Don’t ask me why I think of these kinds of things, but here goes: Is it possible to statistically define the placement of a hit song on an album? This question leads other directions: Is it possible to use that statistic/formula to create a hit song? Will the placement of a song affect whether the band becomes a one-hit wonder?

Do you have any ideas? Any theories? How does the track order get selected for an album (which obviously may be different between the way a band and a studio producer picks them)? Does sandwiching bad songs in between hits (see: sitcoms) work? Does grouping songs give you a statistically better chance to have a hit? Email me.

Here are some (unreliable/unscientific) test results: For this week’s Billboard Hot 100, 9 (nine) out of the top 20 songs are Track 3 on their respective albums. Nine! Almost half! Five of the top 20 are Track 2, two are Track 1, and two are Track 10 (someone explain that one.) Interesting preliminary results.

So many questions, so much data to handle, so little time to write a paper on the subject, so little money to buy the data from Billboard…