In the midst of my Oscar snub countdown, stunned by the outrage of a ‘Stayin’ Alive’ shut-out, I neglected to note the milestone of my 2,500th post.
My 500th Song of the Day was The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout‘ and in that post I wrote “I admit there are times when I wonder if I can keep this going for very much longer.”
Song number 1,000 was Fiona Apple’s live cover of Elvis Costello’s ‘I Want You,’ a clip I noted was the first song I ever posted to this blog, before I started the Song of the Day series.
SOTD #1,500 was ‘Claire’s Ninth’ by Ben Folds, as part of my personal musical genome project. I didn’t spend much time noting the milestone of the post, as I was too busy laying out the byzantine rules of that particular trip down the rabbit hole.
And my 2,000th Song of the Day was ‘2000 Man’ by The Rolling Stones, a track that landed on the first day of 2014. I used the occasion to make a resolution, “to keep doing this, embarking on my third thousand starting tomorrow and not looking back.”
I’m halfway through that third thousand now, after adding the Bee Gees to the impressive group of artists who have marked off each 500 songs.
Here’s a nice Coldplay track to see us on our way.
Every moment was so precious
They were sitting
They were talking in the strawberry swing
Everybody was for fighting
Wouldn’t wanna waste a thing
Cold, cold water
Bring me ’round
Now my feet won’t touch the ground
Cold, cold water
What ya say?
When it’s such
It’s such a perfect day
It’s such a perfect day
I remember
We were walking up to strawberry swing
I can’t wait ’til the morning
Wouldn’t wanna change a thing
People moving all the time
Inside a perfectly straight line
Don’t you wanna just curve away
When it’s such
It’s such a perfect day
It’s such a perfect day
Ah…
Now the sky could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time
Could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time
Well the sky could be blue
Could be grey
Without you I’m just miles away
Well, the sky could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, I don’t know when/if you will put an end to the SOTD, but I for one have enjoyed making this a part of my mornings. I’m hoping that this blog reaches a sufficient level of notoriety that, like Letterman’s farewell, your last weeks will be filled with your personal favorite musical celebrity guests either posting or commenting. You reading this Ben Folds, Fiona Apple, Tift Merritt, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Miranda Lambert, Elvis Costello, Ron Sexsmith and Aimee Mann?😄
Congratulations on reaching yet another milestone!
Over the past 3 months, I have been slowly slogging my way through the mammoth discography collated by your posts. This exercise in time travel has simultaneously fulfilled my love for lists (I’m making an annoying spreadsheet/playlist of every song you’ve featured, with some exceptions where I couldn’t find things on Spotify) and my love for going back through cultural zeitgeists. Your writing always goes down like water – simply and refreshing. I can only hope you will continue this blog for the next twenty years (can’t wait to catch up with you one day!).
Thanks so much, Sam!