Only 85 solvers found their way to a correct answer this month.  They looked for a song released in the ’70s that didn’t become a hit until much later. The six LANDs in the puzzle were designed to point to Landslide, the 1975 Fleetwood Mac song that wasn’t a big hit for them until their 1997 live version charted in 1998.  The Smashing Pumpkins (1994) and the Dixie Chicks (2003) also had hits with the song.

Jeremiah Johnson writes

I still wish to pretend the Smashing Pumpkins version never happened.

I feel that way about the Dixie Chicks version.

A total of 17 solvers sent in incorrect answers. The most popular, with seven submissions, was “Candle in the Wind,” probably because three of the theme answers contained the letters C, A, N, D, L, and E, and the song became an even bigger hit after Elton John used it for his Pincess Di tribute. But no other theme entry contained both the necessary C and E to make this a plausible solution.  The closest was Paul Coulter who sent in “Share the Land,” a 1970 Guess Who song that was re-released in 2000.  Unfortunately for Paul, the song was a hit in 1970 (and not later), so it also didn’t quite meet the meta criteria.

Instead of “Down and Dirty,” Jeffrey Harris suggested an alternate title I like even better:

“I Feel the Earth Move.”

In case the puzzle didn’t make you groan enough…

Golem asked

Was it covered by Muddy Waters?

And Meta-World Peace commented on 33-Down which asked for a [Wine-producing region]:

Great CANA clue, Pete… sure caught me NAPA-ing!

The lucky winner of an MMMM coffee mug this month is Pete Rimkus of Ashford, CT. The average user rating was 3.81 stars out of 5. On the difficulty side, the average rating was 3.39 out of 5, a big increase from last month. No one guessed at the mega-meta this month. Thanks for the feedback, and thanks to Matt (The LANDSLIDE brought me down) Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend. This month’s lesson: Always check with the missus before giving up on a meta!

The next MMMM will be coming your way Tuesday, June 4. Thanks for playing!