Top Songs of 2008

This is my first post on the all-new Kevdo.com blog. Instead of creating another “personal” blog to go along with my iPhone releated blog, Useless Productivity, I decided to merge those into one, allowing me to blog about any topic and on a more regular basis. So, here we are… hope you like it.

In 2008 I decided to leverage the Play Count feature in iTunes and on the iPod to see which songs I listened to most during the year. I have looked at the statistics and in 2008 I listened to 1295 songs at least once. Of course, that number does not count any songs I listened to on CD, radio, XM, or elsewhere. It also doesn’t count all the podcasts I listened to, which are averaging about 2 hrs worth per day (and the sad part is that number might be a conservative estimate). 

So, out of those almost-1300 songs, which songs were listened to the most in 2008?  Here’s the top 20, with the song play count listed next to the artist.

1. Fistful of Sand (Moon Version) - The Bravery (50)
2. Every Word Is a Knife In My Ear (Moon Version) - The Bravery (44)
3. The Name Of The Game (The Crystal Method’s Big Ass T.T. Mix) - The Crystal Method (41)
4. Love Me Sexy (Frat Pack Remix) - Will Ferrell (41)
5. Believe - The Bravery (39)
6. This Is Not the End (Moon Version) - The Bravery (35)
7. Paralyzer - Finger Eleven (35)
8. Give It 2 Me - Madonna (34)
9. Above and Below - The Bravery (33)
10. The Little Things - Danny Elfman (33)
11. An Honest Mistake - The Bravery (30)
12. Fearless - The Bravery (30)
13. The Ocean (Moon Version) - The Bravery (30)
14. North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem (29)
15. Reptile - The Church (28)
16. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend (28)
17. Funplex - The B-52’s (26)
18. Crushcrushcrush - Paramore (26)
19. Bad Sun (Moon Version) - The Bravery (22)
20. Tyrant - The Bravery (21)

Well, obviously The Bravery take the cake in 2008. And their appearance in the top 20 has a lot to do with their 2007 Sun and the Moon album that was remixed and re-released in 2008 (hence the label “Moon version”). I like both versions of the album, though I like the remixed stuff better in general. But in any case I did listen to this album and my “Bravery Best” playlist quite a bit in 2008. 

Also note that the number above does not found the number of times I’ve heard at least a snippet of the Moon version of “A Fistful of Sand.” You see, I made a ringtone out of that song and it’s the default on my phone. So, I actually heard that song more than 100 times in 2008!

Number four on the list is the remix that I created of Will Ferrell’s “Love Me Sexy” (MP3 Download) from Semi-Pro. You could download all the individual music and instrument tracks and I was able to put them into GarageBand and tweak some of the levels and add additional musical cues. It was a lot of fun and obviously I ended up liking the results.

It’s also interesting to see a couple of my 1980’s icons on the list. “The Little Things” was from The Wanted Soundtrack and is very Oingo Boingo-ish. I really liked Madonna’s latest album overall and one of her tracks ended up in my top 20.

Of course, this list favors tracks released earlier than later in the year. As such, The Killers are the most likely “victims” of this since their recent album was only released in November. So, maybe it’ll be their year in 2009.

So, I guess I’ll reset all my play counts for 2009 and see who I end up listening to this year. If you had a favorite song, album, or artists in 2008 please leave a comment!

Happy New Blog Year Everyone.