Muller Monthly Music Meta, Mega Meta Reveal for 2025

Title: “Don’t Lose That Number” by Pete Muller, Mack Meller, and Andrew White
Prompt: The meta for this puzzle is the mega-meta for 2025, a song from the ’90s.

Grid: approx. 30 mins (benchen71)

It’s benchen71 here, filling in for Matt Gaffney. The solving window has now closed on this puzzle. Apparently, there were 156 correct answers of which mine was number 15. I was fortunate to solve after a hint was included in the first December puzzle, “Five For One”:

• 40D. Word between “Angels” and “Call” in a ‘Til Tuesday song title … or how often a crossword constructor should use a word that’s in the grid as part of a clue, typically = NEVER

Based on that clue, and the fact that NEVER also appeared in another entry’s clue (8A. What landlord’s never pay = RENT), I went back through all of the previous puzzles and did a search for grid entries that also appear in the clues. Turns out there was one in every puzzle. As a constructor, I’m usually pretty careful not to let this happen; but sometimes, it just does. Well done to Pete, Mack, and Andrew for making sure this only happened when you wanted it to!

If you look through the 12 puzzles of 2025, the first letters of the entries that also appeared in another entry’s clue spelled SOUNDS LIKE A N. I spent quite a while thinking this was to be interpreted as SOUNDS LIKE AN [ECHO], since the word in the grid was echoed in the clues. At this point, I submitted my red herring (“a rock band that’s been around since the ’80s”). I toyed with PSEUDO ECHO, but eventually went with SOUNDGARDEN, since that name matched the first five of the revealed letters. Reader, I was wrong… and I still don’t know what the red herring is supposed to be!

But then I was prompted to look at the singer referenced in the echoed grid entry in the January puzzle. Turns out, if you say that singer/band name out loud, you can hear a number! And then you just need to take the letter from that numbered grid square!! Simple!!!

• Jan: SWEET – Allen Toussaint = 2 > A
• Feb: ORLANDO – Katy Perry = 80 > L [Note that this was a 17×17 grid in order to include a clue number of 80]
• Mar: URGENT – Foreigner = 4 > O
• Apr: NIXON – Arlo Guthrie = 3 > N
• May: DATE – Tommy Tutone = 2 > G [Note that at this point, 3 people successfully solved the mega meta!]
• Jun: SOMEONE -Tom Waits = 8 > D
• Jul: LISA – Lita Ford = 4 > E
• Aug: INDIA – Stevie Wonder = 1 > C [Note that INDIA was positioned in the omega across position]
• Sep: KEEP – Tupac Shakur = 2 > E
• Oct: EYES – Tony Levin = 11 > M [Note that the singer is actually Peter Gabriel, so why mention the bassist?]
• Nov: ARMS – Dire Straits = 8 > B [Note that the echoed clue/entry are 22A/22D]
• Dec: NEVER – ‘Til Tuesday = 2 > E

That was when I submitted my solution, A LONG DECEMBER by the Counting Crows, assuming the final letter would come from the 13th MMMM of the year…

… which brings us to the 13th MMMM of the year, a puzzle entitled “Don’t Lose That Number”. There is a hint in the grid:

• 48D. Repeats out loud … perhaps to find secret mega-meta information in this year’s previous puzzles? = RESAYS

However, there are also a lot of bands in the clues that have numbers in their names. If you collect the first letters of those entries, it spells COUNTING CROWS, and if you collect the letters found at the numbered grid squares, you get A LONG DECEMBER:

• 6A. “In Da ___” (50 Cent song) = CLUB > 50 > A
• 10A. “It’s ___” (Level 42 song) = OVER > 42 > L
• 14A. “___ the End of the World” (U2 song) = UNTIL > 2 > O
• 16A. “___ Semester” (Twenty One Pilots song) = NEXT > 21 > N
• 20A. “Legal ___” (B-52s song) = TENDER > 52 > G
• 35A. “Rockin’ ___ the Night” (38 Special song) = INTO > 38 > D
• 36A. “Superman (It’s ___ Easy)” (Five for Fighting song) = NOT > 5 > E
• 43A “When I’m ___” (3 Doors Down song) = GONE > 3 > C
• 53A. Maroon 5 song = COLD > 5 > E
• 55A. “___ Me” (Thirty Seconds to Mars song) = RESCUE > 30 > M
• 64A. Nine Inch Nails song = ONLY > 9 > B
• 66A. “___ You Back” (5 Seconds of Summer song) = WANT > 5 > E
• 68A. “___ My Girl” (One Direction song) = STEAL > 1 > R

The only other thing to note is that there is yet another grid entry that’s repeated in the clues! 14A. UNTIL shows up in 60D. Last prez without a prior political office
until Trump = IKE. So the whole meta message turns out to be SOUNDS LIKE A NU. I’m assuming that’s short for “number” and not the Greek letter!

Thanks to the MMMM team of Pete Muller, Mack Meller, and Andrew White for another great year of puzzles. I look forward to 2026!