Almanac Music: Numerical Songs from 1 – 10
Inspired by Kevin Densley’s music posts on the Footy Almanac related to specific themes I decided to come up with one of my own.
After much head scratching I decided songs with numbers in the title in numerical order from I to 10 to be my theme, they are off the top of my head and obviously many more could have been included. I look forward to your comments and suggestions.
1: ‘One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or later)’ – Bob Dylan
Initially I considered the obvious song here, Harry Nilsson’s ‘One’ best known in Australia by Johnny Farnham’s version or the one I prefer by Three Dog Dog Night but in the end how could I go past Bob?
2: ‘It Takes Two’ – Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston
Fab duet from the mid 60s.
3: ‘Three Times A Lady’ – The Commodores
I tried to find more lesser known but still quality songs to include but for number 3 my choices were limited with the Lionel Richie song the stand out.
4: ‘Positively Fourth Street’ – Bob Dylan
The greatest put down song ever – some say it’s about Joan Baez, others suggest it’s Bob’s reaction against those who booed him when he went electric at Newport in 1965. I think Baez more likely.
5: ‘5D (Fifth Dimension)’ – The Byrds
The Byrds had great success with interpretations of Bob songs but also wrote some excellent songs themselves. This is from their Fifth Dimension album.
6: ‘Six Months In A Leaky Boat’ – Split Enz
Great song from Split Enz that unfortunately was banned from airplay on the BBC when it was gaining momentum in the charts due to the Falklands War.
7: ‘Seventh Son’ – Johnny Rivers
There are many fabulous versions of this song including Georgie Fame’s but I selected the Johnny Rivers version as I’m a great fan of him.
8: ‘Eight Miles High’ – The Byrds
Another fab song from The Byrds written by them. It was banned due to perceived drug references but McGuinn always it was about high flying jets which he had a passion for.
9: ‘Love Potion Number 9′ – The Searchers
Again many versions of this song but this one is the best remembered by me. The Searchers were a great band and had many hits world wide but for some reason never received the acclaim of many others of the British Invasion of the 60s.
10: ‘Slaughter on 10th Avenue’ – The Shadows
The Shadows were a top instrumental band from the late 50s through the 60s and 70s and for many years were Cliff Richard’s backing band. This is one of the numerous versions of this song.
As you can, I’ve only touched the surface and I’m sure you will suggest many other alternatives to the choices I made.
I suppose the challenge ahead is to continue songs in numerical order.
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About Colin Ritchie
Retired teacher who enjoys following the Bombers, listening to music especially Bob Dylan, reading, and swimming.
The Ramones 7-11 can come next (I’d rather them than U2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wjyhABZSdE
Clever concept Col.
867-5309/Jenny.
25-41 by Grant Hart. Great list Col.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G71dWFXJ0FY
Robert Forster version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_uiLSk6lLE
Tom Robinson Band 2 4 6 8 Motorway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGrnEc_3mYo
Like it, Col.
Can I indulge you with an Australasian list (1-8 only):
One Word – Baby Animals,
Two Shoes – Cat Empire,
Three Legged Dog – Cruel Sea,
Four Walls – Cold Chisel,
Odyssey #5 – Powderfinger,
Six Months In A Leaky Boat – Split Enz,
7 Minutes – Dean Lewis,
Angel of 8th Avenue – Gang of Youths,
12lb Toothbrush – Madder Lake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thGjJZM0C3c
Thirteen is a tie between Big Star
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pte3Jg-2Ax4
and Anthony Hudson
https://youtu.be/BZArY0CZ6AY?t=199
Thanks guys for your suggestions and comments, you probably can tell from my selections the era I listened to most. It will be interesting if a list from 11 – 20 can be created. I’m wracking my brains at the moment for songs in that range. As Swish mentions ’12lb Toothbrush’ , and ‘Thirteen’, and I remember ’16 Tons’, and of course ‘I was only 19’ but I’m struggling for 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20 at the moment.
Edge of Seventeen, Stevie Nicks, and Janis Ian had one as well but I can’t remember the title.
Did we get 9 to 5 by Dolly in there? We better have.
Great idea CR!
7-11 includes 11 doesn’t it Col? As does U2’s 11 O’Clock Tick Tock
Here ya go Col
Fourteenth of February – Billy Bragg
TVC 15 – Bowie
I’m Eighteen – Alice Cooper
20 Miles – Ray Brown and the Whispers
Janis Ian ‘At 17′ of course, and Ray Brown & the Whispers one of my favourite bands from the 60s, how could I forget ’20 Miles’, and if we get that far ‘500 Miles’ Peter Paul & Mary. The list from 11 – 20 is filling fast!
To complete the 11-20 package, Johnny Paycheck’s great 70s song, 11 months and 29 days. No, thank you.
Regrettably, Duran Duran’s 1983 album Seven and the Ragged Tiger featured no title track.
Nineteen Forever – Joe Jackson
There was an Sydney band in the late 70’s called The Numbers. Anyhow here’s a few songs with 15.
15 Taylor Swift, also 10-15 by the Cure.
The Eurythmics had a song with 17 in its title but I’m stumped remembering its name.
If we want to wind the clock back a few years Eddie Cochran had a few wonderful tunes with three in the title: Three Steps to Heaven, also the hauntingly sad, Three Stars.
Glen!
Neatly done, Col (and other contributors) – glad I helped in terms of inspiration!
I tried hard to find a 1- 10 of Dylan songs but failed at 8 & 9.
Here’s the list, with a bonus beginning at 0:
0 ~ Love Minus Zero/No Limit
1 ~ One Too Many Mornings
2 ~ 2 x 2
3 ~ Three Angels
4 ~ Billy 4
5 ~ Obviously Five Believers
6 ~ From A Buick 6
7 ~ Seven Curses
8 ~ ???
9 ~ ???
10 ~ I Shall Be Free No. 10
If the list ever gets higher, I have suggestions for 12 & 35, 51, 61, 115, 10000 & 1,000,000.
Thanks for the numerical song challenge ~ filled in an hour on an otherwise lazy Tuesday morning..
Yossou N’Dour – 7 Seconds
Lyle Lovett – 12th June
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone, I might have a crack at 11 – 20.
Karl – thanks for the Bob 1 – 10, I must admit I gave it some thought but had trouble with some of the numbers.
Love the Dylan theme Karl. Could we add:
11 Outlined Epitaphs
Maybe we could make an allowance and use Dylan lyrics, rather than titles, to try and fill the rest e.g.
Eight by eight, they got to the gate,
Nine by nine, they drank the wine
She’s five feet nine and she carries a monkey wrench
Wants eleven dollar bills / You only got ten
No younger than twelve, no older than seventeen
Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
In fourteen months I’ve only smiled once and I didn’t do it consciously
‘Twas the fourteeth day of April
Sixteen years. Sixteen banners united over the field
New York Times said it was the coldest winter in seventeen years / I didn’t feel so cold then
I ain’t seen my family in twenty years That ain’t easy to understand
I’d ask why he dressed with twenty pounds of headlines stapled to his chest
Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift
I’m twenty miles out of town, Cold Irons bound
With four and twenty windows / And a woman’s face in ev’ry one.
Bringin’ home thirty cents a day to a family of twelve
Seen it thirty three times, maybe more
Johnson sworn in at two thirty-eight
Well, I’m forty miles from the mill, I’m dropping it into overdrive
Well Mack the Finger said to Louie the King / I got forty red white and blue shoe strings
Two trains running side by side Forty miles wide, down the eastern line
I’ve been walkin’ forty miles of bad road / If the Bible is right the world will explode
The watchman lay there dreaming / At fourty-five degrees
And that it’s thirty-six hours past judgment day
For the last fifty years they’ve been searching for that
Fifty thousand tons of steel
I paid fifteen million dollars, twelve hundred and seventy-two cents
Sent him off to prison / For a seventy-dollar robbery
Well, I investigated all the books in the library / Ninety percent of ’em gotta be burned away
I investigated all the people that I knowed / Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go
Well, I’ve walked two hundred miles, now look me over
A whore will pass the hat, collect a hundred grand and say thanks
King Saud’s got four hundred wives
William Zanzinger, who at twenty-four years / Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres
Nine hundred miners had laid their money down
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
When the Reaper’s task had ended Sixteen hundred had gone to rest
etc, etc, etc.
How far can we go? I’m stopping to get a life now!
Actually, while we’re at it, he covers off quite a few numbers in this verse:
I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said, “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Cassius Clay, you better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”
DBallassone – now that is some serious Dylan numerology research – did you flick through the 600 pages of ‘Lyrics’?
I’ll leave the subject at that and wait for Colin to do ‘instrument song titles’ & get excited again.
Cheers~~~
Cheers Karl. A combination of memory, ‘Lyrics 1962-2001’ and google, got me going with this. A fun exercise – I’m surprised it has not been attempted before. Listening to Dylan is one of the great joys of life.
One -is the loneliest number. John Farnham
Eight Days A Week – Beatles
Revolution No 9 Beatles
Two Of Us Beatles
Some more:
Love Me Two Times – The Doors
Three Cool Cats – The Beatles
Hollywood Seven – Jon English
One more river: James Reyne
One step at a time: Jeff Lynne’s ELO
One more time: Jeff Lynne’s ELO
One summer dream: Electric Light Orchestra
One country: Midnight Oil
One after 909: Beatles
Rule of threes: Mondo Rock
Four to the floor: Starsailor
Five miles closer to the sun: James Reyne
Seven wonders: Fleetwood Mac.
And let’s not forget Midnight Oil had an album titled 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Two can play: Australian Crawl
At the outer limit, can anyone come up with a precise number in a song greater than Judy Stone’s 1964 release ‘4003221 tears from now’?