“3 Is A Magic Number”
by Blind Melon (originally by School House Rock!)
from the album School House Rock! Rocks
1996
Buy the album on Amazon

I found this track on a CMJ magazine sampler CD  sometime in 1996.  A few years later I totally got into MiniDiscs and transferred the tracks I really liked from those sampler CDs to MDs.  And then recently when I was moving down to Austin, I transferred those MD mix discs into iTunes.  This song has survived three generations of media, and rightfully so.  It’s fun, magical little tune and serves as double nostalgia: for Blind Melon and for School House Rock!

You remember School House Rock!  Those animated, educational PSAs that ran on ABC Saturday morning television back in the day?

Blind Melon take a catchy song about the magical properties of the number three and makes it somehow even sweeter.

And for comparison purposes, the original version from Saturday morning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4pyiB-kq0&feature=kp

Both are great versions.  The original holds a special place in my heart, but every time the Blind Melon version shuffles up on my iPod, I’ll totally sit and listen because it’s such a great jam.