Because I was really into music back then and didn't really remember any of those songs except for the chorus from Macarena, I pulled up the full chart to refresh myself... Man, there were some HUGE jams in 1996! My best of 1996 from the chart (not counting obvious remixes or re-releases, like California Love) looks like this:
6 "Give Me One Reason" Tracy Chapman 7 "Tha Crossroads" Bone Thugs-n-Harmony 13 "Ironic" Alanis Morissette 19 "Change the World" Eric Clapton 24 "Name" Goo Goo Dolls 25 "Who Will Save Your Soul" Jewel 28 "Counting Blue Cars" Dishwalla 33 "Gangsta's Paradise" Coolio featuring L.V. 39 "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Deep Blue Something 41 "The World I Know" Collective Soul 42 "No Diggity" Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre 44 "1979" The Smashing Pumpkins 56 "Wonderwall" Oasis 60 "Hook" Blues Traveler 61 "Doin' It" LL Cool J 68 "Just a Girl" No Doubt 70 "Lady" D'Angelo 75 "If It Makes You Happy" Sheryl Crow 81 "Un-Break My Heart" Toni Braxton 87 "No One Else" Total 94 "Beautiful Life" Ace of Base 99 "Only Wanna Be with You" Hootie & the Blowfish 100 "Don't Cry" Seal
Maybe my tastes are more eclectic than I realized, but it seems like so many of these seem sooooo much more representative of what we were actually listening to than the top five. For example, according to the wiki), Wonderwall is currently the most streamed 90s single on Spotify and the most streamed song released before 2000. That's a staggering statistic. There were many hits with huge momentum that didn't chart as 1996 singles, too, like Don't Speak and I Believe I Can Fly.