Measuring the Unmeasurable: Ranking One’s Favorite Music, Part 5 (My 100 Favorite Tracks)

In the first four essays in this series (here, here, here, here), I detail the evolution of the 434 music “mixes” I have created since August 1981. These mixes migrated from cassette to CD to 150-GB flywheel iPod, with a handful of videocassettes added along the way. As of April 2024, I have put 3,625 tracks onto 9,270 “slot,” meaning the average mix has 20.4 tracks on it. By combining a measure of how often tracks appear on a mix (COUNTYEARS[1]) and how spread out over time these appearances are (SD[2]), then converting it into a z-score (mean=0, standard deviation=1), I created a measure called Media Appearances (“MA”). Z-scores – how many standard deviations above or below the mean a value is – are often used to sum measures with different scales.

In the most recent essay, I also explain how I supplemented play count for the 9,948 tracks in my iTunes – which I only started using in 2013 – with an estimate of how many additional times I played a track, weighted by time, because it appeared on a mix created between 1981 and 2012. Despite a somewhat arbitrary designation of “number of plays” for these 281 mixes, adding them to the play counts beginning in 2013 proved to be the necessary “historic” counterbalance. I also made slight downward adjustments for “non-personal-choice” plays, while collapsing live and studio recordings of the same track by the same artist into a single “track.” This measure is called Adjusted Total Plays (“ATP”), and it is also a z-score.

MA and ATP are correlated 0.75, demonstrating they measure the same underlying concept (how I rank order tracks), suggesting the final score will have high construct validity. This preliminary track score still has a mean of zero, but with a standard deviation of 2 (the number of summed z-scores).

I then multiplied this sum by Historic Adjustment (“HA”), which is the closest I plan to come to the “subjective adjustment” I used to apply to track scores. HA is a time-weighted tally of such elements that distinguish a track, such as being first on a mix in a multi-mix set, appearance on prior track rankings, whether I ever bought it as a single, and so forth. By dividing this value by 10 and adding 1, I “weight up” 921 tracks by an average of 5.9%.

Summing MA and AT, then multiplying by HA, yields Track Score (“TS”). This updated iteration is far more elegant and far less complex (albeit highly labor-intensive up front) than any previous iteration. As of early May 2024, TS (n=9,564) ranges from -0.947, for the 2,048 (21.5%) tracks with no mix appearances and one lifetime play, to 25.302. Seven tracks, as shown in Table 1 below, have TS>20, roughly 10 standard deviations above the mean of 0.039. The median TS is -0.756 because 7,164 (74.9%) tracks have TS<0; as additional 80 tracks have TS>0, but less than the mean.

Not surprisingly, the 3,625 tracks appearing on at least one mix have a higher mean and median TS score (1.485, 0.436) than the 5,939 tracks appearing on no mixes (-0.843, -0.883). While only 13 tracks with zero mix appearances have TS>0[3] – those with 16 or more plays – fully 2,386 (65.8%) of the tracks appearing on at least one mix have TS>0. The highest-ranking track never to appear on a mix is “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Go’s (0.835) at #1525.

Moreover, it is now much simpler to adjust TS. In the past, if I wanted to increase a track’s ranking (without fiddling with any purely subjective measures), I needed to make an entirely new mix which included the track in question. Now, simply playing that track one or more times does the same thing, and the adjustment is instantaneous. Currently, one additional play increases TS by 0.067 and 0.064 for tracks appearing and not appearing on a mix, respectively.

Still, making new mixes remains the best way to boost a track’s ranking. For example, putting “We Got the Beat” on its first mix (with minimum 2 additional plays)[4] increases its TS to 1.028, good for #1435. This 0.193 increase is roughly equivalent to three additional plays.

Because TS is strongly driven by ATP, a reasonable back-of-the-envelope 95% confidence interval (“CI”) around each TS value would be +/-0.317. This value is the standard error of ATP – standard deviation (15.8) divided by the square root of 9,565 – times 1.96. Thus, while “Original Sin” by INXS is ranked #486 with a TS of 3.991, we are 95% confident a “perfectly-measured” TS is between 3.684 (#541) and 4.308 (#442). The higher the TS, however, the smaller the range of “rank positions” in the 95% CI.

The point is – do not take TS values too literally. They are first-order estimations of a subjective – and, thus, highly resistant to objective measurement – value: how I rank nearly 9,600 tracks.

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With the caveats listed above, Table 1 below lists my 100 favorite tracks as of May 2024. Italics indicate title of a film or television program. Year of release is for original studio source.

Table 1: Matt Berger’s 100 Favorite Tracks (as of May 2024)

#	Title	Artist	Year	Track Score
100	Just Another Day	Oingo Boingo	1985	8.387
99	Love On Your Side	Thompson Twins	1983	8.398
98	Lady	Little River Band	1978	8.401
97	Our Manhattan Moment	Stan Ridgway	2004	8.403
96	A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	1981	8.409
95	Moving in Stereo	The Cars	1978	8.409
94	The Shadow	Jerry Goldsmith	1994	8.495
93	We Said Hello Goodbye	Phil Collins	1985	8.504
92	Badge	Cream	1969	8.525
91	Damned If I Do	The Alan Parsons Project	1979	8.638
90	Secret Journey	The Police	1981	8.732
89	I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On	Robert Palmer	1985	8.789
88	Miracles	Jefferson Starship	1975	8.794
87	That’s All For Everyone	Fleetwood Mac	1979	8.801
86	Urgent (Single Version)	Foreigner	1981	8.875
85	One of These Days	Pink Floyd	1978	8.886
84	The Evening’s Young	Yello	1981	8.907
83	Right Down The Line	Gerry Rafferty	1971	8.916
82	Change	Tears for Fears	1983	8.947
81	Left of Center	Suzanne Vega	1986	9.021
80	Save Me (w/reprise)	Public Image Ltd.	1987	9.045
79	All Come True	World Party & Steve Wickham	1987	9.070
78	Reap the Wild Wind	Ultravox	1982	9.134
77	Good Vibrations	The Beach Boys	1966	9.176
76	Can We Still Be Friends?	Robert Palmer	1979	9.203
75	One of These Days	Camper Van Beethoven	1988	9.264
74	Come as You Are	Nirvana	1981	9.286
73	Off the Wall	Michael Jackson	1979	9.308
72	Caravan	Utopia	1979	9.347
71	Strawberry Letter 23	The Brothers Johnson	1977	9.400
70	Why Go It Alone?	Pere Ubu	1989	9.454
69	Theme from The Untouchables	Nelson Riddle	1959	9.496
68	Time (Clock of the Heart)	Culture Club	1982	9.549
67	Love Song	Elton John	1970	9.617
66	Sex (I’m A…)	Berlin	1982	9.676
65	New Toy	Lene Lovich	1981	9.729
64	Superblast!	Lush	1993	9.836
63	Icehouse	Icehouse	1981	9.873
62	Jack and Jill	Raydio	1978	9.894
61	Nothing Natural	Lush	1993	9.951
60	Get the Balance Right	Depeche Mode	1983	9.954
59	Last Chance on the Stairway	Duran Duran	1982	9.983
58	Disco Nights (Rock Freak)	GQ	1979	9.985
57	Lined Up	Shriekback	1983	9.997
56	Communication	Spandau Ballet	1983	10.207
55	Nowhere Girl	B-Movie	1982	10.299
54	West End Girls	Pet Shop Boys	1985	10.368
53	I Got You	Split Enz	1980	10.385
52	Pink Parakeet	Stan Ridgway	1995	10.432
51	It’s Different for Girls	Joe Jackson	1979	10.558
50	Let Me Go	Heaven 17	1982	10.686
49	Face Down	Mitchell Froom	1984	10.745
48	In You I Trust	Rupert Holmes	1979	10.801
47	I Can’t Tell You Why	The Eagles	1979	10.909
46	Mainstreet	Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band	1976	11.065
45	Clear Trails	Shriekback	1983	11.121
44	Telephone Operator	Pete Shelley	1983	11.475
43	The Groove Line	Heatwave	1978	11.488
42	Beyond Doubt	Gene Loves Jezebel	1986	11.623
41	Dog Eat Dog	Adam and the Ants	1980	11.730
40	He Must Have Been a Genius	Uncle Bonsai	1984	11.738
39	Rivers (of the Hidden Funk)	Joe Walsh	1981	11.744
38	Transmission	Joy Division	1979	11.754
37	I Want Your Love	Chic	1978	11.769
36	Prime Time	The Tubes	1979	11.851
35	Gold	Spandau Ballet	1983	11.916
34	Stormy Side of Town	Stan Ridgway	1986	11.942
33	Johnny and Mary	Robert Palmer	1980	12.019
32	Crazy Love	Poco	1978	12.040
31	Walkin’ Home Alone	Stan Ridgway	1986	12.050
30	Especially For You	The Smithereens	1988	12.206
29	You Might Recall	Genesis	1982	12.947
28	Sweet Pea	Miles Davis	1967	13.133
27	Carrie	Cliff Richard	1979	13.388
26	What You Won’t Do for Love	Bobby Caldwell	1978	13.458
25	Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime	The Korgis	1980	13.588
24	Street Café (single version)	Icehouse	1982	13.693
23	Theme From L.A Confidential	Jerry Goldsmith	1997	13.773
22	Bring on the Night	The Police	1979	13.835
21	Red Skies	The Fixx	1982	13.865
20	The Sound of the Crowd	The Human League	1981	14.225
19	Golden Brown	The Stranglers	1981	14.357
18	Same Old Scene	Roxy Music	1980	14.552
17	Entangled	Genesis	1976	15.285
16	All Mixed Up	The Cars	1978	15.388
15	Don’t Change	INXS	1982	15.424
14	Nightmares	A Flock of Seagulls	1983	15.556
13	Stay Hungry	Talking Heads	1978	15.591
12	Coming Up You	The Cars	1987	16.414
11	Too Hot	Kool & the Gang	1979	17.295
10	The Carnival Is Over	Dead Can Dance	1993	17.882
9	All Roads Lead to Rome	The Stranglers	1982	18.087
8	When Ye Go Away	The Waterboys	1988	19.873
7	The Public Eye	Mark Isham	1992	20.001
6	Zamba	Bryan Ferry	1987	20.986
5	Driver’s Seat	Sniff ‘n’ the Tears	1979	21.330
4	Him	Rupert Holmes	1979	21.609
3	Darkness	The Police	1981	22.461
2	Promised You A Miracle	Simple Minds	1982	24.212
1	Blue in Green	Miles Davis	1959	25.302

Before addressing the validity of this list, I acknowledge the elephant in the room: Anglo white male pop and rock of the 1970s and 1980s. Setting aside Australia’s Icehouse (two tracks), INXS and The Little River Band, and New Zealand’s Split Enz, only Switzerland’s Yello is not either American or British; members of Heatwave, formed in Germany in 1975, hailed from five different nations. Besides Miles Davis at #28 and #1, and setting aside mixed-race Heatwave, the only African-American artists to perform one of my top 100 tracks are The Brothers Johnson, Chic, GQ, Michael Jackson, Kool & the Gang and Raydio. The only solo female artists in my top 100 tracks are Lene Lovich and Suzanne Vega, although Chic, Lush and Uncle Bonsai each have two female lead singers/guitarists and Berlin is fronted by Terri Nunn. Neither Grace Slick of Jefferson Starship, nor Christine McVie or Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, sang lead vocal on #88 and #87, respectively.

Five of my top 100 tracks are instrumentals from a film or television series – two by Jerry Goldsmith, and one each from Mitchell Froom, Mark Isham and Nelson Riddle – while the two Davis tracks are jazz. Uncle Bonsai is an alternative folk trio. One can argue that “pop” covers the disco- and funk-inflected tracks by African-American artists other than Michael Jackson and Kool & the Gang.

Although this list ranges from 1959 (“Blue in Green,” “Theme From The Untouchables”) to 2004 (“Our Manhattan Moment”), only five tracks in my top 100 – adding “Badge,” “Good Vibrations” and “Sweet Pea” from the 1960s – were released earlier than 1970, while only eight tracks – adding “Come as You Are,” “Nothing Natural,” “Pink Parakeet, “Superblast!,” “The Carnival Is Over,” “Theme From L.A. Confidential” and “The Public Eye” from the 1990s, were released after 1989. The remaining 87 tracks are split between the 1970s (32) and 1980s (55). The mean year of release is 1981.4 (vs. 1978.1 for all 9,565 tracks), with a median of 1981 (vs. 1981). Nearly two-thirds (63) of these tracks were released between 1978 and 1983, topped by 16 released in 1979.

These 100 tracks were performed by 82 artists, led by four from Stan Ridgway, co-founder of the Los Angeles post-punk band Wall of Voodoo. When I first ranked my tracks in January 1993, the only Wall of Voodoo songs I knew were “Mexican Radio” (#654) and its B-side “Call of the West” (#538). Ten years later, however, Ridgway was rapidly becoming one of my favorite artists. I have seen him live four times, most recently in August 2015, when he was one of the last performers at Johnny D’s in Somerville, MA. I asked him that night why “Stormy Side of Town” (#34) was released as the B-side to the British single of “Camouflage” in 1986, as opposed to being included on The Big Heat, his first solo album (which includes “Walkin’ Home Alone” [#31]). He said that I.R.S. Records did not think it was commercial enough (or something to that effect) then graciously signed a copy of the “Camouflage” single for me.

Three artists – The Cars, Robert Palmer and The Police – have three tracks on this list, while Davis, Genesis, Goldsmith, Rupert Holmes, Icehouse, Lush, Shriekback, Spandau Ballet and The Stranglers each have two. Six albums feature two top of my 100 favorite tracks: Care (Shriekback; #57, #45), The Cars (The Cars; #95, #16), Ghost in the Machine (The Police; #90, #3), Partners in Crime (Holmes; #48, #4) Spooky (Lush; #64, #61) and True (Spandau Ballet; #56, #35).

While Genesis has two of my top 100 tracks – with “It’s Gonna Get Better” at #112 – lead singer and drummer Phil Collins appears at #93 with “We Said Hello Goodbye.” Ditto for Roxy Music (#18) and Bryan Ferry (#6). Joe Walsh (#39) plays guitar and sings back-up on The Eagles’s “I Can’t Tell You Why” (#47); the latter’s “In the City,” which Walsh wrote, sits at #113. When The Waterboys released Fisherman’s Blues in 1988 (“When Ye Go Away,” #8), founding member Karl Wallinger had already left to form World Party, releasing “All Come True” (#79) one year earlier. Ric Ocasek, one of The Cars’ two lead singers, just misses the top 100 (“Jimmy Jimmy,” #104).

Holmes also just missed having a third track in my top 100 (“Remember WENN End Title,” #111), while Joe Jackson (#51) just missed having a second one (“Steppin’ Out,” #107). Joe Jackson plays piano on Vega’s “Left of Center” (#81), released in 1986 as part of the Pretty In Pink soundtrack – two years after Froom, Vega’s future husband, scored the adult film Café Flesh (“Face Down,” #49). Todd Rundgren wrote the tracks at #76 and #72, the latter for his band Utopia. Finally, while Thomas Dolby as a solo performer tops out at #393 (“Europa and the Pirate Twins”), he plays synthesizer on tracks #86 and #65 – both released in 1981.

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As interesting as these facts are, however, they do not address the key question: are these, in fact, my 100 favorite tracks?

The short answer is…yes, to a remarkably high degree. So much so, in fact, I do no post-hoc subjective adjusting.

Sure, I can quibble with a few tracks. “Urgent,” for example, seems too high at #86, although it was my favorite track when I included it (along with “Juke Box Hero”) on that first mix in August 1981. In previous incarnations, tracks by Berlin, Icehouse (“Icehouse”), The Korgis, Public Image Ltd., Shriekback (“Lined Up”), Spandau Ballet (both) and Tears For Fears might have had their scores “subjectively” lowered below the top 100 due to “burnout.”

OK, but which nine tracks would replace them?

Tracks #101-110 have 95% CI (0.317) within the 8.387 for “Just Another Day” at #100, meaning they could easily be in the top 100 but for minor differences in ATP and HA. Of these 10 tracks, “Dancing Barefoot” by The Feelies (#106)[5] and “Eyes of a Stranger” by The Payola$ (#110) are prime candidates to move up; the latter track made my top 100 in 2004. A bit further down there are “Boogie Oogie Oogie” by A Taste of Honey (#114), “Fantasy” by Earth, Wind and Fire (#148), “Silent Night” by Uncle Bonsai (#221), “Square Glass in the Wall” by The Four-Legged Faithful (#225), “Little Red Corvette” by Prince (#260), “This World Over” by XTC (#276) and “Sun City” by Artists United Against Apartheid (#282). Other than the British XTC, these tracks would provide additional demographic, temporal and genre diversity; “Square Glass in the Wall” was released in 2012 by the American roots music quartet.

Despite these minor quibbles (which can be addressed by playing the latter nine tracks more times, preferably after putting them on new mixes), this top 100 is a strong mix of “lifetime” and “recent” favorites. Fully 38 of these tracks appeared on my first top 100 ranking in January 1993. After bouncing around the top 100, “Driver’s Seat” and “Promised You a Miracle” have returned to the top 10. The highest-ranked tracks to drop out of that first top 10 are “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” by Tubeway Army (#9 to #266) and “Cuad El Habib” by Yello (#5 to #715). Talk about burnout!

By contrast, seven current top 100 tracks had not even been released – and The Public Eye had only premiered two months earlier – when I generated that first top 100. I had never heard an additional 12 tracks as of January 1993, including my favorite track since at least 2004. I first put “Blue in Green” on Stuff and Such, Vol. LXII, which I made in September 1998 to listen to during a trip to Maine with my then-girlfriend.

“Blue in Green” debuted on the 2000 top 100 ranking, jumping to #1 in 2004. It knocked out “Coming Up You” by The Cars, which, after debuting at #37 in 1999, had knocked out “Save Me (plus reprise)” by Public Image Ltd. in 2000. “Save Me (plus reprise)” was my favorite track back in January 1993, a natural consequence of having played its parent album Happy? incessantly over the previous three years. But then the “burden” of it being designated my favorite track took its toll, and the track held less and less appeal. In fact, but for its #1 position throughout the 1990s, it would sit at #178.

However, while the TS for “Blue in Green” is just over half a standard deviation higher than that of “Promised You a Miracle,” had I kept a two-cassette “Top 40 Songs of the 1980s” mix I created in January 1990, the latter track – #1 on that ranking (just ahead of current #9) – would now be #1.[6] Indeed, “Blue in Green” leads in Adjusted Total Plays, while “Promised You a Miracle” leads in Mix Appearances. If I had to break the tie, however, I would choose the haunting and melancholy Davis instrumental over the eerie and propulsive Simple Minds song.

Which brings us to the 15 tracks listed above which I associate with Philadelphia’s short-lived “alternative rock” station, I-92 Rock of the 80s, which broadcast over the first seven months of 1983. It was here I heard “Promised You a Miracle” and “All Roads Lead to Rome” for the first time,[7] along with tracks by Berlin, The Fixx, A Flock of Seagulls, Heaven 17, INXS, Pete Shelley, Shriekback, Spandau Ballet, Tears For Fears, Thompson Twins and Ultravox. This is one of the largest historic “blocs” of songs, just behind 20 or so pop songs from 1978 to 1980, topped by “Him,” “Driver’s Seat” and “Too Hot.”[8]

Meanwhile, 36 tracks – including three in the top 10 (“The Carnival Is Over,” “When Ye Go Away,” “The Public Eye”) – are on their first Top 100. This includes 14 tracks I already knew and liked in 1993, such as “We Said Hello Goodbye” and “West End Girls” by Pet Shop Boys, which I played multiple times on the jukebox of the now-defunct 24-hour Midtown IV diner at 20^th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia in the spring of 1986.

That leaves 26 tracks that debuted on my top 100 between 1994 and 2004, including the current and previous #1. This is acceptably close to an even three-way split between “long-term favorites,” “later additions” and “current favorites,” another indicator of high face validity.

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Around the time I constructed the mix tape for the September 1998 trip to Maine, one of the few to which I assigned 30 plays when reformulating Adjusted Total Plays, I had the idea to rank my then-girlfriend’s and my “joint” favorite tracks by averaging our individual rankings. While I already had such a ranking,[9] she did not. Rather than go through the arduous process of building a dataset of tracks, she came up with a clever ranking method.

She began by combining my list (which then numbered less than 1,000) with a brainstormed list of tracks she liked and I liked…less. She then divided these 1,000+ tracks into five categories, ordered from most- to least-liked. Within each category, she paired tracks (I think it went first/last, second/second-to-last, third/third-to-last, etc.), then decided which one she liked more. She then re-paired the “winners” and “losers,” and repeated the process. When she completed this remarkably-fun exercise, she had a perfectly reasonable ranking of her favorite tracks. I forget what her #1 track was, but once I resorted the average of our individual rankings (using a value like 2,000 for tracks not on one of our lists) and resorted them, “Same Old Scene” by Roxy Music emerged as “our” favorite track. “Carrie” by Cliff Richard was #9, I believe; I do not know what became of the list or of the two cassettes I created from our favorite tracks.[10]

In other words, there are multiple ways to rank one’s favorite, well, anything, each of which is a creative mix of objective (mix appearances, total plays) and subjective metrics.

My method – despite being very labor-intensive at the start – has the advantages of 1) creating a value one can use to rank things like albums and artists and 2) is easily updatable. Her method, however, has the advantages of simplicity and being wicked fun in the process. Your ranking methodology mileage will vary – and I am curious to hear what methods you use, and why.

In the next essay, meanwhile, I describe how I used TS to rank my favorite albums and artists.

Until next time…and if you like what you read here, please consider making a donation. Thank you.

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[1] Geometric mean – square root of the product – of COUNT (number of appearances) and YEARS (number of years with at least one appearance)

[2] Standard deviation of years in which track appeared on a mix

[3] Ten appeared on a birthday mix I curated for our two children.

[4] One while recording, one during first play of mix. It has appeared on a birthday mix, as has their “Our Lips Are Sealed” (#1947).

[5] This is the New-Jersey-based alternative rock band’s cover of Patti Smith’s iconic song.

[6] I could only recall a handful of tracks and their positions on the mix, so I decided not to use it to calculate Historic Adjustment.

[7] I might also have seen/heard some of the tracks on MTV for the first time.

[8] I am so fond of this era of pop music that I created a 26-track mix of favorites for a regular Friday-night bath in 2014.

[9] Technically, I updated my ranking from that January.

[10] Curiously, I still have the two-cassette mix counting down “our” top 25 tracks released in the 1990s, along with some running commentary, which I played for us while we waited for the arrival of the new millennium in our Somerville apartment. That was…a night to remember. I may yet include data from this mix in Historic Adjustment, topped – I believe – by Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” using 1999 as the year for weighting.