An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #42: Wordless Connecting Walls
In this puzzle, the melodies of 16 songs are given in sheet music form. You first must identify the 16 songs from the melodies. Then, arrange the songs into four groups of four, with each group of songs related by a common theme. The final answer will be a song which is related to each of the four themes.
- Unlike my previous musical connect wall, the themes are not necessarily related to the song titles. They may also relate to the artists, genres, or other aspects of the songs.
- Each melody contains the part where the song title appeared in the song, except for #6 which contains an instrumental only part of the song.
- The songs cover a variety of genres and decades. As a guide, here are the number of songs by decade:
- 70's: 1
- 80's: 6
- 90's: 5
- 00's: 3
- 10's: 1
- It's not expected for you to be able to sight read the sheet music to identify the songs. Instructions for playing the melodies are located below the sheet music section. From feedback on my last musical connect wall, I added tempo information to each song and tried to keep each song in its original key.
To play the melodies, I have pasted the songs below in ABC notation. Copy and paste each song (starting with "X:#") to this site which I used to create the music or this alternate site. Then press the play button to hear the song.
X:1
T:1
L: 1/16
K: A
Q:1/4=94
| z8 z2 [cea]2 [cea]2[cea][cea]- | [cea]4 [dfa]2[dfa]2 [cea]6 [Beg][Beg]- | [Beg]8 z2 [cea]2 [cea][cea][cea][cea] | [dfa][dfa]2[dfa]2[dfa]2 [cea]4 [cea] [cea][Beg]3 | [Beg]4- [Beg][Acf][GBe]2 [Beg]4- [Beg][cfa][Beg]2 | [Acf]8 z8 |
X:2
T:2
L: 1/16
K: G
Q:1/4=77
| z8 z2 GG- Gd2B- | B4 z4 z2 GGG- Gd2B- | B4 z8 z2 AB | c4 B4 A6 G2 | G4 z12 | z4 dd2e- ee2e- ede2 | e4 z12 |
X:3
T:3
L: 1/8
K: Bb
Q:1/4=90
| z2 dd e2 ff- | f e3/2 z4 | z6 BB | f3 d1/2c1/2 B4 | z3 F (3e2d2c2 | B8 |
X:4
T:4
L: 1/16
K: G
Q:1/4=100
| z4 [EG]GGG A2B2[EA]2G2 | E2 z2 [EG]GGG A2B2[EA]2G2 | E4 z2 [FA][FA] [FA][EG][EG][EG]- [EG]2B,2 | [EG]4 [FA]4 [GB]4 [DA]4 | C4 z4 z8 |
X:5
T:5
L: 1/8
K: Db
Q:1/4=67
| z AAB c3/2e1/2e2- | eA E3/2c1/2 B4- | BABc =G3 E | F3/2E1/2 C6- | CAAB c3/2e1/2e2- | eA E3/2c1/2 B4- | BABc e3 E | F3/2A1/2 A6 | z AEc B3 A | A8 |
X:6
T:6 (Instrumental)
L: 1/8
K: G
Q:1/4=120
| [E,E]3 [E,E] .[G,G] z1/2.[E,E] z1/2.[D,D] | [C,C]4 [B,,B,]4 |
X:7
T:7
L: 1/8
K: F
Q:1/4=108
| z2 A,C DF z F, | A,CDF D2 C2- | C2 z C BBAG | DDFD G2 F2 |
X:8
T:8
L: 1/16
K: C
Q:1/4=82
| DEEE E3/2 z1/2EE E2E3/2 z1/2 EEEE | E3/2 z1/2 ED EDE2 A2G2G DE3/2 z1/2 | EE3/2 z1/2 DE2- E1/2 z1/2 DE2E2 E3 z | DDD2 D2B,2 A,G,E,3/2 z1/2 E,2B,D | [G,G]4 [^F,^F]4 [E,E]4 [D,D]4 | [E,E]2 [E,E]6 z8 |
X:9
T:9
L: 1/16
K: Gb
Q:1/4=122
| [dg][ea] z2 [ea]2[dg][g_c']- [gc']2[ea]6 | [dg][ea]z [ea]2[dg][ea]-[ea]8 | [dg][ea] z2 [ea]2[ea][g_c']- [gc'][ea][gc']6 | [dg][ea][ea]2 [ea]2[dg][ea]- [ea]4 z4 |
X:10
T:10
L: 1/8
K: C
Q:1/4=98
| z3 e agcc | d2-d z z4 | z2 c c1/2c1/2e ddc | (d c3-c4) | z2 cc1/2d1/2-d1/2cB1/2-B1/2cB1/2- | B2 A G3 z2 | z2 cc BABc | A4 z4 |
X:11
T:11
L: 1/8
K: C
Q:1/4=150
| C2 C2 EGAc- | c2 _B BBBB | C2 C2 EGAc- | c2 _B BBBB |
X:12
T:12
L: 1/8
K: B
Q:1/4=210
| z2 E=D E2 ED | E =D2 E2 F3 | [B,E]4 [=A,=D]4 | [CF]4 [=A,=D]4 | z2 [B,E]2- [B,E][=A,=D][F,B,] | [=A,=D]4 [B,E]4- | [B,E]6 z2 | z8 | z2 B,2 B,3 =A, | =A,2 B,2 F,4 |
X:13
T:13
L: 1/16
K: G
Q:1/4=125
| z8 D4 ^D3E- | EEDB, EEDB, EF2G- GE2D- | DDB,A, DDB,2 DE2F- FD2E- | EEDB, EEDB, EF2G- GE2D- | DDB,A, DDB,2 DE2F- FD2[Ee]- | [Ee]2 z2 z4 z8 |
X:14
T:14
L: 1/8
K: C#m
Q:1/4=180
| [ceg]3 [ceg]- [ceg]2 [ceg]2- | [ceg] [ceg]2 [ceg]4 z | [Bd][Bd][Bd][Bd]- [Bd][df]2 [df]- | [df][ce]3-[ce]2 c2 | [ceg]3 [ceg]- [ceg]2 [ceg]2- | [ceg] [ceg]3 [ceg]3 z | [Bd][Bd][Bd][Bd]- [Bd]e2 d- | d c6 z |
X:15
T:15
L: 1/8
K: Eb
Q:1/4=116
| z4 z F-F1/2G3/2 | z A AA1/2A1/2-AGFE | EFGF z F-F1/2G3/2 | A z AA AG F1/2E3/2 | G2 F2 z4 |
X:16
T:16
L: 1/8
K: F#
Q:1/4=135
| fc c2 c2 c2 | b, d2 c-c (a,1/2g,1/2f,) |
Hint:
Song #7 was #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles list for 2 weeks in the early 90's. It was also nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Hint 2:
Three of the groups are fairly straightforward. The last group may be non-obvious because the common feature involves knowledge that you might only know about 1 or 2 of the songs in the group. If you get the three easier groups, a search for all four remaining songs together in an online search will reveal their common feature.
The final song may not be known to the majority of the users on this site. However, using the 4 groups and some sleuthing, you should be able to find it. Also while not necessarily popular with the users here, according to at least one metric it is one of the top 30 most popular songs of all time.
