Since time is short before Sweet 16 voting begins, this is gonna be a large information dump…

We started out with 256 songs, and we’ve eliminated 240 of them. For your review, here are the 16 which have survived and advanced. They’re in chronological order because…well, because I felt like it.

Chuck Berry, “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)
Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965)
The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows” (1966)
The Beach Boys, “Good Vibrations” (1966)
The Beatles, “A Day in the Life” (1967)
The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968)
The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter” (1969)
Marvin Gaye, “What’s Goin’ On” (1971)
The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (1971)
Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven” (1971)
David Bowie, “Heroes” (1977)
The Clash, “London Calling” (1979)
Michael Jackson, “Billie Jean” (1982)
Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (1991)
U2, “One” (1991)
Pulp, “Common People” (1995)

Seems to me that’s a reasonable sampler of the history of rock, even if it’s VERY male-dominated (I think the only women anywhere on this list are Merry Clayton’s backing vocals on “Gimme Shelter” and Candida Doyle’s keyboards on “Common People”).

In the geographical breakdown, it’s England 8, USA 7, plus 1 from Ireland. However, I should note that two of the songs—“Heroes” and “One”—were recorded in Berlin.

The three highest-seeded songs no longer in the tournament are “Satisfaction” (#2), “Respect” (#5), and “Dock of the Bay” (#6)—interestingly, all songs which Otis Redding performed. Also, every song ranked between #10 and #18 is gone now.

The three lowest-seeded songs which are still with us are “Gimme Shelter” (#146), “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (#118), and “One” (#92). In the NCAA tournament (often nicknamed “The Big Dance”), we’d call these the “Cinderellas.”

Upsets were much more common in the second round, which makes sense as the competition gets tougher:

The highest seed won 6 brackets.
The second-highest won 5 brackets.
The third-highest won 4 brackets.
The lowest seed won 1 bracket (that was “Common People,” btw).

That’s all I’ve got for you in the way of a preview—I’ll post updated voter standings tonight and Sweet 16 balloting will open tomorrow.

I'm so glad Marvin eventually won that bracket after Guns N'Roses had an early deficit - got the correct result...

Sorry this is a little late…I was at a party watching the Patriots/Colts game and we were there longer than I expected…

Before I give you the updated voter standings, here are the results from the second round ONLY. Voters are listed by total number of songs picked “correctly,” for everybody who voted in at least two of the second round’s four weeks.

12 songs: DrDre, Loophole, Mo.
10: Harold Wexler, jonmarck, Midaso.
9: schleuse.
8: Honorio, John, Jonah, Justin, Neoptolemos, otisredding, Slush.
7: Henrik, MightyMadMax, Rocky Raccoon.
6: Anthony, Rendle, Schwah.
5: damosuzuki, Moonbeam, nicolas.

Now, here are the current standings for the top 30 voters (49 people have voted in at least one week since we started in June). Remember, second-round results counted twice as much as first-round results. Old-timers definitely have the advantage here, but some of the second-round newcomers are climbing the rankings rapidly (DrDre leads this pack).

The first parentheses after each name shows total points; the second one shows movement in the rankings.

1. jonmarck (62) (no change)
2. Harold Wexler (60) (no change)
2. Mo (60) (+4)
4. Loophole (57) (+3)
5. Midaso (56) (no change)
6. Neoptolemos (53) (-2)
7. Rocky Raccoon (51) (-4)
8. Honorio (49) (-1)
9. schleuse (48) (+1)
10. Henrik (46) (-1)
11. Slush (42) (+1)
12. Jonah (38) (+4)
13. Anthony (37) (+1)
14. John (34) (+3)
15. nicolas (33) (no change)
15. otisredding (33) (+4)
15. twister (33) (-4)
18. Schwah (29) (no change)
19. damosuzuki (28) (-1)
20. marc (25) (-7)
21. DrDre (24) (new!)
22. Moonbeam (23) (no change)
23. Justin (16) (new!)
24. sweedishchef (15) (-3)
25. MightyMadMax (14) (new!)
26. FormerlyEducated (12) (-3)
26. Rendle (12) (new!)
28. Greg Rumpff (10) (-4)
28. Netjade (10) (-4)
30. jp (9) (-4)

Each correct sweet 16 pick will be worth 4 points.

Usual caveat: This is just for fun; it’s not a measure of taste or anything. Nobody should be discouraged from voting by a lower ranking. Me, I still take pride in the fact that I have NEVER correctly picked all four songs in any week. Also, I trust that nobody’s going to let these standings influence their voting on the Sweet 16…

After this you should split everyone into two teams according to whether their rank was an even number or odd one, and those should be the teams for the survivor game. We'll divide the top 100 artists between the two teams and play guess the album (the album has to be from the surviving artists) to see which team has to vote one of their artists off.

I doubt I'll be getting any more points! I'm not passionate about any of the songs left, although I do like at least four of them, which is more than I expected.

Whoa, 12 of those songs are in my personal top 100. Let the horror begin.

Wow, entering the charts at 21. DrDre is here to stay

And considering the 32 additional points I would have had if I had joined in the first round (see the personal bracketology post), makes 56, 5th place together with Midaso.

Each correct sweet 16 pick being worth 4 points, means another 16 points can be collected. So, the top 10 (jonmarck until Henrik) can still win overall.

Too bad, Otis didn't make it. And a bit surprising that only 1 Beatles song managed to qualify.

Or is there gonna be another round after the sweet 16 round? Like e.g. the fab 4 round?

jonmarck: Please be joking. (Not that it's not a bad idea, but the Rube Goldberg complexity of that scenario would give me screaming nightmares.)

DrDre: Oh my, yes. I may not have referred to this lately, but bracketology is loosely modeled on the American college basketball tournament, which has not only a Sweet 16 (I didn't make that term up), but a Final Four. Don't worry; we're gonna crown a winner by the end of this month.

Oh, I got it--fab four round (sorry, just woke up and wasn't reading attentively enough).

Uh oh...I feel an idea percolating...

But we have to vote for our favorite songs or songs that we think will win?

I think these statistics are not appropriate because you can make some voter vote for the song he thinks will win, not by her favorite song.

"Don't worry; we're gonna crown a winner by the end of this month."

OK, schleuse, all worries gone. With fab four I do not, I repeat, do not refer to a specific band from Liverpool.

otisredding: You really should rate based on what you like / think is the best song. Not on what you think will win! These "correct picks" stats are just for fun. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong here.

Ok Dr. Dre.
Certainly, when we began to vote between sweet 16 "