Solvers were challenged to “Name That Tune,” and 249 solvers did – a new MMMM record! They recalled the classic QUEEN song, Bohemian Rhapsody, which features BEELZEBUB, BISMILLAH, GALILEO, LANDSLIDE, MAGNIFICO, FANDANGO, FANTASY, and MAMMA MIA in the lyrics.

I had trouble coming up with a good title for the puzzle, so I asked solvers for suggestions. Here are the top three I received:

“Royal Vernacular” from Sean (Brain Boggler)
“Sound Czech” from ab
“Bullet Points” from Spelvin

I would have used any of these if I had thought of them. Many solvers suggested titles that might have easily given the solution away (“A Night at the Opera,” “Easy Come Easy Go,” “Anyway the Wind Blows,” and some along the lines of “Mercury Compound” from David Bael). Even with an easy puzzle, I don’t want people to be able to guess the meta before solving the puzzle! “Carry On! Carry On!” from musicguy595 and “Let Me Go!” from SML came close, since those lyrics are not dead giveaways. There were lots of other creative entries, including a bunch referencing “Wayne’s World,” like “Schwing Singalong” from Mike W. Finally, “Czech Swing” from Abide almost made the top three but it was too close to “Sound Czech.”

I loved this puzzle! I love that song! So nice to have an easy one this week wrote katiedid. Quite a few people wrote to say they got the meta as soon as they saw BEELZEBUB. On the other hand, one young solver (who happens to write a great weekly crossword here) wrote that he had to use Google to get the meta. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is almost 40 years old. Sigh. Thanks for making me feel old, Erik. The difficulty level was perfect for Dave C who wrote: Terrific meta, as it provided that lovely aha moment after I stared blankly at the completed grid for a few minutes. Love how you brought together so many of the wonderfully goofy lyrics from the song….

Maggie W asked Where’s Scaramouche? He showed up at the end of last year in this puzzle, so he had to sit this crossword out. Too bad, since he would have paired nicely with MONSTROSITY.

Groaning department:

I couldn’t quite decide on the rating/difficultly. They could be a little high, or a little low writes xhixen.

I tried staring at the black squares from an arm’s length but still didn’t see a little silhouetto of a man writes B-Side.

Finally, Evan threw out Nothing Really Metas as a possible title.

Clues that could have been musical department:

Pete Mitchell suggested cluing STAN as the Eminem hit featuring Dido.

Tony A mentioned that FANDANGO is also a ZZ Top album.

This month’s winner of an MMMM coffee mug is David Taube from Eugene, OR. The average difficulty rating was 1.99 out of 5 (the easiest MMMM ever!) and solvers gave the puzzle an average of 3.82 stars. I was afraid that the puzzle might be too easy, but people seemed to like it.

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend. See you next month, and thanks for playing!