Song of the Day 12/8: Imogen Heap, “Hide and Seek”

WXPN’s countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs By Women – yes, it’s grandiose, but they had to call it something – has passed the halfway mark, and my strategy of picking cuts I thought might otherwise be ignored isn’t looking too successful. So far only two of my 10 selections, “Birthday” by the Bjork-led Sugarcubes and Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes,” have been played. (You can follow the countdown live here).

The promotion’s rules allowed votes for any song sung by a woman, but to narrow my list I imposed a further restriction – the song had to be written by a woman, too. (Kim Carnes didn’t write “Bette Davis Eyes,” but Jackie DeShannon and Donna Weiss did.)

My last cut in finalizing my list was this folktronica ballad from electo-pop British artist Imogen Heap. It appeared on her 2005 solo LP “Speak For Yourself,” which spawned three hits in Heap’s native UK. The album’s lead single, it was the only one to reach the charts in the U.S., where it was released the same day as it appeared on the season-closing episode of the hit teen TV show “The O.C.”

I bumped “Hide and Seek” for Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child.” That hasn’t made the playlist yet.