Stephen King Opens Up iTunes, Finds Yet Another Listicle Lurking Underneath

A year ago, Stephen King published a list of his top 25 rock songs in Entertainment Weekly, and he’s gone back to the “list of my favorite things ever” well with a list of the 20 songs that are most-played in his iTunes library. (Because when you’re a famous writer, thin concepts like this can be spun as “a glimpse into the exciting work lives of the wordsmithing elite” instead of “narcissistic laziness.”) In what’s no doubt an effort to make as much ad revenue as possible off King’s seemingly endless columnist contract and rein the horrorsmith in editorially a bit, EW has forced him to present his list to the clicking public in the form of a photo gallery. I can just see it now: “OK, Steve, we have to cut this blurb down from 400 words to 25 for space reasons! (And also because we want people to click on the next picture without being scared of being confronted by another impermeable block of text.)” List after the jump. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, his repeated listenings to a Tony Orlando and Dawn track are OK because it “sounds like a lost Jimmy Buffett song”!

20. Rock Your Baby, George McCrae (19 plays) 19. No Place Like the Right Time, Donna the Buffalo (22) 18. City of the Damned, The Gothic Archies (23) 17. The Bug, Dire Straits (24) 16. La Cienega Just Smiled, Ryan Adams (25) 15. Candida, Tony Orlando and Dawn (25) 14. Wave On Wave, Pat Green (26) 13. If You Wanna Get to Heaven, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (27) 12. Treat Her Right, Los Straitjackets with Mark Lindsay (27) 11. Too Late to Turn Back Now, Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose (28) 10. Yeah (Pretentious Mix), LCD Soundsystem (28) 9. Wild, Wild West, Escape Club (29) 8. California Stars, Billy Bragg & Wilco (30) 7. Alabama Song, Allison Moorer (33) 6. Good Lovin’, The Young Rascals (34) 5. CB Song, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers (35) 4. Castanets, Alejandro Escovedo (38) 3. 0394413, Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers (49) 2. Going to a Go-Go, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (51) 1. Tube Snake Boogie, ZZ Top (59)

Stephen King: My Real Top 20 songs [EW.com]