Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Saturday Night at the Oldies: Ordinals and Cardinal >10

I did zero to ten a few years back.  What songs can you think of that feature ordinals or cardinals greater than tenth or ten? Well, racking wracking my brains there's

Connie Stevens, Sixteen Reasons.  With footage from David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive."

Simon and Garfunkel, 59th Street Bridge Song. What a great song!  Slow down you hyperkinetic hustlers, you're moving too fast!

Cannibal and  the Head Hunters, Land of 1000 Dances.  This one goes out to Tom Coleman who probably danced to this at the El Monte Legion Stadium circa '65.  "Be there or be square!"  Can you pony like Bony Maroni?

Question Mark and the Mysterians, 96 Tears.  Is that a Farfisa organ making that cheesy sound?  This one goes out to Colin McGinn.

Bobby Darin, 18 Yellow Roses

Cannonball Adderley, 74 Miles Away

Chicago, 25 or 6 to 4

Frank Zappa, Twenty Small Cigars

Tom Waits, Ol '55

Paul Simon, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Billy Ward and the Dominoes, Sixty Minute Man

Ike Turner, Rocket 88

Beatles, When I'm 64

Dave Alvin, Highway 61 Revisited.  So who is Dylan? A folksinger, a rock & roller? Or the bard of Deep Americana? 

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Bill Vallicella

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13 responses to “Saturday Night at the Oldies: Ordinals and Cardinal >10”

  1. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    Johnny Cash, “One piece at a time.” Lots of numbers at the end. Enjoy. 50, 51, 52, 53 . . .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb9F2DT8iEQ

    Reply
  2. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    HI Bill – here are a few more:
    Beach Boys, 409
    The Crests, Sixteen Candles
    Edwin Starr, 25 Miles
    Three Dog Night, One
    And who could forget 76 Trombones?

    Reply
  3. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    PS:
    Regarding “96 Tears”, a Farfisa would have been my guess as well, but apparently not:

    “Though combo organ lovers have strong opinions on the rivalry between the Continental and the Farfisa, it hasn’t always been easy to discern the difference between them on recordings.
    Take the organ riff on Question Mark and the Mysterians’ 1966 classic, “96 Tears.” Is it a Farfisa or is it a Continental? I called Bobby Balderrama, the Mysterians’ amiable guitarist, and asked him to settle the 50-year old debate once and for all.
    He told me that Frank Rodriguez, the Mysterians’ organist, brought his Farfisa to the “96 Tears” recording session, but the studio engineer kept getting an annoying buzzing sound from the Farfisa.
    To keep the session going, the engineer offered the only organ the studio had, an ordinary wooden Thomas home organ. Rodriguez rocked that Thomas to rock ‘n’ roll immortality, proving in the process just how hard it can be to discern one organ’s sound from another.”

    Reply
  4. Ed Farrell Avatar
    Ed Farrell

    We certainly can’t forget Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “49 Bye-byes,” home to one of my favorite lines:
    Forty-nine reasons, all in a line
    All of them good ones, all of them lies.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-24WP5bCu4

    Reply
  5. james soriano Avatar
    james soriano

    Bill,
    I asked Grok the question as you posed it: “What songs can you think of that feature ordinals or cardinals greater than tenth or ten?” Here’s the response:
    Here are several songs that mention ordinals or cardinals greater than tenth or ten:
    Ordinal Numbers:
    “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson – The title itself uses the 21st ordinal.
    “12th of Never” by Johnny Mathis – Refers to a hypothetical very distant future date.
    “32nd Street” by Bon Jovi – While not explicitly stated in the song, it’s from the album “7800° Fahrenheit” where the street number is mentioned.
    Cardinal Numbers:
    “99 Red Balloons” by Nena – Talks about the number 99 directly in the lyrics.
    “867-5309/Jenny” by Tommy Tutone – The phone number in the title includes numbers well beyond ten.
    “19th Nervous Breakdown” by The Rolling Stones – Although the title uses “19th”, within the song context, it’s more about the repetition rather than the specific ordinal, but the number 19 is cardinal here.
    “One Hundred Years” by The Cure – Lyrics include the number one hundred.
    “747 (Strangers in the Night)” by Saxon – References the Boeing 747 aircraft, thus using the number 747.
    This list isn’t exhaustive, but these are some popular examples where numbers greater than ten or tenth are highlighted in song titles or lyrics. If you’re looking for more, there are plenty of songs out there that use higher numbers, especially in genres like rock, metal, or even hip-hop where numbers might symbolize something significant or be used in storytelling.
    ————
    To which I would add:
    Pennsylvania 6-5000, Glen Miller, 1940
    Get Your Kicks on Route 66, Bobby Troup, 1946
    Beechwood 4-5789, Marvin Gaye, 1962
    A Hundred Years from Today, Ned Washington, Victor Young, 1933 (see the Sinatra/Quincy Jones cover 1984)
    One for My Baby, and One More for the Road, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, 1946

    Reply
  6. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    This song by Kate and Anna has some excellent numbers ! Enjoy.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JS0Rh7e9s
    “Matapedia.’ 60 minutes 60 miles –

    Reply
  7. oz the clever ostrich Avatar
    oz the clever ostrich

    “500 miles” originally by Hedy West, but covered by 100s of ‘folk’ singers.
    Also “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers, who no one here will have heard of.
    “1999” by Prince, who no one here will have heard of either.
    I hope everyone here has seen the Bob Dylan film, which is very good. Even my wife liked it.

    Reply
  8. BV Avatar
    BV

    Oz,
    Yeah, we all saw the Dylan film. It moved me, to tears even, and it was sobering to look around the theater and see all the gray heads. Your wife liked it? I’ll bet your kids didn’t, assuming they saw it, which they probably didn’t.
    Peter Hitchens: >>Millions of young men once wanted to be Bob Dylan. God forgive me, I was one of them. Lots of them are dead now, and almost none of them, least of all me, have the frantic hair, let alone the slender waists, of our Dylan-worshipping days.
    I tell you this because the era of Dylan will soon be over, and those who come after it will find it impossible to understand.
    It is most beautifully expressed on the cover of what we then called an LP: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which I think I first saw, aged 14, at Christmas 1965. << https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14313635/PETER-HITCHENS-Like-millions-wanted-Bob-Dylan-truth-thrall-Communists-entranced-hurried-moral-doom.html?ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490

    Reply
  9. BV Avatar
    BV

    James,
    Excellent selections that you and GROK pulled up. In writing these Sat nite posts I have never yet used an app. That may change. Gotta get with it.
    If I may quibble, the definitive and original version of Beachwood 4-5789 is not Marvin Gaye’s but this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us18AUBM2RI
    Since you live near where the action is, I hope you and yours are doing OK.
    It’s too bad Christopher Hitchens is no longer among us. His commentary on these heady times would have made great reading.

    Reply
  10. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    How could I have forgotten “21st Century Schizoid Man”?
    As it happens, the musical collective I’m part of even played it in a concert a few years back. (That’s comedy writer Steve Skrovan hamming it up on vocals, and your humble correspondent on drums.)

    Reply
  11. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    Wait – some of you haven’t heard that Proclaimers song? It’s great. (And it’s Scottish — but I repeat myself.)
    Also: this list wouldn’t be complete without the schmaltzy classic “In The Year 2525”, by Zager and Evans. (Denny Zager, by the way, has since done very well for himself as a guitar-maker.)

    Reply
  12. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    “One and nineteen more…”
    Big Iron (Marty Robbins).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llDTyX0a7EU

    Reply
  13. Malcolm Pollack Avatar
    Malcolm Pollack

    Oh, and my apologies for inattentively including that Three Dog Night song (and gentlemanly of you not to chide me for it).

    Reply

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