#134 – Baz Luhrmann – “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” – (1999)

This is probably the weirdest and most unlikely song on this list. Baz Luhrmann directed such films as Moulin Rouge! and the DiCaprio version of Romeo + Juliet and in 1999, for reasons known solely to him, he released an album. Actually those reasons are this song. He remixed a song, adding the words of a speech written by Mary Schmich, and created this. A DJ on a syndicated radio show played it once and its popularity exploded from there. It hit number one in the UK but barely cracked the top 50 in the US. But it was still huge and a staple of graduations everywhere in 1999. Another big graduation song from 1999 was the creatively titled “Graduation (Friends Forever)” by Vitamin C.