Un-format-ted

This post is brought to you by the iTunes Store. Now with 145 selections from Howard Jones. The iTunes Store, because after all, it's just money.

Today is Post Your Top Ten Most Played iTunes Day. OK, not really, but it could be. We could make it that. It's one of our inherent rights: life, liberty, and the permission to create obscure seemingly pointless holidays. You think the person who created International Talk Like A Pirate Day cared what people thought or that no one seemed to be observing or wearing a patch over their eye? Arrrgh! I think not, ye mateys.

There was a bit of sad news musically in the world of Bone recently. The Format broke up. I know what you're saying, "Bone, who is The Format?" Well, they were a band.

So in honor of The Format, and also to mark this newly created holiday, I present Bone's Ten Most Played iTunes.

1. She Doesn't Get It - The Format (57 plays)

Looking back now, the odds were enormously long that our paths would ever cross. I was flipping channels one night and for some reason, or more likely no reason at all, stopped on Carson Daly, which I never watch. And there they were.

To say the song they sang was catchy would be like saying Steve Jobs has done OK for himself. I dare you to listen to it and not have it stuck in your head. If you've not heard of The Format, don't worry. Not a single person I ever mentioned them to had heard of them previously.

Their relative anonymity combined with their recent breakup left me feeling a bit like a line in the song: "It never caught on. I was the only one who got burned."

2. A Long December - Counting Crows (42 plays)

I was a little late to the Counting Crows party, as Mister Jones came out while I was still in my skin-tight-Wrangler-wearing-heavy-country-music phase of the early nineties. (No, there will not be pictures.) But I'm here now. I've always been lyrically inclined, and these are amazing. One of my all-time favorite songs.

And some good news: They have a new album coming out March 25th.

3. Just Like Heaven - The Cure (41 plays)

The Cure always had great melodies. Here, the lyrics rise like a mountain to meet the friendly musical clouds, resulting in a wondrous skyscape of sonic perfection. A little aside: I had the cassette single for "Love Song." And by had, I mean, have.

4. All Your Reasons - Matchbox Twenty (40 plays)

You might think that when the new album came out, I did nothing but listen to it nonstop, over and over and over. Hmm... I forgot my point.

5. Loss, Strain, and Butterflies - Tabitha's Secret (37 plays)

This song has the distinction of having the single best line I've ever heard that I have no idea the meaning of: "Did you know with the rain in your pockets you can change the weather."

I ponder it for hours sometimes. So far, I've come up with 36 possible meanings. I think it may have its origins in one of the five houses of Zen.

6. Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms (36 plays)

So for like ten years I thought they were saying "Hate Jealousy." So what?

7. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty (36 plays)

This would be much higher if you combined the number of plays with the number of times I watched the video online when it came out. Or no higher if you multiplied the number of plays by the number of people my age at their concert, which I roughly estimate to have been one.

8. Valerie - Steve Winwood (36 plays)

"Valerie, call on me. Call on me, Valerie." Brilliant.

9. American Girls - Counting Crows (35 plays)

I once sang this song at karaoke.

No, wait. That wasn't me. Come to think of it, it wasn't even this song.

10. You Could Be Happy - Snow Patrol (34 plays)

Here's a little known fact: They are #1 on my list of Favorite Bands or Artists with "snow" in their name. Just ahead of the guy who sang "Informer."

"I am reminded why I don't do this. I fall in love far too quickly. I never want her to forget me. When you're gone, will you call? Will you write?"