# How many songs start out with a number? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672 "2016-08-13T15:47:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/101 "2016-08-17T02:34:05Z")
> [@denquixote](#): > > “Happy Birthday, happy birthday baby oooh I love you so, sixteen candles …” I sit corrected! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/102 "2016-08-17T13:40:57Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > Twenty-five or six to four… Chicago > > Wait - does the OP mean the first word of the song’s lyrics is a number? Or any lyric? For the third time: The FIRST lyric of the song is a number. Not the chorus or the countdown, but the FIRST WORD IN THE LYRIC. While “one” seems to the most popular (no surprise there) nobody has mentioned Brewer & Shipley’s classic drug song “One toke over the line sweet Jesus.” ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/103 "2016-08-17T15:04:15Z")
…except it was mentioned in post #10. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/104 "2016-08-18T10:29:26Z")
Honourable mention for ‘19’, by Paul Hardcastle? “In 1965, Vietnam seemed like just another foreign war” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/105 "2016-08-18T12:59:39Z")
Another iffy one: \*Are You Gonna Be My Girl \* by Jet … “Well it’s a one, two, three take my hand an come with me …” ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/106 "2016-08-18T14:24:51Z")
Here’s one that even helpfully points out that the first lyric is a number: “1989 the number another summer (get down)” - _Fight The Power_ by Public Enemy. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/107 "2016-08-18T14:52:41Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Another iffy one: > > \*Are You Gonna Be My Girl \* by Jet … > > “Well it’s a one, two, three take my hand an come with me …” ??? How can this be “iffy”??? The **number** one is the fourth word in the song, so the song doesn’t begin with a number. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/108 "2016-08-18T16:19:00Z")
Because, “Well its’ a-” is superfluous, just mumble mouth added to fix the meter. But if you don’t want it to be, it doesn’t have to be. Don’t want you to have a coronary or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/109 "2016-08-18T16:43:21Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Because, “Well its’ a-” is superfluous, just mumble mouth added to fix the meter. > > But if you don’t want it to be, it doesn’t have to be. Don’t want you to have a coronary or anything. I’m just responding to the OP’s intent. The OP stated that it was songs that start with a number, clear and simple, but I’ve seen so many posts of songs that don’t start with a number. I don’t understand how that can be missed by so many… ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/110 "2016-08-18T16:52:10Z")
“Three little words, eight little letters…” ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/111 "2016-08-18T17:10:31Z")
An obscure song–it’s been turning up a lot on one of my wife’s Pandora channels, but I’ve never encountered it anywhere else: “Snow Mazes of Norway,” by indie singer/songwriter Jenny Dalton. “Six points on a snowflake, eight arrows on a compass…” ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/112 "2016-08-18T18:13:15Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > I’m just responding to the OP’s intent. The OP stated that it was songs that start with a number, clear and simple, but I’ve seen so many posts of songs that don’t start with a number. I don’t understand how that can be missed by so many… Okay, okay. Just sit back and relax. Here have a Zweiback. Jeez, you try to have a little fun. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/113 "2016-08-18T22:05:04Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > …except it was mentioned in post #10. 😉 Is there an Internet Law about this a la Gaudere’s? If not, there should be. Seems like any thread I go into of reasonable length has someone at the end saying “I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned YADDAYADDAYADDA,” and YADDAYADDAYADDA has, in fact, been mentioned within the first ten (or pick a relatively low number) posts. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/114 "2016-08-18T23:20:34Z")
**1,000 umbrellas** Upturned couldn’t catch all the rain That drained out of my head… - XTC ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/115 "2016-08-19T03:16:51Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > ^ ^ ^ > _One Hundred Years_ by Five For Fighting. > > _15 there’s still time for you > Time to buy and time to lose > 15, there’s never a wish better than this > When you only got a hundred years to live…_ I don’t think that works: the first word in the song is “I’m”. > [@](#): > > \*I’m 15 for a moment > Caught in between 10 and 20 > And I’m just dreaming > Counting the ways to where you are > \* ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/116 "2016-08-19T18:05:39Z")
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/117 "2016-08-19T18:10:18Z")
_“Seven deadly sins Seven ways to win Seven holy paths to hell and your trip begins”_ – “Moonchild”, Iron Maiden ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/118 "2016-08-19T18:41:02Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > "Seven deadly sins “Seven seven seven deadly sins…” -“Seven Deadly Sins,” The Traveling Wilburys ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/119 "2016-08-19T19:12:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “One of these Days” by Pink Floyd _One Of These Days_–Ten Years After ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672/120 "2016-08-19T22:03:17Z")
Four years down, and twenty-one to blow; ten thousand more breakfasts to go… (Lee Hazelwood, _Pray them bars away_). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-songs-start-out-with-a-number/762672.md?page=7)