This is one of those milestone Stylus Counsel columns. It’s the 250th one since I started doing them on the last day of January 2022. As such, I thought I’d do something a little different by compiling a bunch of lists of other remarkable, or at least curious, 250-centric achievements.
We’ll start with birthdays. Sept. 7 is the 250th day of the year, most years — 251st on leap years. Here are your top five musical Sept. 7 birthdays:
Arthur Ferrante, 1921 (Ferrante & Teicher)
Benmont Tench, 1954 (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Gloria Gaynor, 1943 (I Will Survive)
Little Milton, 1934 (We’re Gonna Make It)
Chrissie Hynde, 1951 (The Pretenders)
Rolling Stone magazine likes to publish lists. Their 2023 list of the Top 500 Albums Of All Time puts The Buzzcocks’ 1979 singles compilation, Singles Going Steady, into position No. 250. This isn’t simply a greatest hits — grab their 1991 comp Operator’s Manual for that. This is a collection of songs put out as 7″ singles. Makes for an incredible record.
In terms of sales, apparently the 2002 album Songs About Jane, by Maroon 5 is the 250th best-selling album of all time. Not too shabby for a debut album — and the only one featuring their founding drummer Ryan Dusick, who was fired before the band started recording the followup. Eventually, Dusick went into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. Following this, he went back to school and earned a master’s degree in clinical psychology. Now working as a mental-health specialist, Dusick released a memoir in 2022.
Most of my own songs are between 60 and 140 beats per minute. Finding rock songs which are 250 bpm is pretty rare — you’re basically looking at a handful of speed metal tracks. But, when you widen the net to include swing numbers, suddenly there’s dozens of them.
In terms of live performance, we’ll examine one of the greatest live acts of all time — or at least one which was perhaps best enjoyed live — The Grateful Dead. According to online sources, the band’s 250th gig happened on Dec. 29, 1967. It was the first of two shows at Boston’s Psychedelic Supermarket. The underground music venue once stood at 590 Commonwealth Ave., inside a converted parking garage. The earliest gig I can find at the venue, which was around for two years, was played by Cream on Sept. 8, 1967. Procol Harum seem to have closed the place on Nov. 23, 1968. The list of bands who played there is remarkable — Sly & The Family Stone, Moody Blues, Blood Sweat & Tears, Country Joe & the Fish, Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company, Blue Cheer, The Fugs, The Electric Flag, Chuck Berry and Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. The building was converted into a movie theater before being demolished for a Boston University science lab.
Anyway. Trying to figure out the 250th most-played song by the Dead in concert is considerably more difficult. Once you get close to 150, there are quite a number of ties. It seems there’s a cluster of Beatles covers the band did seven times over the years, which places them in a tie for 250th. They include George Harrison’s I Want To Tell You and It’s All Too Much, along with Paul McCartney’s Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
Billboard Magazine, which has been doing charts since 1894, has a bold list entitled The Greatest Acts Of All Time. But that list only goes to 125. But they have others, like their Best Pop Songs of All Time staff list, which goes to 400. Coming in at No. 250 is You’re The One That I Want, sung by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, from the 1978 Grease soundtrack. The song, written by John Farrar, has sold more than four million copies in the U.K. and U.S. alone. Farrar and Newton-John have done very well together. Farrar also wrote her hits Hopelessly Devoted To You, Have You Never Been Mellow and Magic. Weirdly, there’s another Maroon 5 connection here — Farrar’s son is the bass player in the band.
On three occasions, Rolling Stone has published a list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time, determined by analyzing chart placement and then adjusting those figures based on the opinions of critics and industry figures. The first list came out in 2004, a revised one in 2010, and the latest one in 2021 — with a 2024 update. On both the first list and the 2010 revision, Sly & the Family Stone’s 1969 hit Hot Fun In The Summertime came in at No. 250. In the most recent version, they have Purple Haze by The Jimi Hendrix Experience at No. 250. The 1967 track opens Hendrix’s debut album Are You Experienced.
We get a little more current when examining the rankings on Spotify. According to a curated September playlist, the 250th most-streamed song on the platform, ever, is 2002 by Anne-Marie. The 250th most-streamed artist is Brazilian musician and DJ Alok. The 250th most-streamed album is Love Yourself: Tear by South Korean boy band BTS. The Korean-language album came out in 2018.
The first group of inductees to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame went in on Jan. 23, 1986. The very first, inducted by the late Robert Palmer, was Delta blues legend Robert Johnson. We don’t see the 250th inductee (including performers and non-performers) until March 15, 2010. Seems to me that individual was reggae singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Cliff, who was inducted by Wyclef Jean. He was one of five performers inducted that year. The others were The Stooges, ABBA, Genesis and The Hollies.
There are only 195 countries in the world, but there are loads of cities. Ranking them by population, the 250th most-populated is Bursa in northwest Turkey. In terms of prominent musical figures to come from Turkey, I’ve got to single out Ahmet Ertegun — the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. Ertegun was not only a pioneering icon in the industry and a philanthropist, but he also wrote songs — including Ray Charles’ The Mess Around. His lyrics for The Clovers’ 1956 hit Lovey Dovey were made even more famous when Steve Miller used them as part of The Joker in 1973:
“You’re the cutest thing that I’ve ever seen
I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree
Lovey dovey, lovey dovey all the time.”
A close second to Ertegun, when it comes to prominent music figures from Turkey would be producer Arif Mardin — the most prolific producer of all time. He has 1,246 production credits from 1963 to 2006 — almost all of them as the main producer. His 250th seems to have been the 1973 promotional single I’m Sorry by Daryl Hall and John Oates. The song eventually appeared on the duo’s debut album Whole Oats, which Mardin also produced.
Here’s yet another of those Rolling Stone magazine lists. This one is from 2023. Lucky for me, their writers managed to compile a list of the Top 250 Guitarists Of All Time. The last name on that list is Andy Summers of The Police, but who also has had an incredible solo career since the ’80s, not to mention his pre-Police time in The Animals, Soft Machine and Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band. Summers came up with the guitar part in Every Breath You Take and nailed it in a single take. But for me, his solo in Driven To Tears is his most inspiring rip. It’s off their 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta, which was the first record I ever bought with my own money. Though, this live version is pretty killer as well:
From the magazine to the band now — The Rolling Stones have been in and out of recording studios from 1963 to 2023. They have released 491 songs, and countless others which were either never finished, scrapped or simply remain unreleased. As best I can figure, their 250th recording is one of several possible tracks — three of which saw proper release. They were recorded during the first month of 1975 when the band assembled with their mobile studio in Rotterdam to record Black And Blue, which came out in 1976. The band were still living in tax exile and wouldn’t get back into a studio until 1977. Those five possible songs are Built That Way, I Love Ladies, Melody and Worried About You. The first two weren’t officially released, Melody is on Black And Blue and Worried About You finally surfaced on 1981’s Tattoo You. My guess is the 250th recording was Built That Way.
Eric Clapton is a collector of classic cars, specifically Ferraris. It’s a passion which was sparked by his friend George Harrison, who drove over to visit one day in his brand new, dark blue Ferrari 365 GTC. Clapton actually bought the car from Harrison, despite the fact that he didn’t even have his driver’s licence. He had it painted silver, then white. He’s owned dozens of Ferraris over the years, and has held on to a few favourites — none more so than his 1964 250 GT Lusso. Only 350 were ever built.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
