Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new contender. With an average score of a whopping 8.38, the sixth highest average score of any song in the Round of 512 so far, Stand By Me defeats Run Around 109-78.
On the other side of the averages, the Grateful Dead were looking to skate into the Round of 256 before the giant-killing duo of Astrid and adam came in with late +8 and +7 respective Temptations votes, allowing Just My Imagination to grab the 73-69 win. I think the big lesson here is while some of us like the Grateful Dead ok, apparently some of us absolutely, positively hate the Grateful Dead. And a band this divisive is simply not going to go far.
Nothing else was too close. Freedom takes Peace Train out of the running, 91.5-75.5. Billie Jean made good work of Smoke On The Water, 94-69. And Man In Black took California Love, 81.5-66.
All five losers have no songs left in the Round of 512. Grateful Dead, 0-5. Tupac, 0-2. Deep Purple, 0-1. Blues Traveler, 0-2. And Cat Stevens, 1-2. We’ll see Wild World in the Round of 256 in Division C next month.
One last observation: in terms of Biggie vs. Tupac, Biggie went 1-1 and we will be seeing Juicy in the Round of 256 as well. So…East coast wins?
Living the Dream 
Sad Grateful Dead lament forthcoming.
And we forgot to put “Changes” in the tournament, though ultimately Juicy is the better song. The real question is whether ANY hip-hop breaks through to the Round of 128. Any viable contenders for that?
in terms of hip-hop, we’ve still got The Message with a 5 seed, Tennessee with a 10 seed, and Today Was A Good Day with a 14- I could see any of these advancing, although obviously Grandmaster Flash is in the best position to do so. And with good reason, as that is arguably the first great modern hip-hop song of our time.