One of the local radio stations has been playing this game for some time, and I thought that it might be fun here.

Basically, it goes like this: you name 4 or 5 five songs that are reasonably connected somehow, and the rest of us attempt to guess your connecting theme.

Something like this: Barracuda, Thunderstruck, Living on a Prayer, Enter Sandman, Love in an Elevator.

Answer: Songs from albums recorded in Vancouver. Hopefully I got that right.

The station has prizes; here we just have fun. Possible themes can go from "left handed bass players" to "blonde singers" and the much more difficult "city names mentioned in the song that are original 6 NHL cities".

Stuff like that. Anybody up for it?

"Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits
"Wild Thing" by Tone Lōc
"She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals
"Stand" by R.E.M.

All parodied by Weird Al Yankovic

The videos all featured rotoscoping?

I know MfN did... and I think Wild Thing did... don't know about the others.

Bren R.

lhulls is correct!

There is an even more specific answer I was going for...

featuring the original artists?

Nah, it was that they are parodied on his UHF album. Great album, great movie.

Sooo Stoopid!

Not being a huge Weird Al fan, that was tough. Thanks medic8r.

Here's a softball to balance it out:

Honky Tonk Woman - The Rolling Stones
Hair of the Dog - Nazareth
Low Rider - War
Working for the Weekend - Loverboy

and if you really need one more

Songs that don't need more cowbell.

Here's my entry:

Sexy Sadie - The Beatles
We've Got Tonight - Bob Seger
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
The Last Resort - The Eagles

Spot on.

Wow, Peter, that's hard.

(That's what she said!)

Hmm... it is tough...

Piano intros??

OK, for a second task, with a common song, here's:

1. "Janie Jones", The Clash, by The Clash
2. "Thunder Road", Born to Run, by Bruce Springsteen
3. "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nevermind, by Nirvana
4. "Let's Get It On", Let's Get It On, by Marvin Gaye
5. "Return of the Grievous Angel", Grievous Angel, by Gram Parsons

Not just intros, but they feature piano throughout. I'll give it to you.

In an unbelievable coincidence, I just happened to have all four of the listed songs available in my current music collection on my laptop. Unfortunately that's not the case with JP's new list.

Hint: it has a literary and cinematic component.

Hint: John Cusack

Hint: John Cusack works at a record store and likes to make lists.

High Fidelity?

Correct! These are his top five "side one" songs.

Got another one for you all:

Symphony No. 9 in D minor -- Beethoven
Singin' in the Rain -- Gene Kelly
An der schönen blauen Donau -- Johann Strauss
These Boots Are Made for Walking - Nancy Sinatra

I guess we know who apostrophe_bot is now.

As if there was any doubt?

I'm just glad it's not me!

Yeah! JohnK!!!

That would be awesome. However, seeing as we don't know who JohnK really is, he may already be a bot.

You know, on further review, I think someone is trying to frame me!

Pretty good job of it, too...

Maybe it's sushi, sneaking back in from the science lab.

Maybe its one of your other personalities.

No, I'd 'fess up it it were. This is somebody else having their jollies.

Hey, off-topic - who, me? - when I was house-hunting the other day (moving to Georgia, going home), I saw a house with a HT that had Dunlavy SC-V speakers. They were huge. I had never heard of them. I found out later they are an old (1990s) model that went for $15,000. Whew.

Dunlavys look really cool. Pity they went out of business.