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By the Numbers: Ten Songs With Numbers in the Title
A numerical musical prompt
Over the past several months I have found myself lured in by musical writing prompts, especially from music aficionados like Pierce McIntyre, Alex Markham, and Terry Barr. Well, I’m tired of reacting to prompts rather than starting them, so here’s one along the lines of the recent A-to-Z prompt that has been quite popular here: choose ten songs (or more if you’re ambitious) with numbers in the title.
The options can be overwhelming at first, which is why I confined myself to a simple “1 through 10” list. As will be the case for many of my generation, the first song that leapt to mind when I started was the Tommy Tutone 1981 earworm “867–5309/Jenny,” followed almost immediately by Nena’s “99 Luftballons.” Given the constraints I put on myself, neither of these were an option for my list, so they are still fair game to the first person to get to them.
What I like most about the ten I ultimately chose is that several are likely to be ones that casual fans may not know. Finding new music from old artists is one of the great joys in life.
Some of you may be wondering how I’m doing to fit a Born to Run reference in this piece (it’s the center square on your Combs Bingo card, after all). Bruce very graciously took care of that for me with a…
