h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Vinyl.

Doh!

PP.

The Stranglers, Waltzinblack? Made popular by Keith Floyd.

It's instrumental with quite a lot of "oooh weee" going on, especially from about 1:55. It's from 1981 and the bpm seems about right. However (clue's in the name) it's a waltz timing, not eight beats. But maybe something else by them?

Sorry, link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kYmFG1qIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kYmFG1qIA

Please let it be this.

PP.

Just bumping this. I'd like it to be the Stranglers too!

It's not the Stranglers one.

This is a heckuva good way to find unusual songs! Just make up a few characteristics of a mystery song and see what suggestions people come up with!

My song is very much a real song, though, and still remains a mystery. I think things may be resolvable if I can get clever enough to do some kind of mock up and get it on YouTube. I have no idea how long it would take me to get that project together and if they grey matter will be able to take on a task like that without imploding.

Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" just popped into my head (and now I'm not going to be able to remove it without cranial surgery and a wire brush)

It's not that one, is it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd7XnOnSkkA

Oh please don't let it be that.

PP.

Focus were too early weren't they?.

PP.

Give this a go mate, seems to be the right time period and it is quite obscure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz1cEO01LLc

It's not Laurie Anderson! I can still remember the first time I heard that on the radio and thinking, "what the flip is that?" Back in the days of Tom Browne and the "hit parade", possibly.

I don't think it will be JMJ, but now the sound on my computer has gone and I can't listen properly. First I can't find this song, now the sound on my computer goes. Life taunts me!

Argh! On my Gods! A step closer! I just overheard a version of it on the Great Pottery Throw Down. My wife was watching it. The 80s version I remember as being generated by synth but this version sounds like it was done with real instruments. It has the plinky-plonky notes filling the bar and also a version of the "ooooh weeee"!

Here! From 13.32 to about 14.50

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06qbddh/the-great-pottery-throw-down-episode-3

Please tell me the name of this piece of music!

Hmmm, I've listened a few times, and it's not shouting anything obvious at me.

At least you know who to write to now.

This? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMUjPGd2w-Y

Or the original? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeJxbDitNLg

Aargh. Now it's stuck in my head too. If it is in fact Let's Get Brutal by Nitro Deluxe, and reading the original post again I believe it is.

If it was then I now know I couldn't have been any help as I've never heard it before.

I've also got a tune in my head which I can't identify, although I've got many more clues which sadly haven't yet helped. It's a bosa nova, sung by a female who I would have sworn was Astrud Gilberto, except that I can't find a version of her performing it. I've got a reasonable head for tunes, and I could hum it to you if you want, but a message board isn't good for that. Just imagine a Staccato delivery of a non-English tongue (probably Brazilian Portuguese), and fill the bar with these eighth notes, (the dash signifies a rest):
a a a a a a d -
d d d d d d b -
d d d d d d a#-
d d d a#c a#a -

repeat and then:

f e d - f e d -f e d - f e d -