About 14 or 15 years ago, Kevin Greening did a thing while standing in for Danny Baker on Saturday morning Radio 1. He spent the entire three-hour show trying to compile an inventory of songs whose titles counted upwards in numerical order from 1 to 100. A bell was sounded every time a listener successfully advanced the list one step towards its goal.
Whether 100 was actually reached by the time the show ended is a matter of addled memory. But it seems an empirically whimsical task for the TV Cream community to tuck into on a bank holiday. To get things started, here’s 1 to 20:
Chant No 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On), Spandau Ballet
It Takes Two, Liz Kershaw and Bruno Brookes
Three, Massive Attack
Work Is A Four Letter Word, Cilla Black
Five Get Over Excited, The Housemartins
6 Underground, Sneaker Pimps
Seven Tears, Goombay Dance Band
Eight Miles High, The Byrds
Number 9 Dream, John Lennon
10 Years Asleep, Kingmaker
11 O’clock Tick Tock, U2
Rainy Day Women 12 and 35, Bob Dylan
13 Steps Lead Down, Elvis Costello
14 Years, Guns and Roses
Fifteen Minutes, Kirsty MacColl
Sweet Little Sixteen, Jerry Lee Lewis
Seventeen, Let Loose
18 Carat Love Affair, The Associates
Nineteen, Paul Hardcastle
Twenty Flight Rock, Eddie Cochran
Suggestions, please, on how to get up to, ooh, shall we say 50?
TV Cream Towers 
He did get to 100, and it turned out purely so he could end the show on 101 Damnations by Scarlet Party.
21 Seconds, So Sold Crew
22 Dreams, Paul Weller
Damn, I was about to suggest 22:The Death of all the Romance by The Dears….
A spotify playlist here?
How about 24 hours from Tulsa? Mr Gene Pitney of course!
I can find ones with 23 in the title but nothing I’ve ever actually heard so in my mind that is technically cheating.
Will “In the Year 2525” do for 25?
Sorry, bit of a cock-up on the counting front there! So here goes again… Strawberry Letter 23 – The Brothers Johnson
I’ll see your 24 Hours From Tulsa – Gene Pitney (as suggested by Rob Williams)
…and I’ll raise you
25 Hours a Day – Y&T
How about Paul Simon’s “50 ways to Leave Your Lover” for the top of the list?
29 Palms/Robert Plant
26 Years by Menswe@r. Whatever you do, don’t actually listen to it though.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. We need a 27 and a 28 before tackling the 30s. Anybody?
Well – this may be controversial – but can I have 27 by Swedish rockers Eldkvarn? Controversial in that you have probably never heard of them – but rest assured that over here in sunny Stockholm they’re still very popular. Like most Swedish bands, they sound a bit like Springsteen.
That’ll do. Given the absence of alternatives, I don’t think anybody’s in a position to quibble!
this is all well and good..but where’s the official TV Cream tribute to Lennie Bennett?
Ooh! I nominate Toni Basil’s fantastic “I’m 28”. A truly brilliant song about growing old/up from someone who’s still under-appreciated for her myriad contributions to pop culture.
Well, there’s Aimee Mann’s Thirty One Today. A bit of a dirge, but it counts…
Sorry to dart ahead, but Ballade de thirty five, by the delicious dwarf-f*cker Carla Bruni…
“Thirty Days” by Chuck Berry, and just about everyone else in between
And there’s Thirty three by the Smashing Pumpkins. A song that contains the immortal “graceful swans of never topple to earth”. As meaningless now as it was when we all thought it was meaningful…
36D by The Beautiful South.
And Straight In At 37 by…The Beautiful South. Hmm. Don’t think we can get away with two by the same group.
I’m contractually obliged to include “Thirty Two” by Van Morrison
Looks like 34 is still missing, so I suggest Complex 34 by Man or Astroman.