I noticed that the Amazon website allows you to list MP3 downloads [whatever they are] i order of popularity / best selling. So I thought it would be fun to list out all the Joanna Newsom songs in this order, taking a combined placing from across the various Amazon sites worldwide.
It turns out that the Canadian, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish sites do not offer downloads, whilst the Dutch site defaults to the UK one, so I have not counted any of these.
The other five, however, all offer lists. These do seem to change quite rapidly, which may be a marketting ploy, or an indication that they are not very accurate! However, as Magnús would say, "I've started so I'll finish" and I took a snapshot of all five just after midnight GMT today, 19th November 2011.
These resulted in the raw lists which I have listed at the end of this posting. (All songs are from The Milk-Eyed Mender [MEM], Sprout And The Bean single [S&B], Ys [Ys], the Colleen / Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band E.P. [EP], or Have One On Me: where these are two versions available on these, I have indicated which is referred to).
The fun part then was to merge the lists. Ideally, one would use a weighted average, to account for the fact that more downloads are sold from one site than another. However, I cannot find this information, so I have ignored this fact, and treated each list with equal weight.
There are a few exceptions and quirks, however:
JAPAN - No downloads from Have One On Me are available. After thinking about this for a while, I decided that the only fair course of action here would be to exclude "the Japanese jury" altogether. Sorry.
NON-JN SONGS VERSIONS - Three of these showed up in the lists (none in the UK, and the Sprout And The Bean cover was missing in Japan), and I decided to exclude them and move all the lower titles up one place in each of the national lists. For completeness, they do however appear in the national lists below [marked NON JN]. The three songs were -
Sprout And The Bean cover by Sholi (from the album Herjat)
Buried In Teeth (45 Version) by Mariee Sioux featuring members of Joanna Newsom's Ys Street Band (apparently from a download-only single Two Tongues At One Time / Buried In Teeth)
Bridges And Balloons cover by 8BitStellar (from the album The Shard)
EMILY and ONLY SKIN - These two tracks were not available for download from any of the sites, stating "album only". This was almost certainly a marketing ploy, as they would be among the most popular (as the JNST proved) and allowing them to be downloaded at the normal price would see the whole of Ys (only 5 tracks) downloadable for significantly less than the cost of the album. They are therefore excluded from this survey, but it can be assumed that they would appear at or near the top if they were downloadable.
SCORINGI used a 'sum of the digits' method for this. The US, UK, German, and French sites each listed 38 tracks, after making the adjustments referred to above. The track placed first received 703 points, that placed second received 666 points, that in third received 630, etc.
The method here is - Convert the 'position' into 39 minus 'position', so that 1st becomes 38, 2nd becomes 37, 3rd becomes 36, etc, down to the song in 38th (last) position becomes 0. Then replace each of these converted numbers by the sum of all the digits from 1 up to and including that number. ie, for a song listed in postion p in any given country's 'Amazon download chart', the number of points it receives from that country is: [1+(38-p)] x [(38-p)÷2].
Finally, the four results are added up, and the songs listed in descending order of the 'points' thus obtained. One position is tied (30th), but I have placed the MEM version of Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie above Inflammatory Writ, because it is placed higher on the (otherwise excluded) Japanese chart.
RESULTS
1 - The Book Of Right-On - 2227
2 - Good Intentions Paving Co - 2163
3 - 81 - 2020
4 - Easy - 2010
5 - Monkey & Bear - 1854
6 - Have One On Me - 1824
7 - Peach, Plum, Pear - 1626
8 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM] - 1552
9 - Baby Birch - 1447
10 - Sawdust & Diamonds - 1411
11 - Soft As Chalk - 1336
12 - Go Long - 1277
13 - Cosmia [Ys] - 1270
14 - Occident - 1262
15 - This Side Of The Blue - 1116
16 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B] - 1096
17 - Jackrabbits - 1002
18 - No Provenance - 974
19 - What We Have Known [S&B] - 934
20 - "En Gallop" - 835
21 - In California - 693
22 - Bridges And Balloons - 662
23 - On A Good Day - 657
24 - Kingfisher - 643
25 - Cosmia [EP] - 535
26 - Autumn - 500
27 - Colleen - 429
28 - Sadie - 409
29 - Does Not Suffice - 385
30 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM] - 379
31 - Inflammatory Writ - 379
32 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP] - 358
33 - Swansea - 327
34 - You And Me, Bess - 271
35 - Three Little Babes - 236
36 - Esme - 173
37 - Cassiopeia - 169
38 - Ribbon Bows - 115
On this method, adding together points does have some validity, and in this case it can be seen that if the two identical versions of Sprout And The Bean were added together, that song would come out on top with 2648 points.
A similar (but not identical) result is obtained if you simply add up the ordinals of the positions in each chart, and list the songs in ascending order. There are more ties with this method, and only those at 11th/12th and 36th/37th places can be resolved with reference to the Japanese chart:
1 - The Book Of Right-On - 21
2 - Good Intentions Paving Co - 23
3 - 81 - 27
4 - Easy - 28
=5 - Monkey & Bear - 34
=5 - Have One On Me - 34
7 - Peach, Plum, Pear - 47
8 - Baby Birch - 48
9 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM] - 49
10 - Go Long - 55
11 - Soft As Chalk - 58
12 - Cosmia [Ys] - 58
13 - Sawdust & Diamonds - 59
14 - Occident - 63
=15 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B] - 70
=15 - No Provenance - 70
=17 - Jackrabbits - 74
=17 - What We Have Known [S&B] - 74
19 - This Side Of The Blue - 75
20 - On A Good Day - 82
21 - Bridges And Balloons - 85
22 - Kingfisher - 89
23 - In California - 90
24 - "En Gallop" - 92
25 - Autumn - 94
26 - Colleen - 97
27 - Cosmia [EP] - 101
28 - Sadie - 103
29 - Inflammatory Writ - 105
=30 - Does Not Suffice - 108
=30 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM] - 108
32 - Swansea - 110
33 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP] - 111
34 - You And Me, Bess - 116
35 - Esme - 124
36 - Cassiopeia - 127
37 - Three Little Babes - 127
38 - Ribbon Bows - 128
The individual country lists were as follows -
UNITED STATES
1 - "En Gallop"
2 - Sawdust & Diamonds
3 - Peach, Plum, Pear
4 - Good Intentions Paving Co
5 - Monkey & Bear
6 - The Book Of Right-On
7 - Occident
8 - In California
9 - 81
10 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM]
11 - Have One On Me
12 - Easy
13 - Baby Birch
14 - Bridges And Balloons
15 - This Side Of The Blue
16 - Go Long
17 - Cosmia [EP]
18 - On A Good Day
19 - Inflammatory Writ
20 - What We Have Known [S&B]
21 - Colleen
22 - No Provenance
23 - Sprout and the Bean [NON JN]
24 - Buried In Teeth [NON JN]
25 - Cosmia [Ys]
26 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM]
27 - Soft As Chalk
28 - Does Not Suffice
29 - Kingfisher
30 - Jackrabbits
31 - Autumn
32 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B]
33 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP]
34 - Ribbon Bows
35 - Swansea
36 - Sadie
37 - You And Me, Bess
38 - Esme
39 - Three Little Babes
40 - Cassiopeia
41 - Bridges And Balloons [NON JN]
UNITED KINGDOM
1 - This Side Of The Blue
2 - Monkey & Bear
3 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B]
4 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM]
5 - The Book Of Right-On
6 - What We Have Known [S&B]
7 - 81
8 - Easy
9 - Sawdust & Diamonds
10 - Jackrabbits
11 - Good Intentions Paving Co
12 - Have One On Me
13 - Kingfisher
14 - Peach, Plum, Pear
15 - Does Not Suffice
16 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM]
17 - Cosmia [Ys]
18 - Baby Birch
19 - Autumn
20 - In California
21 - Go Long
22 - Soft As Chalk
23 - Colleen
24 - On A Good Day
25 - Esme
26 - No Provenance
27 - Ribbon Bows
28 - Sadie
29 - You And Me, Bess
30 - Bridges And Balloons
31 - Cosmia [EP]
32 - "En Gallop"
33 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP]
34 - Occident
35 - Swansea
36 - Inflammatory Writ
37 - Three Little Babes
38 - Cassiopeia
GERMANY
1 - The Book Of Right-On
2 - Easy
3 - Have One On Me
4 - Good Intentions Paving Co
5 - Baby Birch
6 - 81
7 - Jackrabbits
8 - Go Long
9 - No Provenance
10 - Soft As Chalk
11 - Occident
12 - Monkey & Bear
13 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B]
14 - Sawdust & Diamonds
15 - Cosmia [EP]
16 - Cosmia [Ys]
17 - Kingfisher
18 - Autumn
19 - Bridges And Balloons
20 - On A Good Day
21 - Swansea
22 - This Side Of The Blue
23 - Inflammatory Writ
24 - "En Gallop"
25 - Sadie
26 - Cassiopeia
27 - Peach, Plum, Pear
28 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM]
29 - What We Have Known [S&B]
30 - Colleen
31 - Does Not Suffice
32 - In California
33 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP]
34 - You And Me, Bess
35 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM]
36 - Three Little Babes
37 - Esme
38 - Ribbon Bows
39 - Buried In Teeth [NON JN]
40 - Sprout and the Bean [NON JN]
41 - Bridges And Balloons [NON JN]
FRANCE
1 - Soft As Chalk
2 - Cosmia [Ys]
3 - Peach, Plum, Pear
4 - Good Intentions Paving Co
5 - 81
6 - Easy
7 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM]
8 - Buried In Teeth [NON JN]
9 - Have One On Me
10 - The Book Of Right-On
11 - Go Long
12 - Occident
13 - Baby Birch
14 - No Provenance
15 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP]
16 - Monkey & Bear
17 - Sadie
18 - Three Little Babes
19 - You And Me, Bess
20 - What We Have Known [S&B]
21 - On A Good Day
22 - Sprout and the Bean [NON JN]
23 - Swansea
24 - Bridges And Balloons
25 - Colleen
26 - Sprout and the Bean [S&B]
27 - Cassiopeia
28 - Esme
29 - Inflammatory Writ
30 - Autumn
31 - Jackrabbits
32 - In California
33 - Ribbon Bows
34 - Kingfisher
35 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM]
36 - Sawdust & Diamonds
37 - "En Gallop"
38 - Does Not Suffice
39 - Bridges And Balloons [NON JN]
40 - This Side Of The Blue
41 - Cosmia [EP]
JAPAN
1 - Sadie
2 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [MEM]
3 - This Side Of The Blue
4 - Soft As Chalk
5 - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie [EP]
6 - Swansea
7 - Bridges And Balloons
8 - Sprout And The Bean [MEM]
9 - Peach, Plum, Pear
10 - Cassiopeia
11 - Monkey & Bear
12 - What We Have Known [S&B]
13 - Colleen
14 - Sawdust & Diamonds
15 - Cosmia [EP]
16 - The Book Of Right-On
17 - Inflammatory Writ
18 - Three Little Babes
19 - "En Gallop"
20 - Cosmia [Ys]
21 - Bridges And Balloons [NON JN]
22 - Buried In Teeth [NON JN]