Mix Tape Monday – Volume 7 Revisited

Between 1989, my sophomore year of high school, and 1995, my fourth year of college, I put together a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD. Three years ago, we looked back at all 20 volumes and which of my “favorite” songs I still listened to. Today, we revisit those mix tapes and see how things have changed in the last 3 years.

Volume 7 covers the fall of 1992 and the end of the first semester of my freshman year of college.  Once again, we are treated to a dose of hair metal and pop, with a little dance alternative and hip-hop thrown in for good measure.

Side A

Guns N’ Roses – November Rain

Only 2 new plays in the last 3 years for the nearly 9 minute opus.

2012 iTunes stats: 3 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 9/25/2014

Def Leppard – Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

Another big ballad from an 80s rock staple also gains only 2 listens since 2012.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 6 plays, most recently on 1/30/2015

Toad The Wet Sprocket – All I Want

A healthy increase of 7 for the first hit from Toad the Wet Sprocket.

2012 iTunes stats: 10 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 17 plays, most recently on 7/23/2013

Tesla – Signs

Only 1 additional listen in the past 3 years, and it took place just over 2 weeks ago.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 4/15/2015

Soup Dragons – Divine Thing

5 additional listens from the first hit from the Soup Dragons, although it has been nearly a year.

2012 iTunes stats: 9 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 14 plays, most recently on 6/16/2014

Ugly Kid Joe – Neighbor

Ugly Kid Joe, who debuted much too late for their 80s hairband style, doubled the small amount of plays they had for this first single from their first full length album.

2012 iTunes stats: 1 play

2015 iTunes stats: 2 plays, most recently on 6/21/2014

The Heights – How Do You Talk To An Angel

The theme song from the short-lived FOX show, which came up recently on an episode of the Adam Carolla Show, doubled its number of plays.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 8 plays, most recently on 4/23/2015

Side B

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Mix Tape Monday – Volume 6 Revisited

Between 1989, my sophomore year of high school, and 1995, my fourth year of college, I put together a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Three years ago, we looked back at all 20 volumes and which of my “favorite” songs I still listened to. Today, we revisit those mix tapes and see how things have changed in the last 3 years.

Volume 6 takes us through the end of high school, through the summer, and into the beginning of my freshman year of college.  Sadly, this is not the original version of volume 6, which was lost after being borrowed by my sister for a party.  The steady stream of hair metal and pop starts to become overtaken by alternative and hip-hop.

Side A

Genesis – I Can’t Dance

The last hit for Genesis has more than tripled its number of listens in the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 2 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 7 plays, most recently on 4/12/2015

Ugly Kid Joe – Everything About You

The first hit for the band who came up a few years too late has put together a decent increase over the last 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 8 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 8/7/2014

Joe Public – Live and Learn

The one hit for the so-called new jack swing group managed to double its plays since our last check.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 8 plays, most recently on 4/2/2015

Boyz II Men – Please Don’t Go

I still haven’t listened to the final release from Cooleyhighharmony.

2012 iTunes stats: Never Played

2015 iTunes stats: Never Played

Def Leppard – Make Love Like A Man

The second hit from Adrenalize also managed to double its plays over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 8 plays, most recently on 8/16/2014

Guns N’ Roses – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Somehow, I haven’t listened to this song at all over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 7 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 7 plays, most recently on 3/31/2012

Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Under The Bridge

The mainstream breakthrough hit for the Chilli Peppers, and the first appearance of “alternative” music, has had a healthy increase.

2012 iTunes stats: 2 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 1/10/2015

Side B

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Mix Tape Monday – Volume 5 Revisited

Between 1989, my sophomore year of high school, and 1995, my fourth year of college, I put together a nearly 20 volume collection of mix tapes, containing my favorite songs that I had gathered either from the radio, a cassette tape, or (eventually) CD.  Three years ago, we looked back at all 20 volumes and which of my “favorite” songs I still listened to. Today, we revisit those mix tapes and see how things have changed in the last 3 years.

Volume 5 takes us from the end of my junior year of high school, through the summer, and all the way to spring of my senior year, from mid 1991 through early 1992, and once again features a healthy dose of hair metal and pop.  It also includes the appearance of my first CD player, a Christmas gift in 1991.

Side A

Firehouse – Don’t Treat Me Bad

I haven’t listened to the first hit from Firehouse in nearly 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 3 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 7/11/2012

Color Me Badd – I Wanna Sex You Up

The first hit for ths so-called R&B boy band had a decent increase over the past 3 years.

2012 iTunes stats: 2 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 5 plays, most recently on 3/10/2015

Boyz II Men – Motownphilly

The debut hit from Philadelphia crooners had a healthy 3 play increase since last we checked.

2012 iTunes stats: 1 play

2015 iTunes stats: 4 plays, most recently on 2/14/2015

Motley Crue – Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)

The last hit off of Dr. Feelgood gets a nice increase to keep it in the running for most listened to song.

2012 iTunes stats: 18 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 22 plays, most recently on 2/6/2011

Slaughter – Fly To The Angels

It’s been almost 2 years since I heard the big ballad from the hair band.

2012 iTunes stats: 4 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 6 plays, most recently on 5/21/2013

Boyz II Men – It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye

Big increases for both versions of the cover song originally written for the film Cooley High.

2012 iTunes stats (Radio version): 11 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 15 plays, most recently on 3/14/2014

2012 iTunes stats (Album version): 6 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 13 plays, most recently on 4/3/2015

Salt-N-Pepa – Let’s Talk About Sex

A big three fold increase for the first ladies of rap.

2012 iTunes stats: 3 plays

2015 iTunes stats: 9 plays, most recently on 4/14/2015

Side B

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Top 200 Albums – #131 – 138

itunes_imageMy latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 3 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 200 albums whose songs I’ve listened to as of September 2014, according to iTunes. Today we continue climbing up the list and look at the 4 albums tied for 135th with 31 listens and the 4 albums tied for 131st with 32 listens.

#131: Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
iTunes stats: 32 plays
The 3rd studio album from the Seattle grunge band, and the last that I purchased, uses the totals from 4 different tracks.

#131: Various Artists – Rock N’ Roll Era: 1958
iTunes stats: 32 plays
This edition of the Time Life series, featuring songs by The Big Bopper, The Monotones, and Little Richard, had 7 songs make up its total.

#131: Various Artists – Pulp Fiction OST
iTunes stats: 32 plays
The soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus, featuring tracks by Urge Overkill and Dusty Springfield, had 6 songs and/or movie clips make up its total.

#131: Various Artists – Bones (Original Television Soundtrack)
iTunes stats: 32 plays
Only one tune, the original version of the theme song, contributes to the total for this soundtrack album for the long running Fox show.

#135: Weezer – Weezer (Green Album)
iTunes stats: 31 plays
After a long layoff, Weezer returned in the early 2000s with their third album, which had 2 songs make up this total.

#135: Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I
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Top 200 Albums – #158 – 163

itunes_imageMy latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 3 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 200 albums whose songs I’ve listened to as of September 2014, according to iTunes. Today we continue climbing up the list and look at the 6 albums tied for 158th with 26 listens.

#158: TLC – Ooooooohhh…On The TLC Tip
iTunes stats: 26 plays
3 songs make up this total for TLC’s debut album, which I remember getting at Musicland along with Toad the Wet Sprocket’s Fear.

#158: The Presidents Of The United States Of America – The Presidents Of The United States Of America
iTunes stats: 26 plays
The debut album from the POTUSA also makes the charts based on 3 songs.

#158: Republica – Republica
iTunes stats: 26 plays
Only 2 songs make up this total for the band from Windsor.

#158: The Beatles – With The Beatles [2009 Stereo Remaster]
iTunes stats: 26 plays
This album, and all of the Beatles albums, would be much higher, but I lost all of the old counts for their albums when I upgraded to the remastered versions in 2009.

#158: Guns ‘N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II
iTunes stats: 26 plays
5 songs make up the total from this album, one of the 6 CDs I owned when I left for college in August of 1992.

#158: Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.
iTunes stats: 26 plays
This total is split evenly between 2 songs, Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling.

Commuting Fun

A Tuesday night commute that took well over an hour and a half was spent, not with the iPhone on shuffle, but working my way through the Ws.

Weed Card Garfunkel and Oates All Over Your Face 9/16/2014 4:32 PM
Welcome Back (Kotter) John Sebastian The Best Of John Sebastian 9/16/2014 4:35 PM
Welcome To Paradise Green Day Dookie 9/16/2014 4:39 PM
Welcome To The Jungle Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction 9/16/2014 4:44 PM
Were Not Gonna Take It Twisted Sister Stay Hungry 9/16/2014 4:49 PM
Werewolves Of London Warren Zevon Excitable Boy 9/16/2014 4:52 PM
What A Wonderful World Joey Ramone Music From Gilmore Girls 9/16/2014 4:55 PM
What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong Louis Armstrong’s All-Time Greatest Hits 9/16/2014 4:57 PM
What About Your Friends TLC Ooooooohhh…On The TLC Tip 9/16/2014 5:02 PM
What Do I Have To Do? Stabbing Westward Wither Blister Burn & Peel 9/16/2014 5:05 PM
What Happened To You? The Offspring Smash 9/16/2014 5:08 PM
What I Am Continue reading →

Wasting The Summer Away

For reasons any right-thinking person could not possibly understand, traffic this summer has been particularly brutal.  No matter what time I leave work, it will take at least 2 hours to get home.  One example of this was this past Thursday, when I took off around 3:40 and pulled into my garage just after 5:46.  Because of this, I’ve been able to listen to a lot of music.  Here is Thursday’s playlist, which kept from killing people in the cars around me.

Cult Of Personality Living Colour Monsters Of Rock [Disc 2 Of 2] 6/26/2014 3:46
Dreams The Cranberries Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? 6/26/2014 3:51
Only You Garfunkel and Oates Music Songs 6/26/2014 3:53
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers Living In The 90’s (Disc 2) 6/26/2014 3:56
I Won’t Forget You Poison Poison’s Greatest Hits 1986-1996 6/26/2014 4:00
Sk8er Boi Avril Lavigne Let Go 6/26/2014 4:03
Jane Says Jane’s Addiction Nothing’s Shocking 6/26/2014 4:08
The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) Banana Splits Here Come The Banana Splits 6/26/2014 4:10
I Saw Red Warrant Cherry Pie 6/26/2014 4:14
What The World Needs Now Is Love Jackie De Shannon Forrest Gump (Disc 1) 6/26/2014 4:17
Smells Like Teen Spirit Continue reading →

It’s Off To Work I Go

Monday had me chained to a chair doing mindless, repetitive work all day, so I pulled out my phone and listened to some tunes.  This list is the music that got me through the drudgery of that day.

You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC Back In Black 2/10/2014 10:53 AM
Baby One More Time Travis 2/10/2014 10:57 AM
Hand In My Pocket Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill 2/10/2014 11:00 AM
Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon Urge Overkill Pulp Fiction OST 2/10/2014 11:04 AM
In Your Eyes Peter Gabriel So 2/10/2014 11:16 AM
All Apologies Nirvana MTV Unplugged in New York Rock 2/10/2014 11:20 AM
Our Party Mexican Cheerleader Mexican Cheerleader 2/10/2014 11:22 AM
If You Dont Know Me by Now Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes The 70s Love Collection 2/10/2014 11:26 AM
Girls & Boys Blur The Best Of (Disc 1) 2/10/2014 11:30 AM
Crazy Seal Crazy 2/10/2014 11:36 AM
You Suck The Murmurs The Murmurs 2/10/2014 11:39 AM
Continue reading →

iTunes Top 100 Artists: #31-40

itunes_image

My latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 2 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 100 artists that I’ve listened to as of 8/21/2013, according to iTunes. Today we look at the the the next batch, numbers 31-40, which includes a nice mix of musical genres.

#31: R.E.M. 95

iTunes stats: 95 plays

The boys from Athens, GA tie Avril Lavigne with 23 songs to make up their total.

#31: The Monkees

iTunes stats: 95 plays

The made for TV band used 17 songs to make up their total.

#33: Guns N’ Roses

iTunes stats: 91 plays

Axl Rose and friends use 19 different songs to make their way on to the list.

#34: Purdue “All-American” Marching Band

iTunes stats: 86 plays

3 songs, including 2 versions of the fight song, puts the Purdue Marching Band on the list.

#35: Stone Temple Pilots

iTunes stats: 83 plays

17 songs make up the total for the California-based alternative rockers.

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Goodbye, iPhone 4S – Music Edition

A little more than a week ago, I upgraded my phone from the iPhone 4S to the newly released iPhone 5S.  The biggest difference, aside from a slightly bigger screen, is the jump from 3G (or 4G, if you believe AT&T’s hype) to LTE.  I had the 4S for a little under 2 years, and in that time, we traveled the world together (well, at least going back to the UK) and have listened to a lot of podcasts and music. Here is every song (all 2079 of them) I’ve listened to on the phone, with some (ok, very little) bonus commentary.  Godspeed.

 

Let’s Go-Go-Go White Sox Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers 33
He’s a Pirate Klaus Badelt Pirates of the Caribbean (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture) 32
Take Me Out To The Ballgame Harry Caray 31
Thunderstruck AC/DC The Razors Edge 31
Gordon Beckham Intro 29
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye Steam Billboard’s Top Rock ‘n’ Roll Hits: 1969 29
Don’t Stop Believin’ Journey Journey’s Greatest Hits 27
sox05_montage 27
We Are The Champions Queen Queen: Greatest Hits I & II 27
Your Love The Outfield Play Deep 27
2008 White Sox Central Division Champs Montage Chris Tannehill WSCR 670 The Score 25
Take Me Out To The Ballgame Nancy Faust 25
Harvester Of Sorrow Metallica …And Justice For All 20

You would hope that these numbers would have been higher, but this past season’s miserable performance by the White Sox has put the songs on their playlist out of mind more often than not.

Cannonball The Breeders The First 1000 Years- Rock 19
Man Or Muppet Jason Segel The Muppets 15
It’s Time For Our Song Miss Piggy The Muppets 14
Get Out There And Help Those Guys Jason Segel The Muppets 13
Main Title LOST Soundtrack LOST Soundtrack 13
Are You A Man Or A Muppet? Amy Adams The Muppets 12
How Charming, A Finale Uncle Deadly The Muppets 12
I’m On A Boat (ft. T-Pain) The Lonely Island Incredibad 12
Down At The Ole Barbershop Kermit The Muppets 11
Me and Drugs David Cross Bigger and Blackerer 11
The Antichrist Howard Stern Private Parts: The Album 11
Continue reading →