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written by Sam Greenspan

Songs whose titles reference a moment up to a full day and night.

Sometimes I have no idea where these ideas come from. For this list, I decided to find 11 songs whose titles refer to different amounts of time, and order them from shortest to longest.

This is part one; part two will be posted tomorrow. If the concept isn’t clear yet, it will be soon enough…

1 | One Moment in Time by Whitney Houston

Webster’s defines “moment” as “a minute portion or point of time.” That’s relatively undefined, but even shorter than a second. And it beats out Kelly Clarkson’s A Moment Like This because… well, because Whitney’s song popped into my head first, so that has to mean something.

2 | Seconds by U2

I don’t like U2, but this was the most recognizable song I could find that discussed seconds.

3 | One Minute Man by Missy Elliott

This beat out New York Minute by The Eagles because it’s slightly more specific, although, in theory, a New York minute is less than 60 seconds because New Yorkers move so quickly. Or something. I’m going with Missy’s song because of the fantastic Jay-Z rap in the middle.

4 | 4 Minutes (To Save the World) by Madonna

Not even MacGyver could save the world that quickly.

5 | 4’33” by John Cage

Intro To Music 101 shoutout! It’s all silence! Isn’t that artistic!

6 | 30 Minutes by t.A.T.u.

Katy Perry has grabbed the faux-lesbian-for-attention title from t.A.T.u., but their music still lives on here.

7 | Hour For Magic by Jim Morrison

Wanna hear some vintage Jim Morrison lunacy? This “song” is him reading a bad poem over a psychedelic riff. Which somehow makes one minute and 20 seconds FEEL like an hour.

8 | Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band

This is earlier on the list than the next two songs because it only refers to the afternoon, which is a mere five hour period. (And that’s not even taking into account if the afternoon delight is with Missy Elliott’s guy described above.)

9 | Morning Train (9 to 5) by Sheena Easton

The title refers to the morning AND to the nine to five workday, which is why it gets preferential treatment over Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.

10 | All Night Long (All Night) by Lionel Richie

I don’t know how long ALL NIGHT is to ’80s Lionel, but I bet it’s longer than Starland Vocal Band’s five hour afternoon or Sheena Easton’s eight hour workday. When’s the last time you went to a karamu or fiesta that lasted less than eight hours. Hopefully never, unless it was the shittiest karamu ever.

11 | Night and Day by Frank Sinatra

Frank isn’t that into afternoons (I’m sure he once told a whole slew of dames, “I do my best sleepin’ when the sun’s shinin’, love”), but here, he claims both night AND day.

Stop by tomorrow when I’ll keep going from here into days, weeks, months, years and beyond. Is this my dumbest concept list ever? We will see…

[edit – here’s the follow up]