Can your hard drive (dis)prove the myth of the perfect three minute pop song?

Virginia Plain - Roxy Music
In Between Days - The Cure
In The Cold Cold Night - The White Stripes
Write Record Release Blues -Jesus And Mary Chain
Paint It Black - Flamin' Groovies
It's About Time - Beach Boys Sunflower
I Can't Do Anything - X-Ray Spex
Natural Disaster - Tomahawk
Make Me Yours-Betty Swann
Take Me In Your Arms -Kim Weston
Do the Jerk - Little Richard
Think It Over - Brenda Holloway
Ghost Dance 1492 - Beachwood Sparks
I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night - The Electric Prunes
96 Tears - Iggy Pop
San Francisco - Kristin Hersh
You And Your Sister (Country Version) - Bell, Chris
Sweet Black Angel - The Rolling Stones
Liberty Belle - Super Furry Animals
Wolverines - The Residents
Harry the Head - The Residents
Turn Me On - Kevin Little

I Likes To Do It - The People's Choice
Dyle Fi - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
The Fool On The Hill - The Beatles
The Ballad Of John And Yoko - The Beatles
House In The Country - The Kinks
Hold On - James Carr
Pentref Wrth Y Mor (Village By The Sea) - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
I Can Do - Robert Forster
Just A Touch - R.E.M.
I'm Never Gonna Live It Down - The Knight Brothers
What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted - Jimmy Ruffin
She Is Still A Mystery - The Lovin' Spoonful
Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Watch Your Step - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Fly - Nick Drake
Can't Help Falling In Love- Elvis Presley
Melt Away - Brian Wilson
I've Been Tired - Pixies
You Remind Me Of A Naughty Springtime Cuckoo - Helen Morgan
John Riley - The Byrds
Thoughts And Words - The Byrds
Little America - R.E.M.
A Place In My Heart - Orange Juice
Dedicated to the One I Love - The Mamas & The Papas
Jonathan David - Belle & Sebastian
Tennessee Flat-Top Box - Johnny Cash

My 'Let Those Blue Skies' comes in at 3:01, adam.

Elvis Costello - Watch Your Step
Hoobastank - Running Away
Queen - Killer Queen

Pavement - Silence Kit
Mudhoney - Need
Jets to Brazil - resistance is Futile
Modern Lovers - Astral Plane
Rolling Stones - Time Is On My Side
Green Day - Android
Cake - The Distance
Spoon - Small Stakes
T. Rex - Planet Queen (Acoustic Version)
Velocity Girl - It's Not For You
Spoon - Advance Cassette
Tracy Bonham - Mother, Mother
Trinity - Pope Paul Dead and Gone
Centro-Matic - Turning Your Decisions
Heptones - Cool Rasta
Elliott Smith - St. Ides Heaven
Mooney Suzuki - Natural Fact
Mudhoney - Burn It Clean
Beastie Boys - Netty's Girl
Beastie Boys - Johnny Ryall
Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trash-Can
Sleater-Kinney - Taste Test
Apples in Stereo - Her Pretty Face
New Pornographers - Execution Day
JAMC - Upside Down
Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night
Marcy Playground - A Cloak of Elvenkind

Spoon, the New Pornographers and the Electric Prunes make a strong showing for 3:00.

2:58

Cornell Campbell - Got To Tell People
Stiff Little Fingers - Back To Front
Breeders - Put On A Side
The Who - I Can't Explain (Live at Leeds)
Uncle Tupelo - Flatness
Brian Setzer - Rooster Rock
Social Distortion - Playpen
The Toadies - Happy Face
Bruce Springsteen - Open All Night
White Stripes - In The Cold, Cold Night
Scrawl - I'm Ready
VU - Head Held High
Blake Babies - Civil War
Uncle Tupelo - Outdone (demo)
Son Volt - Windfall
Tribe Called Quest - Everything Is Fair
PJ Harvey - Ecstasy
Strokes - Meet Me In The Bathroom
Ride - Chelsea Girl
Green day - When I Come Around
Mike Ness - Send her Back
Old 97's - Wreck Your Life

I declare 3:00 the winner for my hard-drive

My 'Silence Kit' (original rip, again) is 3:00. What accounts for all this variation?

This whole experiment is deeply flawed.

"Nuno," Prefuse 73
"Slow Company," American Analog Set
"Fly," Nick Drake
"I Blow You Kisses," Aluminum Group
"Ghosts In The Radio," Pretty Girls Make Graves

all 3:00

Other three minute songs I have include the last Libertines single, a track from the Bollywood Sholay soundtrack, the 2003 Iceland Eurovision entry, "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James, "Why I Love Country Music" by Lloyd Cole and an MP3 of the shipping forecast.

Fountains of Wayne, "Hackensack"
Pale Saints, "Time Thief"
Brendan Benson, "I'm Blessed"
Earlimart, "Big Ol' Black"
Pavement, "No Tan Lines"

Selected tracks that fall within the standard deviation:

The Natural History, "The Right Hand"
Hot Snakes, "Ben Gurion"
Mclusky, "You Are My Sun"
Blood Brothers, "Fucking's Greatest Hits"
PJ Harvey, "Snake"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Mystery Girl"
The White Stripes, "Black Math"
The Beatles, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (4-track demo)

2:58 brings up
Kylie - You're Disco Needs You
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
Ms Dynamite - Too Experienced
...and, perhaps a figurative notion on the 2:58 vs 3:00 battle...
This Heat - Triumph

2:58
Mecano - El Ladr—n De Discos

I agree, but I get board after about 1:40 and change the song (but that's usually enough time for one verse and chorus.)

Sean Paul - I'm Still in Love With You
Blondie - Heart Of Glass
Finley Quaye - Even After All (Studio 2000 mix)
Donna Summer - She Works Hard For The Money
Cex - Ad Nauseum

4:33:
Smashing Pumpkin's Drown
Tomoe Shinohara's Ainiikuno (LP version)

Kings of Convenience - "Summer on the Westhill"
REM - "Walk Unafraid"
Trail of Dead - "Another Morning Stoner"
Aesop Rock - "Limelighter"
Pulp - "Disco 2000"
Low - "Medicine Magazines"
Lift To Experience - "Falling from Cloud 9"
Black Heart Processio - "Broken World"
PIL - "Bad Baby"
Wu-Tang Clan - "Clan In Da Front"
X - "Universal Corner"
PJ Harvey - "Water"

Cage was def. onto something.

Stereolab - Ping Pong
Junior Senior- Move Your Feet
U2 - Desire
Chromeo - Since You Were Gone
Dukes Of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl

ha, that makes us *two* toss-givers then)

Your Mama Don't Dance - Poison
Hackensack - Fountains of Wayne
I Live In The Springtime - Lemon Drops
Promises, Promises - Dionne Warwick
Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
Last Time Around - Cynics
Changing The Colors Of Life - Los Chijuas
I'll Never Fall In Love Again - Dionne Warwick (obviously, Mr. Bacharach and Ms. Warwick has some sort of vibe going on)

2:58:

Sweet Black Angel - Rolling Stones
Making Time - Creation
Inbetween Days - Cure
I Wanna Be Your Love - Prince
Cotton Fields - Creedence Clearwater Revival
When I Come Around - Green Day
Eighteen - Alice Cooper
I'm Just A Mops - The Mops
Sports And Wine - Ben Folds Five
When Will I See You Again - Three Degrees
Into The Cold, Cold Night - White Stripes
Freak Show - Frampton Brothers
Jilted John - Jilted John
What I Like About You - Romantics
Here Comes The Nice - Small Faces
Whores - Cobra Verde
Good Love Never Dies - Liz Phair
Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando & Dawn
Shoplifters Of The World Unite - Smiths
Love Train - O'Jays
Here I Am - Dionne Warwick
Like An Oliver Stone - Frampton Brothers

3:00 is good, but 2:58 is an overwhelming winner.

http://themorningnews.org/archives/oped/two_minutes_and_42_seconds_in_heaven.php

I couldn't get past the first paragraph. Who the fuck pays these shits to write?

3:00

Anybody Out There - Dwarves
Walk on the Ocean - Toad the Wet Sprocket
(I Want To Be An) Anglepoise Lamp - The Soft Boys
I had too much to dream last night - The Electric Prunes
Apples And Oranges (stereo) - Pink Floyd
Cracked Up - Unsane
Streetsweeper - Unsane
Take Me Away - Ween
Wouldn't You Miss Me (Dark Globe) [Take 1] - Syd Barrett
Wave Of Mutilation (U.K Surf Mix) - Pixies
Dark Globe - Syd Barrett
Darts Of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
Johnny Ryall - The Beastie Boys
Crazeology - Miles Davis & John Coltrane
Heart of Gold - Sheryl Crow
Jugband Blues - Pink Floyd
Oily Way - Gong
Let's Burn Down the Cornfield - Randy Newman
Devil Got My Woman - Skip James
More Human Than Human - Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine
Aretha, Sing One For Me - Cat Power
Streetsweeper - Unsane

2:58
Revolution Summer - Pussy Galore
The Morricone Themes - Wall of Voodoo
Yamanashi Blues - California Guitar Trio
The Weight Of The Stars - Hefner
Hear My Train A Coming - Jimi Hendrix
Yonder Stands The Sinner - Neil Young
Green Is the Colour - Pink Floyd
Céu Distante - Bebel Gilberto
Swimsuit Issue - Sonic Youth
Ohio - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Never Understand - The Jesus & Mary Chain
Wreck of the Old '97 - Hank Williams III
Almond Tree - Cal Tjader
Return Letter - Gravity Keeps The Hours
Leper Madonna - Beatallica

Evidently The Unsane preferred to work in the 3:00 length, which I guess by itself disproves the whole concept of this thread

don't want to repeat songs but can't be arsed to do the checking so here are the two perfectist pop songs in my itunes for these lengths

Supremes, Love Child - 2:58
The Tracks of My Tears, Smokey Robinson - 3:00

3.00
Bring the Pain (Feat Mathod Man) - Missy Elliott
Das Shutzenfest - Faith No More
She's So Loose - Supergrass
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley
Love Machine - Smokey Robinson
Miss Black America - Curtis Mayfield

2.59's pretty good:
March of the Pigs - Nine Inch Nails
Turn Me On - Kevin Lyttle
Rock N Roll Suicide - David Bowie
Fantasic Voyage - David Bowie
At Last - Ella Fitzgerald
I Want You Back - Jackson Five

my I Want You Back is 3:03 :)

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Dancing
The Feelies - Raised Eyebrows

Nearly five years ago N. (nickdastoor) had more or less determined that the average length of the songs on his harddrive was 3:21.

I was enchanted to read this and just HAD to find out what that value was for the various drives accessible by my ITunes.

And then I had to share that value, it was 4:21. Perhaps that means that on average, I'm not listening to perfect pop songs.

Of the 3922 songs, comedy bits and spoken word pieces my ITunes tells me I have, 138 tracks are over 9:59, 1006 are over 4:59, and 91 are under 1:00

Got 99 songs at exactly three minutes

but a myth ain't one? lol see what I did there

I tee em up, El Tomboto, you knock em down...

Some that haven't been mentioned yet (I don't think):

I Feel The Earth Move : Carole King
Stoned Out Of My Mind : The Chi-Lites
(You) Got What I Need : Freddie Scott
Sweet Hitchhiker : CCR
It's Great To Be Here : The Jackson 5
Life : Sly & The Family Stone
Holiday Hymn : Orange Juice
I Have But One Heart : Al Martino
House Of Fun : Madness
Cracklin Rosie : Neil Diamond
Divorce Me C.O.D. : Merle Travis

My average song length is 3:35. But my MEDIAN song length is 3:16, which is much better.

Fun exercise - how'd I miss this before?! Of 67 songs within two seconds of 3:00, only 14 hit the mark exactly:

Buckingham-Nicks - Crying in the Night
Jackie DeShannon - Reason to Believe
Jackie DeShannon - The Weight
Fastbacks - Don't East That It's Poison
Hot Chip - Made in the Dark
Low - Pretty People
Gladys Knight & the Pips - The Nitty Gritty
Mandy Morton & Spriguns - Silence Do the Rest
Mystery Trend - Substitute
Mystery Trend - Wake Up Cryin'
The RZA - Certified Samurai
Nina Simone - This Year's Kisses
Wilson Pickett - Mini-Skirt Minnie
Neil Young - Mellow My Mind (acetate version)

Lots more perfection found at 2:59 (Coasters - Shopping for Clothes; U-Roy - Wear You to the Ball; Dolly Mixture - Everything & More; Al Simmons - Old Folks' Boogie; Johnny Williams - Slow Motion), not to mention a ton of winners at 3:01 (Shirley Ellis - The Name Game; Lee Moses - Got That Will; Scotch Greens - Rumspringa; La Sonora Matancera - En El Cachumbambe).

only two three-minuters:

manea - fanfare ciocarlia
der terk in america - naftule brandwein

I got Baby by Os Mutantes, which is pretty damn near perfection is pop-songness.

*in its pop songness

Green, Green Grass Of Home - Statler Brothers
Heavy metal drummer - Wilco
Delta Dawn - Statler Brothers
Tell Me Why - Neil Young
Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers
Do You Love Me Now Jr. - The Breeders
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown - Jim Croce
Waltz No 1 (Demo) - Elliott Smith
La La / Cool Jerk - Todd Rundgren
Crazy Love - Poco
Sloop John B - The Beach Boys
imagine...walk on the wild side - Shrubya
I Feel the Earth Move - Carole King
California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
Smothered In Hugs - Guided By Voices
Scrapple From The Apple - Charlie Parker
R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. - John Mellencamp
The Three Shadows Part 2 - Bauhaus
Radio, Radio (live 1977 SNL) - Elvis Costello
Venus - Blue Swede
Ordinary Day (Demo) - Mulehead
Walking With A Ghost - The White Stripes
Good Times Roll - The Rutles
Don't Let It Bring You Down - Neil Young
Darts of Pleasure - Franz Ferdinand
Let's Not and Say We Did - Silver Jews
Dominique - The Singing Nun
First Ones Here - Ben Dickey
Reason Y - Rex Mantlepiece
That's All It Took - Gram Parsons
Cold Woman Blues - Blind Joe Reynolds

I don't have much music on this computer (2320 songs, 16gig), but even so, I only have three songs running to exactly 3:00 - Bleach cake by The Blessing, A Little Something by Disco Inferno, and Zawinul/Lava by Brian Eno.

"teenage kicks" is only 2:20 or thereabouts, which utterly disproves the theory that the perfect pop song need be three minutes long

Scotty - Draw Your Brakes
The Mekons - Lost Highway
The Beach Boys - Heroes and Villains (alt take)
The Rolling Stones - Shake Your Hips
The Buzzcocks - Just Lust
Poison - Your Mama Don't Dance
Elvis Presley - Tomorrow Night
Joni Mitchell - See You Sometime
Kate Wolf - Looking Back at You (live)
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl

oh, also

The Beastie Boys - I Don't Know
W.A. Mozart - Tutto E Tranquilo E Placido

I couldn't get past the first paragraph. Who the fuck pays these shits to write?

Have a look at his profile, i think it explains a bit more:

TMN Contributing Writer Joshua Allen is a complex and exciting young man. He is a hard worker and always gives 110 percent. He is a people-person unless that person is a crab and not pulling their weight for the team. If enthusiasm and get-up-and-go are drugs, then he’s a hardcore drug addict. He’s pretty obviously an only child. He lives in Fireland, USA.