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Song of the Day #3,546: ‘”20″‘ – Travis

Today’s track was one of the initial inspirations for my ’31 Numbered Songs’ series. I’ve been a big fan of this song since I first heard it nearly two decades ago and at one point I considered making it the kick-off track of a 2-week series on songs numbered 20 through 29. Fortunately, I didn’t jump the gun and we all got to discover some obscure rap artists in the 1-10 range.

I discovered Travis’ “20” as a hidden bonus track on the band’s acclaimed sophomore album, 1999’s The Man Who. It’s one of three hidden tracks that are each as strong as anything on the album proper.

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Song of the Day #3,545: ’19’ – Paul Hardcastle

Our next numbered song is one of the unlikeliest hits of the 80s, British electronic artist Paul Hardcastle’s spoken-word Vietnam war anthem ’19.’

Inspired by a documentary on PTSD, Hardcastle sampled news reports and interviews over a bed of electronic music, centered around the (possibly incorrect) statistic that the average age of a soldier in Vietnam was 19.

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Song of the Day #3,544: ’18’ – One Direction

The ’31 Numbered Songs’ series reaches adulthood with ’18,’ a 2014 track from One Direction’s fourth album, appropriately titled Four. How many numbers can I get in one sentence?!

This song was written by Ed Sheeran (with Oliver Frank) for the band at the request of Simon Cowell. It wasn’t released as a single, but Niall Horan’s pronunciation of “chance” as “chonce” launched a thousand fan memes.

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Song of the Day #3,543: ‘Seventeen’ – Alessia Cara

Many of these numbered songs are named after ages, especially once I hit the teens. Alessia Cara’s ‘Seventeen’ is a more upbeat approach to the territory Taylor Swift mined in ‘Fifteen.’

This is a better video than song, using some clever camerawork to age Cara from childhood to middle age over the course of one bus ride.

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Song of the Day 3,542: ‘Sixteen’ – OH MY GIRL

I’ve featured only one K-POP (Korean pop) song on my blog — Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style,’ which at the time was the most-viewed video on YouTube. ‘Gangnam Style’ has since dropped to number four on that list, unseated by new #1 ‘Despacito’ (approaching 5 billion views!) as well as Wiz Khalifa’s ‘See You Again’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You.’

K-POP band OH MY GIRL, abbreviated as OMG, are a few billion views shy of Psy. Their top video clocks in with five and half million views, which still ain’t shabby.

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