It’s funny, every time I hear the song “Two Princes” by the Spin Doctors on the radio I recall this one memory from my childhood. The song was released in 1992, at which point I was about 14 years old. The memory is of my mom, my sister, my grandfather and I driving home from the mall in Buffalo where I purchased two cassettes tapes: “Pocket Full of Kryptonite” by The Spin Doctors and “Star” by Belly.

I remember that it was Buffalo, because prior to going to the mall we had stopped somewhere in Batavia to visit a friend of my grandfather’s. I also remember my grandfather pointing out Attica Prison which is located just south of Batavia a town of the same name.

While the memory is only really the tip of the iceberg, what I really begin to think about is the two specific albums that I had bought that day. Back then, the Spin Doctors were incredibly popular with their hits ‘Little Miss Can’t be Wrong,’ ‘Two Princes,’ and ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Blues.’ They were basically a requirement for any 9th grader at the time. Belly, on the other hand, was an “alternative’ rock band that had really only one popular song ‘Feed the Tree’ — if you even want to call it “popular.” Even today, if you review the Wikipedia Entries on the Two Bands, The Spin Doctors have a much longer and complete entry than Belly.

The ironic thing about this, though, is the I still own (and listen to) Belly’s “Star.” I put it on just the other day, actually, and probably listen to it at least a few times a year. Even if I still owned “Pocket Full of Kryptonite,” listening to it would be more of a novelty than anything else…

So, I ask you this.. which band is better? The band that achieves fame, rock star status, and has a song that could probably be identified by most common Americans my age in less than 10 notes? Or, the band whose album still makes it through my rotation even though they never achieved great recognition or achievement?