This month’s MMMM, “Cored Progression,” challenged solvers to find a famous singer. As hinted at by the title, the seven theme entries each contain a progression of five consecutive letters of the alphabet, with a catch: One of the letters in the five-letter string doesn’t fit the pattern. For instance, the first themer, FEELS NO PAIN, contains the string “LSNOP,” which matches the consecutive string “LMNOP” except that the “M” has been replaced by an “S.” The consecutive strings in each themer are bolded below, with the pattern-breaking letter in blue:

FEELS NO PAIN
ACES AND EIGHTS
THINK LOGICALLY
NO PARKING
LEFT HIGH AND DRY
ARC DE TRIOMPHE
FIRST AVENUE

The seven pattern-breaking letters spell out S-I-N-A-T-R-A, yielding this month’s meta answer, Frank Sinatra. Note that while Frank Sinatra was the intended answer, we also accepted his daughter, singer and actress Nancy Sinatra, as an answer since (as numerous solvers pointed out) the meta mechanism provides no clear way to distinguish between the two.

Meta Song:

Got to work out my jazz chops with Santa Barbara locals Randy Tico and Dave Hunt. Enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

TomB   How did you figure out so many entries with 5 (sorta) consecutive letters? Bravo!

Burak O’Drama   The abundance of letters from A to G made me think that we were supposed to play these on an instrument and figure out the song. After 10 minutes of dabbling, I realized that’s futile. Another look just now and I realized the “progression” is a much simpler one.

Tom.Runner   Tough to see what was missing when there were correct groupings (CDE, NOP, RST).

TMart   Presumably Frank, but could be Nancy.

stmv   “Sinatra” seems more likely than “Mfjqgbu.”

Alternative Music Clues:

Cruciverbalicious suggests cluing PENN as [Aimee Mann’s musician husband Michael].

DIS suggests cluing JOAD as [Springsteen subject].

Allan Patterson suggests cluing HAITIAN as [“___ Divorce” (Steely Dan song)].

pbfrommn suggests cluing HEAP as [Imogen ___, “Hide and Seek” singer].

plasquatch suggests cluing CREME as [10cc’s Lol] and MOR as [Fourth track on Blur’s fifth album].

Stribbs suggests cluing NO PARKING as [Dance floor admonishment from Midnight Star].

Evan suggests cluing ABLE as [“Your black cards can make you money / So you hide them when you’re ___ / In the land of milk and honey / You must put them on the table” (lyric in Steely Dan’s “Do It Again”)], POLE as [“I wouldn’t touch you with a 39-and-a-half-foot ___” (lyric from “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”)], and MALTA as [Island nation that’s home to the Mużika Mużika song festival].

Groaners:

KenA   That’s life!

Norm H   GENGHISKHAN, KIMNOVAK: THICKLY BLOOPERS!.

Mikey G   I’ll have dinner at eight in your honor!

Brainbow   I’m sure someone submitted Nancy, but I did it my way.

DBMiller   Let me be frank, because these boots weren’t made for walking.

Totals this month:

255 correct, 25 incorrect

Rating: 4.35 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 3.04 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Barbara Pichette from Southfield, MI

Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!