Counting Down my iTunes Play Count (VANITY) -- Day #44

Day #44 of the Top 50 songs on my iTunes playlist -- ranked in reverse order by play frequency from #50 to #1 and presented here on a series of FR threads. I've been posting them here on a new thread that compiles the growing list one day at a time over the last couple of months. We are coming down the home stretch here, and it looks like this will be done by the second week of November!

And to show my gratitude to the FR management for giving us all a forum to post vanity threads like this, I'll be making contributions for both the 3rd and 4th quarter fundraisers. I would encourage everyone on these threads to do the same! :-)

List to Date:

#50T -- "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel
#50T -- "Fly Over States" by Jason Aldean
#49 -- "Sara" by Fleetwood Mac
#48 -- Bagpipe Medley by the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (2009 World Pipe Band Championships)
#47 -- "How I'll Always Be" by Tim McGraw
#46 -- "Midnight On The Interstate" by Trampled By Turtles
#45 -- "Your Love" by The Outfield
#44 -- "Ventura Highway" by America
#43 -- "Like A Rock" by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
#42 -- "The World I Know" by Collective Soul
#41 -- "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen
#40 -- "The Gael" from The Last of the Mohicans
#39 -- "Stand Or Fall" by The Fixx
#38 -- "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits
#37 -- "Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band
#36 -- "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procul Harum
#35 -- "Gathering Crowds" from This Week in Baseball
#34 -- "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle
#33 -- "Suddenly Last Summer" by The Motels
#32 -- "Time Stand Still" by Rush
#31 -- "Nothing Left To Lose" by Mat Kearney
#30 -- "In a Big Country" by Big Country
#29 -- "New York City Serenade" by Bruce Springsteen
#28 -- "Who'll Stop the Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
#27 -- "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" by John Mellencamp
#26 -- "It's All I Can Do" by The Cars
#25 -- "Talk Of The Town" by The Pretenders
#24 -- "Going To California" by Led Zeppelin
#23 -- "Into The Mystic" by Van Morrison
#22 -- "The Fire Inside" by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
#21 -- "Heard It In A Love Song" by The Marshall Tucker Band
#20 -- "Find Your Way Back" by Jefferson Starship
#19 -- "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" by Grand Funk Railroad
#18 -- "Take It Back" by Pink Floyd
#17 -- "Mandolin Rain" by Bruce Hornsby & The Range
#16 -- "More Than A Feeling" by Boston
#15 -- "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
#14 -- "Sullivan Street" by the Counting Crows
#13 -- "Take It To The Limit" by The Eagles
#12 -- "Waiting On A Friend" by the Rolling Stones
#11 -- "A Pirate Looks At Forty" by Jimmy Buffett
#10 -- "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart
#9 -- "Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea
#8 -- "Hysteria" by Def Leppard

Pinging to those from the previous threads. Back in 1990, this one wouldn't have even been among my Top 250. Something clicked in my mind over it when I heard it once while traveling in Alberta, and it's been a favorite of mine ever since. The guitar tracks on this one are exceptional. This may be the most overrated song from the 1980s.

To this day, I can't hear it without instantly being brought back to a trip south out of downtown Calgary on Macleod Trail late on a November Friday night. A light snow fell and the lights and sounds of the legendary Ranchman's Saloon were saying a fond farewell as I drove past it for the last time until my next trip out there.

Let me know if you'd like to be added or removed from the ping list!

Def Leppard is a recently acquired taste for me. During the time they were popular, I was more into New Wave/Alternative and so it was easy to dismiss the "hair bands" of that era but I am definitely appreciating a lot of their songs now.

My #8 song is "Big Log" by Robert Plant. When this song was popular, I was stationed in the Mojave Desert with the Marine Corps. There was a dive bar in Niland, CA, I believe, or it could have been Brawley or El Centro, where I first heard this song. By the way, that truly is a wonderfully desolate area populated with a lot of hippie girls that I could write threads about!

Anyway, the video for this song, filmed not too far from that area, always takes me back to those days.

Robert Plant - Big Log (1983)

This song is off Plant's "The Principle Of Moments" album and I believe this was the musical direction Led Zeppelin was headed towards if John Bonham had not died, breaking up the band. If so, we missed out on a lot of great Led Zeppelin music.

Here is my list so far...

#50 - Jack's Mannequin - The Lights And Buzz (2005)
#49 - The Cars - It's All I Can Do (1979)
#48 - Lobo - Me And You And A Dog Named Boo (1971)
#47 - Zach Bryan - Oklahoma Smokeshow (2022)
#46 - Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky (1970)
#45 - Chris Isaak - Wicked Game (1989)
#44 - Night - Hot Summer Nights (1979)
#43 - Rocky Burnette - Tired Of Toein' The Line (1980)
#42 - Emmylou Harris - Pancho And Lefty (1976)
#41 - Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me (1985)
#40 - Tom Petty - Refugee (1979)
#39 - Coldplay - Clocks (2002)
#38 - The Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies (1991)
#37 - Johnny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down (1970)
#36 - Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street (1978)
#35 - Chris de Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling (1975)
#34 - The Doors - Riders On A Storm (1971)
#33 - Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You (1981)
#32 - Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning (1973)
#31 - Opus - Live Is Life (1985)
#30 - Elton John - Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (1973)
#29 - Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat (1976)
#28 - America - Sister Golden Hair (1975)
#27 - The Police - Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (1981)
#26 - Gary Numan & The Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric (1979)
#25 - David Bowie - Width Of A Circle (1970)
#24 - Haircut 100 - Love Plus One (1982)
#23 - Outlaws - Ghost Riders In The Sky (1980)
#22 - Renaissance - Carpet Of The Sun (1973)
#21 - Tom Petty - Here Comes My Girl (1979)
#20 - Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way (1977)
#19 - Nillson - Everybody's Talkin' (1969)
#18 - Jason Aldean - Fly Over States (2010)
#17 - The Fifth Dimension - Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (1969)
#16 - Weezer - Buddy Holly (1994)
#15 - Juice Newton - Angel Of The Morning (1981)
#14 - Sting - Soul Cake (2009)
#13 - Sniff 'n' The Tears - Driver's Seat (1979)
#12 - U2 & Pavarotti - Miss Sarajevo (1995)
#11 - Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying (2004)
#10 - Asia - Heat Of The Moment (1982)
#9 - Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (1978)
#8 - Robert Plant - Big Log (1983)

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