by James Wallace Harris
There’s a meme challenge going on YouTube over the past couple of weeks for YouTubers who have channels devoted to collecting albums — What are the ten albums you’ve played the most? Some YouTubers take that to mean over their entire lifetime while others choose to interpret it in various other ways. No one seems to be able to answer the question asked, and I won’t be able to either. I’m going to give ten albums I played the most in the 20th century, and four I’ve played the most in this century. But in all honesty, the ten from the past century were played far more than any this century.
This is an almost impossible task. It challenges those who take up the task to push their memories to their limits. It also reveals delusions we have about what we think we know about ourselves. And it shows how we change over time, even when we think we haven’t. And to be completely honest, we fudge on the selection in favor of what we want to be remembered remembering. Even if you aren’t a record collector, try to adapt the task to something you love, and then give an honest answer.
One thing I found startling about watching these videos is how unique and different the lists are. Humans are truly diverse creatures. When I was growing up in the 1960s there were only three TV channels and AM Top 40 radio. It was easy to find other people who like the same TV shows and songs that you did. That’s almost impossible now. Any Top 10 list you make will be as unique as your fingerprints.
I’ve watched several of the videos and so far, I don’t think there’s been any overlap of albums. Isn’t that wild? And several YouTubers listed ten albums I’ve never played, and some listed albums I’ve never even heard of before.
Visit YouTube to watch some of these videos.
I believe it’s delusional to think we know which albums we’ve played the most if we only go by what feels true. I’m sure people might think “I’ve played that album a million times” it’s obvious that such a statement is hyperbole. I’m not even sure its within reason to say, “I’ve played that song a thousand times,” even though I’ve thought it true about “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan.
I doubt anyone has kept a diary of when they played an album and have trusted statistics. But that’s what’s fun about this challenge, trying to analyze a pattern that spans a lifetime. Google tells me there’s been 21,183 days since I started buying records in 1966. I was given a few between 1962 and 1965, but I don’t really remember them. Google also says there were 3,026 weeks, and 58 years in that period. There is no album I’ve played every week, but I’m confident there are albums I played at least once a year. Knowing those numbers will help me verify my memory.
I’ve been buying albums since 1966 and I have owned between 3,000 and 4,000. But making even that guess is psychologically revealing. I do know years ago when I ripped my CDs to MP3s that I ended up with over 1,900 of them. I’ve bought many since. I think I’ve bought around the same number of LPs but that’s only a guess. LP buying was dominant for about twenty years, as compared to thirty-eight years of buying CDs. Until the advent of streaming, I often bought 2-4 new albums a week, and during my LP buying years, I often bought used LPs, so that number was higher.
My record playing habit has always been to search for albums I love, play them over and over for days or weeks, and then burn out on them. However, I’d say less than 1 in 10 albums I bought excited me enough to play them over and over like that. Looking at the numbers, I’m guessing I’ve only loved about three hundred albums out of all those I bought, and of that three hundred, only about 30-50 are ones I like to play all the way through when I play them. That means I need to figure out which ten out of fifty I played the most.
The odds are some of the ten from the 20th century are the actual albums I played the most.
Playing around with numbers, I’m going to set my rule of thumb to thinking any pre-2000 album I played more than fifty times is a possibility, and any post-2000 album I’ve played more than thirty times.
20th Century
I know I’ve told people I’ve played “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan at least 1,000 times. That’s only playing it once a day for three years, out of the possible 58 years since I first heard it in July 1965. But if I press my memory hard, I know I never played it daily for three years. And I know I haven’t played it even weekly. But I’ve bought Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde twice on vinyl, once on CD, and once on SACD. I’m confident I’ve played those two albums once a year, and more than likely two or more times each year. That means I’ve easily played them more than one hundred times since they came out.
Now it’s easy to pick the next two albums I played the most, since they are both from the 1960s, and I’ve been playing them ever since. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s I played Everybody Knows This is Nowhere by Neil Young whenever I needed an emotional boost. It was like cocaine. Playing it just pumped me up, and I played the hell out of it. But I don’t play it much anymore. “Cowgirl in the Sand” is on my standard playlist, so I listen to it regularly.
The Secret Life of J. Eddy Fink by Janis Ian made me a life-long Janis Ian fan. I still play it regularly, and I love hearing the whole album. I even bought it again on vinyl several years ago when I got back into vinyl. (I’ve sold my entire vinyl collection more than once.)
Here’s where the YouTube meme becomes more challenging. My main clue is I’ve had this habit of buying an album and playing it repeatedly until I was tired of it. For many albums that was once. But for some that would be a week or two. In rare exceptions it might be a month. It was always until I found another album, one I had to hear in repeat mode too. I know I used to drive anyone living with me crazy because this habit. All ten of the albums I picked were ones I couldn’t stop listening to for weeks.
In the 1970s, The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen were those albums I played the most. And I got to see the Allman Brothers live in 1971 before Duane died, and Springsteen live in 1975, during the Born to Run tour. I’m still playing both albums after all these years.
After I burn out on an album I could go weeks, months, or years before I played it again. The best albums would be gotten out again and put on repeat play for a while again. I’m sure I’ve had at least fifty albums I’ve played repeated for weeks. I love soundtrack albums, and Tubular Bells and Gattaca are the ones I’ve played the most, so I’m going to represent all my jazz and soundtrack albums with these two albums.
For most albums I never played them whole but repeated played one or two songs. Boy did I love CDs and having a remote. And streaming made this even easier. I have one Spotify playlist of just songs I love that I put on random play because I love hearing them over and over.
But for the 10 Albums I’ve Played the Most meme I’m pushing my brain to remember only those albums I love playing whole. Gypsy by Gypsy was a double album, but I would play it all the way through almost every time I played it, especially after I got the CD. But to be honest, I only play the first side of What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye — however, that one side is the most perfect side of any album I know.
21st Century
I think many YouTubers didn’t want to tax their memories, so they only pick ten albums they play the most currently or in recent years. I think that’s a cheat. The ten albums I picked for the 20th century are for the fulfillment of the meme. I just can’t let people think I don’t listen to contemporary music. The next four albums are ones I play whole, and over and over since I got them.
I bought young in all the wrong ways by Sara Watkins on LP a couple of years ago when I was giving vinyl another chance. (I’ve abandoned it yet again.) I loved playing young in all the wrong ways every night when I went to bed. I did this for weeks. I have several albums by Sarah Jaffe, but The Body Knows is the one I play most. I still play both albums regularly.
My new obsession is Kings of Leon, and When You See Yourself is the one, I play the most. I have several of their albums. I just love Adele, but 30 was special. I love to play it loud. Well, I love to play everything very loud. Loud for me is eighty-five decibels.
And most YouTubers were emphatic that they were not picking the Top Ten Best Albums. The meme really is about the albums we play the most. But it’s hard to pick a single album you played the most from artists or groups where you love many of their albums. For this meme, the ten selected don’t necessarily mean they are from my favorite artists or groups either.
I know back in the 1960s I played Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and The Beatles the most. But I stopped playing The Beatles as much since. I’ve had two or three Beatles playing jags in the last 50 years, but I never stopped playing Dylan or The Byrds. However, I don’t think I’ve ever played any Byrds album more than fifty times, but it’s close.
To appease my memory and maybe lie to myself mathematically I’m going to pick albums I’m the most emotionally addicted to, the ones I know I return to the most because they sooth my soul. They are the true album forms of heroin. And this might be the solution many YouTubers chose.
There are individual songs I’ve played more than any album by far. Two, “Fresh Air” and “What About Me” by Quicksilver Messenger Service were on two different albums. And they were the only songs on the albums I liked. So, I hate to use those albums for this meme. I could use a best of compilation, but I would consider that cheating on the game too.
There are albums I’m sure that I’ve played more than fifty times that I don’t want to list in my ten. The first album I bought with my own money mowing lawns was the soundtrack to Our Man Flint with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. I just don’t listen to it anymore but back when I first bought it, I wore it out.
It’s hard to be honest answering questions like “What are the ten albums you played the most?” Like I said, I guess there are at least forty other albums that I might have played as much. I hate that I shouldn’t mention them, but I’ve already cheated by giving four albums for this century that I played the most.
If you’re curious, here’s my Spotify playlist of songs I play the most.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 
HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED was the first album I ever bought (with the money I earned from mowing lawns during the Summer of 1965). And, I bought BLONDE ON BLONDE the day it was released in June 1966. Like you, I’ve listened to “Like A Rolling Stone” a 1000 times and loved it. Looking at the album covers you show, I’d say our listening tastes are fairly close. I might have more CDs of Motown. than you do. I’m working on what to do with my thousands of music CDs as I age. I’m in negotiations with the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Music Library on setting up a series of yearly donations. My wife, son, and daughter have ZERO interest in my CD collection–they are all into streaming music. I try to listen to a music CD each day. There are not many things more wonderful than music!
It’s odd how our collections mean so much to us but so little to the people that mean so much to us.
Jim, my kids think I’m crazy to have thousands of music CDs when “everything” is available on streaming services. I’m not too sure about that myself. Anyway, I like the tactile feel of music CDs and their jewel boxes.and their liner notes, and covers. Different times, different tastes.
George, when my internet was out, my CDs sure did come in handy.
I’ve gotten back into CDs over the past year because they sound better. I got a new CD transport last year, and it sounds fantastic with my new amp and speakers. (Audiolab 6000 amp and CD and Polk R600 speakers.)
When I die I’m sure my wife will call Goodwill or Salvation Army and say “Come and get it.”
it would probably be easier to make a list of musicians who have most annoyed me over the years. i still lunge for the dial any fuckin time anything by don mcclean or cat stevens drifts into the ether, and it’s difficult to sit around a tavern when an aging freak punches up black sabbath or led zeppelin (or the doobie brothers, come to think of it; considering that they were originally known as pud….) and don’t let me hear any of my fellow californians whining about disrespecting bay area rock. if yer listening to the doobie brothers, all i can do is reiterate what frank zappa once said: you wouldn’t know music if it bit your ass. i have spoken!
But the challenge is to list who you’ve played the most. And since you have such strong opinions about who you hate to hear it makes me even more curious who you love to hear.
I never think about artists I hate. I guess that’s because I quit listening to the radio in 1971. I just lost my training for turning things off.
i’d reckon that my taste has remained fairly stable over the past fifty-five years,musically,anyway.if the sixties were about the beach boys,the byrds, cream,and van dyke parks (anybody else remember SONG CYCLE?), the seventies were mainly the beach boys, the end of the byrds, the peripatetic sightings of crosby,stills,nash,and now and then young (freud,marx,engels and jung?), judy collins,joni mitchell(always a favorite fantasy),the singer-songwriters of laurel canyon and malibu: jackson browne, warren zevon, al stewart , lowell george (how come little feat never got the recognition they deserved), tim buckley, steve noonan, and the coffeehouse three as bonnie, my music shop sweetheart referred to them: dave van ronk, tim hardin, and phil ochs, who somehow never ascended to ionosphere with bob dylan, though each of them probably had a couple songs that were just as heavy. moving right along and into the eighties, the beach boys become a liberal republican oldies act, i caught warren zevon just about every time he played anywhere in chicago, punk rock in the form of the ramones (i want BLITZKRIEG BOP on the speakers when the air raid sirens switch on) and blondie gave rock a needed shot in the arm, and i finish out that decade in northern california, wondering what it must have been like twelve years,fiften years earlier (sitting at the bar in vesuvio, a tavern across the alley from city lights books, i asked the bar if the tales of jack kerouac drinking there were true, to which he replied,’ probably, as long as somebody else was buying) and catching barry melton,john cipollina, spencer dryden, and a rotating cast of veterans who played the saloon (corner of grant and fresno, longest continually operating public house in san francisco), under the moniker of middle-aged men with musical instruments, never caught bruce springsteen live, to me he was always more interesting as a songwriter than a vocalist (i’ve always wanted the beach boys to cover wreck on the highway), not near as powerful a singer as johnny lyon (southside johnny and the asbury jukes, next to warren zevon my favorite live act back then; caught them at a small venue in the suburbs of chicago in the late winter of 2016 when i was back in town for my mothers funeral and though i didnt forget my grief, i felt better for a couple hours.)through the nineties and into the first decade of this century, listening to townes van zandt, chris smither, steve earle, jimmie dale gilmore, joe ely, guy clark(who wrote a song titled LITTLE BIRD which probably catches the angst of knowing that yr youth is gone despite how young you may feel as well as anything i ever heard; jerry jeff walker covered it on viva terlingua, as i recollect), and the focus of my interest shifted from los angeles and san francisco to austin. i really dig seattle as a geographic entity(the whole fucking northwest, portland out to juneau, is paradise,or as near to it as yer likely to find in this vale of tears, but i never got the whole grunge thing,and all i could tell a younger woman of my acquaintance when kurt cobain punched out was that i wished i could have had some of the years he threw away. she told me that i was really cynical and shallow. (that was a common kvetch of hers; i’d prefer to think of myself as skeptical and superficial.as the song says, so many things go many ways,many times but once, they pass us by and life is but a thought. certain tunes fit specific situations. my favorite piece of music to crank when i’m sitting behind a squad car at a red light is SOMEONE”S LOOKING AT YOU by the boomtown rats ; favorite icebreaker if i find myself the sole white guy in a tavern full of brothers (that’s happened a few times on the other side of the bay in oakland) is RIVER DEEP MOUNTAIN HIGH by ike and tina turner i’m embarassed to admit that i didn’t pick up amy winehouse until after she’d drunk herself to death, much as i didn’t realize how great bands like love and buffalo springfield were until after they’d called it quits. mean-while, i can’t locate my cassette of john wesley harding, the rolling stones were never as interesting after brian jones died, the beatles should have called it quits after THE BEATLES, and rest in peace,robbie robertson and thanks again for IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE.
a mistake on my part. jerry jeff walker wrote LITTLE BIRD; guy clark wrote L.A. FREEWAY. say goodbye to the landlord for me/that sonofabitch has always bored me. (actually, my landlord is a better man than some i’ve had to deal with in the past fifty years.)my favorite critics (on a literary level,anyway, i’ve found plenty to disagree with them over,otherways) remain greil marcus, ellen sander, and r. meltzer. the hippest labels were always warner-reprise and elektra.
We have a lot of overlap. I regret never catching THE BYRDS live. I did see Roger McGuinn by himself perform.
I got to see CREAM in Miami in 1968, when they were doing their Farewell Tour. Were you there Ed?
I remember you telling the writing class all about The Doors first album. Did you see them at Dinner Key? I think you mentioned that. My sister was there.
Did you see Chicago when they came to Miami Date Junior just after their first album came out?
i caught the byrds twice. first time was summer of 1965 at the old war memorial auditorium in fort lauderdale;the original byrds weren’t a very good live act. it seemed like they spent half of a sixty minute set tuning up in a venue with shitty acoustics ( but there was nowhere else in south florida to fit thousands of screaming chicks and their horny dates); i saw them again, halloween 1970, at pirates world (where was that? hallandale? hollywood? hell if i remember…) much tighter musically, though i felt like their vocals weren’t as polished as the beach boys. yeah, i remember the cream 10/26/1968 at the ballpark; one of the high watermarks of my childhood. i never caught the doors live; i always felt the first lp was their peak and i lost interest in them after waiting for the sun. in some alternate universe, jim morrison lives past twenty-seven,returns to los angeles, and winds up hanging out at the track with charles bukowski. the lizard king at santa anita,eh. the only concert i recollect at dade is judy collins, autumn 1968, a week or two before the cream ; i saw both shows with kris straub. last i’d heard she was teaching english and gender studies(!) at carnegie-mellon university in pittsburgh . i’m not surprised. you know what to look for, you can spot the winners coming out of the gate, as bukowski used to say. i still think of her whenever i hear BOTH SIDES NOW. i always thought chicago was just another in a long line of mediocre rock groups from my favorite city; it’s kind of em-barassing that we never spawned any bands the equal of the stooges, the mc5, or the iron city houserockers. i remember some idiot on one of the top forty stations doing a segue from COME TOGETHER to MAKE ME SMILE saying, “the beatles. who will take up where they left off? could it be chicago?’ i told the lady i was hanging out with that if that was the best we could look forward to, rock and roll would be dead and buried in five years. she replied, ” aw,c’mon, i like chicago.” a couple years later, i found h.l. menckens quote that nobody had ever gone broke underestimatng the taste of the american public. i dug just where he was coming from.
I’m jealous you got to see The Byrds so early in their career. But I would have only been 13, and I didn’t go to concerts at that age. I didn’t start going to concerts until I was 16 and could drive myself.
Your comments confirm what I’ve read, that The Byrds weren’t very good performing live in their early years but got much better in their later incarnations. I’ve also read that except for McGuinn, none of the band played on their first albums. I think The Wrecking Crew did it. Do you know?
I still like early Chicago.
Did you live near Ft. Lauderdale when you were younger? I lived in the Lake Forest subdivision near Hollywood, on and off, until the 7th grade.
Without question the album I have played most is ASTRAL WEEKS. I still think it’s an incomprehensible masterpiece. And I think Richard Davis’ bass is what means the most to me now, though the utter obsessive despair of “Cyprus Avenue” is great too.
Most of the albums on your 20th century list are great in my mind too. That said, for Neil Young my obsession was RUST NEVER SLEEPS. For the Allman Brothers, EAT A PEACH.
I should also mention I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT, by Richard and Linda Thompson. But the Richard Thompson guitar work I’ve heard most often is on two Fairport Convention recordings: “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” and “A Sailor’s Life”.
Add Emmylou Harris’ WRECKING BALL. THE CLASH (US version — sorry, can’t give up “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”). TALKING HEADS ’77. Television’s MARQUEE MOON.
From the 21st Century, WHEN THE SUN IS THE MOON, by Hudson Bell.
There are more, but it’s late.
ASTRAL WEEKS is great music, though as a concept it’s never intrigued me as much as SONG CYCLE: my interest in neil young peaked around the release of EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE and AFTER THE GOLD RUSH.like richard thompson, he’s a musician i’ve always dug more in performance than in the studio. but any dude who can come up with a line the equal of “red hair and black leather/my favorite colour scheme’ i’ll smoke a bowl with anywhere.
I loved Van Morrison’s music. I bought all his albums from ASTRAL WEEKS (1968) through DAYS LIKE THIS (1995). But the ones I played the most were MOONDANCE, TUPELO HONEY, INTO THE MUSIC, INARTICULATE SPEECH OF THE HEART, NO GURU, NO METHOD, NO TEACHER, ENLIGHTENMENT — but especially INTO THE MUSIC and MOONDANCE — they almost made my Top Ten Most Played list. I play all the others fairly often.
I’ve sort of lost touch with Van the Man since the 1990s. What about you? He’s still cranking them out.
ENLIGHTENMENT is probably the last of Van’s album’s I’ve really loved. I’ve bought them on and off since then, and there is usually at least one pretty good song on them, but they’re definitely not up to his best work. At this rate, if he lives as long as Willie Nelson, he might put out as many albums, though!
As you probably know, the soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh’s BELFAST is all Van Morrison songs (including one new one), and it’s very good. (The whole movie is very good.) The closing song, for obvious thematic reasons, is the best song from INTO THE MUSIC, “When the Healing Has Begun”.
I remember watching BELFAST and noticing the Morrison music, but never thought about getting the soundtrack.
I love ASTRAL WEEKS, but I love MOONDANCE and INTO THE MUSIC more. I also love RUST NEVER SLEEPS. Did you see the film? And I love EAT A PEACH. I got that album when it came out because I traded a Frank Franzetta fan all my THINGS TO COME notices from the SFBC for it. He worked at a record store. I wish now I had kept the THINGS TO COME brochures and just bought EAT A PEACH.
I need to try WHEN THE SUN IS THE MOON.
I used to have a few Richard and Linda Thompson albums, but I never played them a lot. I should give them another chance.
INTO THE MUSIC is probably my second favorite of Van’s albums, though VEEDON FLEECE is also up there.
I did see the movie of RUST NEVER SLEEPS, in a curious time when a bunch of quite good concert (or similar) films came out — THE LAST WALTZ and THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT and, a few years later, STOP MAKING SENSE. Besides those I’ve hardly ever seen a concert film!
I like Hudson Bell a lot but sometimes I think that’s just a weird detour in my taste. I was introduced to him (them? Hudson Bell is a person but maybe a band too?) at the time of the last total eclipse, when my Pandora played “The Falls” from WHEN THE SUN IS THE MOON, which has the lyric “When the Sun becomes the Moon”, and I’m convinced that somehow Pandora bumped it up on purpose because it’s a very eclipse-appropriate song.
Richard Thompson — and of course the Thompson/Denny era of Fairport Convention — is one of my all time favorites, and, for me, the most puzzling and infuriating omission from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And my latest musical enthusiasm, for what it is worth, is Keith Jarrett. Have you listened to him?
I see “Along Comes Mary” by The Association, on the list. When this group was in their heyday I was just a wee little kid and barely remember them. Yet this is now one of my favorite songs from the 60’s. What might be called a “Summer of Love” song.
I got to see The Association perform live in 1968. They were a favorite group. It was was one of the first dates I had with this girl who was the first girl I ever took out.
i never followed the association that closely. without consulting joel whitburn or the ROLLING STONE archives, i don’t recall anything they recorded other than ALONG CAMES MARY or NEVER MY LOVE. a tune that takes me back to junior year is johnny rivers cover of SUMMER RAIN,written and composed by james hendricks, which brings to mind jerry lewis line in KING OF COMEDY, ‘ every man is a genius at least once in his life’. anybody remember that flick?
You don’t remember “Wendy?”
how embarassing!
i stopped at the neighborhood jamba juice on the walk back to my place yesterday afternoon. CHERISH was on the audio. synchronicity? probably just corporate programming..
I can’t believe I forgot that one. A favorite of mine.