Best 90's Power Ballads

Alright, so I was an eighties teenager, graduating in 1989. My parents thought that would be the end of my love affair with the long haired hard rock bands, but far from it. It was a passion of mine and I still love to turn up the volume and journey back to the glory days.

So, without any further ado, I present my list of the greatest power ballads from the 1990's. This list is in no particular order. Are you ready?

This song, from the classic rock band Aerosmith, appeared in the 1998 movie "Armageddon". Perhaps not so coincidentally, the movie starred Liv Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler. It is one of my personal favorites from the nineties.

I know this song might be a stretch for this list, but it was quite popular in its day. Off the 1990 album Extreme II: Pornograffitti, this song was especially popular with the ladies.

One of metal's elder statesmen, Ozzy showed us that he was still a force on the music scene. His 1991 release No More Tears yielded this Top 40 hit, his highest ranked single of his solo career.

It would be difficult to call any list of power ballads from the nineties complete without including Skid Row. The third single from their 1991 release "Slave to the Grind", Wasted Time was a perfect mix of guitar and the powerful vocals of Sebastian Bach. This song personally got me through a few breakups.

So what list of power ballads from the 1990s would be complete without some Guns-N-Roses? After all, they were dominating the rock music scene during the earliest years of the decade, right up until their implosion. The song made its way into the top 10 in the U.S. and who would have predicted that a Guns-N-Roses song ever include an orchestra.

Without a doubt, the Scorpions were a force to be reckoned with during the 80s and they continued that into the 90s. "Wind of Change" was the third single from their 1990 album Crazy World. With the powerful vocals of Klaus Meine, the song expressed a sense of hope surrounding the impending fall of the Soviet Union.

Slaughter had only minimal success in their short lived career, but "Fly to the Angels" caught the world's attention. The song did quite well on the charts and holds personal meaning for me.

Admittedly, I was never a big fan of Def Leppard's work after the Hysteria album, even Hysteria was a bit of a letdown to me. However, there were the occasional gems and this song happens to be one of them.

Queensryche received a Grammy nomination for this song in 1992. From their popular Empire album, "Silent Lucidity" had a nice chart run as a single. The song features Geoff Tate's powerful vocals and deep, well written lyrics.

Alright, you didn't seriously think you were going to get through a list such as this without some Bon Jovi on it, did you? I will say this song is probably my favorite from Bon Jovi, maybe because of the vocals, maybe its the sound, perhaps because it simply feels real. I turn it up loud and I understand it, I feel it.

This concludes my list of best power ballads from the 90s. If there is a song you feel deserves to be on the list, mention it in the comments below and if I am in agreement I will add it. I hope you enjoyed this little musical journey through the past with me.