Song Titles
May. 6th, 2005 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI have no idea whether anyone else will find what follows amusing or interesting, but I did, so... In deference to those who will not, a cut.
First, a few minor observations.
But enough of that. Let's do some statistics. (The list is in no sense of the word random, so much salt is needed here. Still, some of it is interesting, I think.)
Colors. Black is the color named most often, with fourteen appearances. (Actually, there are fifteen, but I'm only counting Heart's "Black on Black" once.) Blue, the runner up, is only half as common, being named seven times. (I didn't include occurrences of "blues", which came up twelve times.) White was next, appearing six times. (In five of those, it was paired with black, as mentioned above. The sixth was Foreigner's "Dirty White Boy".) Green got five mentions. Red ("Rev on the Red Line", Foreigner), orange ("Orange Colored Sky", Nat King Cole), brown ("Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue", Crystal Gayle), and yellow ("Mellow Yellow", Donovan) appeared once each.
Places. Among US states, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama were named twice; Kentucky, Louisiana, and California appeared once each. It's interesting that all but one of these are southern. ("The South" and "Dixie" also got one mention each.) The picture is very different for cities. New York City is named six times (and Harlem, Tribeca, and Brooklyn also get mentions); California cities come in six times (Los Angeles twice, plus San Francisco, Monterey, San Jose, and Ventura). Other cities named include San Antonio, TX; Chicago and East St. Louis, IL; Philadelphia and Allentown, PA; Las Vegas, NV; Tulsa, OK; the possibly imaginary towns of China Grove, TX and Hazard, NB; and Lodi. (I'm not sure which of the half-dozen towns of that name is meant, but I have a vague memory that it's the one in Wisconsin.) The only ones of these which are even marginally southern are San Antonio, Tulsa, and the dubious China Grove (mentioned as being "just outside San Anton'"). I have no idea whether this contrast means anything.
Outside the US, Alberta gets one mention. The only countries to provide more than one city-mention are Mexico (Tijuana, Guaymas, Cananea) and Vietnam (Saigon, twice). The rest of the named cities are scattered across Europe (Versailles, Rome, Leningrad) and the Middle East (Jerusalem, Mecca, Babylon, Ne[y]shabur).
The US itself is mentioned seven times, once as "the USA" and six times as "America". The USSR, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, and Spain also come in for mentions.
Among places of legend, Avalon seems popular, being named three times. Shangri-La, Lothlorien, and Shambala appear once each.
Times. Among the weekdays, it's probably unsurprising that Saturday is the most popular, appearing six times. The rest of the weekend lags behind: Friday and Sunday are named twice each. (Spanky and Our Gang supply both Sunday mentions.) The other weekdays get one mention each: "Rainy Days and Mondays" (Carpenters), "Tuesday Afternoon" (Moody Blues), "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M." (Simon and Garfunkel), and "Thursday" (Jim Croce).
The only mentions of months are Selena's "Despues de Enero", Simon and Garfunkel's "April Come She Will", Gordon Lightfoot's "Black Day in July", and Boston's "Fourth of July Reprise". (New Year's Day is the only other holiday mentioned.)
Summer is the most-named season, with six appearances. (Three of those are covers of "Summertime".) Autumn (but not fall) and winter are mentioned twice each. Spring, perhaps surprisingly, doesn't appear at all.
There may be conclusions to be drawn from the above, but I think I'll forbear.
First, a few minor observations.
- It seems to me that repeating the same word three times in a title is a bit excessive. It's pretty rare - only four of my titles were like that - but three of them were by Abba: "Gimme Gimme Gimme", "Money Money Money", and "On and On and On". (The last is not to be confused with "On and On", sung by Gladys Knight. There is no "On", though there is an "Om", by the Moody Blues.) Is there something in that Swedish water? (The fourth was Nat King Cole's "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" - which ought to have some accent marks, but the heck with it.)
- Alphabetization leads to some odd and sometimes amusing juxtapositions. The best I noticed were: Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You", followed immediately by "I'm Gone"; Selena's "Donde Estas Corazon?"/"Estoy Aqui"; and the trifecta, Dusty Springfield's "I'll Try Anything"/"In Private"/"In the Middle of Nowhere". (Getting cold feet, Dusty?)
- There are several interesting-to-bizarre covers in the list, Dolly Parton's "Stairway to Heaven", Skeeter Davis's "Blueberry Hill", and the Turtles' "It Was a Very Good Year" among them. Also interesting are the non-covers - unrelated songs with the same title. There are no less than four songs titled "Black and White" (by Jackson Browne, Roxanne Cash, Sarah McLachlan, and Three Dog Night), as well as Mr. Mister's "Black/White". There are two or three "I Need You"s, and a "You Need Me", and two "Colour My World"s.
But enough of that. Let's do some statistics. (The list is in no sense of the word random, so much salt is needed here. Still, some of it is interesting, I think.)
Colors. Black is the color named most often, with fourteen appearances. (Actually, there are fifteen, but I'm only counting Heart's "Black on Black" once.) Blue, the runner up, is only half as common, being named seven times. (I didn't include occurrences of "blues", which came up twelve times.) White was next, appearing six times. (In five of those, it was paired with black, as mentioned above. The sixth was Foreigner's "Dirty White Boy".) Green got five mentions. Red ("Rev on the Red Line", Foreigner), orange ("Orange Colored Sky", Nat King Cole), brown ("Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue", Crystal Gayle), and yellow ("Mellow Yellow", Donovan) appeared once each.
Places. Among US states, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama were named twice; Kentucky, Louisiana, and California appeared once each. It's interesting that all but one of these are southern. ("The South" and "Dixie" also got one mention each.) The picture is very different for cities. New York City is named six times (and Harlem, Tribeca, and Brooklyn also get mentions); California cities come in six times (Los Angeles twice, plus San Francisco, Monterey, San Jose, and Ventura). Other cities named include San Antonio, TX; Chicago and East St. Louis, IL; Philadelphia and Allentown, PA; Las Vegas, NV; Tulsa, OK; the possibly imaginary towns of China Grove, TX and Hazard, NB; and Lodi. (I'm not sure which of the half-dozen towns of that name is meant, but I have a vague memory that it's the one in Wisconsin.) The only ones of these which are even marginally southern are San Antonio, Tulsa, and the dubious China Grove (mentioned as being "just outside San Anton'"). I have no idea whether this contrast means anything.
Outside the US, Alberta gets one mention. The only countries to provide more than one city-mention are Mexico (Tijuana, Guaymas, Cananea) and Vietnam (Saigon, twice). The rest of the named cities are scattered across Europe (Versailles, Rome, Leningrad) and the Middle East (Jerusalem, Mecca, Babylon, Ne[y]shabur).
The US itself is mentioned seven times, once as "the USA" and six times as "America". The USSR, Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, and Spain also come in for mentions.
Among places of legend, Avalon seems popular, being named three times. Shangri-La, Lothlorien, and Shambala appear once each.
Times. Among the weekdays, it's probably unsurprising that Saturday is the most popular, appearing six times. The rest of the weekend lags behind: Friday and Sunday are named twice each. (Spanky and Our Gang supply both Sunday mentions.) The other weekdays get one mention each: "Rainy Days and Mondays" (Carpenters), "Tuesday Afternoon" (Moody Blues), "Wednesday Morning 3 A.M." (Simon and Garfunkel), and "Thursday" (Jim Croce).
The only mentions of months are Selena's "Despues de Enero", Simon and Garfunkel's "April Come She Will", Gordon Lightfoot's "Black Day in July", and Boston's "Fourth of July Reprise". (New Year's Day is the only other holiday mentioned.)
Summer is the most-named season, with six appearances. (Three of those are covers of "Summertime".) Autumn (but not fall) and winter are mentioned twice each. Spring, perhaps surprisingly, doesn't appear at all.
There may be conclusions to be drawn from the above, but I think I'll forbear.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 03:49 am (UTC)But then, the last one to harrass you about obsessions with trivia is the person who always notices all the words with all 5 vowels; we all have our quirks. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 06:21 pm (UTC)Hee!
But really... super accomplishment. My brain would short out long ere such a list was memorized!
no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-07 09:10 pm (UTC)It's odd, given how important a topic spring is in lyric poetry, historically.