Thought this might be of interest to tournament listeners.  An article about the development of the MP3 explains that Peoples’ Choice Tournament participant, “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega, was chosen by Karlheinz Brandenburg.  The human voice was difficult to compress, and Vega’s a capella was an ideal guinea pig for detecting if the algorithm was  working.   The year, my friends, was 1987.  We’ve come a long way.  And have miles to go before we sleep.