Who's No. 1?

I was making a mix CD the other day, and while determining the running order, a problem arose that got me thinking about the way I relate to certain songs.

The theme of this mix, at the suggestion of my music buddy Dalton, was "radio." So I rounded up as many tracks from my collection as I could think of that had something to do with radio (The Blasters' "Border Radio," Tom Petty's "The Last DJ," etc.). I dumped the songs into iTunes, then fiddled with the order until I got it just right.

It was fine-tuned to perfection, every piece in its place like some kind of sonic Swiss watch. Though I never saw anybody play air guitar a Swiss watch. So suck it, Rolex. But I digress.

My mix seemingly in perfect order, I took another spin through the library. It was then that I came across another "radio" tune, and an obvious one, too. It was right in front of me the whole time. If it was a bear, it would have bitten me on the ass. The glaring oversight of which I speak is R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe."

Figuring I'd correct my grievous error, I imported the song. When I tried to find a place for it, though, that's where I made the discovery that brings us here today.

It didn't fit.

There was plenty of room on the disc. There just wasn't a good place to put it. And here's why: The only place that "Radio Free Europe" made sense was as track No. 1. But I already had the perfect start to this mix. (It was an old radio commercial featuring Little Richard, followed by Chatham County Line's "WSM (650)," if you must know.) To change the perfect running order would have set off a catastrophic chain of events possibly including, but not limited to choppy flow, less enjoyment for the recipient of this disc and a new Ice Age.

"Radio Free Europe" is a first track. It kicked off "Murmur," which means it more or less kicked off R.E.M.'s campaign from Athens, Ga., to world domination in the '80s. It was the first track on "Eponymous." But, alas, it was not meant to kick off my mix.

It got me thinking about the opening tracks of other albums I like, and how those songs fit onto mixes I make. Some tracks, even apart from their original albums, only seem to fit in the opening slot. But why?

Lots of albums begin with great songs. In some maddening circumstances, it's the only great song on the album. But being a great leadoff track doesn't mean that I always need to hear it first. "Cocaine" is the opener on Eric Clapton's "Slowhand," but I'd be OK with placing it deeper into one of my productions.

On the other hand, Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'," the opener from "Full Moon Fever," will forever sound to me like a No. 1. I suppose that in the old days, when assembling the labor of love known as the mix tape, I wouldn't have lost too much sleep if "Free Fallin'" had kicked off Side 2. But that's as far as I'd bend.

I think in part it depends on the quality of the album from which the song comes. Bruce Springsteen seems particularly adept at picking the perfect opening track for his albums, and I can think of at least four – "Thunder Road" ("Born to Run"), "Badlands" ("Darkness on the Edge of Town"), "Born in the U.S.A." ("Born in the U.S.A.") and "Lonesome Day" ("The Rising") – that I'd place first and probably first only on my mix CDs. The openers from the first four Led Zeppelin albums, "Good Times Bad Times," "Whole Lotta Love," "Immigrant Song" and "Black Dog," also seem to me to lend themselves to this phenomenon.

The great album/great No. 1 theory doesn't always hold for me. I think the title track to Steve Earle's all-time classic "Guitar Town" is a great first song for a mix. But "Christmas in Washington," which kicks off the equally great "El Corazon," wouldn't have to lead off a mix for me. In fact, I think it makes a pretty decent closer.

Likewise for the Old 97's "Timebomb." It's a great opener found on arguably their greatest album, "Too Far to Care." But it isn't a carved-in-stone No. 1 for me. Maybe it's from seeing them close with it in concert, but I'd be just as likely to close with it as open with it.

My conclusion? I don't have one, except something that I've known for a long time: Music affects us all differently emotionally, psychologically and even physically. That's why some folks like Doc Watson while others like Duran Duran. Some like both. That's why they have so many bins at the record store.

The mix CD has less romance than its predecessor, the mix tape, but it's still an individual expression of how we interact with music. Making a mix helps me define how I feel about certain songs. Receiving a mix helps me understand how my friends feel about the songs in their libraries. So who's got some No. 1 tracks they want to tell me about? I'm all ears.

In the meantime, I think I'll go to work on "Radio, Radio, Vol. 2." I already have the perfect first song.