Mother’s Day is the day each year that I reset the “Play Count” feature of the communal family iTunes account. There are three iPods that feed off a computer bank of (currently) 3,277 songs, and these  iPods are listened to regularly in the car, at the gym, at work, while eating and drinking, reading the paper(s), playing Scrabble and other solo and group activities among family members. The Play Count feature records total plays on the computer and on each of the iPods when I synch them into the master iTunes account, so the “Most Played” list serves as the repository of songs that are most pleasing to the most family members over the course of the year.

The requirement of pleasing three people is a powerful filter. I listen to a lot of Napalm Death, for example, but never when anybody else is around, so they don’t make the most played list, since they are immediately vetoed and skipped anytime they came on in the presence of the other family members. Cee-Lo Green, on the other hand, and to cite but one of many examples, is generally well-loved by the three of us, is never protested, and is often sought out and actively listened to, rather than just shuffled into.

With that as preamble, for the past 365 days (give or take a couple), the 30 most played, most pleasing songs in the Smith family household and outlying empires were as follows:

1. “Lorelei,” by The Pogues

2. “Let Me Roll It,” by Paul McCartney and Wings

3. “No One Else,” by Montag

4. “Call Me Back Again,” by Paul McCartney and Wings

5. “Smiley Faces,” by Gnarls Barkley

6. “Dallas,” by Steely Dan

7. “I Just Want to See His Face,” by The Rolling Stones

8. “Clowne Towne,” by Xiu Xiu

9. “Indian Killer,” by Beef

10. “Sensual Seduction,” by Snoop Dogg

11. “A History of Drunks,” by The Melvins

12. “The Whole World,” by Outkast

13. “Miss You,” by The Rolling Stones

14. “Milkbomb,” by Spot 1019

15. “All Day Love Affair,” by Cee-Lo

16. “Senior Twilight Stock Replacer,” by The Fall

17. “Vanishing Girl,” by The Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC)

18. “The Great Deceiver,” by King Crimson

19. “Underwear,” by Pulp

20. “Burning Beard,” by Clutch

21. “Hurry on Sundown,” by Hawkwind

22. “A Horse With No Name,” by America

23. “The Mob Goes Wild,” by Clutch

24. “Right to Decide,” by Hawkwind

25. “Spavid Story,” by Beef

26. “Car Jamming,” by The Clash

27. “Hotel Figueroa,” by Max Eider

28. “Longfellow Serenade,” by Neil Diamond

29. “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” by Pulp

30. “She’s My Baby,” by Paul McCartney and Wings