Songs From 1978

Artist	Song Title	Release Date
10cc	Dreadlock Holiday
A Taste of Honey	Boogie Oogie Oogie
ABBA	Eagle
ABBA	Summer Night City
ABBA	Take a Chance on Me	6-May-78
ABBA	The Name of the Game	2-Jan-78
Ace Frehley	New York Groove
Adverts, The	No Time To Be 21
Aerosmith	Come Together	2-Sep-78
Al Stewart	Time Passages +	21-Oct-78
Alan Parsons Project	What Goes Up	23-Sep-78
Alchemist	Eve of the War
Alice Cooper	How You Gonna See Me Now
Alicia Bridges	I Love the Nightlife +	9-Sep-78
Ambrosia	How Much I Feel	30-Sep-78
Andrew Gold	Thank You For Being A Friend	25-Feb-78
Andy Gibb	(Love Is) Thicker Than Water	10-Dec-77
Andy Gibb	(Our Love) Don't Throw it All Away	4-Nov-78
Andy Gibb	An Everlasting Love	22-Jul-78
Andy Gibb	Shadow Dancing	22-Apr-78
Anne Murray	Walk Right Back
Anne Murray	You Needed Me
Art Garfunkel With James Taylor & Paul Simon	(What a) Wonderful World	21-Jan-78
Atlanta Rhythm Section	Champagne Jam	16-Sep-78
Atlanta Rhythm Section	Imaginary Lover	25-Mar-78
Atlanta Rhythm Section	I'm Not Going To Let It Bother Me Tonight	8-Jul-78
B-52's, The	Rock Lobster
Barbara Mandrell	Woman To Woman	4-Mar-78
Barbra Streisand	Songbird
Barbra Streisand	Theme From 'Eyes Of Laura Mars'
Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond	You Don't Bring Me Flowers
Barry Manilow	Even Now
Barry Manilow	Can't Smile Without You
Barry Manilow	Copacabana
Barry Manilow	Ready To Take a Chance Again
Barry White	Oh What A Night For Dancing
Battered Wives	Uganda Stomp
Bay City Rollers	The Way I Feel Tonight	19-Nov-77
Beatles	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Medley)	16-Sep-78
Bee Gees	How Deep Is Your Love	8-Oct-77
Bee Gees	Night Fever	11-Feb-78
Bee Gees	Stayin' Alive	24-Dec-77
Bee Gees	Too Much Heaven	18-Nov-78
Belle Epoque	Miss Broadway	4-Mar-78
Bill Brandon	We Fell In Love While Dancing	25-Feb-78
Bill Withers	Lovely Day
Billy Joel	Just the Way You Are
Billy Joel	Movin' Out
Billy Joel	My Life
Billy Joel	Only The Good Die Young
Billy Joel	She's Always a Woman
B.J. Thomas	Everyone Loves A Rain Song	25-Feb-78
Black Sabbath	Never Say Die
Blondie	Denis
Blondie	Hanging On The Telephone
Bob Marley & The Wailers	Is This Love
Bob McGilip	When You Feel Love	23-Sep-78
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band	Hollywood Nights
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band	Still the Same
Bob Weir	Bombs Away	18-Mar-78
Bob Welch	Ebony Eyes	28-Jan-78
Bob Welch	Hot Love, Cold World
Bob Welch	Sentimental Lady
Boney M	Brown Girl in the Ring
Boney M	Rasputin
Boney M	Rivers of Babylon	22-Jul-78
Boney M	Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord
Bonnie Tyler	It's a Heartache
Boomtown Rats	Rat Trap
Boston	Don't Look Back
Boz Scaggs	Hollywood	25-Feb-78
Brian and Michael	Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs
British Lions	Wild In The Streets	22-Jul-78
Brooklyn Dreams	Music, Harmony& Rhythm	25-Mar-78
Brotherhood of Man	Figaro
Bruce Springsteen	Badlands	12-Aug-78
Bruce Springsteen	Prove It All Night
Bryan Ferry	Sign Of The Times
Bunny Sigler	Let Me Party With You	25-Feb-78
Buzz Cocks	Promises
Buzzcock	Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)
Buzzcocks	What Do I Get?
Buzzcocks	I Don't Mind
Buzzcocks	Love You More
Captain & Tennille	You Never Done it Like That	9-Sep-78
Carly Simon & James Taylor	Devoted To You	19-Aug-78
Carly Simon	You Belong to Me
Carpenters, The	Sweet, Sweet Smile
Cars, The	My Best Friend's Girl
Cars, The	Just What I Needed
Celebration With Mike Love	Almost Summer	3-Jun-78
Chaka Khan	I'm Every Woman
Cheap Trick	Surrender	22-Jul-78
Cheryl Ladd	Think It Over	22-Jul-78
Chic	Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)	10-Dec-77
Chic	Everybody Dance	17-Jun-78
Chic	Le Freak	18-Nov-78
Chicago	Alive Again	28-Oct-78
Chicago	Little One
Chilliwack	Fly At Night	11-Feb-78
Chris Rea	Fool (If You Think It's Over)
Chuck Mangione	Feels So Good
City Boy	5.7.0.5
Claudja Barry	Dancin' Fever	25-Feb-78
Clash, The	(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
Clash, The	Clash City Rockers
Clash, The	Tommy Gun
Cliff Richard	Can't Take the Hurt Anymore
Cliff Richard	Yes, He Lives!
Cliff Richard	Please Remember Me
Clout	Substitute
Cold Chisel	Khe Sanh
Commodores	Flying High
Commodores	Three Times a Lady	8-Jul-78
Cramps, The	Human Fly
Cramps, The	Surfin Bird
Crystal Gayle	Ready For The Times To Get Better	25-Feb-78
Crystal Gayle	Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
Crystal Gayle	Talking In Your Sleep
Dan Hartman	Instant Replay
Dan Hill	Sometimes When We Touch
Dan Hill	All I See Is Your Face
Daryl Hall & John Oates	It's a Laugh
Dave Mason	Will You Still Love Me Tommorrow
Dave Warner's From The Suburbs	Suburban Boy
David Gates	Goodbye Girl
David Gates	Took the Last Train
David Gilmour	There's No Way Out of Here
Debby Boone	You Light Up My Life
Devo	Jocko Homo
Diana Ross	Your Love Is So Good To Me	4-Mar-78
Diana Ross & Michael Jackson	Ease On Down The Road	9-Sep-78
Dionne Warwick	Déjà Vu
Dolly Parton	Heartbreaker	26-Aug-78
Dolly Parton	Here You Come Again
Dolly Parton	Two Doors Down
Don Brown	Sitting In Limbo	25-Mar-78
Don Ray	Got To Have Lovin'	12-Sep-78
Donna Summer	Last Dance
Donna Summer	MacArthur Park
Donna Summer	Rumour Has It	4-Mar-78
Dr. Hook	Sharing The Night Together	16-Sep-78
Dragon	Are You Old Enough
Dragon	Still In Love With You
Earth, Wind & Fire	Fantasy	4-Mar-78
Earth Wind and Fire	Got to Get You into My Life	5-Aug-78
Earth, Wind & Fire	Serpentine Fire	26-Nov-77
Eddie Money	Baby Hold On	25-Feb-78
Eddie Rabbit	You Don't Love Me Anymore	24-Jun-78
Electric Light Orchestra	Mr. Blue Sky	29-Jul-78
Electric Light Orchestra	Sweet Talkin' Woman	11-Mar-78
Electric Light Orchestra	Turn to Stone	10-Dec-77
Electric Light Orchestra	Wild West Hero
Eloise Laws	Number One	18-Mar-78
Elton John	Ego
Elton John	Part-Time Love
Elton John	Song for Guy
Elvis Costello and the Attractions	(I Don't Wanna Go to) Chelsea
Elvis Costello and the Attractions	Pump It Up
Elvis Costello and the Attractions	Radio Radio
England Dan & John Ford Coley	You Can't Dance
England Dan & John Ford Coley	We'll Never Have To Say Goodbye Again	11-Mar-78
Eric Carmen	Change of Heart	16-Sep-78
Eric Clapton	Lay Down Sally
Eric Clapton	Promises
Eric Clapton	Wonderful Tonight
Eruption	I Can't Stand the Rain	10-Jun-78
Evelyn "Champagne" King	Shame
Exile	Kiss You All Over	5-Aug-78
Firefall	Strange Way	28-Oct-78
Firefall	So Long	7-Jan-78
Foreigner	Hot Blooded	8-Jul-78
Foreigner	Long, Long Way From Home	14-Jan-78
Foreigner	Double Vision	30-Sep-78
Foxy	Get Off	26-Aug-78
Frankie Valli	Grease
Funkadelic	One Nation Under a Groove
Gene Cotton With Kim Carnes	You're A Part Of Me
Generation X	Ready Steady Go
Genesis	Deep in the Motherlode
Genesis	Follow You, Follow Me	3-Jun-78
Genesis	Many Too Many
George Benson	On Broadway
Gerry Rafferty	Baker Street
Gerry Rafferty	Right Down the Line
Gino Vannelli	I Just Wanna Stop
Gordon Lightfoot	Circle Is Small, The	11-Feb-78
Heart	Crazy On You
Heart	Straight On	28-Oct-78
Heart	Heartless	13-May-78
Heatwave	Always and Forever	4-Feb-78
Heatwave	The Groove Line	3-Jun-78
High Inergy	You Can't Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On)
High Inergy	Love Is All You Need	4-Mar-78
Ian Dury & The Blockheads	Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick
Ian Dury & The Blockheads	What a Waste
Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta	A-Ba-Ni-Bi
Jackson 5	Blame It On The Boogie
Jackson Browne	Running On Empty
Jackson Browne	Stay / The Load Out
Jam, The	David Watts
Jay Ferguson	Thunder Island
Jefferson Starship	Count On Me	25-Mar-78
Jefferson Starship	Crazy Feelin'	1-Sep-78
Jefferson Starship	Runaway	24-Jun-78
Jimmy Buffet	Cheeseburger In Paradise
Jimmy Buffet	Livingston Saturday Night	5-Aug-78
Jilted John	Jilted John
Jimmy Cliff	Many Rivers to Cross
Joe Walsh	Life's Been Good
John Denver	It Amazes Me	4-Mar-78
John Paul Young	Love Is in the Air
John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John	Summer Nights
John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John	You're the One That I Want
John Williams Orchestra	Close Encounters (Theme from)
Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams	Too Much, Too Little, Too Late
Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams	You're All I Need To Get By
Johnny Rivers	Curious Mind
Journey	Loghts	14-Aug-78
Joy Division	An Ideal For Living
Justin Hayward	Forever Autumn
Kansas	Dust in the Wind	18-Feb-78
Kate Bush	The Man with the Child in His Eyes
Kate Bush	Wuthering Heights
Kate Bush	Hammer Horror
K.C. & The Sunshine Band	Boogie Shoes	11-Feb-78
Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks	Whenever I Call You 'Friend'
Kenny Rogers	Love or Something Like it
Kenny Rogers	She Believes In Me
Kenny Rogers	The Gambler
Kinks	Rock & Roll Fantasy	22-Jul-78
Kiss	Rocket Ride	25-Feb-78
Kiss	Shout It Out Loud	21-Jan-78
Kraftwerk	Trans-Europe Express
L.T.D.	(Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again	12-Nov-77
L.T.D.	Holding On (When Love Is Gone)	14-Aug-78
L.T.D.	Never Get Enough Of Your Love	3-Apr-78
Leblanc & Carr	Falling
Leif Garrett	Runaround Sue
Leif Garrett	Put Your Head On My Shoulder	4-Mar-78
Leo Sayer	Easy To Love
Leo Sayer	Raining in My Heart
Linda Clifford	Runaway Love	1-Jul-78
Linda Ronstadt	Back In The USA
Linda Ronstadt	Poor Poor Pitiful Me	28-Jan-78
Linda Ronstadt	Blue Bayou
Linda Ronstadt	It's So Easy
Little River Band	Happy Anniversary	21-Jan-78
Little River Band	Reminiscing	12-Aug-78
Lou Rawls	Lady Love	21-Jan-78
Love & Kisses	Thank God It's Friday	24-Jun-78
Luv	Trojan Horse
Luv	You're the Greatest Lover
Lynyrd Skynyrd	What's Your Name	7-Jan-78
Magazine	Give Me Everything
Magazine	Shot By Both Sides
Manfred Mann's Earth Band	Davy's On the Road Again
Marshall Hain	Coming Home
Marshall Hain	Dancing In the City
McCrarys	You
Meat Loaf	Two Out of Three Ain't Bad	29-Apr-78
Meat Loaf	Paradise By the Dashboard Light	16-Sep-78
Mekons	Where Were You?
Michael Johnson	Almost Like Being In Love	5-Aug-78
Michael Johnson	Bluer Than Blue
Michael Zager Band	Let's All Chant	4-Mar-78
Moody Blues, The	Steppin' in a Slide Zone	27-May-78
Moody Blues, The	Driftwod	6-Oct-78
Motors, The	Airport
Natalie Cole	Our Love
Neil Diamond	Desiree	24-Dec-77
Nick Gilder	Hot Child in the City	5-Aug-78
Nicolette Larson	Lotta Love	23-Dec-78
Odyssey	Native New Yorker
O'Jays, The	Brandy	23-Sep-78
O'Jays, The	Use To Be My Girl
Olivia Newton-John	A Little More Love
Olivia Newton-John	Hopelessly Devoted to You
Only Ones, The	Another Girl, Another Planet
Pablo Cruise	Love Will Find a Way	1-Jul-78
Parliament	Flash Light	25-Feb-78
Patti Smith Group	Because The Night
Paul Davis	I Go Crazy
Paul Davis	Sweet Life
Paul McCartney & Wings	Goodnight Tonight
Paul McCartney & Wings	I've Had Enough
Paul McCartney & Wings	Mull of Kintyre
Paul Simon	Slip Slidin' Away
Peter Brown	Dance With Me
Peter Brown	You Should Do It	23-Sep-78
Peter Tosh	(You Gotta Walk) Don't Look Back
Pink Lady	Chameleon Army
Pink Lady	Monster
Pink Lady	Southpaw
Player	Baby Come Back	19-Nov-77
Player	This Time I'm In It For Love	1-Apr-78
Pockets	Come Go With Me
Police, The	Roxanne
Prism	Flyin'	22-Jul-78
Public Image Limited	Public Image
Queen	We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions
Quincy Jones	Stuff Like That
Raes, The	A Little Lovin' (Keeps the Doctor Away)
Randy Newman	Short People	28-Jan-78
Raydio	Jack & Jill	7-Jan-78
REO Speedwagon	Roll With The Changes
REO Speedwagon	Time For You To Fly	22-Jul-78
Rezillos	Top Of The Pops
Rick James	You and I
Riff Regan	All the Nice Boys and Girls in the World
Rita Coolidge	The Way You Do The Things You Do	7-Jan-78
Rita Coolidge	We're All Alone
Rita Coolidge	You	1-Jul-78
Robert Palmer	Best of Both Worlds
Robert Palmer	Every Kinda People
Roberta Flack	If Ever I See You Again
Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway	The Closer I Get To You	18-Feb-78
Robin Gibb	Oh Darling!	19-Aug-78
Rod Stewart	Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?	23-Dec-78
Rod Stewart	You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)	26-Nov-77
Rod Stewart	Hot Legs/I Was Only Joking	11-Mar-78
Rolling Stones	Beast of Burden
Rolling Stones, The	Miss You
Ronnie McDowell	I Love You, I Love You, I Love You	18-Mar-78
Rubicon	I'm Gonna Take Care Of Everything	25-Feb-78
Rupert Holmes	Let's Get Crazy Tonight	1-Sep-78
Samantha Sang	Emotion	7-Jan-78
Santa Esmeralda	Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Sea Level	That's Your Secret	25-Feb-78
Seals & Croft	You're The One
Shadows, The	Don't Cry for Me Argentina
Shadows, The	Love de Luxe
Shaun Cassidy	Do You Believe In Magic	25-Mar-78
Shaun Cassidy	Hey Deanie
Shaun Cassidy	Our Night	9-Sep-78
Sherbet	Another Night On The Road
Siouxsie and the Banshees	Hong Kong Garden
Skids	Wide Open
Smokie	Oh Carol
Snail	Joker	23-Sep-78
Squeeze	Take Me I'm Yours
Stargard	Disco Rufus	4-Mar-78
Steely Dan	Deacon Blues	6-May-78
Steely Dan	FM (No Static at All)	1-Jul-78
Steely Dan	Josie	26-Aug-78
Steely Dan	Peg	7-Jan-78
Stephen Bishop	Everyone Needs Love	16-Sep-78
Steve Martin	King Tut
Stillwater	Mindbender
Stranglers, The	Nice 'n' Sleazy
Styx	Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)
Styx	Fooling Yourself	18-Feb-78
Styx	Come Sail Away
Styx	Renegade
Styx	Sing for the Day
Subway Sect	Ambition
Subway Sect	Nobody's Scared
Sweet	California Nights	5-Aug-78
Sweet	Love Is Like Oxygen
Talking Heads	Psycho Killer	18-Feb-78
Talking Heads	Take Me to the River
Tavares	More Than a Woman
Ted Nugent	Homebound
Teddy Pendergrass	Close The Door	8-Jul-78
Terry Wogan	Floral Dance
The Babys, The	Isn't It Time
The Jam, The	Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
Throbbing Gristle	United/Zyklon B Zombie
Toby Beau	My Angel Baby
Todd Rundgren	Can We Still Be Friends
Tom Robinson Band	Too Good To Be True
Tom Robinson Band	Up Against The Wall
Tom Robinson Band	Rising Free (EP)
Tom Petty	Listen To Her Heart
Toto	Hold The Line
Trammps, The	Disco Inferno
Trooper	Raise A Little Hell
Tropez Telex	Twist à Saint
Tuxedo Junction	Chattanooga Choo Choo
UFO	Only You Can Rock Me
Undertones, The	Teenage Kicks
Van Halen	You Really Got Me	28-Jan-78
Van Halen	Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
Van Halen	Runnin' With The Devil
Van Morrison	Wavelength	16-Sep-78
Village People	Macho Man	24-Jun-78
Village People	Y.M.C.A.
Walter Egan	Magnet and Steel
Warren Zevon	Walking In The Rain – Cheetah
Warren Zevon	Werewolves of London
Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson	Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
Wendy Waldman	Long Hot Summer Nights	14-Aug-78
Who, The	Who Are You
Wild Cherry	I Love My Music	25-Feb-78
Wings	London Town	9-Sep-78
Wings	With a Little Luck
X-Ray Spex	The Day The World Turned Day-Glo
X-Ray Spex	Germ Free Adolescents
Yvonne Elliman	If I Can't Have You

Most Popular Quantities Of Items On A List

(By Richard Goodman, 21 November 2015)

The other day, I downloaded a new app for my phone.  It is called “The List App” and it is exactly what you think it is- an app where people make lists of various things.  Any kind of thing, really.  There is a list of books people have on their bedside table, a list of the five best burger places in L.A., a list of childhood crushes which includes non-famous people, a ranking of “Saved By The Bell Songs”, a list of shows that used rape as a plot point, a list of carpet colors that the lister did NOT buy at Home Depot (a very funny list, actually), and of course the scary-in-so-many-ways list “Proof That My Cat Wants To Kill Me”. 

There are some celebrities on the app too, since it was started by one (B.J. Novak, from The Office, Knocked Up, and, um, The Smurfs) and he is taking an active role in trying to expand the fan base by hands on curating and list making.  Granted, there is no “Anna Kendrik level” celebrity lister, but there are some people I like, such as Aya Cash (You’re The Worst), Gillian Jacobs (Community) and Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead).  Of course, Lena Dunham is on the app too but I just can’t make myself follow her.  So as I look at the various lists, I notice some people follow the conventional 5 or ten point list but then there are others that do random numbers or longer lists. 

That got me thinking about what people normally use as a standard length when making lists and why they use that particular number of items for their list.  Here is my official ranking, as determined by a completely subjective and non-scientific method, of the most commonly used quantities when making a list of things.  

10- The gold standard of list length.  Everyone makes top ten lists when compiling “stuff”.  Even if they only have 7 items, they find a way to stretch it out to get to ten items because ten is such a nice number.  It feels comprehensive but not overwhelmingly so and it fits nicely on a page or a screen.  It is also how you normally count things, if you are European (or, really, anything but American) and embrace the logic of the metric system.  Ten items allows for some flexibility and room for non-obvious choices on a list.  Imagine if a list of the best Stephen King novels was only 5 items long.  That list would always contain The Stand, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, It, and Misery.  You wouldn’t be able to let Night Shift, The Green Mile, Firestarter, Carrie, Different Seasons, Pet Semetary, Under The Dome, Skeleton Crew, or Thinner on the list and they deserve consideration.  David Letterman cemented the ten item list in pop culture consciousness through years of humorous use (and some groaningly bad use) on his late night show.   

5- This is the little sibling of the Top Ten list.  Sometimes you have time or space constraints, like when a news channel or morning radio talk show has about a minute of air time to banter and make jokes about the previous week’s top movies at the box office.  You want to seem like you are covering the entertainment news but you can’t really devote too much time to the topic.  This type of use usually means that someone took a top ten list and only discussed the first five items.  It is like a Cliff’s Note’s version of a top ten list.  A Top Five list is also used when you just can’t legitimately get to ten items.  For example, you can’t make a top ten list of your favorite Beatles. Once you rank Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Ringo Starr (and in that order), you are basically just deciding whether to put either Pete Best or Stu Sutcliff on the list.  That’s on six names you are dealing with.  Even if you get sort of crazy and decide to throw in Billy Preston or George Martin, or really crazy and include Brian Epstein, that’s only nine names, tops.  It is better to display restraint and judgment and keep the list to 5 legitimate names so your list has some validity. 

20- The expanded, deluxe edition of the Top Ten list for when you have so many good choices that limiting it to ten items would be a disservice.  For instance, listing the top twenty James Bond movies, television series final episodes, restaurants in the Washington DC area, movies of the year, dream vacation destinations, and so forth.  When the number of quality choices goes way beyond ten items, you go to the expanded edition and decide on twenty worthy selections.  Does your bucket list have just 5 items on it?  No, probably not.  It is more likely to be a list of 20 things to do.

50 - Some things just need a longer length so you can get into a scholarly discussion, like “What are the most important chemical elements?” or “What are the most vital songs to include on a Rolling Stones 3CD compilation?”  You can bring up obscure things that might have been more important than initially thought and a longer list can bring that to light.  When you bring up a list of the best modern day inventions and innovations, do you usually mention the zipper?  Self-adhesive labels and stamps?  The remote control?  No, you usually don’t if the list is a shorter one, like a ten or twenty item list, which gets filled up with stuff like the computer, the wheel, flight, refrigeration, pacemakers, television, the Internet, the highway system, and so on.  But imagine how annoying it would be if you had to button all your clothes, tape labels to boxes and folders and letters and change television channels by hand?  A list of 50 items might get to some of those lesser innovations that do impact your life.

100- A list of a hundred items is really only used for two things.  First, it is for music lists, like the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the week or a list of the best “something” in Rolling Stone magazine, like the 100 Best Guitarists Of All-Time, or the 100 Greatest Rock & Roll Songs.  The second, and most frequent, is a list of wedding guests.  Yep, 100 invited guests is the ideal use for a list of 100 things.  Of course, the ideal list length for guests who RSVP affirmatively is more like 50 or 20.  Nobody actually wants 100 guests to show up unless they have plenty of money to burn, aren’t having a destination wedding or plan to have the food and drinks catered by KFC and Bud Light. 

3- This length is used when there are only three items of note and the list is being used to rank their importance.  Like The Father, Son and Holy Ghost or what are your favorites NCIS shows?  (NCIS, NCIS: LA, NCIS: New Orleans)  What are the best Hunger Games books (Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Catching Fire) or Lisbeth Salander books (Dragon Tattoo, Hornet’s Nest, Played With Fire)?  What are the best Matrix movies?  (Yes, the AniMatrix is a valid choice)  What are the best Indiana Jones movies?  (Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Temple Of Doom, Last Crusade in that order and no, Kingdom Of the Crystal Skull is not a valid choice.)   Topics like those are the perfect use for a list of three.  You only use this when there are exactly three choices or you have less than five choices and you want to make a statement by leaving off a fourth possible choice.

13, 21 & 29- No one makes lists of this length.  No one, that is, except Buzzfeed and they use the crap out of them.  Every list they put out is some random number like the “13 Cutest Cat Videos”, the “21 Elf On The Shelf Accessories You Need This Christmas”, and the “29 Playlists To Listen To When Everything Sucks”.  They own this concept but I do object to this willy-nilly usage.  Surely if you can find 13 cat videos worth watching, you can find 7 more and get to a list of twenty items.  I’ve heard there are quite a few cat videos on the Internet…..

12- A number used by self-help groups who decided to add two more items to a Top Ten list to make it seem more serious.  I mean, have you ever seen the Alcoholics Anonymous list of 12 steps?  There is some serious padding to it.  They could easily make it into a tight, concise list of ten items easily, maybe even seven items if they tried hard, and tactically used some semicolons.

40- List of this length were very popular in the 70’s and 80’s but were used almost exclusively for showcasing the top songs of the week as compiled by Casey Kasem, from Billboard magazine’s charts.  No one does Top 40 lists anymore and certainly no one refers to “Top 40” as a type of musical programming.   Music played on satellite radio channels are determined by the name of the channel which alludes to their theme, like “The Bridge” (songs that are not quite rock nor pop, what used to be called Adult Contemporary), “The Pulse” (heavy dance music, what used to be called techno and club music) and “Hair Nation” (hard rock and light metal from the mid 1980’s to mid 1990’s, what used to be called glam/hair metal.)  Music played on terrestrial radio (AM/FM) is just as niche as satellite radio but the stations don’t have cool names, there are commercials and the playlists are controlled by one or two mega-conglomerates like Clear Channel which dictates that the same 500 or so songs are played by every station they run.  I sometimes wish I could still hear a diverse 40 song list and then “Keep my feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!”

500- Used exclusively for Memorial Day countdowns of the 500 best songs of all-time on the classic rock station in your area.

1,000- The number of places you are supposed to have visited by the time you die, assuming you live a long time and have a generous vacation day policy at work.

Tie: 1 & 11- Ties are used when someone is too indecisive about which item to leave off a list to get it to one of the commonly acceptable lengths, like five, ten or twenty.  (Anyone who shows a tie on a 50 or 100 item list is just being a putz, unless the list is based on numeric data and there really is a statistical tie.)  A tie that results in a list that is really eleven items long means someone wanted to list eleven items AND not look like a putz for list that is a non-standard length.  This actually makes them a bigger putz than someone who just charges ahead with a non-standard length list. 

One item lists are used by people who want to express an opinion and make it look legit by putting it in a list.  Just say it on Facebook or Twitter instead because it isn’t a fact just because you show it in list form.  Along the same lines, making a list like “The Coolest Women I Know” and only listing your girlfriend means you want to flatter her because you really enjoy having sex with her.  Or you did something wrong and can’t afford flowers and a real apology.  It’s very transparent, so just stop it.  

Furthermore, listing something multiple times like “The Best 2016 Presidential Candidates” and saying number one is Donald Trump, number two is Donald Trump and number three is…. also Donald Trump is even worse than just listing one item.  Plus it means you are helping to send this country to hell in a hand basket and you scare me.