(Actual footage of Jason Wilde planning tonight's show.)
The theme for tonight's (8/14/21) episode of A Blast From the Past features the show's most-played artists since The Todd and I assumed hosting duties of the show at the end of 2019. We keep a spreadsheet of all of the songs and artists we've played, and we geek it out with pivot tables, etc. (yes, we are nerds!). Of course, I've ALWAYS been into statistics; I used to make my own weekly Top 40/Top 100 charts when I was young. So being nerdy just comes naturally for me.
The simple theme tonight: play songs from the artists we've played the most over the past 20+ months. But I did make some "rules" for the episode:
Even though I'm featuring the artists played the most, I want to keep it fresh. So each song has NOT been played since we started hosting.
An easy out for the first rule would be to just play album cuts/obscure tracks, so I still tried to come up with songs that you would have a fighting chance of knowing or at least heard before (there's still plenty of obscure!).
I wanted to connect all of the songs, so there is a sub-theme. You'll have to listen to find out what that is!
A few things about how we count artists:
Artists who go solo from groups are counted separately (e.g. Paul McCartney and The Beatles are separate counts).
Every listing/iteration of an artist billing counts. For example, Prince has been billed as Prince, Prince & the Revolution, Prince & the New Power Generation, Whatever the hell this is, etc. All of those count as "Prince."
The same is true for names. John Cougar, Johnny Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, etc. are all folded in to John Mellencamp.
Duets, trios, collaborations, etc. count IF the artist is credited. For example, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross counts as an appearance for both artists. Michael Jackson singing backup on Rockwell's "Somebody's Watching Me" does not count as an MJ appearance.
(I feel like I need a lawyer to go over all of this!)
If you want to be surprised about which artists you hear (or don't hear) on tonight's show, STOP READING HERE. You can come back after you've listened to tonight's show and see the details, as I'm about the share the list of most-played artists and the number of times each has been played, so...
SPOILER ALERT
I SAID...
(You were warned.)
Here is the list of the most-played artists on A Blast From the Past since January 2020. There have been about 75 unique episodes during the time The Todd and I have been hosting (with a couple guest appearances by show creator Joe thrown in):
ARTIST # of PLAYS
Neil Diamond 19
Billy Joel 18
Prince 17
Kim Wilde 17
The Eagles 15
The Beatles 14
Styx 14
Queen 14
The Moody Blues 13
Huey Lewis & The News 13
Chicago 13
Elton John 13
Roxette 12
John Mellencamp 12
Joan Jett 11
Van Halen 11
Paul McCartney 11
Linda Ronstadt 11
REO Speedwagon 10
Bruce Springsteen 10
Madonna 10
David Bowie 10
Cyndi Lauper 9
Bryan Adams 9
Even though I pay attention to our database of songs & artists we've played, I was surprised by some of the totals. Prince and Chicago came in higher than I expected. Not that they aren't great artists, but I didn't realize we'd featured them so often. Especially Chicago, since I'm not as much of a fan of pre-1982 Chicago.
I was also surprised Neil Diamond was our most-played artist. Yes, he is one of my all-time favorites, but I think The Todd has featured Neil as much as I have. The same is true for my long-lost very distant cousin Kim Wilde: her being tied for third isn't just my doing; The Todd has played her a fair amount as well. And Elton John quietly is tied for 9th. I would never have guessed he's been played so often if I didn't see the numbers every few weeks.
I hope you enjoy tonight's episode! And if you're keeping track of the songs and artists we play on A Blast From the Past, first, go outside more, and second, don't forget to add one play to all of the artists listed above!