18. Haddaway – What Is Love (1993)
Total Points – 399
Charts – 4
Top 40 – 1
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 1
Highest Ranking – 10
This song was written by Dee Dee Halligan and Junior Torello with Coconut Records well before it was produced, as they waited until the right voice came along. That voice belonged to Nestor Alexander Haddaway a Trinidadian-born German vocalist. Haddaway said that once the 3 men started working on the song it came together really quickly. Haddaway said he had the idea for the melodies in about 45 minutes and the song only took about a half a day to record. That half day resulted in a song that reached #1 in 13 European countries and just missed topping the charts in Sweden, Germany and the UK where it stopped at #2. This debut release started a nice run of hits for Haddaway in Europe where he had numerous top 10 hits. In the US, this song peaked at #11, and the follow up just missed the top 40, stalling out at #41. Nothing else Haddaway has done has charted in the Hot 100. The single has received numerous accolades, including: MTV Dance’s 57th ranked Dance song of the 90s, one of Complex Magazine’s 10 Essential Eurodance Classics, Vibe Magazine #5 in their list of 30 Dance Tracks from the 90s that changed the game, and Buzzfeed had this song ranked #11 in the greatest dance songs of the 90s.