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Want to know what someone's really, really like? Check their playlist.

By SEAN DALY
Published March 26, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] According to her iTunes playlist Diana Ross loves, well, Diana Ross. Diana Ross's iTunes playlist It's My House - Diana Ross Why Do Fools Fall in Love? - Diana Ross Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross Touch Me in the Morning - Diana Ross Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie The Boss - Diana Ross Upside Down - Diana Ross I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross The Best Years of My Life - Diana Ross Love Child - Diana Ross & the Supremes [AP Photo] "I love the Rolling Stones," Carrie Underwood says. "I love just about everything they have ever done. In fact, if anyone ever sees me driving around Nashville with the top down, there is no doubt that they will most likely get a dose of the Stones' 'Forty Licks' album. I like [Paint It Black] particularly because it makes no sense!" Carrie Underwood's iTunes playlist Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer Like Red on a Rose - Alan Jackson Beautiful Day - U2 I'm Your Man - Wham! Innocent - Our Lady Peace Bicycle Race - Queen Paint it Black - the Rolling Stones Stealing Kisses - Faith Hill My Love - Justin Timberlake The Chair - George Strait Once in a Lifetime - Keith Urban The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars Into the Ocean - Blue October Waitin' on a Woman - Brad Paisley

Rapper Kanye West is honest to the point of humiliation.

William Shatner loves William Shatner, Beyonce loves Beyonce, but neither has anything on frizzy diva Diana Ross, whose shameless self-caressing borders on the Napoleonic.

Michael Jackson might not be the weirdest member of his family.

How do I know these things? How have I gained such valuable insight, gazing through Hollywood's impenetrable PR curtain and seeing celebs for who they really, truly are?

Because I am addicted to Celebrity Playlists. A popular feature on Apple's online iTunes store, the playlists are where athletes, actors, authors and musicians - usually in the midst of promoting this or that - list favorite songs found on their own iPods. The celebs also reveal, often in deeply personal prose, why these songs mean so much to them. Of course, the lists could be the work of their publicists, but more on that later.

Janet Jackson's 12-song playlist is almost all devoted to sex: Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On, Foxy's Get Off. But her list also includes Nine Inch Nails' sexually graphic Closer, which Jackson finds oddly arousing. "Makes me wanna *%$#!," she writes. "The image of the video is incredible." The image she's referring to is a rotting, spinning pig carcass.

More than 350 Celebrity Playlists are available, and iTunes shoppers can buy individual songs or the stars' full lists. Reading these entries is fun and a little perverse, like rummaging through someone's underwear drawer. But more than that, at a time when celebrity spin is at an all-time high, Celebrity Play-lists are needed doses of pop culture honesty. So though I'm cynical about Hollywood, I find comfort in the fact that multimillionaire Sylvester Stallone is passionate about Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.

With American Idol on millions of minds, Underwood's playlist is especially enlightening. The former Idol champ and supposed Nashville savior stuffs her playlist with hard rock. My Chemical Romance, 30 Seconds to Mars, Our Lady Peace.

"I LOVE the Rolling Stones," she writes about Paint It Black. "In fact, if anyone ever sees me driving around Nashville with the top down, there is no doubt that they will most likely get a dose of the Stones' Forty Licks album." Could Lil' Miss Twang be more Joan Jett than Loretta Lynn?

Musical preference is a deeply personal thing, of course, making our iPods as much music diaries as music players. We might lie, but our iPods don't. If I were a job recruiter, I'd throw the resume in the trash but study the heck out of an applicant's iPod. That's where you really find out about someone.

I was shocked to read that rapper Kanye West, normally portrayed as an egomaniacal jerk, really likes Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles. (He writes: "This must be the white song that all black people like.") Not even I would admit to liking Carlton's sapfest, but West, with his street cred on the line, lets his softer side show on his playlist.

Most musicians' playlists gush about other artists' songs. But Diana Ross includes only Diana Ross songs. Bobby Brown's is pretty much a shrine to himself. William Shatner mostly includes William Shatner songs, too, but to his credit, they're from the album he titled Has Been.

I'm a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense and Signs. I never wanted to believe the rumors that he's a vainglorious bore. But Shyamalan's Celebrity Playlist is comically solipsistic, almost to the point of revolting. About his choice of Blink-182's All of This, he writes: "I love this song. Almost did a video for this. It would have been about vampires." About Pearl Jam's Rearviewmirror: "I wrote my first studio screenplay to this." And so on.

Sharon Stone's 13-song play-list is loaded with Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and Tracy Chapman. I initially thought the hacktress was stacking the deck with smart stuff and that her iPod was actually filled with, say, new age dope Enya. But then I read her reason for including Just Like a Woman: "From the time I was a young girl, this song made me feel in touch with my woman-ness." That's kind of loopy, yes, but for the first time, I believe Sharon Stone.

Am I being naive? Have some of the Celebrity Playlists been written by a celebrity's PR flack? Probably. Eminem "picked" three songs and barely wrote a thing. Nicole Kidman's list rings phony, too. I'm suspicious of short lists and curt explanations. But if the list stinks of a ho-hum press release, well, that tells me something, too.

Officials at iTunes did not respond to requests for comment. But I'm willing to believe that most celebs concoct their own lists. In an e-mail exchange, comedian Jim Gaffigan, whose Comedy Central special Beyond the Pale was a watercooler hit, told me that he created his own playlist. ITunes contacted him through his record company, asking him to select songs from his iPod. Gaffigan wrote all his descriptions, too, including this one for Elton John's Tiny Dancer: "Reminds me of my wife when she's not saying, 'You make my life miserable.' "

Like any iPod junkie, Gaffigan is kicking himself for what he left off of his list. If he could do it again, "I would have had a lot more Van Morrison and more Killers."

Playlist obsession is the ultimate sign of a healthy celebrity. It shows you care about something other than yourself. It means you pulled yourself away from the mirror long enough to sweat over Elton John vs. Van Morrison. My favorite Celebrity Playlist is by Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen, who mocks his musical obsessiveness as much as he relishes it. About German electronica outfit Kraftwerk, he comments: "I saw Kraftwerk live recently. For their encore, they didn't appear onstage. It was robots of them. What is better than that? Seriously, what?" I love that.

Another favorite playlist is by NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose 23-song entry is a hoot. The gearhead gets so excited about music, you can almost see him sweating over the keyboard. One of his shorter comments is about .38 Special's Caught Up in You. His comment is sweet and randy and genuine, the Celebrity Playlist as a coming-of-age tale: "I remember hearing this song when I was a boy, right about the time I started stealing Daddy's Playboy magazines. It kick-started my curiosity about girls at a young age."

That's all I have to hear. Dale Jr. is good in my book.

Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8467. His Pop Life blog is at blogs.tampabay.com/popmusic.

"Love is universal. Love is an endless flow of memories. The love of a child, the love of a parent or grandparent, the touch of a hand, a quiet glance. Love's memories stay with you forever."

DIANA ROSS

It's My House - Diana Ross

Why Do Fools Fall in Love? - Diana Ross

Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross

Touch Me in the Morning - Diana Ross

Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie

The Boss - Diana Ross

Upside Down - Diana Ross

I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross

The Best Years of My Life - Diana Ross

Love Child - Diana Ross & the Supremes 

FRED ARMISEN

Pocket Calculator - Kraftwerk

Love Song - the Damned

Go Wild in the Country - Bow Wow Wow

A Shot in the Arm - Wilco

Tattoo - Petra Haden

Crosseyed and Painless - Talking Heads

= = = = - Oval

Put Your Hand in My Hand - Lungfish

Last Living Souls - Gorillaz

Bridges and Balloons - Joanna Newsom

This Is Radio Clash - the Clash

My Ever Changing Moods (12-inch version) - the Style Council

Rollercoaster - Sleater-Kinney

"This is so you can look cool if someone is looking through your iPod. If someone asks, 'What is Oval?' you can answer: "It's pronounced o-VAL. It's this German guy and he . . . oh forget it.' And then grab your iPod back and roll your eyes in disgust."

CARRIE UNDERWOOD

Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance

Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer

Like Red on a Rose - Alan Jackson

Beautiful Day - U2

I'm Your Man - Wham!

Innocent - Our Lady Peace

Bicycle Race - Queen

Paint It Black - the Rolling Stones

Stealing Kisses - Faith Hill

My Love - Justin Timberlake

The Chair - George Strait

Once in a Lifetime - Keith Urban

The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars

Into the Ocean - Blue October

Waitin' on a Woman - Brad Paisley

"I LOVE the Rolling Stones! I love just about everything they have ever done. In fact, if anyone ever sees me driving around Nashville with the top down, there is no doubt that they will most likely get a dose of the Stones' 'Forty Licks' album. I like this song particularly because it makes no sense!"

HUGH GRANT

I'm Not in Love - 10cc

Daniel - Elton John

Radiation Vibe - Fountains of Wayne

Satellite of Love - Lou Reed

I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye

Cupid - Sam Cooke

(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

Crazy - Patsy Cline

Hot Love - T. Rex

Substitute - the Who

"This was my first dance routine and remains my finest choreography. I would pull back an imaginary bow and fire an imaginary arrow. Brilliant. The few who witnessed it have never fully recovered."

CARMELO ANTHONY

Show Me What You Got - Jay-Z

Make It Rain -Fat Joe featuring Lil Wayne

Stuntin' Like My Daddy (street version) - Birdman & Lil Wayne

Feel Me - Jadakiss

Runnin' - the Game

Live in the Sky (featuring Jamie Foxx) - T.I.

I Luv It - Young Jeezy

It's Okay (One Blood) - the Game

By Your Side - Jadakiss

Top Back - T.I.

New York S--t - Busta Rhymes & Swizz Beatz

Where I'm From - the Game

Been Through the Storm - Busta Rhymes

"Street, Atlanta. What can you say? . . . Jeezy is street and keeps it real. My hood where I grew up in Baltimore sounds just like his, and I can relate to the struggle and the triumph."

[Last modified March 25, 2007, 17:31:30]