My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 7/17/16

Remember when I posted these regularly? For that matter, remember when I posted ANYTHING regularly?

I've been listening only to specific playlists for a while, and I forgot the simple joy of the shuffle.




Love One Another - Cher
I'm Not The Man I Used To Be (Smith And Mighty Version) - Fine Young Cannibals
Love Shack - The B-52's
Country Sunshine - Dottie West
Getting Away With It - Electronic
Go Insane - Lindsey Buckingham
Dazz - Brick!
It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr
The Main Main Event (mashup) - RuPaul/Barbra Streisand
Dedicated To The One I Love - The Mamas & The Papas
Giving You The Benefit-Extended Club Mix - Pebbles
Don't Leave Me This Way (Featuring Sarah Jane Morris) - Communards
I Loves You Porgy - Nina Simone

My Most-Played 2014 Songs (And 2013 Too!)

I got through my recent project of listening to every song I own. I didn't listen to them all. I skipped some, I listened to others for a minute or two, and when I had multiple remixes of particular songs (hi, Madonna!) I chose the ones I liked best. I really need to do a better job of listening to all of my music on a regular basis instead of the same things over and over. I reset the iTunes play counts to zero and we'll see how I do at that. (By the way, I may end up switching over to Google Play because my iPod Classic is acting a bit nutty and, with Apple discontinuing this device, at some point I may need to start listening to my music on my phone. Great if I have wi-fi, but if not...)

Here are the songs I listened to the most in 2014...and after that, 2013 (because I didn't post one of these last year). Note how there are some songs in both lists, which is why I need to listen with more variety. Also, lots of ties. In other years I'd play some songs another time to break the tie. I didn't bother this time.

2014 Most-Played

1. Meteorite - Mariah Carey
2. Happy - Pharrell Williams
3. Counting Stars - OneRepublic
4. Mmm Yeah - Austin Mahone (feat. Pitbull)
5. Are You What You Want To Be? - Foster The People
6. Swine - Lady Gaga
7(t). Coming of Age - Foster The People
7(t). Timber - Pitbull (feat. Ke$ha)
9(t). Best Friend - Foster The People
9(t). Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix) - Lana Del Rey
11(t). Sexxx Dreams - Lady Gaga
11(t). La La La - Naughty Boy (feat. Sam Smith)
13(t). Love Me Again - John Newman
13(t). G.U.Y. - Lady Gaga
15. Fashion! - Lady Gaga
16. Hideaway - Kiesza
17. Team - Lorde
18. Lay Me Down -  Avicii  (feat. Adam Lambert and Nile Rodgers)
19(t). I Need a Dollar (from How to Make It In America) - Aloe Blacc
19(t). F for You - Disclosure (feat. Mary J. Blige)
21. Stay The Night - Zedd (Featuring Hayley Williams Of Paramore)
22. Royals - Lorde
23(t). Sing - Ed Sheeran
23(t). Applause - Lady Gaga
25. Get Lucky - Daft Punk (feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)

2013 Most-Played

1. Get Lucky - Daft Punk (feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)

2. Your Body (Oxford Hustlers Club mix) - Christina Aguilera

3. Scream & Shout - Will.I.Am (feat. Britney Spears)

4. The Night Out (A-Track Vs. Martin Rework) - Martin Solveig

5. Sweet Nothing - Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch

6. Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix) - Lana Del Rey

7. Applause - Lady Gaga

8. Love You Like A Love Song (Jumpsmokers Club Remix) - Selena Gomez & The Scene

9. Sexxx Dreams - Lady Gaga

10. Pound The Alarm - Nicki Minaj

11. Diane Young - Vampire Weekend

12. Locked Out Of Heaven - Bruno Mars

13. Madonna Has A Kiki - Madonna/Scissor Sisters (mashup)

14. I Need Your Love - Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding

15. All Around The World - Justin Bieber

16. I Love It - Icona Pop (feat. Charli XCX)

17. We Found Love  - Calvin Harris (feat. Rihanna)

18. One (Your Name) - Swedish House Mafia (feat. Pharrell)

19. Let's Go (Radio Edit) - Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo

20. Spectrum (Say My Name) (Calvin Harris Extended Mix) - Florence & The Machine

21. Fashion! - Lady Gaga

22. Vocal - Pet Shop Boys

23. Love is a Bourgeois Construct - Pet Shop Boys

24. Don't You Worry Child - Swedish House Mafia (feat. John Martin)

25. Treasure - Bruno Mars

The Stones, k.d. lang, AND...

As I explained here, I'm in a desperate and probably futile quest to listen to every song in my iTunes at least once during 2014. (Update: still 3,607 tracks left. I have 17 days left. And that doesn't even count Christmas music, which I don't play the rest of the year anyway.) At one point yesterday, I heard the Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?" from 1997, and I heard something familiar in the chorus (skip to 1:23):



You're probably thinking of "Constant Craving" by k.d. lang (skip to 0:44).



You may recall that, to avoid possible lawsuits, lang and Ben Mink, the writers of "Constant Craving," were given songwriters' credit on the Stones song. And yes, I did think of it. Eventually. But another song popped into my head first:



Not exact, but close enough for me. (Wonder if the writers of this song thought about suing k.d.lang?) Just a little more evidence that it's very hard, if not impossible, to create a completely brand new song. Everything borrows something that came before it, even if only slightly.

I'm Back! With "Pride"

Hi there! Remember me? I used to blog. I got away from it for many reasons -- partly related to laziness, and other things I won't talk about right now (or maybe ever) -- but I want to get back to it. I need to get back to it.

So, as we go along perhaps I'll get to some other stuff I've been meaning to post. For now, though, here's a little iTunes Baker's Dozen. Not a shuffle from my collection, but from iTunes Radio's special LGBT Pride station. I'm trying to figure out exactly where the "LGBT" comes in, how this is different from any other pop-oriented radio station (other than the inclusion of the old Cher hit). Also, at some point in the near future, will Pitbull appear on EVERY song?

Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake

I Will Never Let You Down - Rita Ora

Chandelier - Sia

Wut - Le1f

Drunk in Love - Beyonce feat. Jay Z

Into the Wild - LP

Song for the Lonely - Cher

Hideaway - Kiesza

Dark Horse - Katy Perry feat. Juicy J

Exotic - Priyanka Chopara feat. Pitbull

Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais Remix) - Lana Del Rey

Fancy - Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX

Problem - Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 7-10-13

It's been a while for one of these, soooo...

It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
Simple - k.d. lang
The War Is Over - Kelly Clarkson
She's Comin' Out Swingin' - The Simpsons
Changes - David Bowie
Say Goodbye - Dave Matthews Band
You Take Some Lentils and You Take Some Rice - Eurythmics
Here You Come Again - Dolly Parton
Two Hearts - Stephanie Mills with Teddy Pendergrass
You'll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) - Dionne Warwick
This Love (Tricky Stewart Remix) - Maroon 5
Kill The Pain - INXS
Life Can Be So Nice - Prince and the Revolution

My Summer Playlist "Update"

...and by "update" I mean, here's the whole damn list from my iTunes library. Instead of repeating links to the prior posts and their bits and pieces, I decided to just copy and paste it all here. This means a number of songs I put on the list in the last year or so haven't been mentioned before.

I guess I'll repeat all my disclaimers as well: the songs on my list fall into at least one of the following categories (other than the obvious, that they're in my iTunes and I like them):

• To at least some extent they're about summer or the sun or warmth or heat
• They were released during/became hits during the summer
• I either discovered/fell in love with them during the summer or associate them with summer for some reason or they just felt to me like they had a summery sound or vibe -- so this part is very subjective and your mileage may vary

Feel free to go back to my old posts and see some of the things I wrote about the songs when I first posted the list, and in some cases listen to them via YouTube links. And so, after the jump...174 songs of my summers, past and present: