Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Favourite songs

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Ottawa Ontario National Master Former Gov.
    Posts
    10,761
    Blog Entries
    61

    Default Favourite songs

    A while ago I did something I put off for ages, which is now much easier in the internet age (besides cable TV music channels being available). Namely, I wrote down a long list of hundreds of song titles that were either old or very recent favourites of mine (mostly the former). Wikipedia alone allows one to search through lists of songs by year, for a given decade (I also once saw a figure given for the number of songs ever written, when I Googled for that term). I'm not much of a music buff in spite of that (e.g. can't tell a B-flat from a C-minus), but someday I may get around to collecting a lot of recordings of these songs, as affordable.

    Sometimes I self-censored my choices, because of finding religion decades ago. I never liked AC/DC or Alice Cooper too much, so that wasn't much of a loss (e.g. Dirty deeds and No more Mr. Nice Guy respectively are off my list), but I hated to wave goodbye to Venus (by Shocking Blue) because of certain lyrics (about Goddess). Some I accepted even though I should know better, e.g. Shambala (by Three Dog Night), simply because most folks in the West don't know what that word means. On the dark side (Eddie and the Cruisers version) is another I let pass, maybe after a solitary drink one day.

    Anyway, one example of a song I really like is Jackie Blue (by Ozark Mountain Daredevils, 1974). What's funny is that I like most people didn't know that the singer is not female, in spite of sounding perfectly so. Maybe other posters can relate a favourite song, or even their own short list of them. There are also numerous songs that involve chess in some way out there (even Elton John's Someone saved my life tonight has a brief reference).
    Last edited by Kevin Pacey; 10-05-2019 at 09:22 PM. Reason: Correction
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  2. #2

    Default

    A few years ago - I downloaded a 64-meg spreadsheet containing the title, artist, year, and rank within that year for all 36,688 songs ever listed on the "Billboard" pop charts (and its predecessors) since 1890. My current version ends in 2007, but I assume there are updates out there. In addition - the file contains similar data for Country/Western (17,985 songs), R&B (17,952 songs), Christmas (945 songs), and UK charts (5,974 songs). Of course - there are overlaps - songs can appear in more than one category, and often in more than one year (e.g. Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" appears 33 times on the Christmas list).

    It's easy to do searches, or to manually sort the files if they aren't in the order you want.

    There are no songs with the word "chess" in then in any of the lists (one song title has the word "Duchess" - that's as close as it gets).

    Try a Google search on "Billboard spreadsheet" or "Whitburn spreadsheet" (Joel Whitburn collected the Billboard data in the pre-Internet age and has many publications out there).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Ottawa Ontario National Master Former Gov.
    Posts
    10,761
    Blog Entries
    61

    Default

    Good info, Hugh!

    One song that has the word chess in it is One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head, from 1984 (I Googled for the lyrics just now). It didn't make my personal favourites list, for previously stated reasons (notably the word devil is overused, making the song a little too close to home for me).

    Edit: A link to a later thread that may be of interest:

    http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/sh...had-best-songs

    Edit2: A link to a later thread that also may be of interest:

    http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/sh...s-your-beliefs
    Last edited by Kevin Pacey; 12-13-2019 at 09:57 AM. Reason: Adding link
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
    Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.

  4. #4

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Pacey View Post
    Good info, Hugh!

    One song that has the word chess in it is One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head, from 1984 (I Googled for the lyrics just now). It didn't make my personal favourites list, for previously stated reasons (notably the word devil is overused, making the song a little too close to home for me).
    I was referring to songs with "chess" in the titles. Of course - there are some with "chess" in the lyrics - e.g. "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (actually "chessboard" - not "chess"), and "Spanish Train" by Chris de Bergh. Many others with some chess-related terms - e.g. "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan:

    Like the castle in its corner
    In a medieval game
    I foresee terrible trouble
    And I stay here just the same

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •