Happy 2023, friends. I know I haven’t posted in a few months, but I’m still out here listening to Elvis Presley sing frequent, energetic, and loud. His music is certainly one of the many blessings of my life.
The Mystery Train will continue to lumber on this year. Look for my re-watch of Elvis Movies to continue. Though extremely time-consuming, I had a lot of fun with those posts last year.
I’ll of course continue to examine Elvis’ music as well – perhaps including at some point a look at the long-awaited Elvis On Tour boxed set, which Sony released digitally at the end of 2022 while delaying the physical release until sometime early this year. After avoiding the related bootleg recordings for decades, I’m holding out for the CD version rather than plunging in with the digital-only version.
There’ll probably be some other posts scattered across the year as well, including topics I haven’t even thought of yet. As for maintaining a proper posting schedule, my only consistency is to be inconsistent. The Mystery Train does not adhere to a timetable, therefore it is never late.
One area where I am relatively consistent, though, is my first post of each year. I like to indulge my analytical side and look at my music listening trends for the previous year.
I have been tracking these numbers annually since 2010 (except, apparently, for 2017, for which I inexplicably have no data). There was a huge change in 2022 in one aspect compared to every previous year. I backed up no new Elvis tracks to my digital collection on iTunes, primarily because I bought no Elvis music in 2022. I continue to have exactly 5,000 Elvis tracks.
Have I finally reached a point where I have all the Elvis I need?
Wellll, I wouldn’t go that far just yet. After all, I have pre-ordered that Elvis On Tour set.
On with the numbers. Drumroll, please.
Out of those 5,000 Elvis tracks, the one I played most often in 2022 across all devices was…
…the legendary “Jailhouse Rock” from 1957. It took the prize for my most-played song of the year with 17 plays.
Second place went to another killer track, 1972’s “Burning Love” with 16 plays.
I listened to 2,023 unique Elvis tracks on my devices in 2022 (meaning 2,977 Elvis tracks went unplayed all year). Including duplicate plays, I listened to 5,306 Elvis songs on my devices during the year. That is about 15 Elvis songs a day on average.
Out of 6,638 non-Elvis tracks in my collection, my most played song overall in 2022 was for KING & COUNTRY’s “The Proof Of Your Love” from the album Crave (2012). This recording played 7 times on my various devices, putting it in 50th place.
The number of non-Elvis songs in my collection has declined – due to various digital deletions I made in 2022 when I donated the associated physical CDs to a thrift store. I only purchased one new album last year (for KING & COUNTRY’s What Are We Waiting For?), so my music spending was down significantly due to focusing on other financial priorities.
Overall, I listened to 6,692 recordings using my digital devices last year (including duplicate plays). That works out to 18 songs a day. I listened to 3,098 unique tracks during the year.
While a slight increase from 2021’s 17 songs a day, my music listening remains down compared to the 2010s. For instance, in 2019, I listened to 35 songs a day. I expected a more significant increase in 2022, as after 2 years of being fully remote, I returned to working in person a few days a week — and thus, had more car time for music during my commute.
In any event, Elvis dominated my listening in 2022 – leaving room for only about 3 non-Elvis songs a day! My listening is normally not that out of balance, but it was definitely an Elvis year.
Thank you for reading and for indulging me in my analytical diversion.
Jesus answered many prayers for me in 2022, filling my life with blessings. May He do the same for you in 2023.
TY
“God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”
2 Corinthians 9:8
The Mystery Train 