RUBIK Bottom of the Top (Solution)
written and performed by David Reiley, with assistance from Jill Sazama
I wrote what I believe to have been the first music-identification puzzle in the Mystery Hunt (classical music pieces in 1996, on a cassette tape we handed out to teams). But in 2013, I have been forced by technologies like Shazam and SoundHound to up my game. Recent identification puzzles have relied on shorter clips in order to defeat the automated song-identification software. I prefer long clips that actually let one get a sense for the music. Since I'm a bassist, I decided to invite solvers to identify songs using only their bass lines. I attempted to find interesting, distinctive bass lines that also satisfied the letter constraints for this puzzle. I had to relax the "interesting" constraint for the most recent years, as I for one find hip-hop bass lines to be pretty repetitive. The best example in this puzzle is Eminem's Lose Yourself, which consists of just a single note repeated in the bass for the entire song. Interesting bass lines in pop music appear to have reached their peak in the 1970s.
The title of the puzzle is intended to help solvers narrow down the list of potential songs to listen to. All songs in this puzzle were #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 during the 50 years of that list's existence, narrowing down the search space to only about 1000 songs. :-) On Saturday night of the Hunt, before this puzzle had been released to anyone, it became clear that another very long puzzle was... um... unnecessary, so I added a list of years that each of the songs could be found in, which further narrowed the search. Another helpful feature of the puzzle is that the songs were given in alphabetical order by title:
| Song | Artist | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Always Be My Baby | Mariah Carey | May 1996 |
| American Pie | Don McLean | Jan-Feb 1972 |
| Dark Lady | Cher | March 1974 |
| Do Wah Diddy Diddy | Manfred Mann | October 1964 |
| Every Breath You Take | The Police | July-August 1983 |
| Eye of the Tiger | Survivor | July-August 1982 |
| Fallin' in Love | Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds | August 1975 |
| Glamorous | Fergie (featuring Ludacris) | March 2007 |
| Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) | C+C Music Factory | February 1991 |
| I Love Rock 'n' Roll | Joan Jett and the Blackhearts | March-May 1982 |
| I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) | Meat Loaf | Nov-Dec 1993 |
| I'm Your Angel | R. Kelly and Céline Dion | Dec 1998-Jan 1999 |
| It's Too Late | Carole King | June-July 1971 |
| Kiss from a Rose | Seal | August 1995 |
| Let It Be | The Beatles | April 1970 |
| Look Away | Chicago | December 1988 |
| Lose Yourself | Eminem | Nov 2002-Jan 2003 |
| Love Hangover | Diana Ross and the Supremes | May-June 1976 |
| Monday, Monday | The Mamas and the Papas | May 1966 |
| Morning Train | Sheena Easton | May 1981 |
| My Heart Will Go On | Céline Dion | Feb-Mar 1998 |
| My Sweet Lord | George Harrison | Dec 1970 - Jan 1971 |
| Need You Tonight | INXS | January 1988 |
| No One | Alicia Keys | December 2007 |
| One Week | Barenaked Ladies | October 1998 |
| Sir Duke | Stevie Wonder | May 1977 |
| Straight Up | Paula Abdul | February 1989 |
| Un-Break My Heart | Toni Braxton | Dec 1996-Feb 1997 |
| We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together | Taylor Swift | September 2012 |
| What a Fool Believes | The Doobie Brothers | April 1979 |
Once you understand that these are all #1 hits, the natural ordering is chronological, and the natural index is the number of weeks the song spent at #1 on the Billboard chart:
| Song | Artist | Date | Weeks at #1 | Letter from Song Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do Wah Diddy Diddy | Manfred Mann | October 1964 | 2 | O |
| Monday, Monday | The Mamas and the Papas | May 1966 | 3 | N |
| Let It Be | The Beatles | April 1970 | 2 | E |
| My Sweet Lord | George Harrison | Dec 1970 - Jan 1971 | 4 | W |
| It's Too Late | Carole King | June-July 1971 | 5 | O |
| American Pie | Don McLean | Jan-Feb 1972 | 4 | R |
| Dark Lady | Cher | March 1974 | 1 | D |
| Fallin' in Love | Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds | August 1975 | 1 | F |
| Love Hangover | Diana Ross and the Supremes | May-June 1976 | 2 | O |
| Sir Duke | Stevie Wonder | May 1977 | 3 | R |
| What a Fool Believes | The Doobie Brothers | April 1979 | 1 | W |
| Morning Train | Sheena Easton | May 1981 | 2 | O |
| I Love Rock 'n' Roll | Joan Jett and the Blackhearts | March-May 1982 | 7 | O |
| Eye of the Tiger | Survivor | July-August 1982 | 6 | T |
| Every Breath You Take | The Police | July-August 1983 | 8 | E |
| Need You Tonight | INXS | January 1988 | 1 | N |
| Look Away | Chicago | December 1988 | 2 | O |
| Straight Up | Paula Abdul | February 1989 | 3 | R |
| Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) | C+C Music Factory | February 1991 | 2 | O |
| I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) | Meat Loaf | Nov-Dec 1993 | 5 | A |
| Kiss from a Rose | Seal | August 1995 | 1 | K |
| Always Be My Baby | Mariah Carey | May 1996 | 2 | L |
| Un-Break My Heart | Toni Braxton | Dec 1996-Feb 1997 | 11 | E |
| My Heart Will Go On | Céline Dion | Feb-Mar 1998 | 2 | Y |
| One Week | Barenaked Ladies | October 1998 | 1 | O |
| I'm Your Angel | R. Kelly and Céline Dion | Dec 1998-Jan 1999 | 6 | R |
| Lose Yourself | Eminem | Nov 2002-Jan 2003 | 12 | F |
| Glamorous | Fergie (featuring Ludacris) | March 2007 | 2 | L |
| No One | Alicia Keys | December 2007 | 5 | E |
| We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together | Taylor Swift | September 2012 | 3 (not consecutive) | A |
ONE WORD FOR WOOTEN OR OAKLEY OR FLEA clues the final answer BASSIST, from the following examples of great bass players:
- Victor Wooten, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
- Berry Oakley, The Allman Brothers
- Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers