the march faxness final tournament bracket
Here’s the fillable Google sheet (you’ll need to make a copy to edit it). Or download a pdf or an Excel sheet.
Fill out your bracket and submit it via Google form (if you have a Google account, this is our preference) or by email to marchxness@thediagram.com by the end of February.
The Tournament Songs & writers
Ryan Adams, Wonderwall / Emily Flouton
Alien Ant Farm, Smooth Criminal / Susannah Clark
Art of Noise feat Tom Jones, Kiss / Kathleen Rooney
Tori Amos, Smells Like Teen Spirit / Megan Galbraith
Anthrax, Ball of Confusion / Tim States
Ataris, Boys of Summer / Jason Nafziger
The Band, Atlantic City / Erin Keans
The Boo Radleys, There She Goes / Nicole Sheets
Bronski Beat, Ain’t Necessarily So / Elliott Vanskike
Cake, I Will Survive / Dave Singleton
Cardigans, Iron Man / Katie Darby Mullins
Johnny Cash, Rusty Cage / Kirk Wisland
Ciccone Youth, Into the Groove(y) / Beanbag Amerika
The Clash, I Fought the Law / Jamie Lee
Joe Cocker, With a Little Help From My Friends / Katie Moulton
Concrete Blonde, Everybody Knows / Karleigh Frisbie Brogan
Cowboy Junkies, Sweet Jane / Lorraine Berry
Devo, Satisfaction / Erin Belieu
Frente!, Bizarre Love Triangle / Jillian Luft
Peter Gabriel, Heroes / Martin Seay
Galaxie 500, Don’t Let Our Youth Go to Waste / Stephanie Burt
Gear Daddies, The Tide is High / Chris Fischbach
Glee (cast), Teenage Dream / Moira McAvoy
Hole, Gold Dust Woman / Cori Winrock
Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You / Emile Begin
Husker Du, Eight Miles High / Jeffrey Sirkin
Billy Idol, Heroin / Ander Monson
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Crimson and Clover / David Turkel
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobby McGee / Karen Lentz
KD Lang, Crying / Sheila Squillante
Bettye LaVette, Joy / Chelsea Biondolillo
Lemonheads, Mrs. Robinson / Ryan Carter
Luna, Sweet Child o Mine / Wade Pavlick
Aimee Mann, One / Brooke Champagne
Marilyn Manson, Sweet Dreams / Danielle Geller
Mazzy Star, Blue Flower / Gabriel Palacios
Sarah McLachlan, Dear God / Emily Mills
Metallica, Whiskey in the Jar / David LeGault
Motley Crue, Helter Skelter / Kelly Shire
The Mountain Goats, The Sign / Dustin Luke Nelson
Willie Nelson, The Scientist / Ron Hogan
Nirvana, The Man Who Sold the World / Emily F. Popek
Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U / Katherine Robb
Roy Orbison, I Drove All Night / Temim Fruchter
Orgy, Blue Monday / Rose Heredia
Pet Shop Boys, Always on My Mind / Dan Kois
Placebo, Running Up that Hill / Brian Oliu
Bonnie Raitt, Angel from Montgomery / Katerina Ivanov
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Higher Ground / Ben Erwin
Linda Ronstadt, Alison / Cheryl Graham
Run DMC and Aerosmith, Walk This Way / Allison Renner
Smashing Pumpkins, Landslide / Patrick Masterson
Elliott Smith, Thirteen / Andrew Jones
Patti Smith, Gloria / Ashley Naftule
The Staple Singers, Slippery People / Matthew Vadnais
The Stooges, Louie Louie / Joe Bonomo
Sufjan Stevens, Holy, Holy, Holy / Dev Murphy
The Sundays, Wild Horses / Morgan Riedl
Talking Heads, Take Me to the River / Hannah Ensor
Tiffany, I Think We’re Alone Now / Justin St Germain
Eddie Vedder, Stuff and Nonsense / Adam A. Goode
White Stripes, I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself / Chris Daley
Xiu Xiu, Fast Car / Justin Brouckaert
Jenny Owen Youngs, Hot in Herre / Anna Chotlos
the march faxness longlist
Writers selected for the tourney may (but, this year, are not required to) select their songs from this longlist. This is by no means meant as an exhaustive list. It’s a list of some of the range of songs the March Faxness Selection Committee is most interested in. We’re not fans of totally joke takes (so the Richard Cheese, etc. versions aren’t on here), nor are we excited by faithful cover versions (why bother?). We are particularly interested in cover versions that discover or reveal something new about the original or the artist covering the song.
[The March Faxness longlist on YouTube]
10,000 Maniacs, Because the Night
Alien Ant Farm, Smooth Criminal
Art of Noise feat Tom Jones, Kiss
Tori Amos, Smells Like Teen Spirit
Ataris, Boys of Summer
Aztec Camera, Jump
Ballboy, Born in the USA
Bananarama, Venus
The Band, Atlantic City
The Bangles, Hazy Shade of Winter
The Beautiful South, Don’t Fear the Reaper
Diane Birch, This Corrosion
Breeders, Happiness is a Warm Gun
Cake, I Will Survive
Calexico, Love Will Tear Us Apart
Cardigans, Iron Man
Mariah Carey, Bringin on the Heartbreak
Johnny Cash, Solitary Man
Nick Cave, Disco 2000
Cher, The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore
The Church, Hounds of Love
Ciccone Youth, Into the Groove(y)
The Clash, I Fought the Law
Coal Chamber and Ozzy Osbourne, Shock the Monkey
Joe Cocker, With a Little Help From My Friends
Coil, Tainted Love
Commitments, Try a Little Tenderness
Concrete Blonde, Everybody Knows
Cowboy Junkies, Sweet Jane
Coro and Taleesa, Because the Night
Cradle of Filth, No Time to Cry
Creedence Clearwater Revival, I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Crooked Fingers, When U Were Mine
Sheryl Crow, The First Cut is the Deepest
Das Racist, Return to Innocence
Depeche Mode, Route 66
Dinosaur Jr, Just Like Heaven
Disturbed, Sound of Silence
Devo, Satisfaction
Elbow, Independent Women
Erasure, Lay All Your Love on Me
Jose Feliciano, Light My Fire
Fine Young Cannibals, Suspicious Minds
Aretha Franklin, Eleanor Rigby
Frente!, Bizarre Love Triangle
Fugees, Killing Me Softly
Galaxie 500, Ceremony
Gear Daddies, The Tide is High
Gnarls Barkley, Gone Daddy Gone
Jose Gonzalez, Heartbeats
Al Green, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
Emm Gryner, Straight to Hell
Donnie Hathaway, Jealous Guy
Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower
His Name Is Alive, Blue Moon
Hole, Gold Dust Woman
Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You
Thelma Houston, Don’t Leave Me This Way
Billy Idol, Heroin
Indigo Girls, I Don’t Wanna Talk About It
Isley Brothers, Summer Breeze
The Jackson 5, Doctor My Eyes
Janis Joplin, Me and Bobby McGee
Grace Jones, La Vie En Rose
KD Lang, Crying
Langley Schools Music Project, Band on the Run
Lemonheads, Mrs. Robinson
Annie Lennox, Train in Vain
The Lovemongers, Battle of Evermore
Low, Blue-Eyed Devil
Lera Lynn, Wolf Like Me
Luna, Indian Summer
Macha/Bedhead, Believe
Kirsty Maccoll, A New England
Aimee Mann, One
Marilyn Manson, Sweet Dreams
Charlotte Martin, Obstacle 1
Mazzy Star, Blue Flower
Reba McEntre, Fancy
Metallica, Turn the Page
The Mooney Suzuki, Just Like Jesse James
The Mountain Goats, The Sign
Nirvana, The Man Who Sold the World
Nouvelle Vague, Ever Fallen in Love
Sinead O'Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U
Orgy, Blue Monday
Pet Shop Boys, Always on My Mind
Tom Petty, Change the Locks
Pixies, Head On
Placebo, Running Up that Hill
The Pretenders, Stop Your Sobbing
Bonnie Raitt, Angel from Montgomery
Red House Painters, All Mixed Up
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Higher Ground
REM, Superman
Revolting Cocks, Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
Linda Ronstadt, You’re No Good
Run DMC and Aerosmith, Walk This Way
Scissor Sisters, Comfortably Numb
Seaweed, Go Your Own Way
Bob Seger, Downtown Train
Nina Simone, I Put a Spell on You
Simply Red, If You Don’t Know Me By Now
Singing Melody, Want You Back
Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Passenger
Sissy Bar, Gin & Juice
Smashing Pumpkins, Landslide
Patti Smith, Gloria
Social Distortion, Ring of Fire
Soft Cell, Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go
Sonic Youth, Superstar
The Stone Poneys, Different Drum
The Sundays, Wild Horses
Talking Heads, Take Me to the River
Toots and the Maytalls, Take Me Home, Country Roads
Ike and Tina Turner, Proud Mary
Tina Turner, Whole Lotta Love
Type O Negative, Summer Breeze
U2, Everlasting Love
Urge Overkill, Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon
Violent Femmes, Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me
Rufus Wainwright, Across the Universe
Wheatus, A Little Respect
White Stripes, Jolene
White Zombie, I’m Your Boogie Man
Yo La Tengo, Little Honda
Dwight Yoakam, Train in Vain
Jenny Owen Youngs, Hot in Herre
CRITERIA
Releases must be at least 10 years old. So nothing released after March 1, 2012 is eligible.
Cover songs must have been previously popularized by another artist on a commercial release. (Though they do not have to have charted.)
Songs must be released commercially by the artist on an album or single. This means live-only covers, or songs only available as non-commercially-released live recordings are ineligible. So songs from Nirvana’s Unplugged set are eligible since it was subsequently released commercially, but if it’s not on a live album or subsequently released commercially, then it’s not.
Traditional songs (songs for which there is no “original artist”) are eligible.
Remakes that rely heavily on samples (Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Sussudio” or the Puff Daddy oeuvre, etc.) are eligible but not quite in the center of what we’re doing.
Remixes are typically ineligible.
Collaborations with the original artist (Mary J. Blige and U2 doing “One”) are typically ineligible.
Self-covers (songs written by artist X and released by artist Y then subsequently released by artist X) are typically ineligible.
For the most part, though they’re eligible, we aren’t prioritizing songs that nobody knew in their original version that became massive hits nearly synonymous with the subsequent artist (like Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”).
Covers that shift the original’s context or find something new in it are of particular interest.
Songs in previous March Xness tournaments are ineligible. Sorry, Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah,” Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren,” Gary Jules’s “Mad World,” Indigo Girls’ “Romeo and Juliet,” Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn",” etc.
Bands with March Xness rings are excluded from the tournament. So as much as we love Local H’s cover game, they’re ineligible for this tournament.
methodology
Writers selected from the lottery choose their songs in the order selected, off the longlist or not, as long as the song satisfies our criteria. Once a version of a song has been spoken for, other versions of the song will be excluded. Writers write essays about their songs, and the tournament plays in March of every year. We’re not sure yet how we’re going to seed this year’s tournament, but typically it’s based on sales/popularity metrics.
If you see something we obviously missed, tweet us or email us.
If you’re new to March Xnesses, we run an actual March Madness-style tournament every March. This year’s theme is covers.