The answer to our (too) difficult song titles picture competition

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The answer to our (too) difficult song titles picture competition
Just occasionally our newsletter editor gets carried away and makes a competition TOO hard. This was one such occasion! How many did you get?

Posted by Andy Brown on 01 March 2026

Last month we asked you to identify song titles which had had one additional letter added, but the bar was set way too high (apologies for this). Despite this we did have 10 replies, the average number of correct answers for which was 13.4 (out of 20).

Our randomised Excel selection tool - with the probability of winning weighted by each entrant's number of correct answers - picked Ross Leavers of Stonecot Trustees as this competition's winner, and he will receive this month's £50 voucher. Pleasingly Ross also managed to get 19 of the 20 answers correct, so is a worthy winner: congratulations to him.

Here are the answers, with the usual apologies for the mental convolutions needed to reach them. There was one error in the first set, for which I apologise:

Prince Purple (D)rain 1989 / 1999 The second one isn't an added letter, it's a misprint, and also some of the events aren't in the right year. Sorry (this was the only error in the competition, but even so!).
Adele Set fire to the (t)rain (T)rolling in the deep
Oasis Don't look back in Anger(s) Wonder Wall(y)
Queen Another (c)one bites the dust Under pressure(d) Someone pointed out that it's actually the first cone biting the dust. The second song was hard to guess, and at least a couple of people didn't know your editor well enough and guessed Fat Bottomed Girls.
Abba Wa(i)ter Loo Fern and Go People found these hard, and I'd agree, but I also thought they were completely fair. The second one especially has only two things in the picture: a fern and the game of Go.
Frank Sinatra My wa(x)y Fly me to the mo(r)on Again, people found these difficult. A few people couldn't believe that I'd described the inventor of self checkouts as a moron, which is fair enough, I guess.
John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John Summer (K)nights You're the (z)one that I want Another one people found difficult, but another one I think is scrupulously fair.
South Pacific I'm going to wash that man right out of my (c)hair Some enchanted even(t)ing Most people struggled with this, although again I think the questions are fair. Perhaps the songs' provenance isn't as well known.
Pet Shop Boys It's a sin(e) Wes T(r)end girls Unsurprisingly not may people spotted that Wes Streeting and Wes Anderson had two lines showing trends, which a group of girls were looking at. I was proud of this one!
The Beatles Hey Jud(g)e Let it be(t) Definitely the one people found hardest, although perhaps they'd just lost the will to live by the time they reached this point. Someone complained that the girl isn't looking at the judge, but it took me ages to hand-paint this ....

I hereby promise to try not to make competitions quite so difficult in future!

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