How long......

[ShakeyBurt]

Johnathan Ross plays at least one David Bowie track on his Sat. show. But how long would it take him to play all his recorded tracks if he only played one a week? And if Micheal Parkinson played one Frank Sinatra track a week, how long would it take to get through his back catalogue?

[mikewith]

I know Jonathan Ross likes Bowie but I don't suppose he would go *quite* that far... would he? With thanks to Ruud Altenburg's excellent http://www.illustrated-db-discography.nl/ and a trusty calculator, totting up all the songs Bowie has recorded solo, with the likes of Tin Machine, as a guest (ie with Placebo), for record, game, soundtrack, promo and the occasional pirated track etc, I arrive at 492 tracks. [Note 1: Some appear to be alternate titles, but I counted them anyway. Note 2: I haven't counted the - for example - 13 different versions or edits of Space Oddity] Assuming Ross takes no holidays (stop laughing!) that's nine years, 24 weeks. That also assumes that Bowie records no more songs in this time - which, judging by hius recent work, might not be a bad thing ;-) Can I leave Sinatra until later?

[mikewith]

OK i'm beginning to think bobbobley may have a point... Frank Sinatra's recording career lasted from 18 March 1939 to 27 August 1991 (52 years, five months and nine days). He recorded 89 songs co-written by Sammy Cahn (but just seven songs, none of them memorable, co-written by Sinatra himself). He recorded many songs more than once, including ten versions of "I'll Never Smile Again" by Ruth Lowe (from April 1940-June 1971).

In total, Frank Sinatra recorded 2542 different versions of 1531 different songs. Assuming Parky wants to play *everything* that's one a week for 48 years and 46 weeks! Or in other words, until Parky is 115 years old. Now... i'm off to lie down in a darkened room somewhere!

[mikewith]

ps Forgot to give credit where credit's due - I did lots of counting and stuff, but my source was Steve Albin's masterful Frank Sinatra Discography at http://home.earthlink.net/~steveja7/FrankSongs.htm

[ShakeyBurt]

Thank you for your quick and informed answers. It was just one of those questions that popped into my head after listening to one of Johnathan Ross's jingles, (over and over again). Cheers.