Give me songs that count

February 16, 2013 11:36 AM

What other songs feature a series of numbers, either in or out of sequence?

I'm thinking of songs like Kiss Off by the Violent Femmes or Monkey Gone to Heaven by the Pixies that have a one, two, three, etc. count, but also songs like Masterfade by Andrew Bird that assign numbers to different things.

"If the green grass is 6 and the soybeans are 7
The junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11
And if the 1s just hold their place the 0s make a smiley face
When they come floating down from the heavens"

I think a bunch of songs like this would make a fun mix. So what other songs feature a series of numbers?

posted by MsMolly to media & arts (90 answers total)

Feist has a good song like this that was actually on Sesame Street. How do you feel about songs that count off in the beginning like this one?
posted by jessamyn at 11:39 AM on February 16

Tommy Tutone's song "867-5309/Jenny"
also Lene Lovich's great no-wave song "Lucky Number"
Gary Numan has a lyric in a song about "a friend called 5" I think maybe the song is called "Down in the Park"
of course, Chicagos "25 or 6 to 4"...
posted by cellura p at 11:41 AM on February 16

The greatest count song of them all Pointer Sisters - Pinball Number Count
posted by Trivia Newton John at 11:45 AM on February 16 [6 favorites]

Speaking of Sesame Street, there are some great counting songs from classic Sesame Street - funk and psychedelic style from the late 60's and early 70's. It might be hard to locate mp3s but if you search for "classic Sesame Street" on youtube, there are some there. Often there's a link on the page that will let you create an mp3 of the video's sound.
posted by cellura p at 11:45 AM on February 16

Country Joe and the Fish: Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die
posted by Thorzdad at 11:45 AM on February 16 [2 favorites]

Soul Coughing - Casiotone Nation: "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty... ninety-five, a hundred!"
Counting Crows - Murder of One, referring to the rhyme that gave them their name: "One for sorrow, two for joy, three for girl, four for boy..."
posted by knile at 11:48 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Beyonce, Countdown

My baby is a 10
We dressing to the 9
He pick me up we 8,
Make me feel so lucky 7
He kiss me in his 6
We be making love at 5
Still the one I do this 4
I'm tryna make us 3
From that 2
He's still the 1
posted by Fire at 11:48 AM on February 16 [4 favorites]

The 12 days of Christmas!
posted by Elly Vortex at 11:48 AM on February 16

Plain White T's - 1, 2, 3, 4. Cute song.
posted by Verdandi at 11:50 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

The Beatles--You Never Give Me Your Money

"One two three four five six seven
All good children go to heaven"
posted by a.steele at 11:50 AM on February 16 [1 favorite]

(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley & the Comets
posted by pitrified at 11:52 AM on February 16

Kraftwerk – Numbers
Glenn Miller and his Orchestra – Pennsylvania 6-5000
posted by zippy at 11:52 AM on February 16

You absolutely have to include Boards of Canada, "Aquarius".
posted by xil at 11:52 AM on February 16 [4 favorites]

Pretty Fly for a White Guy has a modified countdown: "uno dos tres cuatro cinco cinco seis". (Yes, I am ashamed that this is the first thing that came to mind.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:53 AM on February 16 [3 favorites]

The Beatles--All Together Now.
posted by gregoreo at 11:53 AM on February 16

The Beatles - All Together Now
CSN - Helplessly Hoping
posted by Knappster at 11:53 AM on February 16

Sonic Youth - Bull in the Heather Ten, twenty, thirty, forty
posted by Trivia Newton John at 11:54 AM on February 16

These are all great! Further clarification: my preference is for songs where the numbers are assigned a meaning, like in knile's Counting Crows suggestion or something like Green Grow the Rushes O.
posted by MsMolly at 11:55 AM on February 16

For a degenerate sequence of numbers with meaning (two numbers: 6,7), The Pixies – Monkey's gone to heaven.
posted by zippy at 11:57 AM on February 16

Kate Bush's Pi.
posted by mon-ma-tron at 12:03 PM on February 16 [2 favorites]

8 Point Agenda by Herbaliser
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:09 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

In the Year 2525 - Zager and Evans.
Lou Bega's Mambo Number 5 begins with counting, but I think that's the only part.
If German is allowed, Rammstein's Sonne has counting in it. It should be obvious even to non-speakers.
posted by tykky at 12:12 PM on February 16

Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!

Elvis Costello - 45 (Just one number. Does that still count?)

Public Enemy - Shut 'Em Down "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9"

. . . which was sampled to great effect in Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ten Crack Commandments".

Merely a count in, but Roadrunner has the all time iconic count in.

It Was a Very Good Year
posted by chrchr at 12:15 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

This is streching the term counting a bit, but Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah has the part with "the fourth, the fifth/ the minor fall, the major lift" in it.
posted by tykky at 12:22 PM on February 16

Simple Minds "New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84)"
posted by The otter lady at 12:23 PM on February 16

Typical Situation, Dave Matthews Band?
posted by xedrik at 12:26 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Oh man there's a motherlode of numbers in Ludacris - Area Codes.
posted by chrchr at 12:27 PM on February 16 [2 favorites]

Harry Nilsson - One
posted by mml at 12:29 PM on February 16

Paul and Storm-Count to Ten.
posted by ActionPopulated at 12:32 PM on February 16

Adam Ant - Apollo 9
posted by saladin at 12:42 PM on February 16

Johnny Cash's "Five Feet High and Rising'" (with matching key changes)
posted by dr. boludo at 12:48 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Elvis: Blue Suede Shoes
posted by HandfulOfDust at 12:50 PM on February 16

Tool's 46&2, although more on a thematic level:

The title references an idea first conceived by Carl Jung and later expounded upon by Drunvalo Melchizedek concerning the possibility of reaching a state of evolution at which the body would have two more than the normal 46 total chromosomes and leave a currently disharmonious state.[3][4] The premise is that humans would deviate from the current state of human DNA which contains 44 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes. The next step of evolution would likely result in human DNA being reorganized into 46 and 2 chromosomes, according to Melchizedek.
posted by mannequito at 12:50 PM on February 16

A couple of songs featuring pi:
Lucy Kaplansky: "A Song About Pi" (the note pitches on the chorus actually encode digits of pi)
The Seatbelts: "3.14"

Some with countdowns:
Žagar: "Cosmic Disaster"
Quimby: "Zéró dal" (the countdown is from ten in Hungarian: tíz, kilenc, nyolc, hét, hat, öt, négy, három, kettő, egy)

Countups:
The Beach Boys: "When I Grow Up to Be a Man" (countup from 14 to 35 or so from the second verse on)
Locomotiv GT: "Boksz" (again, countup is in Hungarian, on both the intro and the tag)
posted by jackbishop at 12:53 PM on February 16

Reelin' and Rockin', whether by Chuck Berry or The Frogs.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 12:55 PM on February 16

This Old Man
Crosby Stills & Nash - Helplessly Hoping
posted by Dixon Ticonderoga at 12:58 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

"Twenty Flight Rock" by Eddie Cochrane
"Heartaches by the Number" buy Guy Mitchell

The numbers aren't really assigned in this one, but it's a cool song: "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You" by Black Kids
posted by zorseshoes at 1:02 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

The Number Song by DJ Shadow
posted by workerant at 1:09 PM on February 16

How about Three Small Words from, erm, Josie and the Pussycats? The chorus goes:

It took 6 whole hours
And 5 long days
For(4) all your lies to come undone
And those 3 small words
Were way too(2) late
'Cause you can't see that I'm the one

Why do I remember things like this?
posted by Diagonalize at 1:17 PM on February 16

When I Go - Slow Club:

If we're both not married by twenty-two
Could I be so bold and ask you?
If we're both not married by twenty-three
Will you make my year, and ask me?

If we're both not married by twenty-four
Will you pass me those knee pads and I'll get on the floor
If we're both not married by twenty-five
I hope that there's some childish spark still alive
posted by pised at 1:25 PM on February 16

Johnny Cash One Piece at a Time. '49 - '70
posted by Mitheral at 1:27 PM on February 16

I love this question. I got one more.
A Horse With No Name - America. It counts days (in the desert sun).
posted by tykky at 1:27 PM on February 16

One for the star in the sky over Bethlehem,
Two for the hands that rock him to sleep.
Three for the kings bringing gold, bringing myrrh, bringing incense
Four for the angels that watch over his bedside.


I don't know why the two songs that immediately came to mind for me were both Christmas songs.
posted by Elly Vortex at 1:28 PM on February 16

Elvis Costello, "Every Day I Write the Book":

Chapter 1, we didn't really get along
Chapter 2, I think I fell in love with you
You said you'd stand by me in the middle of chapter 3
But you were up to your old tricks in chapters 4, 5, & 6
posted by Flannery Culp at 1:36 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

How about 36 Degrees by Placebo

4 7 2 3 9 8 5 - I gotta breathe to stay alive,
and 1 4 2 9 7 8 - feels like I'm gonna suffocate.
14 16 22 - this skin that turns to blister blue.
Shoulders toes and knees, I'm 36 degrees.

Not counting, but sure is a lot of numbers in a sequence.
posted by triv at 1:38 PM on February 16

The Count, by Wizo. From the album "Short Music for Short People", a Fat Wreck Chords compilation of 101 songs averaging 30 seconds in length. The lyrics are literally a count up to 30.
posted by starvingartist at 1:41 PM on February 16

Rapper's Delight by Sugar Hill Gang. In Master Gee's final section, he raps:

i said the age of one my life begun
at the age of two i was doin the do
at the age of three it was you and me
rockin to the sounds of the master gee
at the age of four i was on the floor
givin all the freaks what they bargained for
at the age of five i didnt take no jive
with the master gee its all the way live
at the age of six i was a pickin up sticks
rappin to the beat my stick was fixed
at the age of seven i was rockin in heaven dontcha know i went off
i got right on down to the beat you see
gettin right on down makin all the girls
just take of their clothes to the beat the beat
to the double beat beat that makes you freak
at the age of eight i was really great
cause every night you see i had a date
at the age of nine i was right on time
cause every night i had a party rhyme

There's also the part where he says, 1-2-3-4, tell me Wonder Mike what are you waitin' for?
posted by MoonOrb at 2:17 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

The Ladybugs' Picnic
posted by illenion at 2:18 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Numbers by The Church has a counting chorus.

Magpie by Patrick Wolf incorporates another version of the magpie/crow-counting rhyme at the end.
posted by therewithal at 2:23 PM on February 16

Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes (thanks, I'll have that in my head all night now)
posted by libraritarian at 2:49 PM on February 16 [3 favorites]

Ooh, I forgot it earlier, but another countup, after a fashion: the pillows, "Want to Sleep For".
posted by jackbishop at 3:17 PM on February 16

the Mountain Goats, Counting Song for Bitter Children

Okkervil River, Plus Ones, sort of.
posted by valrus at 3:36 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

They Might Be Giants has an album for children called Here Comes the 1, 2, 3s.
posted by wwartorff at 3:55 PM on February 16

Space Oddity by David Bowie

(plus his beautiful original version)

And then there is Peter Schilling's re-imagination of it in Major Tom.

All three feature rocket launch style countdowns.
posted by 1367 at 4:16 PM on February 16

Have you checked out the entire CD and DVD by They Might Be Giants, Here Come the 123s? It's a kid's album, but fun and very catchy. So, a lot like a typical TMG release.
posted by bluespark25 at 4:44 PM on February 16

The last verse of "Good Old Fashioned Loverboy" by Queen.
posted by the_bone at 4:59 PM on February 16

Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1

XTC - Senses Working Overtime

The Orb - Perpetual Dawn

De La Soul - Magic Number


Enjoy.
posted by dirm at 5:03 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Mos Def - Mathematics
Quasimoto - Microphone Mathematics
Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek - Down for the Count
J-Live - Yes
Ice Cube - Wicked
Dr. Dre f Snoop Dogg - Nothin' But A G Thang
Notorious B.I.G. - Ten Crack Commandments
Public Enemy - Shut 'Em Down
Run DMC - Beats to the Rhyme
Run DMC - Sucker MCs
Wrecks-N-Effect - Rumpshaker

There are a lot more hip-hop songs with numbers and counting in them, but that's a start.
posted by box at 5:13 PM on February 16

Okay, one more:

Cipher Complete - Bring Hip-Hop Back
posted by box at 5:15 PM on February 16

From U2 - Uno! Dos! Tres! Catorce!

Shirley Ellis - Three Six Nine, the goose drank wine....

When Frank was seventeen, it was a very good year....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:47 PM on February 16

Science Genius Girl by Freezepop

"Scientific method girl / The theorems speak to me / Microscope is in my hand / Times one, times two, times three / When I clone a human being / It will want to hold my hand / When I clone a human being / It will be a member of my band / It will be a member of my band / It will be a member of my band / One point six one eight oh three three nine eight eight seven four nine eight nine four eight four eight two oh four five eight six eight three four three six five"

(Poking around on youtube, the number sequence doesn't seem to be in every recorded version of the song, but it certainly is in some, including the one I have.)
posted by kyrademon at 5:50 PM on February 16

There are a bunch of great covers of Heartaches by the Number.

12 Step Program - Nick Lowe

HOLD STEADY QUOTE-A-MATIC SUBROUTINE ACTIVATE

Girls Like Status:

It was song number three on John's last CD,
"I'm going to make it through this year if it kills me"
And it almost killed me
And song number four on that first D4, you want the scars but you don't want the war
Now that's just hardcore


Certain Songs:

coming up towards the jukebox. born into the only songs that everybody finally sings along. b-1 is for the good girls. it's only the good die young. c-9 is for the making eyes. it's paradise by the dashboard light. d4 is for the lovers. b12 is for the speeders


Teenage Liberation:

'Seventeen' was an underfunded comedy
About love and drugs and girls and immortality
And most of the jokes just kinda hung around and died

'Nineteen' was a 90 second short
About a cartoon kid who sits and drinks on his porch
And gets pissed
He took one good swipe at his wrist but he missed so he lived

These teenage chicks, they grow up so quick
I swear they must get sucked up by the television
And we're still losing lights in the fight for the teenage liberation

'Twenty three' was a shot of straight frustration
Flying down the pathways, he was dying in the bars
He mostly ate all his meals in his car

'Twenty nine' was the end of the line
He stayed up for 16 nights at a stretch, he was wrecked
You could see all the veins in his neck when he flexed

posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 6:10 PM on February 16

"One and One" by 2 Live Crew (it's not a good song, but...)

"Pi" by Hard 'N Phirm (most of the numbers here are just recited digits of π, but there's a rap interlude in which each of the digits is assigned a meaning. Warning: despite sounding like a children's television song, this part of the song gets pretty adult)
posted by ErWenn at 6:30 PM on February 16

Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off":

I take one one one 'cause you left me
And two two two for my family
And three three three for my heartache
And four four four for my headaches
And five five five for my lonely
And six six six for my sorrow
And seven seven seven for no tomorrow
And eight eight eight I forget what eight was for
And nine nine nine for a lost god
And ten ten ten for everything everything everything everything

posted by kirkaracha at 7:20 PM on February 16 [2 favorites]

XTC, "Senses Working Overtime"
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:29 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

1-2-3 - Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine
So Many Men, So Little Time - Miquel Brown
posted by SisterHavana at 7:30 PM on February 16

Along the same lines as the Sesame Street suggestions: The classic Square One TV sketch, The Mathematics of Love.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:30 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]

Death to Giants - Anyone Can Learn To Count in Chinese
posted by bradf at 8:23 PM on February 16

Back at One by Brian McKnight comes to mind from often having had to listen to it at work.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 8:25 PM on February 16

Schoolhouse Rock (Bob Dorough in this case) — Three is a Magic Number

Three, six, nine
Twelve, fifteen, eighteen
Twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-seven
Thirty!

Also includes

Multiply backwards from three-times-ten!

Three times ten is thirty!
Three times nine is twenty-seven!
Three times eight is twenty-four!
…
Three times four is twelve
Three times three is nine
Three times two is six
And three times one is three, of course!

Now dig the pattern once more! [3-6-9, 12-16-18, 21-24-27, 30…]

Actually, pretty much all of the Schoolhouse Rock Multiplication Rock songs. Anybody of a certain age (*cough*) will have a warm-fuzzy-squee response. (And anybody who doesn't appreciate Bob Dorough et al.'s genius is entirely too cool for school and needs to relax a bit. Really.)
posted by Lexica at 8:53 PM on February 16

Not a song but a fortune telling poem...
One crow, sorrow
Two crow, joy
Three crow, letter
Four crow, boy
Five crow, silver
Sic crow, gold
Seven crow, secret, never to be told.
posted by SLC Mom at 9:12 PM on February 16

In The Year 2525 - Zager & Evans

The Number Of the Beast - Iron Maiden

Monkey's Gone To Heaven - Pixies

if man is 5 [3x]
then the devil is 6 [5x]
then god is 7 [3x]
this monkey's gone to

The same line is parodied in Bloodhound Gang's 'The Roof Is On Fire'.

The traditional schoolyard rhyme about Lizzie Borden. There's a bunch of versions:

Lizzie Borden she had an axe
She gave her mother 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:19 PM on February 16

It's 5!

19 20 20
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 10:03 PM on February 16

BT - Fibonacci Sequence
posted by protorp at 1:44 AM on February 17

Origin Unknown - Valley of the shadows aka "31 seconds"
posted by Chairboy at 5:23 AM on February 17

Among other kids songs, there was a Disney album about multiplication and division (iirc, this record is sampled in Cut Chemist and Shortkut's Future Primitive mix).
posted by box at 5:36 AM on February 17

Sammy Hagar - Three Lock Box.
posted by Gev at 6:02 AM on February 17

107 Steps - Bjork
posted by Alison at 7:13 AM on February 17

I wrote and recorded a song several years ago called 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 that involves counting a lot.
posted by cortex at 7:36 AM on February 17

Laibach's cover of One after 909
posted by coevals at 9:47 AM on February 17

Children, Go Where I Send Thee is a traditional song that's been performed by many groups.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 2:11 PM on February 17

Modest Mouse - Breakthrough
posted by abitha! at 3:22 PM on February 17

"The Book of Love" — The Monotones
posted by John Cohen at 3:25 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]

The best counting song in music is Einstein on The Beach!
posted by ovvl at 3:52 PM on February 17

Songs where numbers are assigned to certain things, or count off items in a list:

Explosions - Garden of Four Trees
Prince Buster - Ten Commandments
Jazzy 4 MC's - MC Rock
Lady B - To the Beat Y'all (just 1 and 2)
Johnny Cash - 25 Minutes to Go
Quintron - 9-4-9

Songs where there's just plain counting:

Pizzicato Five - One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Barbie Dolls
Cornelius - Count Five or Six
Daniel Johnston - Rocket Ship
posted by hydrophonic at 8:02 PM on February 17

So many of these are fantastic! I'm Best Answering the ones I actually used in my mix (but NOT the ones of you who suggested songs I had already listed in my original question.) ;)

Extra special best answer points to valrus for managing to find not only a Mountain Goats song that fit the theme, but one that was completely new to me!
posted by MsMolly at 6:58 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]

Sky Ferrara - One
posted by Prince_of_Cups at 8:26 AM on February 19

There's Rory Gallagher singing 'Too much Alcohol' which has a kind of counting sequence...

Ninety one per cent?
Better make it ninety two
Ninety three per cent?
Ninety four? That'll do
Ninety five, ninety six
Ninety seven per cent
Ninety eight?
Bartender, that's ninety nine
Make it one hundred per cent
One hundred per cent
One hundred per cent
Wanna try some?
I wanna try some
One hundred per cent
Then I won't feel a thing at all
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:11 AM on February 19

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Joy Division's Warsaw.

3 5 0 1 2 5 go!
posted by faraasha at 6:28 AM on February 20

No idea why this popped into my head:
Billy Joel - Matter of Trust

Count-off at the beginning.
posted by sarah_pdx at 9:44 AM on March 8