Solution to Karaoke Night

by Chris Luhrs and Jason Zuffranieri

The mp3 consists of clips from karaoke versions of 41 songs, with the times indicating what portions of the original versions of the songs are represented (trying to use the most canonical original recording). What matters are the lyrics that would be sung over each of the karaoke clips. (The timestamps can be used to disambiguate sections of songs that sound similar when the lyrics are removed.) Consecutive strings of three to six songs all have a word in common. Indexing into that word by the number of songs using it spells CANNONBALL.

PERFE(C)T

  1. Closer (Nine Inch Nails)
  2. Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)
  3. The Reason (Hoobastank)
  4. Creep (Radiohead)
  5. Mr. Jones (Counting Crows)
  6. Pork and Beens (Weezer)

GR(A)VITY

  1. Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead)
  2. Defying Gravity (Wicked)
  3. Halo (Beyonce)

SCREE(N)

  1. Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
  2. Careless Whisper (Seether)
  3. Our Song (Taylor Swift)
  4. Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)
  5. Daysleeper (REM)
  6. Thriller (Michael Jackson)

PHO(N)E

  1. Slide (Goo Goo Dolls)
  2. Just Dance (Lady Gaga)
  3. Drops of Jupiter (Train)
  4. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)

SL(O)WLY

  1. Music of the Night (Phantom of the Opera)
  2. Tiny Dancer (Elton John)
  3. Brick (Ben Folds Five)

QUEE(N)

  1. Killer Queen (Queen)
  2. God Save the Queen (The Sex Pistols)
  3. Dancing Queen (ABBA)
  4. Read My Mind (The Killers)
  5. Desperado (The Eagles)

RU(B)Y

  1. Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones)
  2. All I Care About (Chicago)
  3. Summer Girls (LFO)

GRE(A)TEST

  1. Sex on Fire (Kings of Leon)
  2. The Longest Time (Billy Joel)
  3. I’ll Be (Edwin McCain)
  4. The Greatest Love of All (Whitney Houston)

YE(L)LOW

  1. Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell; same clip as previous)
  2. Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)
  3. Copacabana (Barry Manilow)

APP(L)E

  1. Clocks (Coldplay)
  2. Low (Flo Rida)
  3. Adam’s Song (Blink 182)
  4. Don’t Rain on my Parade (Funny Girl)