ha! I found you!

This is the story of a very long search for something that should not have taken this long to discover...

Back in 2001, I was sitting in Steve Sjogren's office for a meeting. It all sounds pretty glamorous (if you know neither Steve nor I) but in reality, not so much. Steve's office was about the size of the one I have now, which means either he was under-officed or I am over-officed, neither of which I believe to be a fact. Suffice it to say it was a small desk, two chairs, a lamp and a killer stereo.

Anyway, at the time, Steve was in the habit of playing the radio during meetings....playing the radio pretty loudly through dinky Bose speakers that generated enough sound to make one want to look for the real speakers hidden in the furniture or something. Most people are monotrack thinkers. A few can think in stereo. Steve is a mental 8 tracker. It takes serious focus to keep track of the track he's on some times.

These are the things I clearly remember about the meeting...

1. It was cool and raining outside - spring, I think.
2. The meeting was a late afternoon meeting and kind of dark in the room.
3. We were both drinking coffee at the rate of six cups an hour.
4. A song with a very clever melody played on the radio.

Two things should be noted - first, that #3 is sort of a no brainer, and two, that I don't remember what the meeting was about. In all likelihood, it was about the same thing we did every day...try to take over the world. Pencil me in as Pinky. Steve would be The Brain, of course.

Anyway, since 2001, I have tried to figure out what that song was. I've heard it dozens of times - on the radio, in stores, even on elevators - but never heard anyone mention the name or the band. At various times I have alternatingly been convinced and dissuaded that it was Aerosmith, but I never gave up. I promise you - I have thought of this at least twice a month for the past five years.

Well, I cottin' pickin' FOUND IT. Allow me to take a moment to give a digital thumbs up to Google and iTunes. Google can find anything and iTunes will sell it to you. I have thought about Googling it before, but how do you Google what you don't know? I didn't know the name of the band, the title of the song, or (apparently) even any of the lyrics correctly. I did have a few fragments, so I tried various combinations of those words and KABAM! There it was, bigger than life.

OK, now I feel like a dork. Turns out the band is from San Francisco. The song spent 53 weeks on the charts and won two Grammy's and I have to go full-tilt Sherlock Holmes to find the stupid thing.

Pheew. I'm glad that's over. Man, after all this time I hope I wasn't supposed to do anything to follow up after that meeting with Steve, because once I heard that song, I didn't hear anything he said.