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 [Eds. note: updated in May 2026]. 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 2026)

#	Title	Artist	Year	Track Score
100	A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	1981	8.352
99	We Said Hello Goodbye	Phil Collins	1985	8.364
98	Theme from The Shadow	Jerry Goldsmith	1994	8.387
97	Just Another Day	Oingo Boingo	1985	8.393
96	Lady	Little River Band	1978	8.482
95	Love On Your Side	Thompson Twins	1983	8.540
94	Secret Journey	The Police	1981	8.543
93	Miracles	Jefferson Starship	1975	8.586
92	Urgent	Foreigner	1981	8.669
91	One of These Days	Pink Floyd	1971	8.671
90	The Evening’s Young	Yello	1981	8.697
89	Right Down The Line	Gerry Rafferty	1978	8.707
88	I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On	Robert Palmer	1985	8.710
87	Change	Tears for Fears	1983	8.734
86	That’s All For Everyone	Fleetwood Mac	1979	8.740
85	Save Me (w/reprise)	Public Image Ltd.	1987	8.850
84	All Come True	World Party & Steve Wickham	1987	8.858
83	Left of Center	Suzanne Vega	1986	8.886
82	Constant Craving	k. d. lang	1992	8.910
81	Reap the Wild Wind	Ultravox	1982	8.920
80	Can We Still Be Friends?	Robert Palmer	1979	8.988
79	Come as You Are	Nirvana	1991	9.073
78	Off the Wall	Michael Jackson	1979	9.109
77	Caravan	Utopia	1979	9.124
76	One of These Days	Camper Van Beethoven	1988	9.126
75	Strawberry Letter 23	The Brothers Johnson	1977	9.252
74	Theme from The Untouchables	Nelson Riddle	1959	9.296
73	Why Go It Alone?	Pere Ubu	1989	9.325
72	Time (Clock of the Heart)	Culture Club	1982	9.335
71	Love Song	Elton John	1970	9.399
70	Sex (I’m A…)	Berlin	1982	9.573
69	New Toy	Lene Lovich	1981	9.666
68	Are ‘Friends’ Electric?	Tubeway Army	1979	9.699
67	Icehouse	Icehouse	1981	9.709
66	Nothing Natural	Lush	1993	9.736
65	Lined Up	Shriekback	1983	9.757
64	Last Chance on the Stairway	Duran Duran	1982	9.766
63	Get the Balance Right	Depeche Mode	1983	9.791
62	Disco Nights (Rock Freak)	GQ	1979	9.827
61	Superblast!	Lush	1993	9.830
60	Jack and Jill	Raydio	1978	9.908
59	Good Vibrations	The Beach Boys	1966	9.922
58	Communication	Spandau Ballet	1983	9.969
57	Eyes of a Stranger	The Payola$	1982	9.975
56	Nowhere Girl	B-Movie	1982	10.063
55	I Got You	Split Enz	1980	10.221
54	Pink Parakeet	Stan Ridgway	1995	10.281
53	It’s Different for Girls	Joe Jackson	1979	10.392
52	Face Down	Mitchell Froom	1984	10.492
51	Let Me Go	Heaven 17	1982	10.511
50	In You I Trust	Rupert Holmes	1979	10.582
49	West End Girls	Pet Shop Boys	1985	10.590
48	Damned If I Do	The Alan Parsons Project	1979	10.674
47	Mainstreet	Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band	1976	10.825
46	Clear Trails	Shriekback	1983	10.866
45	I Can’t Tell You Why	The Eagles	1979	11.114
44	The Groove Line	Heatwave	1978	11.225
43	Telephone Operator	Pete Shelley	1983	11.348
42	Beyond Doubt	Gene Loves Jezebel	1986	11.383
41	He Must Have Been a Genius	Uncle Bonsai	1984	11.468
40	Prime Time	The Tubes	1979	11.595
39	Dog Eat Dog	Adam and the Ants	1980	11.606
38	Rivers (of the Hidden Funk)	Joe Walsh	1981	11.615
37	Gold	Spandau Ballet	1983	11.639
36	I Want Your Love	Chic	1978	11.707
35	Crazy Love	Poco	1978	11.764
34	Transmission	Joy Division	1979	11.815
33	Johnny and Mary	Robert Palmer	1980	11.886
32	Especially For You	The Smithereen	1988	11.959
31	Stormy Side of Town	Stan Ridgway	1986	12.480
30	Sweet Pea	Miles Davis	1967	12.932
29	You Might Recall	Genesis	1982	13.039
28	Carrie	Cliff Richard	1979	13.133
27	Walkin’ Home Alone	Stan Ridgway	1986	13.194
26	What You Won’t Do for Love	Bobby Caldwell	1978	13.249
25	Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime	The Korgis	1980	13.427
24	Bring on the Night	The Police	1979	13.516
23	Street Café (single version)	Icehouse	1982	13.743
22	Red Skies	The Fixx	1982	13.884
21	Theme from L.A Confidential	Jerry Goldsmith	1997	13.921
20	The Sound of the Crowd	The Human League	1981	14.148
19	Golden Brown	The Stranglers	1981	14.194
18	Same Old Scene	Roxy Music	1980	14.387
17	All Mixed Up	The Cars	1978	15.118
16	Nightmares	A Flock of Seagulls	1983	15.212
15	Stay Hungry	Talking Heads	1978	15.235
14	Don’t Change	INXS	1982	15.277
13	Entangled	Genesis	1976	15.566
12	Coming Up You	The Cars	1987	16.235
11	Too Hot	Kool & the Gang	1979	16.932
10	The Carnival Is Over	Dead Can Dance	1993	17.589
9	All Roads Lead to Rome	The Stranglers	1982	17.838
8	When Ye Go Away	The Waterboys	1988	19.486
7	Theme from The Public Eye	Mark Isham	1992	19.822
6	Zamba	Bryan Ferry	1987	20.604
5	Driver’s Seat	Sniff ‘n’ the Tears	1979	20.962
4	Him	Rupert Holmes	1979	21.181
3	Darkness	The Police	1981	22.666
2	Promised You A Miracle	Simple Minds	1982	23.840
1	Blue in Green	Miles Davis	1959	25.503

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 #30 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 k.d. lang, 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 #93 and #86, 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 1997 (“Theme from L.A. Confidential“), only four tracks in my top 100 – adding “Good Vibrations” and “Sweet Pea” from the 1960s – were released earlier than 1970, while only nine tracks – adding “Come as You Are,” “Constant Craving,” “Nothing Natural,” “Pink Parakeet, “Superblast!,” “The Carnival Is Over,” “Theme from L.A. Confidential” and “Theme from 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 1981.6 (vs. 1978.1 for all tracks), with a median of 1981 (vs. 1981). Nearly two-thirds (63) of these tracks were released between 1978 and 1983, topped by 17 released in 1979.

These 100 tracks were performed by 84 artists, led by three each from Robert Palmer, The Police, 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” (#607) and its B-side “Call of the West” (#573). 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” (#31) 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.

The Cars, Davis, Genesis, Goldsmith, Rupert Holmes, Icehouse, Lush, Shriekback, Spandau Ballet and The Stranglers each have two tracks in my top 100. Five albums – excluding a “bonus” CD version of The Big Heat – feature top of my 100 favorite tracks: Care (Shriekback; #65, #46), Ghost in the Machine (The Police; #94, #3), Partners in Crime (Holmes; #50, #4) Spooky (Lush; #66, #61) and True (Spandau Ballet; #58, #37).

While Genesis has two of my top 100 tracks – with “It’s Gonna Get Better” at #122 – lead singer and drummer Phil Collins appears at #99 with “We Said Hello Goodbye.” Ditto for Roxy Music (#18) and Bryan Ferry (#6). Joe Walsh (#38) plays guitar and sings back-up on The Eagles’s “I Can’t Tell You Why” (#45); 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” (#84) one year earlier. Ric Ocasek, one of The Cars’ two lead singers, just misses the top 100 (“Jimmy Jimmy,” #114).

Holmes also just missed having a third track in my top 100 (“Remember WENN End Title,” #121), while Joe Jackson (#53) just missed having a second one (“Steppin’ Out,” #111). Joe Jackson plays piano on Vega’s “Left of Center” (#83), 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,” #52). Todd Rundgren wrote the tracks at #80 and #77, the latter for his band Utopia. Finally, while Thomas Dolby as a solo performer tops out at #363 (“I Love You Goodbye”), he plays synthesizer on tracks #92 and #69 – the latter of which he wrote – 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, 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 eight tracks would replace them?

Tracks #101-115 have 95% CI (0.317) within the 8.352 for “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)” at #100, meaning they could easily be in the top 100 but for minor differences in ATP and HA. Of these 15 tracks, the most obvious choice is “Ashes to Ashes” by David Bowie (#101), a former top 10. We then have “Missing” by Everything but the Girl (#102) and “Dancing Barefoot” by The Feelies (#106)[5]. A bit further down there are “Boogie Oogie Oogie” by A Taste of Honey (#117), “Fantasy” by Earth, Wind and Fire (#128), “Little Red Corvette” by Prince (#144) and “Silent Night” by Uncle Bonsai (#221). These tracks would provide a bit more demographic and genre diversity.

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 39 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 track to drop out of that first top 10 is “Cuad El Habib” by Yello (#5 to #747). 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 #127.

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.