Here are my most played songs of 2012, according to iTunes. A total of 1479 songs were played at least once, with Madonna‘s “Beautiful Killer” taking the top spot. That song was also my alarm chime for most the year as well. If you count plays across all different song versions, Gotye‘s “Somebody That I Used To Know” was played 84 times.
A big disclaimer, however. Shortly after installing iTunes 11 the playcount for a bunch of songs was dropped to zero. I knew the totals for some of them but I seem to remember that I was up over 1800 songs with at least one playcount back in November so much of this data is suspect.
A few other notes: with Davy  Jones’ death I listened to a lot of Monkees, hence the high rank for “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow”, one of Jones’ best tracks (written by Neil Diamond). “Secret Journey” by The Police invariably makes my list since it’s on a “sleeptime” playlist.
| Song Name | Artist | Plays |
|---|---|---|
| Beautiful Killer | Madonna | 45 |
| Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) | Gotye | 35 |
| Girl Gone Wild | Madonna | 29 |
| Warrior | Mark Foster + A-Trak + Kimbra | 29 |
| Youth Without Youth | Metric | 29 |
| Automatic Systematic Habit | Garbage | 28 |
| Runaways | The Killers | 25 |
| Somebody That I Used to Know (Myndset Remix) | Gotye | 24 |
| Gang Bang | Madonna | 24 |
| Artificial Nocturne | Metric | 22 |
| Lonely Boy | The Black Keys | 20 |
| I’m Addicted | Madonna | 20 |
| Turn Up The Radio | Madonna | 20 |
| Speed the Collapse | Metric | 19 |
| Live to Rise | Soundgarden | 19 |
| Big Bright World | Garbage | 18 |
| Blood For Poppies | Garbage | 18 |
| Somebody That I Used to Know (Miami Nights Remix) | Gotye | 17 |
| Breathing Underwater | Metric | 17 |
| Synthetica | Metric | 17 |
| I Don’t Give A (featuring Nicki Minaj) | Madonna | 16 |
| Clone | Metric | 16 |
| Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) | The Monkees | 16 |
| Days Go By | The Offspring | 16 |
| A Certain “Je ne sais quoi” | Pet Shop Boys | 16 |
| Control | Garbage | 15 |
| Secret Journey | The Police | 15 |