I’ve been pondering something tonight… I like to alphabetize my music collection, but some bands make that difficult for me by naming themselves after the lead singer plus the backup group, e.g., Tommy James and the Shondells, Diana Ross and the Supremes, etc. So, should “singer + backup” names like Huey Lewis and the News go under “H” (treating the entire band name as a single unit) or “L,” as in “Lewis and the News, Huey,” which I believe is how the Library of Congress would probably do it?
Any of my Loyal Readers have any thoughts on this?
Considering how many of the front people went on to solo careers, and that it seems to make sense to put their solo music alongside their earlier stuff, I’d go with “Lewis and the News, Huey.”
All of this reminds me of the Saturday Night Live sketch featuring the Pips singing “Midnight Train to Georgia.” Not Gladys Knight and the Pips, just the Pips, singing only the backup parts.
Heh – I remember that sketch. One of SNL’s more brilliant moments, actually.
I mentioned this problem over at Facebook and the consensus seems to be to treat the entire band name as a single unit (i.e., put Huey and the News under “H”). However, my thinking tends to be more like yours. Evil Twin Syndrome again?
I say to file the damn thing however it makes sense to you, since you’re the one that will be accessing the file. (But I’d put it under “H”.)
Um… that’s kind of violent, hon. Getting tired of listening to me obsess over this one? 🙂
The iPod — You know what an iPod is, right? I thought you might, but then you mentioned this thing about sorting your CDs. — Anyway, the iPod sorts everything by the first letter of the first word, so “Huey Lewis” would go right before “Huey Lewis and the News” in the H section. It’s a nontraditional approach, but it solves the problem.
Three things, Robert:
1. I am fully aware of these iPods of which you speak. I don’t own one, so they are irrelevant to this discussion.
2. I do use, however, use iTunes on my computer and I am aware that you can override the automatic settings and make it sort things however you want it to. So the decision would still have to be made, unless you’re the sort who lets a machine do the thinking for you. Which you know I am not.
3. Even if I were to rip all my CDs into iTunes and/or an iPod, I would still hang onto the original source material for various reasons. So the issue of sorting CDs is still very much applicable, even here in the 21st century.
I have Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. It goes under Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skiller Lickers.
I use Media Monkey, more control on what is going on in your music library.
Hee hee hee. Sorry Jas…this is just sooo…..you!! Love ya!!
Caught this one on Facebook before I saw it here on the blog, but my answer remains the same: stay consistent so that you can find things later. And whatever you come up with will work for you (basically, echoing Anne’s comments).
By the way, I have all my CD’s ripped to iTunes, and now I carry them around in that iPod device you mentioned. The CD’s themselves are sorted (mostly, anyway) but they’re in a cardboard box, collecting dust in one of the crawlspace storage areas in my house. My great-great-grandchildren might find them one day and wonder what they’re for – I certainly can’t foresee the need for them ever again…