Posted on 05/20/2021 11:11:03 AM PDT by Alberta's Child
I recently purchased a new computer, and over the last few weeks I've been transferring files from the old one to the new one. While doing this I've been combing through some of these files and checking to ensure that they will work with new versions of various applications I commonly use.
One of the things that caught my eye was the "Play Count" number for each of the MP3 and MP4 files I am moving from one computer to the other. As I went through these tracks on iTunes, I decided to rank them in the order of their play frequency to see if there were any interesting patterns in the number of times I've played them over the years. Then I figured -- based on some of the great conversations I've had over the years with Freepers who are music buffs -- I'd take the Top 50 songs on this list and present them here on a series of FR threads. I'll post them here on a new thread that compiles the growing list one day at a time over the next couple of months. I'll probably only post them on weekdays and may miss a day or two here and there, so it will take at least ten weeks to do this.
One of the things I noticed is that these songs do not necessarily show up in an accurate order of preference for me. Sometimes a song ranks high on the list just because I downloaded it a long time ago, and it's been played more times than others that were downloaded more recently. Other songs have been played more frequently because they’re on multiple playlists I've set up over the years -- Iconic Classic Rock, Hits for the Highway, Country Classics, Best of the 80s, etc. Over a period of years it's also possible that longer songs are less likely to appear higher on the list because they're more likely to get cut off before it plays completely -- when I'm playing them in my vehicle and stopping on a road trip, for example -- and therefore not registering as an additional "Play" in iTunes.
Any insight and commentary would be welcome! Feel free to post items from your own "Favorite Songs" list on these threads. You don't even have to post about your favorite song of all time right now. We have fifty days to go -- so take your time and consider posting one from your digital music collection that roughly corresponds to the list I post here. What's ranked #47 in your list of most frequently played songs on your app with iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.? #45? #40? What is it about that song that makes it stand out to you over many years? This could be an interesting series of threads, for sure.
Have fun with this, folks -- and don't forget to make your contribution for the FR quarterly fundraiser!
#47 -- "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers ... Click Here
This is an iconic mellow classic from one of the bands that put "Southern Rock" on the map. It's a staple of every trucker who has ever driven a rig across this great country, and can still be found on those little diner booth jukeboxes in roadside diners even decades after it was released.
Here's Gregg Allman himself from a 2006 interview:
I wrote that song in 1967 in a place called the Evergreen Hotel in Pensacola, Florida. By that time I got so sick of playing other people's material that I just sat down and said, "OK, here we go. One, two, three -- we're going to try to write songs." And about 200 songs later -- much garbage to take out -- I wrote this song called "Melissa." And I had everything but the title. I thought (referring to lyrics): "But back home, we always run ... to sweet Barbara" -- no. Diane...? "We always run ... to sweet Bertha." No, so I just kind of put it away for a while.
So one night I was in the grocery store -- it was my turn to go get the tea, the coffee, the sugar and all that other sh!t ... and there was this Spanish lady there and she had this little toddler with her -- this little girl. And I'm sitting there, getting a few things and what have you. And this little girl takes off, running down the aisle. And the lady yells, "Oh, Melissa! Melissa, come back, Melissa!" And I went, "Oh - that's it." I forgot about half the stuff I went for, I went back home and, man, it was finished, only I couldn't really tell if it was worth a damn or not because I'd written so many bad ones.
And there you have it, folks!
Ping!
#50 -- "Sara" by Fleetwood Mac
#49 -- "Ventura Highway" by America
#48 -- "Run" by George Strait
#47 -- "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers
I quit iTunes years ago. Maybe they fixed the issue but in the older versions if you copied your MP3 files over to another machine or sync’d it with another device, it would create a duplicate. Later versions they added a checkbox hidden deep in one of the menus to prevent that but it was already too late. Drove me absolutely mad. I even bought some software to try to remove duplicates but took forever, and difficult to tell (at the time) if they were 2 different recordings of the same song (e.g. a live version and a studio version from the same album).
I spent a fortune on CDs way back in the day, and then weeks burning them to MP3 only to have iTunes mess it up entirely.
Now, I just pay Spotify. Completely turned me off to iTunes.
A bit of trivia:
That song was actually written but never released while
Duane and Greg were in a band called “The 31st of February”,
a few years before they formed “The Allman Brothers Band”.
Before all of that, they performed as “The Allman Joys”.
That’s a great story by Greg Allman.
I was on the University of Missouri’s Concert Committee long ago. We had the Allman Brothers perform at the old Brewer Fieldhouse around 1970. I picked up some of the band members at the regional Columbia / Jefferson City airport and brought them to their hotel. For the life of me, I don’t remember who I had in the car. All I remember is they were dog-tired and wanted to be left alone.
I just have a hard drive in my car, home and a backup. Streaming doesn’t work well where I am, + I listen to a lot of live music so spotify type streaming doesn’t make sense. Quality could be an issue too.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the band had to change their name from the "Allman Joys" because of a legal challenge from the candy bar company. LOL.
That’s another great story. Did you ever think that band would become as iconic as they are remembered now?
Yeah. With Spotify you can do something akin to download the tracks to a playlist, but it doesn’t seem to always work for me when I have zero reception. I have a lot of Spotify playlists.
Annoying thing with Spotify is, they have a “family plan” but unlike say Netflix, it’s still all the same playlists they just charge you 50% more. You can’t have 2 people playing on 2 devices. In fact if one person is listening, another person on the plan can interrupt the stream by pushing a different song. Very annoying. Wife and I sometimes have Spotify wars to amuse each other, but otherwise it’s really annoying. I downgraded from the family plan because that feature is totally useless. Sometimes (often!) the wife and I watch different shows on Netflix or whatnot. They don’t interrupt each other like Spotify does.
It’s hard to tell, but probably not. I was a HUGE fan from their debut album “The Allman Brothers Band” which was released November 4, 1969 (I was a freshman in the Fall of ‘69). We got some big acts (Beach Boys, Three Dog Night [I think]) and when we had the Allman Brothers a couple years after their debut, they were already HUGELY popular.
I grew up in the New York City area. From the late 1980s through about 2010 the Allman Brothers used do a whole bunch of shows there every March — sometimes as many as 20 nights in the month — with such regularity that it almost became a ritual signaling the arrival of spring.
Dang, I think I missed yesterday. I’ll see if there’s anything interesting in my library later this evening.
I missed yesterday too as I spent the whole day in Manhattan. I’ll find that thread (after I eat some chicken and sweet potatoes) and come back to this one.
No worries, guys! Yesterday’s thread is linked from Post #1 in this thread! :-)
I was not that much into "southern rock" until Molly Hatchet hit it big in 1980 with "Flirtin' With Disaster". I then went down the rabbit hole of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Outlaws, Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Little Feat, etc. Lot of good nuggets to be found there.
My #47 most played iTunes song is "The Lights And Buzz" by Jack's Mannequin. I play this one a lot around Christmas time. It's not a Christmas song per se but it definitely gives me the feel of Christmas.
It's not a well known song and I think many here will really like it. This song was written by Andrew McMahon, probably better known for the band Something Corporate, just after getting a stem cell transplant to treat his leukemia (that he fully recovered from).
Even today, my play counts do not sync properly. If I play songs on my iPhone, they do not always increment as plays in my music library. Drives me crazy as I obsess over play counts. Also, the album art is always disappearing from certain albums and I have to keep restoring it. Maybe I'm anal but whenever a song plays with no cover art, I'm driven to remedy that immediately.
Like you, I spent aa fortune on compact discs back in the day. At one point, I had over 2,000 of them. So the $10 a month for unlimited access to millions of songs probably saved my marriage!
Another thing about Spotify that I’ve noticed, and was reminded as the wife and I spent a few hours driving yesterday, is that some number of the ‘classic rock’ songs they have are actually re-recorded versions. Usually by the same band (maybe substituting a studio musician here or there), but recorded decades later for release on streaming. I can only guess it has to do with royalties e.g. they make more money per play count re-recording their own songs again vs what they make off the original recording. Or, for whatever reason, the label doesn’t allow the original to be streamed.
Does the iTunes/Apple music stream do the same?
They are usually pretty good ‘covers’ of their own songs. But these are songs we’ve all probably heard 1000 times over the years and when you hear them on Spotify you can tell it’s not the same. The singer is 30-40 years older and difficult to hit the same notes, the guitar solo is only 95% the same, the mixing is a little different etc. Imaginary Lover by the Atlanta Rhythm Section was one we heard on the drive back that was clearly not the 1975 album/single version that got all the radio airplay over the years. Close but not the same.
Funny you mention that. A version of Steve Miller’s “The Joker” that sounded suspiciously like a re-recording of some sort was playing at the grocery store the other day. It was a *very* good cover but the phrasing was noticeably different here and there, most evident to me in the slide guitar parts. No doubt it’s some kind of royalties thing. The other classic rock songs they played that day seemed to be the originals. The other place I’ve occasionally noticed these kinds of covers is in filler music on talk radio stations.
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