Give Me an A

How many song titles do you think start with the letter A? How many start with the word All? Honestly, I don't know either, and don't even know where you might find this out, but I do know what's on my bathroom iPod, and I would have never guessed the number.

Yes, I still play music through an iPod, in the garage/workshop, in the shed and in the bathroom. I like to hear music. My wife calls me the noisiest person she knows, but I don't care.

Lately, I've taken to setting the bathroom iPod to play Songs. I wasn't really prepared to know how this would work. I've been using the Shuffle setting to play anything on the iPod randomly. This has been my favorite setting, to hear the unit select from the thousand of songs saved on the unit.

Then I shifted to playing all of one recording artist where there might be a fair number of say Linda Ronstadt songs. I add songs to my iPod through iTunes and mostly through copying CD content onto the unit. Lately I've discovered the Songs setting.

To my surprise, this plays the songs alphabetically. I wasn't initially aware of this until I heard four tracks of the Air Conditioner song, two by Christine Lavin, who I think wrote the novelty song, and two by Sutton Foster played in a row. Each recording artist has a "live" recording, and a studio version. I love that song. Listen to it, I think you'll like it.

Every time I hear the Air Conditioner song and listen to the lyrics I think it would make a great showstopper for a Broadway musical version of the Seven Year Itch, that great 1955 movie starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell about cooling off during a sweltering New York City summer with little air conditioning and the wife and kids vacationing in Maine while home along entertaining romantic fantasies about the blonde living upstairs.

New York City in the 1950s and 1960s had sweltering summers with air conditioning yet to become prevalent. People slept on fire escapes and used fans to try and keep cool. Movie theaters hung an air conditioning sign on their marquees to entice you to spend some time at the movies and try and cool off.

In the movie, Tom Ewell happens to have a Friedrich in his window and attracts Marilyn Monroe trying to cool off while Tom's family has headed up to Maine to get away from another New York City summer.

I digress. Back to my iPod playback order. Aside from all the sings that start with the letter A I've been astounded to realize how many of those songs start with All in their title. I think the first song with All in the title started playing back this past Monday, and here it is Friday and I haven't worked my way through those titles that start with All.

I've counted those that start with All. There 54! of them. There are 153! that start with A. I've downloaded recording artists of all stripes. The advantage to listening to songs in alphabetical order is that when there is a version by a different recording artist I get to hear multiple versions back to-back, like the four versions of The Air Conditioner song.

I've got All of You sung by Buddy Greco and Steve Tyrell; All the Way sung by Jimmy Scott and Tierney Sutton. Would you believe that Meat Loaf has a song title starts with All? Name that tune. The variety of recording artists is incredible. And I haven't yet gotten to B.

Do I have song titles that start with every letter of the alphabet? I'm not going to peek ahead. Are there any with Q? In a Cheers episode Sam Malone somewhat brags that his little black book is so full that he's even got several numbers for women whose names start with the letter Q.

I'm not in the bathroom that long in the mornings. A shave every second or third day; a daily shower,  brushing my teeth, and cleaning the litter box. I have no idea how long it will take me to work my way through A-Z playback.

At 74, I'm just wondering if I'll live long enough to listen to all of them. I expect to be through the 15! remaining All titles by  this time next week.

Miles to go...

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