I wrote this as a response to a discussion in Gary McGath's LJ and have posted it here for reference.
Because I am an anal-retentive friend of the Pegasus committee :), I have produced a list of all of the Pegasus nominees that were to an existing tune and all writer/composer/performer nominees with a substantial reputation for writing parodies. It's a long list (winners asterisked, one question mark that I'm not positive about):
*1984 – Best Parody, Twelve Years at Worldcon, Frank Hayes
*1986 – Best Parody, Daddy’s Little Boy, Murray Porath
1986 – Best Parody, God Lives On Tully, Bill Maraschiello
1986 – Best Parody, I’m Sorry Cathy It Just Popped Out, Jane Mailander
1986 – Best Parody, Kinda Mediocre Actually, Bill Roper
1986 – Best Parody, Starship in High Gear, Frank Hayes
*1987 – Best Schtick: Unreality Warp/Kinda Mediocre Actually, Flynt and Roper (Song & Parody)
1988 – Best Media: J for Jedi, Bill Maraschiello
1989 – Best Techie: The S-100 Bus, Frank Hayes
1989 – Best Techie: Amphioxus, Juanita Coulson
1990 – Best Fannish Song, Cheap Lawyer & Rebuttal, Porath & Hayes
1990 – Best Fannish Song, Flying Island Farewell, Barry Childs-Helton
1990 – Best Fannish Song, Singing Banned From Argo, Bob Kanefsky
1991 – Best Love Song, Lightsailor, Barry Childs-Helton
1992 – Best Genre Crossover, Mundane Girl, Larry Warner
1992 – Best Genre Crossover, Pearly Gate Blues (Jim & Tammy), Sally Childs-Helton
1992 – Best Tribute, A Toast For Unknown Heroes, Leslie Fish
*1993 – Best Space Song, Lightsailor, Barry Childs-Helton
?1994 – Best Children’s Song, Wishful Thinking, Peter Thiesen
1994 – Best Risque Song, Kinsey Scale, Bob Kanefsky
1994 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
1995 – Best Military Song, The Ballad of Fleet Sergeant Ho, Lee Billings
1995 – Best Sing along, Circles, Gwen Zak
1995 – Best Sing along, Lord of Time, Peter David
1995 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
1996 – Best Filk Song, The Whale Song, Andy Eigel (tune by Dave Tucker, I assume)
*1996 – Best Spiritual Song, Circles, Gwen Zak
1996 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
1997 – Best Science Song, Drivel, Dr. Jane Robinson
1997 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
1998 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
*1999 – Best Hero Song, A Toast for Unknown Heroes, Leslie Fish
1999 – Best Fool Song, Drivel, Dr. Jane Robinson
1999 – Best Fool Song, Fool to Feed the Drive, Jordin Kare
2000 – Best End of the World, Falling Down on New Jersey, Mitchell Burnside Clapp
2000 – Best Food / Drink, Dairy Queen, Barbara Higgins
2000 – Best Food / Drink, Little Fuzzy Vegetables, Mark Mandel
*2000 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
2001 – Best Filk Song, Con Spent In A Circle, Rob Wynne
2001 – Best Computer Song, 404: Not Found, Dave Weingart
2001 – Best Computer Song, Heart of the Apple Lisa, Jordin Kare
2001 – Best Computer Song, Threes Rev. 1.1, Duane Elms
2001 – Best Creature Song, Wendigoes, Terence Chua
2003 – Best Performer, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
2003 – Best Writer / Composer, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
2003 – Best Parody, A SMOF Too Blue, Dave Weingart
2003 – Best Parody, Bang Today, Tim and Annie Walker, Mike and Anne Whitaker
2003 – Best Parody, Do You Hear the Pipes, Cthulhu?, Terence Chua
2003 – Best Parody, Heart of the Apple Lisa, Jordin Kare
*2003 – Best Parody, Knight’s In White Satin, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
2004 – Best Performer, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
2005 – Best Classic, Marcon Ballroom, Anne Passovoy
2005 – Best Space Opera, Our Space Opera Goes Rolling Along, Jeff Duntemann
*2005 – Best Performer, Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff
*2007 – Best Classic, Falling Down on New Jersey, Mitchell Burnside Clapp
2007 – Best Dorsai, Drink to the Health of the Dorsai, Marty Burke
2007 – Best Dorsai, Green Hills of Harmony, Hal Frank
2007 – Best Song of Home, Go Home, Mich Sampson & Marilisa Valtazanou
2007 – Best Writer / Composer, Bob Kanefsky
2009 – Best Country, Redneck Pagan, Larry Kirby
2009 – Best Rock & Roll, Come to Mordor, Jeff Bohnhoff
2011 – Best Badass, Crispy Danish, Andrew Ross
2012 – Best Gaming, Playing D & D, S.J. Tucker
2012 – Best Performer, Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff
*2014 – Best Adapted, Midichlorian Rhapsody, Jeff Bohnhoff
2014 – Best Adapted, Snitch Ball Wizard, Steve Macdonald
2014 – Best Adapted, Threes Rev 1.1, Duane Elms
2014 – Best Adapted, TIE after TIE, Debs and Errol
*2014 – Best Song of Passage, Outward Bound, Cat Faber
2015 – Best Performer, Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff
2015 – Best Adapted, Be our GoH, Tom Smith
2015 – Best Adapted, Come to Mordor, Jeff Bohnhoff
2015 – Best Adapted, Grabthar’s Silver Hammer, Steve Macdonald
2015 – Best Adapted, Threes Rev 1.1, Duane Elms
2015 – Best Time-Related, The Grandfather Clock, Cecilia Eng
I observe that we seem to get a fair number of such nominees (and winners!) without having this category on the ballot every year. Rotating it in periodically seems reasonable, but I'd hate to see it eat one of the floating categories permanently, as they cause a lot of interesting songs to bubble into the process. |
And then there's Tom Smith... :)
Nice list, potentially useful.
Edited at 2015-09-23 06:50 pm (UTC)
It looks from that list as if, not counting the "adapted" nominees, there's been a significant decline in nominations for songs to existing tunes over the past decade. We can only speculate on how many of those songs would have been nominated if there weren't a Best Adapted category.
The current definition says that adapted songs are "parodies and songs that are based on previously published work (e.g. a story, tv show, movie, song, or other work)." This is a very broad definition, arguably allowing all songs about books, TV shows, and movies. In the comments on my post, I saw general agreement that if the category is retained, it needs to be narrowed. I'd favor making it just songs to existing tunes or new tunes to existing lyrics; another suggestion was that songs that significantly incorporate material from the source should be allowed.