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Steve Delahoyde of Coudal Partners has posted 238 Miles, a short film about his weekly journey from Iowa City to Chicago. As an experiment, Steve decided to listen to a single song, on repeat, during the whole trip. The rules: he had to continue listening to the song at all times, he was only allowed to stop for gas or restroom facilities, and he had to document the experience. So what song did he pick? “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. Oh, let the fun begin.
Starting the drive, things seemed fine. Steve nodded his head along with the tune for an hour and a half, then things started going bad. By three hours into the drive, Steve had already broken a rule: he stopped to get lunch, and turned off the song. But sure enough, he started it back up and kept driving. About four hours into the drive comes my favorite part, where the song stops and Steve says: “I find myself really longing for this section when the song ends and when it starts again — there’s about, like, a ten-second gap where there’s no sound, and then there’s that piano part that comes in and ruins everything again. [Song starts.] Right there.”
I highly recommend you watch Steve’s short film, 238 Miles. It’s a quick journey through his day-long ordeal. Somehow, it makes me really want to try the same thing — though probably not with ABBA.
So here’s my question: what’s the longest you’ve ever listened to a single song on repeat? For me, it’s probably the time I listened to Maria Taylor’s Song Beneath the Song for an entire four-hour plane flight — iTunes tells me I’ve listened to it 313 times. (I’ll admit, I slept through most of the flight.)
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Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley.
Time: 9 hours.
posted by Dereck on 9-19-2007 at 10:42 am
I sometimes play the same song for 10 hour coding stretches, and do that for a week or so. I’ve also played the same CD for two hours, twice per week for two years now (Mozart Clarinet Concerto), so that’s about 400 hours. I find it encourages a certain frame of mind. My wife doesn’t understand me :-)
posted by Matt Doar on 9-19-2007 at 10:54 am
The first song I ever bought on iTunes was “Skylark” by k.d. lang (from the “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil” soundtrack). The windows were open, the weather was perfect, I had just moved into my new apartment in Portland, and I played it all day long.
To this day I long for Portland when I hear it. I cannot say “Dancing Queen” would have inspired me the same way, though :)
posted by Marina @ Sufficient Thrust on 9-19-2007 at 11:00 am
I accidentally left Lou Reed’s Berlin on repeat during a party. Everyone wondered why the party had gradually wound down to what resembled a coma ward. Changing the tune, to coin a phrase, changed the mood. In case you were wondering, the song that was chosen to liven proceedings back up was Rilo Kiley’s Portions for Foxes. Just the ticket.
posted by Martyn on 9-19-2007 at 11:00 am
when i was joining a social organization in college, we were asked to clap along to “mickey” by tony basil. it was on repeat and occassionally someone would start it over midway through to mess us up. this went on for about four hours. i smirk in agony everytime i hear that song now.
posted by Yerg on 9-19-2007 at 11:06 am
I was really liking the song ‘We Got to Leave’ by The Caesars a while back and set my ipod to repeat it at work. I listened to it for 6 hours that day plus another 2-3 hours the next day at work.
posted by Susan on 9-19-2007 at 11:08 am
Two things come to mind:
My sister and I both really liked the Rusted Root song, “Send Me on my Way.” One time, we put it on repeat in the car. It was a new car, and it would remember the repeat even if you turned the car off and back on. We loved it, we could drive around town singing that song for hours. Finally, after about 3 weeks of nothing but that song playing, my mom, who drove the car to work most days, not knowing it was on repeat, commented “I don’t know why you guys like that band. All their songs sound the same!” We still give her a hard time about that one!
A friend gave me a mix tape once, with a fun mix of oldies and pop on one side, and the other side was the song, “Brown Eyed Girl” repeated. it fit on the tape 14 times. That’s another song I can hear for hours happily.
posted by Jenny on 9-19-2007 at 11:13 am
we used to play our parents records all the time, and started loving Bob Marley’s “Legend” album. Well, one song had a broken record spot where it repeated. Being obstinate 13 and 11 year olds, neither of us wanted to have to get up and move the needle to stop the broken record. One time we sat there, staring at eachother, for at least 20 minutes while Bob Marley repeated “No woman, no cr– No woman, no cr– No woman, no cr– No woman, no cr–” over and over and over.
posted by jb on 9-19-2007 at 11:17 am
I regularly listen to “rama-lama (bang bang)” by Roisin Murphy for long drives. I haven’t had the opportunity to try it for more than about 2 hours at a stretch yet but I’m betting I’d still be listeing to it on a 4 hour trek from windsor to Toronto. I also tend to use it when doing 3d art as a inspiration track.
posted by Sean Stephens on 9-19-2007 at 11:17 am
anyone who has ever lived with a toddler has heard “I love you, You love me we’re a happy family…”
over and over, without pause,
for about about 2 and a half years.
posted by melanie tarrant on 9-19-2007 at 11:22 am
I love that Maria Taylor Song.
Seven Bridges Road, i’ve listened to for about an hour, singing along. Somebody to Love by Queen for a couple hours.
posted by Jenny on 9-19-2007 at 11:35 am
I worked with a color guard group once that used the “Flight of the Valkyries” for a performance they did yearly for three or four years. That would put us at about two hours a week of that song on repeat for ten or twelve weeks.
posted by Erin on 9-19-2007 at 11:36 am
Back in 1989, some friends and I kidnapped another friend who was getting married in a few days and drove him, in his boxers, t-shirt and handcuffs, from New Jersey to Maine. A 9 hour trip. And as an added torture (for US as well as him) the only song we listened to the ENTIRE trip as Juice Newton’s recording of “Angel of the Morning”. When we started the trip, I liked that song. At the end, we destroyed the tape.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 9-19-2007 at 11:40 am
Mine was not by choice.
My college roommate had recorded a tape of one song, over and over on both sides. It was “Little David” a southern gospel song. He put the tape in his alarm clock cassette player and set it to go off every morning around 4am. I got to hear it for 2 or 3 hours every day for most of my freshmen year.
I entually “accidentally” spilled something on the tape. Almost 20 years later I cannot abide the song.
posted by Patrick B on 9-19-2007 at 11:48 am
In college, I got CCR’s greatest hits stuck in my car’s tape deck (yes, I’m old) for two months.
posted by Craig on 9-19-2007 at 11:51 am
When I was in school I used to listen to the same CD over and over again whenever I wrote a paper. Eventually the music would just become white noise and I would get into this writing trance that was easily replicated if I had to stop writing and come back to it later. When the music started my ideas would immediately resurface.
I also listened to Shakira’s Dirty Laundry CD over and over while reading Stephen King’s Desperation. Now, whenever I hear any of those songs, I’m forcibly pulled back to scenes from that book.
I think I’ll try this experiment the next time I take a trip. But not with ABBA… never with ABBA.
posted by Erin on 9-19-2007 at 11:56 am
Steve must have taken some wrong turns, or driven incredibly slow – it does not take 4 hours to get to Chicago from Iowa City. And I wonder if he had thoughts of road rage…I’ll have to watch this.
posted by Lindsay D on 9-19-2007 at 11:57 am
My friends & I used to have this torture game where we listened to three songs on random repeat & saw how long we could stand it.
The torture songs:
Revolution #9 by Beatles
Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth
Negativ Nein by Einsturzende Neubauten
The longest single repeat song by myself would be Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. Probably in the 6 hour range. Yeah, a little over the top, I know.
posted by tara on 9-19-2007 at 12:07 pm
I do this all the time and I’m so dorky I can’t narrow it down to just one song. Maybe “Born of Frustration” by James – I can listen to that for days.
I tend to do this more with whole CDs, to the point where even the cat is pissed off at me.
posted by Rachel on 9-19-2007 at 12:15 pm
That sounds a lot like a How I Met Your Mother episode with the song “500 miles”.
posted by Hannah T on 9-19-2007 at 12:17 pm
I was in a parade passing out candy for a candidate for sheriff. I listened to Jail House Rock on repeat for about 2 hours…at least I know the words now.
posted by Valerae on 9-19-2007 at 12:20 pm
in the early 80s my husband and i had a camaro .. it had a 8 track player but we only had 2, 8 track tapes .. we went on a road trip 5 mins in to trip one of the 8 tracks broke .. with no radio we listen to .. tommy bolin .. china doll for 7 hours lol .. i like it now …but took a long time to want to listen to it again lol
posted by janet on 9-19-2007 at 12:53 pm
In college I did an expirement where for an entire week all I listened to (and I listen to music A LOT) was a tape with the John Coltrane\Rashied Ali album Interstellar Space on one side, and the Nels Cline\Gregg Bendain version of the same album on the other side. For those who don’t know, this is a CRAZY album– you know that jazz that (most people) call a bunch of noise– no straight beat, hardly recognizable melodies, and lots of honking and squeeking interspersed with some actual notes here and there…
Also, listening to Phillip Glass’s CD: “Two Pages, Contrary Motion, Music In Fifths, Music In Similar Motion” is quite an experience in itself. Even once all the way through feels like hours upon hours upon hours… Anyone know this CD?
posted by mervnet on 9-19-2007 at 1:08 pm
There is only one true road song that can and should be played repeatedly, “On the road again”. The version I prefer is the Willie and Johnny Cash duet. Milwaukee to St. Louis and back, 5+ hours, at least 3 round trips per semester for 4 years of college.
posted by Gene on 9-19-2007 at 1:10 pm
I find myself doing the same song- mostly on weekends. One song gets stuck in my head and I listen to it over and over again – depending on the length of the track between 50 to 200 times.
Some of the latest “winners” ;-):
“Chinois” by Aphrodite
“High Point” by Ramsey Lewis
posted by Matthias on 9-19-2007 at 1:30 pm
I listened to Gangsta’s Paradise on eternal repeat during the whole of 8th grade.
posted by Marika on 9-19-2007 at 1:31 pm
My father and I went for bi-weekly road trips to Costa Rica while we were stationed in Nicaragua. The drive from Managua to San Jose takes 7.5 hrs. Unchained Melody fits on one side of a cassette tape 11 times with 4 seconds to spare. We would listen to that song the entire way.
I suspect that it’s not all that uncommon to have listened to a song over, and over and over, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. Toddlers do it with everything, and after awhile, it’s a great aid to contemplation. Still today hearing Unchained Melody puts me in a quiet mood that has nothing to do with the song.
posted by Roger, FCD on 9-19-2007 at 1:49 pm
I can not abide the same song more than twice in a row. Albums, I can handle – I probably listened to Colin Hay’s “Going Somewhere” album about 80 times through before changing it. Repeated songs just drive me nuts.
posted by Bill T on 9-19-2007 at 1:54 pm
Wow, I am not worthy. Usually I do this with albums or bands, if anything. I listened to Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model about twice a day everyday for a couple of months earlier this year.
posted by kitty on 9-19-2007 at 2:01 pm
This isnt a song but, about a month ago my work was switching music companies from Musak to Sirius, on the day of the switch we could get any music but the 5 min instructions on how to install your Sirius radio played for about 10 hours
posted by Lindsey on 9-19-2007 at 2:03 pm
I distinctly remember driving from Miami, FL to New York on Xmas Eve, 1993 – somewhere around Jacksonville I picked up a radio station that was playing nothing but “Louie Louie” – apparently the DJ was ticked he had to work that night.
I listened to it on and off all the way up to Charlotte, NC – about 6 hours.
posted by Dan on 9-19-2007 at 2:22 pm
6 hrs. Rock N Roll aint noise pollution. trouble with speakers at an outdoor quiet riot show in the 80s… so they looped the one song…
posted by Jeff on 9-19-2007 at 2:28 pm
When I was in middle school, a friend of mine played “The Bad Touch” by the Bloodhound Gang so many times I wanted to cry. We must have listened to it for 3 or 4 hours on end.
My college roommate did the same thing with a Hanson song when she thought I was asleep.
Personally, I can’t repeat the exact same song unless I’m trying to learn the lyrics. Once or twice usually just about does me and then as long as I play something else, I can come back to it for a few more times. Otherwise, I will grow to hate the song, and I don’t want to do that with a song I like. :)
posted by Becky Travis on 9-19-2007 at 2:38 pm
The Weight by The Band for 3 hours is mine. I also listened to Dave Mathews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming CD continually while writing a 27 page paper in college.
I would like to try “Breathe” by Ministry to see how long it would take one to crack.
posted by Dusty on 9-19-2007 at 2:44 pm
“aphrodisiac” by bow wow wow. that’s all i’m gonna say.
posted by caroline on 9-19-2007 at 3:24 pm
this article made me wonder. as of today, i’ve listened to “reverse this curse” by Escape The Fate exactly 466 times. i listen to it every night to help me fall asleep.
posted by Heather on 9-19-2007 at 3:30 pm
Re: the radio station changeover-we had a local oldies station change to classic rock around ten years ago-they played Bowie’s “Changes” for 24 hours straight. Not a bad song to hear on repeat.
As for myself, I am guilty of song repeat. In fact, on a 4 hour road trip for work today, I played “Into The Mystic” by Van Morrison over and over. :)
posted by mrs.djs on 9-19-2007 at 3:34 pm
I’m with you Dusty, I have listened to it many many times in a row and get to the point of homicide because I cannot figure out all the lyrics. Good song though, with a sweet sample from spies like me
posted by robb on 9-19-2007 at 6:30 pm
I will often tell Windows Media Player to repeat some songs, or a list of songs in my PC.
One of my fravorites is a parody of a Queen song, Bohemian Rhapsody, called Zero Wing Rhapsody, by Kepple, Clark, Woods, Townshend. The song is also known as “All Your Base Are Belong To Us”. I used to have a link to website that had a sort of cartoon movie of the parody. Can’t get to it anymore. It was wonderful.
For some reason, I find this inspirational. I wonder if they did any other songs, or parodies.
My net searching skills suck. Maybe another reader will find a working cartoon site, or some other music.
posted by Pierre on 9-19-2007 at 7:44 pm
The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” for almost my entire college life. Even today I can listen to it non-stop.
posted by Oly on 9-19-2007 at 8:48 pm
In high school I was helping my best friend paint her room. We were listening to Aalyiah’s(sp?) Four Page Letter. (I think she had just broken up with a guy or something) I have no idea how long we listened to it for but I eventually blurted out “Damn that’s a long song” not realizing it was on repeat. That is still a rememberable line for the both of us.
posted by Aimee on 9-19-2007 at 10:59 pm
Years ago I took an afternoon off work to relax and lounge around the house, something I very rarely got a chance to do. My next door neighbour decided that this would be a good time to play ‘Believe’ by Cher (it’s the one with the weird vocoder effects on her voice during the chorus) non-stop for about 3 hours.
Whenever I hear that song now I see a red mist, start to spasm uncontrollably and then black out. But I DO believe in life after love, so every cloud has a silver lining.
posted by Ross on 9-20-2007 at 1:33 am
My buddy Mike bought a “Bananarama” album in which the entire B-side of the album was an extended version of the song “Venus.” We decided we would make our own extra-extended version of “Venus” by Bananarama. After about 4 hours of carefully sampling, repeating and editing passages together we had almost both sides of a 90 minute tape of an almost professional sounding nonstop version of “Venus” by Bananarama. By then I didn’t want to listen to “Venus” by Bananarama anymore. That was 20 years ago, I THINK I can listen to it now.
posted by Tdave on 9-20-2007 at 2:36 am
My freshman year of college, during a particularly low mood, I listened to Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” pretty much straight for a couple weeks, stopping it only when I left my room or went to sleep (the former of which I did not do often). I remember a 2 or 3 hour period of listening to that song only (and it’s pretty repetitive as it is) and writing in my journal ‘i’m not here, this isn’t happening’ over and over and over and… well, you get it.
posted by fyiagcg on 9-20-2007 at 3:43 am
My first time in Russia – also my first experience with Techno. I was addicted to the song dub-i-dub, silly I know. I played it for hours one day. Just when I had had enough, some similarly inclined neighbor (lots of thin walls in Russian apartments) started playing the same song. Over and over – all weekend long.
The song took on a life of its own.
posted by julie on 9-20-2007 at 5:22 am
a friend of mine put “Groovy Kind of Love” on a tape once adn made us listen to it all the way to the beach (about 4 hours). i was a twitching, drooling mess by the time we got there and to this day cannot listen to Phil Collins. i’ve gotten over it enough to be able to listen to old Genesis, but that’s it.
posted by mri on 9-20-2007 at 8:00 am
I was producing a film shoot on the backlot at Universal Studios in Orlando a few years ago. We weren’t recording sound, so they left their blaring music loop (which plays throughout the theme park) playing during our shoot. It’s probably a 20-minute loop. Normally, nobody is in one place long enough to have to listen to much of it. But we were on their “New York Street” backlot set for three days. I heard Charles Wright’s “Express Yourself” probably 100 times over 3 days. I’ve managed to forget the rest of the songs in the loop, but that one stuck in my head in a not-pleasant way.
My freshman year of college, I fell asleep to side 1 (cassette tape–yes, I’m also old) of Rush’s “2112″ every night.
posted by Bre on 9-20-2007 at 8:50 am
About 15 years ago, a radio station which was changing formats (it was a drastic change) played “American Pie” for 24 hours while they were changing formats. I do not know how long I listened to it……
posted by Barry on 9-20-2007 at 9:18 am
I was fascinated with the song Will The Circle Be Unbroken. This is not a joke.
posted by Janix on 9-20-2007 at 10:10 am
Bre,
You drudged up some memories I had repressed. Back in 95 I was working at Circuit City during Christmas. Back then they didn’t have satellite radio or TV (at least it was too expensive) so each store would get a laser disc (mmmm…old technology) that would play on a loop on the TVs. Well, our store didn’t get the new one so we spent two months listening to Alvin and the Chipmunk’s Christmas (I still want a hula-hoop) and some redneck kids group called the Moffayts, complete with matching mullets. After we received the new laser disc we destroyed the old one in a ceremony.
posted by Dusty on 9-20-2007 at 10:11 am
Speaking of radio stations, I almost forget when a local radio station came back on the air and for at least 10 days they played The Beatles “I am the Walrus.” The call letters are WLRS.
posted by Aimee on 9-20-2007 at 7:09 pm
I probably have the record for listening to the same ALBUM. I have listened to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” at least once a day since the first time I heard it in 1983. I have worn out 7 cassettes, 2 CD’s and two VHS tapes of the movie itself. I still have one cassette and one CD but have listened to it on my iPod for the last 9 months. I just wish they put “When the Tigers Broke Free” on the album.
posted by Michael on 9-20-2007 at 9:16 pm
Back when when we had 8-track tapes you could put in a tape and leave in for days or weeks. They would actually get so hot it would warp the tape. I had a friend who had a party house, like crackhouse only for beer; Sex Pistols> Never Mind the Bollocks must have played for 3 weeks straight 24 hours a day. People came and went and it kept on playing. He finally got kicked out for shooting out the ceiling light with a shotgun.
posted by dr howard on 9-21-2007 at 1:11 am
Once in junior high a friend forced me to listen to Stacey Q’s “We Connect” about 17 times in a row.
posted by Adam Villani on 9-21-2007 at 2:16 am
“At Last”, the old Etta James tune but done acapella by Serena Ryder. Also “Till It’s Gone” by Po’ Girl.
posted by glenn on 9-21-2007 at 10:18 am
Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens. I love Halloween, so come fall, it’s the only thing I listen to in my car from September through November
posted by Laura on 9-21-2007 at 9:24 pm
One time at Disneyland there was some sort of malfunction on the “It’s a Small World” ride and I was stuck in the little boat listening to “It’s a Small World” over and over for more than an hour.
Last week on a long drive I listened to Lou Reed’s “Hangin’ Round” from the Transformer album for three hours.
posted by Jimbotron on 9-21-2007 at 11:06 pm
In high school, the school’s PA system would play a song for about 10 minutes on repeat before first period and again before 3rd period. Throughout all 4 years this consisted of only two different songs: the mission impossible theme and the knight rider theme. Every couple of months they would switch it up, but but we must have listened to each song for several hours before this occured
posted by owen on 9-22-2007 at 1:50 pm
Santana’s Soul Sacrifice on YouTube, Soul Sacrifice. Listen/watch off and on daily.
posted by CMBsDad on 9-22-2007 at 10:58 pm
Hey Jimbotron^
The “It’s A Small World” at Disneyworld stopped and we sat there listening to it (and the repeated announcement to “Please stay in the boat”) for about 25 minutes.
posted by Tdave on 9-25-2007 at 2:06 am
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft punk
awsome song… can’t stop listening… been listening for the past 49 hours… and it never gets old… I love this… DAFT PUNK
posted by Dylan Smith on 12-29-2007 at 9:02 am
CARAMELLDANSEN!!! 440 times with no pause ever!. I’ve been listening to it for over 24 hours now. XD This is insane. I’ve gone insame although I was from the start for doing so.
posted by Dave on 2-2-2009 at 10:30 pm
I was trying to learn the lyrics to “Gloomy Sunday” by Rick Nelson, so I kept having to back it up several times. I did that for like, three days. But then again, it wasn’t really none stop. I took breaks for food and the toilet.
posted by Sara on 2-20-2009 at 3:51 pm