Beyoncé’s record, 4, was officially released this week, despite having been out and about on the Internet for quite a while. On that album is a song titled “1+1,” the number Bey performed so astonishingly well in her dressing room (and then later on American Idol). Because thinking about song titles is part of how we pass the time over here, the name of that track got us wondering about other songs with numbers in their names. When we realized there are just so, so many of those, we started pondering a more selective category: songs with mathematical operations in, or suggested by, their titles. Because summer is the season of mixtapes and this is the week of Beyoncé, and nothing celebrates both quite like blasting songs full of multiplication and addition (don’t ask in exactly what way this celebrates them), here is a mixtape with a math theme. If you play it loud enough and have some adorable children on hand, Beyoncé will possibly drop by your barbecue. Please, let us know any songs we’ve missed, and if you have thoughts on semi-random but highly relevant theme mixes we might assemble in the future — nerdy or otherwise — we’d love to hear them.
Track 0. ““Two Divided by Zero,” Pet Shop Boys
Track .000001. “A Million to 1,” Kiss
Track .01. “1% of One,” Stephen Malkmus
Track .5. “2/4,” Clinic
Track .66. “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad,” Meatloaf
Track 1. “50/50,” Frank Zappa / Mothers
Track 1a. “5-4 = Unity,” Pavement
Track 1.25. “5/4,” Gorillaz
Track 2. “1+1,” Beyonce
Track 4. “2x2,” Bob Dylan
Track 5. “2 + 2 = 5,” Radiohead
Track 5a. “5 to 1,” The Doors
Track 9. “If 6 Was 9,” Jimi Hendrix
Track 14. “7 and 7 Is,” Love
Track 17-20. “Between 17 and 20,” Elton John
Track 24. “4 + 20,” Crosby, Still, Nash & Young
Track 44. “22’ twos,” Jay-Z
Track 490. “Seventy Times Seven,” Brand New
Track 910. “1 after 909,”The Beatles
Track Infinity. “Love Plus One,” Haircut
Bonus Tracks:
“B + A,” The Beta Band
“\Delta M_i^{-1} = - \alpha \sum_{n=1}^N D_i \left[ n \right] \left[ \sum_{j \in C \left[ i \right]}^{} F_{ji} \left[ n-1 \right] + Fext_i \left[ n^{-1} \right] \right]”,” Aphex Twin [See also, here, track 2]
And you can hear them all in sequence if you listen to them below.
