Radio X listeners crown 1994 the best year for music in Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup

19 December 2022, 18:02 | Updated: 19 December 2022, 18:30

The vintage year has come out on top in Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup, which pitted iconic years in music against each other in knock-out style rounds.

1994 has been crowned by Radio X fans the best year for music in Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup.

The Radio X poll, which kicked off on Monday 28th November, saw 32 years of music battle against each other through daily Twitter votes in a bid to determine the best year of music.

16 'matches' took place over the past few weeks in knock-out style rounds, which eventually saw 1994 and 1995 go head to head in a final poll.

The winning year - which birthed the likes of Oasis anthem Live Forever, Blur's Parklife, Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun and Pulp's Do You Remember The First Time? - came out on top with 55% of the vote.

In one of the tightest matches of the entire tournament, 1995 - which saw the release of the iconic Oasis anthem Wonderwall, Blur's Country House, Elastica's Connection and Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight Tonight - was pipped to the post after only securing 45% of the vote.

Listen to The Johnny Vaughan 4-7 Thang's celebration of the best 1994 tracks on Global Player.

QUIZ: Only a genius can get 10/10 on this 1994 lyric quiz

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The semi-finals saw 1991, with tracks including R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion and 1995, which birthed the likes of Pulp's Common People, face-off against each other- with the latter winning with 67% of the vote to make it to the final.

The penultimate round also witnessed a battle of the decades, but saw 1994 thrash 2004 (despite the year including bangers such as The Killers' Mr. Brightside) with 76% of the vote.

Despite some absolute bangers across the noughties, it became quite clear that the '90s, the decade that birthed Britpop, was a clear favourite.

However, the tournament wasn't without its upsets. 1997 - the year that brought us The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony - crashed out in its Quarter Finals match with 1994 with just 2% of the vote between them. It could have been a very different final.

Listen to The Johnny Vaughan 4-7 Thang's celebration of the best 1994 tracks on Global Player.

READ MORE - Matt Helders reacts as he's named Radio X’s favourite drummer: “I don’t know how I got past Reni"

Get the full results of Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup below:

Watch Johnny and Gav select the matches in watching Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup draw:

Johnny Vaughan's Guitar Cup draw!

READ MORE: The 25 best albums of 1994