Duke Box

michuber · Post by **michuber** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 1:49 pm

Very, very nice challenge!

I knew all songs but it was hard to find the titles, Shazam was very helpful in four cases.
(I would have never thought that it can identify a 3 second clip)

I've used the year of release to decode to "THE AMRVDR BD FNOLEKIMG". With a one year
shift for some songs it reads "THE ANSWER BE GNOMEKING". I think it depends on
the release in the US.

michuber · Post by **michuber** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:09 am

Billboard is the key. I've checked only the number one position.

LeSingeMalicieux · Post by **LeSingeMalicieux** » Sat Sep 22, 2012 8:10 pm

A very nice challenge !
I'm French, but I have already heard many of these songs

For those I had not, my girlfriend's iphone was very usefull !

I made mistake to use years of the songs, and I guessed some of them which must be year added to a few number to find the right solution.

Thanks to michuber for the explanation !

PS : Sorry for my poor english.

kaste · Post by **kaste** » Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:05 pm

I am really interested to know where the number one positions where taken from? I am pretty sure i used the US Billboard #1 at one point, but iirc not all of the songs ever where #1 hits there. By this exclusion method i basically ruled out 10 different countries but never found the right one. michuber gave me the hint, to have a look at where adum comes from, but while I remember reading it in some post or challenge, I couldn't find that information anylonger.

Seter · Post by **Seter** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:44 am

The songs are pleasant but the answer is hard to find

I tried to find words matching "beg...ing" for more than an hour after soundhound helps me to recognize all the songs ...

Sun Apr 12, 2015 1:51 pm

Very cool challenge!

I recognized around half the songs straight away, another quarter by using Google (recognized the song or the artist, but did not know the song's name), and for the final quarter I had to resort to an app (Soundhound).

kaste wrote:I am really interested to know where the number one positions where taken from? I am pretty sure i used the US Billboard #1 at one point, but iirc not all of the songs ever where #1 hits there.

I think the method of encoding used here was:
In which year did the song reach its peak position on the US Billboard charts?
That could have been the #1 spot, but it does not have to.

Here is my solution:

Code: Select all

01. Prince - When Doves Cry                            | Year: 1984 --> 84 = T
02. Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead                   | Year: 1972 --> 72 = H
03. The Archies - Sugar, Sugar                         | Year: 1969 --> 69 = E
04. The Beatles - Help!                                | Year: 1965 --> 65 = A
05. The Trammps - Disco Inferno                        | Year: 1978 --> 78 = N
06. Dexys Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen            | Year: 1983 --> 83 = S
07. Madonna - La Isla Bonita                           | Year: 1987 --> 87 = W
08. The Zombies - Time Of The Season                   | Year: 1969 --> 69 = E
09. Chicago - Hard To Say I'm Sorry                    | Year: 1982 --> 82 = R
10. The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations                   | Year: 1966 --> 66 = B
11. Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson and Clover | Year: 1969 --> 69 = E
12. George Harrison - My Sweet Lord                    | Year: 1971 --> 71 = G
13. Barry Manilow - Copacabana (At the Copa)           | Year: 1978 --> 78 = N
14. Sister Sledge - He's The Greatest Dancer           | Year: 1979 --> 79 = O
15. Electric Light Orchestra - Livin' Thing            | Year: 1977 --> 77 = M
16. Henry Mancini - Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet" | Year: 1969 --> 69 = E
17. David Bowie - Fame                                 | Year: 1975 --> 75 = K
18. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly with His Song    | Year: 1973 --> 73 = I
19. ABBA - Take a Chance on Me                         | Year: 1978 --> 78 = N
20. Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine                   | Year: 1971 --> 71 = G

Hippo · Post by **Hippo** » Tue Apr 28, 2015 9:07 pm

I have detected songs easily with Shazam, than I was trying to use place of break, interprets surename and many other ideas. After new impulse of trying I was going to look at hit parades.

But there is a lot of them and peak positions had no interesting meaning ... than mod 100 of year started look interesting ... THE A* ... so I have googled what the correct letter/year have in common with the songs and peak positions in USA looked like the best match.

THE ANSWER BEFNONEKING was really close ... and BE looked like possible word to be split ...
THE ANSWER BE FNONEKING ... some years was unsure and GNOME KING looked like a good mutation to try ...

BTW: We use in puzzle hunts encodding with A=1, B=2, ... so remembering to switch to ASCII was another must.

vralfy · Post by **vralfy** » Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:17 am

Took me some investigation. And the best part: After sitting more than 10 years on this problem, I came up with the following solution

THE AMRWDR BD ANaLEKING

followed by

THE ANSWER BD AMALEKING ... maybe Elvis or Michael Jackson?

If the creator of this challenge had this in mind ... he/she is a genius.

Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:58 pm

vralfy wrote: THE ANSWER BD AMALEKING ... maybe Elvis or Michael Jackson?

If the creator of this challenge had this in mind ... he/she is a genius.

Probably not. (the "had in mind" part)