"Enter Sandman"

Metallica
(Elektra, 1991)

Mere months after this song was released, Kurt showed up and stole the mantle of the decade's teen spirit right from under their noses. But for a few weeks the '90s belonged exclusively to Metallica, and to "Enter Sandman," which distilled the band's machine-gun arias into one perfect stutter-step riff. Not just a monolithic hard-rock song, it was an instant standard covered in quick succession by lounge singers, chamber ensembles, high-school marching bands, and the Bosstones (who attempted to get an advance copy of the "Black Album" so as to release their own version before Metallica's!). It also proved the beginning of Metallica's Spinal Tap period -- "Sandman" was originally going to be about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, until they sobered up and realized SIDS was too morbid and arcane a topic even for them.

-- Carly Carioli