Music and lists. These are two of my passions that are deliciously intertwined. Since the days of WCFL’s Big 10 Survey, through Casey Casems American Top 40, to all the online sites listing the top five partially blind one-handed tambourine players, those compendia have always interested me. Last month I hit the jackpot–I discovered Sirius XM’s Classic Rock Top 1000 satellite radio station.

The station is exactly what it says it is. It plays 1000 songs, in order, on an endless loop. Who picked the songs? Who put them in this specific order? Who knows? What classifies as a Classic Rock song, anyway? The station has no announcer, just a female voice giving the countdown number after every 3 or 4 songs.

I listen to the station in 30-minute snippets while running through our neighborhood or burning calories on our basement elliptical. Monday I might hear songs 424-412 while Tuesday morning brings 110-102. By the next time I listen the list may have wound past the top songs and it’s the bottom 50 that’s on tap.

Despite listening for a month, I rarely hear the same segment of songs twice. That’s not a surprise; I hear less than 1% of the 1000-song collection each time I listen. At my tune-in rate, it will take me about 3 or 4 months to get an earful of every song.

What artists has the mystery selector put on the list? From the 300 or so songs I have heard so far, the playlist is mostly what the average baby boomer would expect and demand–and my fellow WXRT listeners would hate! British invasion bands, 70’s hair bands, singer-songwriters, and heartland rockers.

While my favorite artists (U2, Steely Dan, Bruce with E Street) are well represented, female voices are scattered like diamonds in a mined-out shaft; there’s a little Janice here, a couple of Hearts there, and a Joan Jett when no one is looking. I haven’t heard Linda Ronstadt yet, but I suspect Blue Bayou or You’re No Good is lurking about.

My private game is identifying each song by the second note–my Name That Tune challenge. (I am good.) Another trick is recognizing the one-hit wonders on the list, the bands that came out of nowhere, had a top 1000 hit and then crawled back under their rock. Ten points and a shoutout to readers who can name the artist responsible for Something in the Air. No cheating!

On a short run last week my soundtrack was the top 5 songs. Some of the selections are unavoidable. Others up there seem peculiar. At #5 is Hotel California. It’s had to be there. It is always being played somewhere.

I can accept Sweet Home Alabama qualifies as #4. It is the epitome of Southern rock, and Skynyrd puts on a good show. But if the list has to have a Queen song at #3, why Another One Bites the Dust? I would have chosen Bohemian Rhapsody, the most streamed rock song of all time (2 billion Spotify streams and counting.)

It’s no surprise that a certain four-piece British band takes the top two slots. And I won’t disagree with Stairway to Heaven at #2. But Black Dog as the #1 classic rock song of all time? Most people don’t even know the name of the song. That placement is as absurd as Hey Jude‘s location way down in the 400s.

But in the end, I have my music and I have my list. The order doesn’t really matter, it’s just fun to hear the songs. I’m living in a Boomer Paradise.

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