Whether you actually like the song in question is completely irrelevant, because somehow these songs have surreptitiously sunken their teeth into your subconscious and have refused to let you go. Sometimes you won’t even be aware that you actually know all the words to a certain song, but here you are, dancing on top of a table reciting Britney Spears word-for-word. The truth is that the majority of these songs are prime slices of ‘90s and early 2000s nostalgia, and throughout that wonder decade of MTV music video marathons, group hangs at friends’ houses, and vast collections of TV and movie soundtracks, these throwback songs have repeatedly entered our lives and become non-erasable parts of collective identities.

1. Coolio – “Gangsta’s Paradise”

I’m not even going to lie to you, this song is legit one of my all-time favorites, and I’ve rapped it (badly) more times than I ever probably should have. And in all likelihood, so have you.

Best Lyric:

Power and the money, money and the power / Minute after minute, hour after hour / Everybody’s running, but half of them ain’t looking / What’s going on in the kitchen, but I don’t know what’s cookin’

2. Will Smith – “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”

I’ll bet you’re probably thinking, “Nah, I definitely don’t know all the lyrics to this,” but just you give it another listen and as soon as you hear that melody drop I can promise you, you definitely do.

Best Lyric:

Everybody lookin’ at me / Glancin’ the kid / Wishin’ they was dancin’ a jig / Here with this handsome kid / Ciga-cigar right from Cuba-Cuba / I just bite it / It’s for the look / I don’t light it

3. Spice Girls – “Wannabe”

Every. Word. Even the rap. Spice Girls fans, don’t you try to deny it.

Best Lyric:

What do you think about that now you know how I feel / Say you can handle my love are you for real / I won’t be hasty, I’ll give you a try / If you really bug me then I’ll say goodbye.

4. Ace Of Base – “All That She Wants”

OK, so things might get a little mumbly on the verses, but you know damn well that when that chorus kicks in that you’ll be singing (and whistling) along.

Best Lyric:

It is a night for passion / But the morning means goodbye / Beware of what is flashing in her eyes / She’s going to get you

5. Alanis Morrisette – “You Oughta Know”

The anthem of empowerment for all jilted lovers, “You Oughta Know” is the furious rant that you still keep stealthily locked up in your heart in case of emergencies.

Best Lyric:

‘Cause the joke that you laid on the bed that was me / And I’m not gonna fade / As soon as you close your eyes and you know it / And every time I scratch my nails down someone else’s back / I hope you feel it… well can you feel it?

6. TLC – “No Scrubs”

Bafflingly, it’s 2021 and guys are still hanging out the passenger side of their best friend’s ride to holler at us, so there’s a good reason why we will never forgot these particular lyrics.

Best Lyric:

A scrub is checkin’ me / But his game is kinda weak / And I know that he cannot approach me / ’cause I’m lookin’ like class and he’s lookin’ like trash / Can’t get with a dead-beat ass

7. Lisa Loeb – “Stay (I Missed You)“

If there is a way to be anything other than totally in love with this song until our dying days, then I’d love to hear it.

Best Lyric:

Some of us hover when we weep for the other who was / dying since the day they were born / well, this is not that / I think that I’m throwing, but I’m thrown.

8. Nada Surf – “Popular”

OK, so this one’s definitely a little more obscure, but I have definitive proof that there’s a subsection of millennials who know every lyric to this tremendous song and can act each line out as dramatically as the song deserves.

Best Lyric:

Make sure to keep your hair spotless and clean / Wash it at least every two weeks / Once every two weeks! / And if you see Johnny football hero in the hall / Tell him he played a great game / Tell him you like his article in the school newspaper!

9. Aerosmith – “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing”

Listen, you don’t want to admit it and neither do I, but we both know that we’ve somehow memorized every last lyric to this song. Personally, I blame Ben Affleck.

Best Lyric:

I just wanna hold you close / I feel your heart so close to mine / And just stay here in this moment / For all the rest of time, yeah, yeah, yeah!

10. Beastie Boys – “Intergalactic”

And you totally do the robot over the chorus, right? Every time.

Best Lyric:

Jazz and Awol that’s our team / Step inside the party disrupt the whole scene / When it comes to beats well I’m a fiend / I like my sugar with coffee and cream

11. Britney Spears – “…Baby One More Time”

I mean, there are probably more than a few Britney songs we could be including here, if we’re being perfectly honestly with ourselves.

Best Lyric:

Oh baby, baby / The reason I breathe is you / Boy you got me blinded / Oh pretty baby / There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do

12. Semisonic – “Secret Smile”

Now that we can kind of all agree that “Secret Smile” is actually a euphemism for something super grown up and a little naughty, it only makes those lyrics all the more fun to sing, right? That’s maturity, my friends.

Best Lyric:

So use it and prove it / Remove this whirling sadness / I’m losing, I’m bluesing / But you can save me from madness

13. Backstreet Boys – “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)“

I mean, this Backstreet Boys bop had to make the list, of course.

Best Lyric:

Now throw your hands up in the air / Wave them around like you just don’t care / If you wanna party let me hear you yell / Cuz we got it goin’ on again

14. Missy Elliott – “Work It”

Absolute, complete lyrical genius.

Best Lyric:

Let’s get drunk, that’s gonna’ bring us closer / Don’t I look like a Halle Berry poster / See the Belvedere playin’ tricks on ya