As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Favorite 100 Songs Trivia


Total time of all songs – 6 hours, 25 minutes
Average song length – 3:51
 
Shortest songs:
    2:07  #65  Do You Believe In Magic -- The Lovin' Spoonful (1965)
    2:08  #72  Mama Said -- The Shirelles (1961)
    2:10  #46  One Fine Day -- The Chiffons (1963)
 
Longest songs (all in my top 20, for whatever it’s worth):
    7:43  #19  Bustin' Loose -- Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers (1979)
    6:59  #5  Slippin' Into Darkness – War (1972)
    6:22  #7  Canadian Railroad Trilogy -- Gordon Lightfoot (1967)
    6:14  #1  Stay In My Corner -- The Dells (1968)
 
Shortest song title:
    #67  Mystery -- The Manhattan Transfer (1984)
Longest song title (tie):
    #100  Somewhere In America There's A Street Named After My Dad -- Was (Not Was)  (1988)
    #35  Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) -- Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973)
 
Songs by decade:
1950s – 2
    #93  Fools Fall In Love -- The Drifters (1957)
    #83  This I Swear -- The Skyliners (1959)
1960s – 37
1970s – 23
1980s – 21
1990s – 11
2000s – 4
2010s – 2
    #86  Wide River To Cross -- Diana Krall (2012)
    #91  The Walk -- Mayer Hawthorne (2011)
 
Year with the most songs – 1965:
    #8  You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' -- The Righteous Brothers
    #9  A Change Is Gonna Come -- Sam Cooke
    #21  Ride Away -- Roy Orbison
    #33  I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better -- The Byrds
    #57  New York's A Lonely Town -- The Tradewinds
    #61  The Carnival Is Over -- The Seekers
    #65  Do You Believe In Magic -- The Lovin' Spoonful

8 comments:

  1. Other favorites
    Another short song: The Letter - Box Tops
    Another long song: Inna Gadda Da Vida - Iron Butterfly
    Another short title: Talk, Talk - Music Machine
    Agree with 1965. Had it all: California surfer music, Motown, English Invasion. Second best year: 1957.

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    Replies
    1. Shortest songs I have in iTunes:
      1:16 Gangster Of Love -- Steve Miller Band
      1:22 Happy Boy -- The Beat Farmers
      1:32 Stranger Into Starman -- Aimee Mann
      1:36 Stay -- Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs
      1:38 I Like It Like That -- The Dave Clark Five
      1:38 Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows -- Lesley Gore

      Longest songs I have in iTunes:
      19:19 Concierto De Aranjuez -- Jim Hall (great jazz piece)
      15:42 Herbie Hancock -- Chameleon
      13:24 City, Country, City -- War
      13:06 In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed -- Allman Brothers
      11:59 Telegraph Road (live) -- Dire Straits
      11:37 Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys -- Traffic
      11:07 I Heard It Through The Grapevine -- Creedence Clearwater Revival

      At 9:37, Jungleland is the 11th longest.

      1965 is also the most-represented year on Dave Marsh's list -- 78 out of his 1001 (courtesy of www.lexjansen.com/marsh/).

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  2. Replies
    1. Hmmm -- #1 would have to be the Drifters' version of White Christmas. And the Pretenders doing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas might be #2. May wait until next year to do a full list (probably top 10).

      Great one I heard for the first time Saturday morning -- You're My Christmas Present, by The Skyliners.

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  3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZExWt-bj-k
    Never fails to make me smile. Don't know why, exactly.

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    Replies
    1. One of the better 60s garage-rock classics actually, along with "96 Tears" and "Dirty Water".
      Great video too -- the dancers are priceless!

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  4. Shortest: The Letter - Boxtops
    Longest: American Pie - Don McLean

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    Replies
    1. While I like the Box Tops' "The Letter", I actually prefer the Joe Cocker version. (And my favorite by the Box Tops has always been "Cry Like A Baby".)

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