Serious Progress

Sister #4 e-mailed me with some very pertinent findings:

Janice:

So what exactly is the criteria for the whole male name in a song thing? Does the song need to be about a man or just reference a male name?

AP!: The song only has to use the male name once, as we find in "The Joker"'s use of "Maurice." And, the reference need not be to a human, as we find in Mayfield's example of that Michael Jackson song that uses Ben, which is a rat.

(Note to Nick L.: You should know what song he's talking about. Any help on this, buddy? I can't imagine what else is going on in Minnesota that you haven't already gotten on this for us. ;)

Back to Janice:


If it's just a reference, Carlo and I just came up with a bunch . . . and while I'd normally ask if you were curious and make you ask for them, I'm sure I'd forget before I could share them.

Anyhoo - Madonna references Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire on Vogue (and maybe others, but those are the two I recall from Carlo's recent rendition).

And then Carlo said there is a song "Cool It Now" by New Edition - one line starts "Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike" (apparently these are the guys in New Edition).

And there is also Buddy Holly by Weezer?

AP!: Why is there a quesiton mark here? Is the question over whether there's a song about Buddy Holly, or about who sings it?


Janice:

And what about Danny Boy?


AP!: No. That's an Irish folk song, and our search is limited to American pop tunes from, say, 1955 and forward.

Janice:

Oh, and at the risk of putting the most annoying song in your head, what about Henry the Eighth? If you don't know this song, don't go find it, just trust me, it's a real song and it's been on the radio, and it's one of the worst songs ever.

AP!: Dammit, Janice! Now I've got "Henry the VIII, I am, I am. . ." in my head. But no one ever said this was a secure mission.

Janice:

Carlo is ona quest now to find more songs, so let me know the criteria asap!

Of course as I write this I recall the whole thing started with Dr. Science's first name Maurice and he must be special because how many male names are in songs - so you would think you don't really want to find more male names in songs, but I'm hoping this quest has evolved - after all "Maurice" is a pretty special name in and of itself.

AP!: Hey. It's not about leaving some names in an elite category. It's about the truth. My overall hypothesis is that the number of women's names appearing in American Pop Music far, far out-weighs the number of men's names. If we get to, like, 25 men's names, then we'll have to generate a list of women's names and have to reach, what? 100 names to "far out-weigh" them?

So let's see what we now have.
1. Micky
2. Bill
3. Billy (as in "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" and Van Morison's "It Stoned Me"--but this doesn't count as 2)
4. Maurice
5. Jack
6. Ben
7. Gene
8. Fred
9. Ronnie
10.Bobby
11.Rickie
12.Mike
13.Buddy
14.Henry

What a monster day here at the Big "C." From 6 to a whopping 14 in just one post.

Overall, fine, fine work, Janice. I like the enthusiasm. Love it. And Carlo, I am crazy about how you are hitting this so hard, man. Way to be team players, you two. It's heart and application of available force like this that will make this blog a success. Great, great effort, guys.