PLAYLISTICLE - What I Listened To The Most In 2015 - HERC's Year in Review - Part 3 of 3

Before we get to the twenty-seven songs I listened to the most in 2015, here's a quick rundown of the 40 artists I listened to the most this past year, according to the ever vigilant last.fm scrobbler app as it monitored my Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and foobar2000 plays:

	40	Rod Stewart	30	Styx
	39	Blondie	29	Journey
	38	The Police	28	INXS
	37	Talking Heads	27	George Strait
	36	Pat Benatar	26	Pink Floyd
	35	The Brian Setzer Orchestra	25	The Clash
	34	Billy Joel	24	ZZ Top
	33	REO Speedwagon	23	Steely Dan
	32	Stevie Wonder	22	The Cars
	31	Willie Nelson	21	Eagles
	20	Ringo Starr	10	AC/DC
	19	Adam Ant	9	Tommy Collins
	18	Led Zeppelin	8	The Beach Boys
	17	Van Halen	7	Paul McCartney
	16	Linda Ronstadt	6	Dwight Yoakam
	15	ABBA	5	Hall & Oates
	14	Wings	4	Simple Minds
	13	Brothers Osborne	3	Prince
	12	Don Henley	2	Electric Light Orchestra
	11	Roy Orbison	1	Queen

It's fairly straightforward, somewhat accurate to what I would describe as my favorite artists though the Beatles would have probably made the Top 10 had they been scrobbled. Tommy Collins is clearly an anomaly. I fell in like with one of his songs early in the Summer and then listened to his five-disc boxed set all the way through one night. With the exception of Brothers Osborne, these are the artists whose albums I listened to the most this past year, plain and simple. But where's Kiss? The Rolling Stones? ABC? Bay City Rollers? Judas Priest? Supertramp? Heaven 17? Rosanne Cash? Heart? Chic? Donna Summer? KC & the Sunshine Band? Steve Miller Band? New Order? Michael Jackson? .....Back to the countdown of What I Listened To The Most in 2015 - The Final Twenty-Seven Songs!

#	song title	artist	year
27	Midnight At The Oasis	Maria Muldaur	1974
26	Any Way You Want It	Journey	1980
25	Lovely Day	Bill Withers	1977
24	Nice Girls	Eye to Eye	1982
23	Can't Feel My Face	The Weeknd	2015
22	I Wanna Get Next To You	Rose Royce	1976
21	Woman in Love	Barbra Streisand	1980
20	What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted	Jimmy Ruffin	1966
19	Groove Me	King Floyd	1970

Two surprises among this group for me:

• number 24 "Nice Girls" by Eye To Eye is a song I probably would have liked back in 1982 but I don't think I ever heard it. I give full credit to the soft rock kid for the hookup and
• after years of publicly voicing my failure to get Streisand's popularity and not liking any of her solo stuff, I fell under the spell of her singing Barry Gibb's "Woman In Love" on an American Top 40 replay on iheartradio this year and played it often.

#	song title	artist	year
18	Thunderstruck	AC/DC	1990
17	Do It Again	Steely Dan	1972
16	Little Red Corvette	Prince	1982
15	Something to Do with My Hands	Thomas Rhett	2012
14	If There Was a Way	Dwight Yoakam	1990
13	Highwayman	The Highwaymen	1985
12	I'm Your Man	Wham!	1985
11	Into the Night	Benny Mardones	1980
10	Baby Come Back	Player	1977

With the exception of the Thomas Rhett track at number 15, this block of nine tracks probably has the highest concentration of my all-time favorite songs. Also interesting to note another country music pocket right in the middle of the block featuring the present, the past, and the founding fathers in successive order. Speaking of which, I would love for Chris Stapleton to take a run at Dwight's "If There Was A Way" - seems like a match made in a dimly-lit honky-tonk if there ever was one.

#	song title	artist	year
9	Tube Snake Boogie	ZZ Top	1981
8	The Race Is On	George Jones	1964
7	Cruel to Be Kind	Nick Lowe	1979
6	Kandi	One Eskimo	2009
5	Eminence Front	The Who	1982
4	Kickstart My Heart	Mötley Crüe	1989
3	If You Can't Bite Don't Growl	Tommy Collins	1965
2	The Christmas Song	The Raveonettes	2003
1	Stay A Little Longer	Brothers Osborne	2015

Dig that Top 9 - I am nothing if not all over the map. Blues-boogie followed by honky tonk, then power pop and soul-sampling indie rock into classic rock and then Eighties hair metal before going back a quarter of a century to the Bakersfield Sound and leaping forward to a lo-fi Christmas carol before ending with a deeply passionate country song with guitars for days. And there you have it, my most-listened-to song for 2015 just happened to be released in 2015 - who da thunk? Until just yesterday, I had never heard the song other than when I played it but last night, while dining at Texas Roadhouse, it came on their in-house station and a great meal got just a little better as my foot kept time and I air-guitared the song's ending solo under the table.

Curious how the years broke out among my Top 103 of 2015?  The average year of release is 1985 while the median is 1980 which is also the year most represented with a dozen tracks. 2015 is a close runner-up (or possible winner if you ask Steve Harvey) with 10 songs on the countdown. By decade, the Eighties dominated with the Seventies not far behind - together they accounted for more than two-thirds of the 103 songs. And if you were wondering what song was number 104 like I was, wonder no more - the mystery has been solved. Number 104 is the bearded/hoodie/khaki blues-rock of Clutch and this is the only song of theirs I have ever heard.

Each year-end, I look forward to the definitive mashups of all the biggest hits of the year from both DJ Earworm and Daniel Kim. Both men delivered wonderful time capsules this year as you can see and hear for yourself below: