The December MMMM asked for one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The (suggestive) title pointed towards Roman numerals, the key to the meta. As the grid to the left shows, there are only seven Roman numeral letters in the puzzle, and all of them are in the theme entries. Taking them in order gives MCMXCIX, or 1999, the famous Prince song about the year before the end of the world, and this month’s meta answer.

Most people liked the puzzle, giving it an average rating of 4.16 out of 5. Only 62 people found their way to the correct answer, and quite a few strong solvers were stumped this month, including at least one with a perfect score before this puzzle. Perversely, those that found the correct answer rated it fairly easy, at an average difficulty of 2.98 out of 5.

Some solver comments:

gpagano   Might be very tricky if you weren’t clued to Roman Numerals by the title.   But probably too hard otherwise!

Tyler Hinman   Didn’t notice until afterwards that those are the only Roman numerals in the entire fill; very impressive.   Thanks!

TeamDelphiRune   We went down the wrong path for far too long. The “year-end Roman orgy” was Saturnalia, and we got fixated on SATURN in the grid.   Demonstrating that too much knowledge can sometimes be dangerous.

Jonesy   Just wanted to let you know that 37-across’ clue didn’t go unnoticed! nice hint at Prince being the meta artist.   The clue he is referring to is [Prince, for Paris Hilton] for PET.

Bob J   A little redemption for me after striking out on the last two 4000’s – I mean MMMM’s.  (groan)

rachaar   After too many months straight of missing out, got the idea of the puzzle right away – YAY!  Between this and the news that MMMM will continue next year, this might be my favorite month!   

That’s right, the MMMM will continue in 2016 for a fifth year! A big thanks to all of you who provided encouragement to keep going in emails and comments.

Katie pointed out an error in the clue for ERRS, which originally was clued as a cross-reference to TYPO (which was changed to TYRO to avoid a dup). It’s funny enough that I almost don’t mind making the mistake. Almost.

This month’s randomly selected winner of an MMMM coffee mug is Ken Mukamal from Lexington, MA.

Twelve solvers have had a perfect 12-for-12 year in 2015: Gwinns, JanglerNPL, Veep, AK, Brent Holman, Jasters, Steve Williams, patanga, RPardoe, Paolo P, Golem, and Matt Gaffney. Congratulations!

Thanks as always to the just-mentioned Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can optionally rate the puzzle and/or leave a comment. A total of 72 solvers have cracked the mega-meta before this puzzle came out, and five early bird bonus points still await those who solve the mega-meta before December 29. The final puzzle of the year, the mega-meta reveal, will come out December 29, the last Tuesday of 2015. Be sure to check it out, even if you have already solved the mega-meta.

Thanks for playing and see you in a few weeks!