Cherry — "Save Tonight"
Four chords, a campfire strum, and a chorus anyone could sing on the first listen — Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" was the acoustic one-hit wonder of 1998, an easygoing plea to make the most of a last night together.
Shawn Colvin — "Sunny Came Home"
Pretty, gentle, and secretly about a woman burning her house to the ground — Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home" swept the 1998 Grammys, winning both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The Fray
The Denver piano-rock band whose earnest, mid-tempo anthems were the sound of mid-2000s radio and every emotional TV montage of the era. "Over My Head" broke them; "How to Save a Life," supercharged by Grey's Anatomy, made them huge.