UPDATE: Longer clips have been added for songs 1, 3, 9, and 13.

Hey folks. This is the first of a planned series of games of Name That Tune. Each of them is also a puzzle. Here’s how this one works:

I have uploaded twenty-one very brief song clips. Most of the songs are famous; none of them are obscure. They are drawn from a variety of styles and decades, from the 1950s to the present. It’s likely that you’ll find a few of them instantly recognizable, while a few others you won’t know at all (but other people will).

There are two parts to this game. The first is guessing the songs themselves. The second part is guessing the puzzle song (clip 21). The first letters of the names of the musicians for songs one through twenty spell a clue to the identity of song 21. (And if song 21 is guessed early, that ought to help nail down the rest of the songs.)

Some songs may go unguessed the first time round. If songs remain unguessed after a day, I’ll upload longer clips.

The Rules (subject to modification in future games):

  • Maximum 3 guesses between updates of the list, to give everyone a chance to play. (Updates will be made in the comments, filling in the spaces with the correct guesses so people can see the puzzle coming together.)
  • Clip 21 may only be guessed once between updates.
  • While I’m not going to be a stickler for spelling and punctuation, you must guess the correct musician and song title to a close approximation.

And here are the song clips:

  1. Clip 1
  2. Clip 2
  3. Clip 3
  4. Clip 4
  5. Clip 5
  6. Clip 6
  7. Clip 7
  8. Clip 8
  9. Clip 9
  10. Clip 10
  11. Clip 11
  12. Clip 12
  13. Clip 13
  14. Clip 14
  15. Clip 15
  16. Clip 16
  17. Clip 17
  18. Clip 18
  19. Clip 19
  20. Clip 20

And the Big Puzzle Clip:
Clip 21

If you’d prefer to download all the clips at once, we have a zip file and an rar file.

I suggest subscribing to the comments on the post (click on “Track Comments”) to more easily follow the progress of the game. Have fun!

Music, Name That Tune

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Scraps

Your name of Scraps has made you an intransigent person, deeply crunchy and prone to glucose intolerance. Never quick to catch a hint or a jest, you are forever decanting liquids upon people's heads in frustration and occasionally crop-dusting their property. You excel at things that no one cares about, such as paper clip separation and the ability to distinguish gauges of model trains at a distance. Your keen attention to detail makes you no fun at parties, but you don't enjoy parties anyway. When left alone you are inclined to lose yourself in the world's deeper questions, such as why triangle-sealing envelopes are more popular than other shapes, and whether the prize at the bottom of the cereal box is lonely before it's discovered. Slow to live and petulant in death, you are the ideal dinner companion for the person who is careless with their utensils. You have a future in fiber analysis and orgone recovery. You are an expert at Roust-the-Hobo and other games of the mind. You are well matched with persons named Serge and Crompton, and you prefer the company of badgers and other woodland creatures. You have no favorite color. Tonight you will dream of not waking up, and in the morning, as ever, you will forget your dreams.

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