Grunge that time forgot

There is perhaps no more quintessentially ’90s movie than Cameron Crowe’s “Singles.”

The 1992 romantic comedy is set in the thick of grunge-era Seattle, and its four principal characters embody everything that was great (and terrible) about that time in our nation’s cultural history.

The film itself doesn’t hold up today as much else but a nostalgist’s wet dream, but its Billboard-dominating soundtrack is still an excellent portrait of a sadly bygone period in mainstream rock.

In keeping with the grungy setting of “Singles,” the soundtrack features cuts from Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, all of whom were in the midst of platinum-selling recording careers and near the peak of their popularity.

The soundtrack also includes a few tracks that aren’t making the classic rock radio rounds in 2011. “Overblown” by Mudhoney, “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns” by Mother Love Bone and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Battle of Evermore” by the acoustic Heart side project The Lovemongers never tore up the charts, and they almost certainly never will.

But why not?

It’s easy to assume the cream always rises to the top with a movement as ineffably huge as grunge, but beyond the genre’s perceived Big Four (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden), there’s plenty more great Seattle anti-hair metal.

The “Singles” soundtrack includes what may be the best grunge song ever recorded in Mother Love Bone’s “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns.” Included in Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything” as well as “Singles,” the eight-minute epic never charted, relying instead on overwhelming critical acclaim to keep from being relegated to the dust bin of pop history.

Mudhoney’s “Overblown,” too, is a fascinating study in what-could-have-been. Lacking even the shared members pedigree of most of Seattle’s other early ’90s acts, the quartet carved (and is still carving) a niche in grunge that has led to an intense cult following but only miniscule mainstream success.

“Overblown” is the groovier, dance-inspiring counterpoint to the more typically depressive grunge of the Big Four. Despite their radio-ready combination of heavy grunge aesthetics and foot-tapping songwriting, Mudhoney has yet to score a charting single.

Perhaps the most inexplicably cult grunge band of the early ’90s is Temple of the Dog, whose lone release features both Soundgarden crooner Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. It’s a bit presumptive to create a supergroup while the band’s lending members were still in the early stages of becoming super, but “Temple of the Dog” is an essential grunge album, and the lack of any tracks from it on the “Singles” soundtrack is baffling.

And if all this somehow doesn’t illustrate that continued relevancy of the music from “Singles,” a band calling itself Citizen Dick after Matt Dillon’s fictional band in the film played a set entirely comprised of cuts from the soundtrack at Bloomington’s own Bishop last Halloween.

They even projected the film behind them, so maybe the soundtrack isn’t the only relevant part of Cameron Crowe’s first and most heartfelt ode to grunge after all.