Preface for The Hot 100 List of 2014!

When I was growing up, the thing that made the holidays tolerable was the year-end lists, usually a list of songs from 80 (CKLW) to 113 (WKNR). I would be riveted to the radio listening to the playback of songs to see where my favorites landed.

Now I get to do the same thing and that’s why I settled on 100 songs. This list could have easily been larger, but I thought a hundred was a nice round number. Just like the lists I listened to, some artists have multiple entries. That’s what I, as a listener, would expect from a good album. I’m not going to let you know the scientific method that I used to derive my list and, therefore, show how unbiased my list is. As a serious listener, I would find any list like that to be very disappointing. It wouldn’t have any heart. It’s the idiosyncrasies, to me, that makes a list interesting.

My list is biased and I’m proud of that fact. Why not? My thumb was on the scale when I selected the songs to play, so why shouldn’t that show through in my choices? But I put a lot of work into it. I estimate that I listened to, conservatively, approximately 2500 albums this year. Averaging 10 songs per album, that means that I’ve heard in the area of 25,000 songs. I think that’s more than most reviewers even attempt to listen to and is a pretty good sample size.

I estimate that I’ve listened to the songs on this list at least 100 times apiece. I find them to be fascinating and fun and amazing and so many other things. And the song itself is different from the process of making an album. A good song is a gem that needs to get a message across in usually 3 to 4 minutes. Most listeners these days won’t hang around even that long. But a good song is a good song is a good song! I have maintained lists throughout the year that show how I felt about what songs I’ve been listening to. There is a consistency here.

The one thing that I really, really like about this list that’s different from the lists I heard growing up: I like every song on this list!

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