Gay4Grunge: My Top 20 Smashing Pumpkins Songs

If Nirvana's catalogue is a lesson in less is more, then the Smashing Pumpkins catalogue is a lesson in more is more. Of all the Grungers and Post Grungers of 90s Alternative none were as prolific as Billy Corgan. Between 1991 and 2001 The Smashing Pumpkins released 5 official studio albums, with one of those albums being a 28 track double album, a rarities CD in 94, a Greatest Hits album with a bonus disc of more rarities, an album they released for free on the internet that came with bonus EPs of more unreleased material, a huge singles box set with lots of additional B-Sides and covers, a smattering of soundtrack songs, a Christmas song and more. Also when The Smashing Pumpkins' 90s albums were re-released as special editions in the 2010's they all came with even more unreleased material. Even their rarities album had more unreleased tracks attached to it in its special edition. This is not even counting the group's output from 2007-Present, which includes 5 more studio albums, an aborted 44 track concept album and even more stray songs. 

Needless to say that's a lot of material to sift through and it can be quite intimidating for new listeners as a result. There's no doubt that after their mid 90s peak, The Pumpkins became more and more hit or miss and there are some absolute garbage songs scattered about that I would not recommend to anyone. At the same time when the Pumpkins were on they were ON! So while they have some rubbish tracks, they have even more gems and probably have more great songs as whole compared to many of their peers due to how many songs they've recorded. 

In terms of their career arc, the Pumpkins released their debut album Gish in 1991, which was produced by Butch Vig and it came out a few months before Nevermind and Ten. The album established the Pumpkins' neo psychedelic Grunge sound, but the album wasn't a huge hit like Ten or Nevermind were. In 1992 the group released Drown on the epochal Seattle Grunge soundtrack Singles, which gave the Pumpkins more exposure and got them lumped in with Seattle Grunge as a result. The group capitalized on the success of Drown the following year with the release of Siamese Dream, which was produced again by Butch Vig. Siamese Dream gave the Pumpkins huge crossover success and spun off 4 big hits that dominated MTV and Rock radio from 1993-1994. The group then released a stopgap rarities album in 1994 called Pisces Iscariot, which went platinum and gave the group another hit with their cover of Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. The Pumpkins then released their magnum opus in 1995 with Mellon Collie & Infinite Sadness. This 28 track double album was one of the biggest and riskiest artistic and commercial gambles of the 90s, but it paid off spades. Mellon Collie entered the charts at #1, spun off 6 huge hits, went 8 times platinum and for a brief moment it made The Smashing Pumpkins the kings of Alternative Rock. 

Then things started to go wrong. The group's keyboardist died of a drug overdose while on tour and the group also fired their drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who had been doing drugs with the band's keyboardist. The Pumpkins released 2 soundtrack singles in 1997 with Eye from Lost Highway and The End is the Beginning of the End from Batman & Robin before officially returning with the Adore album in 1998. Adore was a much softer and more reflective album than anything the Pumpkins had released up to that point and lacked full throttle rockers such as Zero and Bullet with Butterfly Wings. Adore spun off two singles that received decent airplay on MTV and rock radio, which helped the album go platinum, but it stalled after that. Adore also got good critical reviews but the mass audience The Pumpkins had been courting up till that point started disappearing in droves around this time. By the time the group released Machina in 2000, MTV had turned their back on the Pumpkins and the singles were only minor hits on rock radio. The group then released Machina II on the internet for free since the record label was reluctant to release it after the first Machina underperformed. The group then released a Greatest Hits in 2001 and broke up. 

As stated earlier The Smashing Pumpkins got back together in 2007 and have been releasing albums since then, but for the purposes of this list I'm gonna be ignoring that material completely. While there are some decent latter day tracks, The Smashing Pumpkins albums from 2007-the present are not my cup of tea and I wouldn't recommend any of them to new listeners of the group either. The group's legacy truly resides in 1991-2001 so that's where I'm gonna focus in for this countdown. As per usual this is just my own personal opinion, but I did try to get a good mix of singles and deep cuts, rockers and ballads and I made sure each of their 5 studio albums from 1991-2001 are represented by at least 1 song each. Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness does dominate this list and that's because it's so jammed packed with great songs. I could have added more songs from that double album, but I wanted to at least make sure I included their other albums as well. Alright let's jump in. 

20. I Am One (1991)

I Am One is the lead off track to The Pumpkins' debut album Gish, which was produced by Butch Vig, a figure I'll talk more about when I get to Garbage. Gish is a solid debut by the Pumpkins that lays the groundwork for their mainstream breakthrough two years later with Siamese Dream. Most fans don't rank this album as The Pumpkins best, but no one ranks it near the bottom either. I do have one friend who swears this is hands down the best Smashing Pumpkins album of all time, but he's honestly the only one I know who thinks that. I Am One is the best of the 3 singles off this album in my opinion so that's why I choose it. I still say start with Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, but after you've absorbed those albums then you can come back to this one. 

19. Whir (1994)

Billy Corgan was so prolific that he couldn't cram all his best songs onto one album. Enter Pisces Iscariot, a stopgap rarities album released in 1994 in between the twin peaks of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness. Despite this album technically being made up of b-sides and discarded rarities it still plays as a really good Smashing Pumpkins album that captures Corgan at a near peak in his songwriting. Whir is one of the quieter tracks on the album and it's also the most lovely too. Whir has a sense of calm to it that is very soothing and it's one of the more stripped down songs in The Smashing Pumpkins catalogue. In fact, this song is so stripped down that if you listen closely you can hear wind chimes in the background since Billy recorded this at his house. 

18. Bodies (1995)

Look out because here comes a Dougystyle transition! We go from the soothing calmness of Whir to the ugly full throttle rocker Bodies, which is one of the heaviest and most pummelling songs The Smashing Pumpkins ever recorded. Bodies is the second track on disc 2 of Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness and while disc 2 houses more soothing ballads than disc 1, Bodies proves to be one of the exceptions and what a glorious exception it is. I used to listen to this song all the time when working out or running because it always pumped me up. After Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, the Pumpkins (aka Billy Corgan) would struggle with writing memorable hard rock songs so a song like Bodies is one of the last great full throttle rock songs the band recorded. 

17. Hummer (1993)

Siamese Dream was recorded under difficult circumstances with guitarist James Iha and bassist Darcy going through an ugly breakup at the time. That breakup was so bad that Billy ended up locking them out of the recording sessions where he, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin & producer Butch Vig worked intensively on the album all by themselves. It's clear Billy and Butch were now more comfortable with each other the second time around and with the success of Nevermind under his belt, Butch Vig raised his game here for Siamese Dream. Hummer is a good example of this, because without the production it would probably be good but not great, but it most definitely is great thanks to Butch and Billy's meticulous production style. We're just scratching the surface of Siamese Dream at this point so more to come! 

16. La Dolly Vita (1994)

My personal favorite song off Pisces Iscariot starts off as a lovely ballad before erupting at the end for a brief moment of sludgy guitars. I just love the production on this, including the way the slide guitar echoes throughout. When it comes to production The Smashing Pumpkins usually had the best and most diverse production of all the Grunge bands, even on their non album tracks, which shows a level of dedication that Billy had at his peak. In a lot of ways, despite being a stopgap rarities album at heart, Pisces Iscariot could be my third favorite album by The Smashing Pumpkins though Adore is close. Speaking of....

15. Appels + Oranjes (1998)

You know how I just mentioned how the Smashing Pumpkins had really great and diverse production, well Appels + Oranges is one of their most unique production moments. The song itself sounds like a dance club throbber, though a somewhat sad sounding one if I'm being honest. It's still catchy and danceable though and I honestly can't think of another grunge band who has a song like it besides Garbage, who dabbled in every subgenre of Alternative Rock in the 90s. I can see why this would alienate rock fans who wanted another Bullet with Butterfly Wings, but I'm glad Appels + Oranges exists because every time I listen to it I'm always swept away by it. 

14. Daphne Descends (1998)

Adore is the album where Billy really indulged in his love for 80s Goth and Synth acts such as Depeche Mode, The Cure and Love & Rockets. Daphne Descends sounds like a mix between Depeche Mode's black leather era and The Cure circa Disintegration. It has a throbbing but calming synth beat and pitch perfect production that becomes more and more hypnotic every time I listen to it. It's also a full on love song and the Pumpkins loved doing love songs more and more as the 90s wore on. In a lot of ways it makes sense for Adore, because Billy's influences from the 80s on this album also stuck to mostly love songs, though those love songs could be super atmospheric and slightly left of center mind you. 

13. Jellybelly (1995)

Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness begins with a stately piano instrumental that goes right into the Orchestral Pop of Tonight, Tonight and I'm pretty sure many fans were worried that the band was gonna abandon rock. Once track 3 begins though the sludgy guitars return at full blast proving that those fans need not worry since The Pumpkins wouldn't abandon hard rock until the followup album Adore. Jellybelly is blast to listen to as the Pumpkins start at 11 and just continue to go up from there somehow. The bridge is also a delirious rush in my opinion that always hits the endorphins every single time I hear it. Honestly this could have been a single, but seeing as how stacked Mellon Collie was with great songs it's easy to understand why Jellybelly never got a proper single release. It's still one of their best songs though. 

12. Thru the Eyes of Ruby (1995)

Another great deep cut off Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, Thru the Eyes of Ruby sees The Smashing Pumpkins at their epic best. At 7 & half minutes the song starts with a piano line before a memorable guitar cuts through it. The verses are a little more subdued, but by the time we get to the bridge we are soaring as Billy and Jimmy in particular take the song to epic new heights with one of the best climaxes in 90s Alternative. The song has a softer coda at the end that almost feels as if you are drifting off to dreamland to help calm you down after that soaring climax. Thru the Eyes of Ruby has long been a fan favorite and it's not hard to hear why. 

11. Age of Innocence (2000)

While Adore alienated some fans, the wheels didn't really start to come off for The Pumpkins until the Machina album in 2000. The album starts with its best songs including lead single The Everlasting Gaze, which might be their last solid full throttle rocker. Unfortunately, as the album progresses it slowly declines in quality until you get to some real hot garbage with songs such as Speed Kills, The Crying Tree of Mercury and Glass & The Ghost Children. Maybe it's because of that sharp decline in quality in the second half of Machina that for years I never noticed the album closer entitled Age of Innocence. This song jumped out at me when I was listening to my Pandora Grunge station almost 10 years ago and this song came on. Its swooping melody and great production did not go unnoticed that time and ever since then this has been my favorite song off Machina. It's too bad Billy buried it at the end after some truly dreadful songs, but maybe Age of Innocence is the reward you get if you're able to sit through the entire Machina album from start to finish. 

10. Zero (1995)

Zero was the third single released off Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness and apparently the band had to fight to release it as a single, which is wild because this is one the band's best rockers and it's a big fan favorite as well. That opening riff is one of the most iconic guitar riffs of the 90s in my opinion and it will get stuck in your head after one listen. It also features a memorable moment where Billy sings:

"Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness

And cleanliness is godliness, and God is empty, just like me"

That to me is another iconic moment of 90s Alternative as well. Also whenever I hear this song I think of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer joins a traveling freak show for a Lollapalooza knockoff called Hubapalooza. Many music acts guest star including The Smashing Pumpkins, who are seen playing Zero while they are on stage. Later on comes some of the best bits of Homer dialogue which starts with Billy Corgan saying "Hi, I'm Billy Corgan Smashing Pumpkins" and Homer responds with "Hi, I'm Homer Simpson smiling politely." Then Homer tells Billy that The Smashing Pumpkins are the best, because their dreary and depressing music has stopped his children from dreaming of a future that he can't possibly provide for them. Billy responds with "We do what we can." 

9. Perfect (1998)

The second single off Adore is also the last one I remember seeing on MTV and hearing on the radio before the Smashing Pumpkins broke up in 2001. The song sounds like a spiritual successor to 1979, which is also why the music video was a direct sequel to 1979 as well. We see the 5 kids who were quite rambunctious & mischievous in the 1979 video, now being dragged down by adulthood or college. It's a clever sequel hook to show that youth doesn't last forever and before you know it you're part of the machine you were raging against just a few years earlier. Musically Perfect is a lovely pop song that's one of Billy's best straight up love songs. For me this single marks the end of the Smashing Pumpkins golden age before things got real rocky with Machina. 

8. Quiet (1993)

We've reached the part of the countdown where the rest of the songs are coming from either Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness (The exception being one soundtrack song still to come.) While I enjoy Gish, Pisces Iscariot, Adore and parts of Machina, there's no denying that Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness are the group's twin peaks. These 2 albums are nearly flawless and both rank among the top albums of the 90s. The second track off Siamese Dream is called Quiet though it's anything but quiet. Quiet rocks with more ferocity than even the heavier moments on Gish. This is another pump up jam for me that always gets the blood pumping whenever I hear it. Like Jellybelly, Quiet wasn't a single, but it easily could have been. If you like the harder side of The Smashing Pumpkins then you'll love this. 

7. Mayonaise (1993)

Mayonaise has long been a fan favorite among Smashing Pumpkins fans. A lot of people I know think this is The Pumpkins best song. The best way to describe Mayonaise is that it's a Grunge ballad. It starts soft and it never really rocks, but once those sludgy guitars enter we are most definitely in Grunge territory. It feels quintessentially Grunge while not sounding like any other Grunge song I can think of. This is one of the more unique sounding songs of 90s Alternative and it feels like a strong mood whenever I listen to it. 

6. Today ( 1993)

As I mentioned before, the recording sessions for Siamese Dream were abysmal. On top of Darcy and James' ugly breakup, Billy Corgan was hitting a strong depression spell as well. In the midst of that depression he wrote Today, a song that sounds like an uplifting anthem for living in the moment, but is actually a sarcastic takedown of such anthems because this is the '90s after all. Either way it's an incredibly catchy song that feels like an anthem every time it goes back to that chorus. This is the song that truly launched the Pumpkins into the stratosphere and Billy never looked back. 

5. Cherub Rock (1993)

The opener and first single off Siamese Dream is also my favorite song off that album. Cherub Rock begins with a memorable drum intro from Jimmy before we hear the piles upon piles of overdubbed guitar riffs taking over the speakers. In a lot of ways Billy Corgan and Butch Vig were crafting Siamese Dream the same way Tom Scholz did for Boston's albums. The production is so layered and detailed that it becomes a masterclass in how to produce an album to its absolute limit without losing sight of the songs or melodies. Lyrically this song is about Billy's frustration with the underground rock scene, which demands credibility and looks down on anyone wanting success even if many of those underground acts who are slinging mud are courting success anyway. I feel like one of the bands Billy is taking a potshot at here is Sonic Youth, who were always putting down lots of other bands, but especially The Smashing Pumpkins because they found Billy Corgan to be pretty insufferable. To be fair they are probably not wrong about Billy, but at the same time the members of Sonic Youth could be pretty insufferable themselves back in the day. In the end though Billy won because Cherub Rock became an instant rock radio hit and laid the foundation for Siamese Dream to be the crossover success Billy had always wanted. Soon Billy Corgan wouldn't need to worry about what Sonic Youth or any other indie band thought about The Smashing Pumpkins from that point forward. 

4. Bullet With Butterfly Wings (1995)

By the fall of 1995 Grunge was teetering on the brink of collapse. It had been a year & and a half since Kurt Cobain's suicide, Pearl Jam were embroiled in their battle with Ticketmaster, which was causing them to lose fans left & right because they couldn't tour properly, plus Pearl Jam had shunned MTV as well by that point as well, and then there was Alice in Chains who were most definitely on their last legs with the release of their final album with Layne Staley that fall. There was definitely a void in the marketplace and Billy Corgan knew this and decided now was the time to grab the brass ring with both hands. Billy smartly decided to lean into Grunge for the album's first single as if to announce that The Smashing Pumpkins were here to save Alternative Rock and it worked like a charm. Bullet with Butterfly Wings stormed both MTV & rock radio and became an instant anthem for Gen X. It even managed to crossover to top 40 radio, which had been pretty resistant to Alternative Rock and it's not hard to hear why. Bullet with Butterfly Wings is truly one of the greatest anthems of the decade and gave Grunge the shot in the arm it needed at that time. It's also heavy as hell, especially once it gets to the bridge and it sounds like a guitar pile up is smashing through your speakers, which always gives me a rush every time I hear it. People who don't like the Pumpkins can't deny how good this song was back then and even now. Even my mom loves it! This was the moment The Smashing Pumpkins rose to the top of Alternative Rock and became the biggest band in the world. Sonic Who? 

3. 1979 (1995)

The Smashing Pumpkins followed up Bullet With Butterfly Wings, one of the hardest rocking songs they had ever done, with a song that seemed to be the exact opposite. 1979 is a breezy new wave style track that's not quite a ballad, but definitely not a rocker either. What it is, is one of the best singles of the 90s. Every time you listen to 1979 it invokes a kind of nostalgia that feels so comforting even if you are not quite sure what that nostalgia is exactly. This would become a commonplace vibe when Chillwave broke through 14 years later in 2009 and I wouldn't be surprised if 1979 influenced some of those chillwavers, because it's just that good of a song. In fact, I think a lot of artists have been influenced by this song because there's something so timeless about 1979. Even my boy Michael Medrano, a queer artist who specializes in sexy bops, had 1979 on one of his Spotify playlists that showcased his different influences. 1979 ended up becoming The Smashing Pumpkins first and only 1 hit on the Alternative Rock chart and it became their highest charting top 40 hit when it peaked at 12. It's easy to hear why 1979 became The Smashing Pumpkins' biggest hit and why it continues to resonate today. 

2. The End is the Beginning of the End (1997)

As I discussed in my last article, The End is the Beginning of the End was the song that got me to buy my first CD when I was 11 years old in the summer of 1997. The production is by Nelle Hooper, who had also done U2's Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, which as most people know is my favorite rock song of all time. So you can imagine just how much I love this song as well. Billy Corgan said he wrote the song from the perspective of Gotham City being an absolute hell hole and honestly that's how Gotham City should be depicted in my opinion. Upon its release, The End is the Beginning of the End became another big hit for the Pumpkins on both MTV and rock radio, but it was quickly forgotten afterwards which is a damn shame. I believe that there are a few reasons for this song being forgotten and the first reason is that it's connected to Batman & Robin. Batman & Robin has become one of the most infamously bad films of all time with many Batman fans trying their best to forget about it. Also because The End is the Beginning of the End is on a soundtrack licensed by Warner Brothers I don't think The Smashing Pumpkins own the rights to the song itself. The End is the Beginning of the End has never been included on any of The Smashing Pumpkins studio albums or Greatest Hits CDs & DVDs. It's also currently not available on most streaming platforms including Spotify, which honestly depresses me a bit because I love this song so much, but I can only listen to it on YouTube. My opinion on Batman & Robin has changed multiple times over the years with my latest opinion being that it's kind of a fun camp classic if you don't take it too seriously. My opinion on The End is the Beginning of the End has never wavered though. Even when I was agreeing with others about how bad Batman & Robin was I would still put the caveat out there and say "Yes but that Smashing Pumpkins song is pretty great though right!" 

1. Tonight, Tonight (1995)

When putting together this countdown there was no doubt that Tonight, Tonight would be my #1 Smashing Pumpkins song. It not only introduced me to the Smashing Pumpkins, but 90s Alternative as a whole. What's funny is that despite The Pumpkins being labelled as Grunge, Tonight, Tonight is the exact opposite of what we think of Grunge being. Tonight, Tonight is a straight up love song that's filled with so much hope and excitement, while being backed up by a beautifully lush orchestra. None of that sounds very Grunge to me, but again it's why the Grunge label didn't always apply to The Smashing Pumpkins. What people forget about too is that most of the big Grunge bands were willing to take risks and do things outside the box, which included the psychedelic pop of Tiny Music by Stone Temple Pilots to the stripped down acoustic EP Jar of Flies by Alice in Chains. It wasn't until we got to the Post Grunge bands of the mid to late 90s that Grunge became ossified as one particular sound and presentation. Think of bands like Creed or Days of the New, who only have one sound and just did variations of that one sound across all their albums. The Smashing Pumpkins on the other hand presented a dazzling display of sounds and influences on just Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness alone. Plus none of the Pumpkins' albums sound alike either. Tonight, Tonight really represents The Smashing Pumpkins peak, because not only was it a huge hit that endears to this day, but it shows the risks and ambition that Billy Corgan possessed back then. This song seemingly flew in the face of what was expected of rock bands in the mid 90s, but Billy Corgan didn't care and by 1996 The Smashing Pumpkins were unstoppable. The music video also played a huge role in making Tonight, Tonight such a huge hit as well. For me the music video for Tonight, Tonight remains one of the greatest music videos of all time and it deserved all the awards it won at the 1996 VMAS. This is not just my favorite song by The Smashing Pumpkins, but it's also in my top 10 songs of the 90s period.