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:

SongArtist 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