Title Fight: "Tally Ho"

Photograph titled "Double exposure of unidentified group at beach and unidentified man in an airplane", c. 1910

"Tally ho!" is a distinctly British phrase - it's what you yell when you spot the fox during a fox hunt. But most of the songs I know called "Tally Ho" aren't by British artists. There have been several American "Tally Ho"s, including a bluegrass tune by banjo player Don Reno and two different tracks released by Motown Records. One was a Jr. Walker song from 1965, but the more interesting of the two is a 1968 song by the Detroit Wheels. The Detroit Wheels had been the backing band of singer Mitch Ryder, and they had a couple hits, including "Devil With a Blue Dress On". After Ryder went solo, the Detroit Wheels kept recording for Inferno Records, a little Detroit label that ended up getting snapped up by Motown. So it was Motown that released the Detroit Wheels' "Linda Sue Dixon"/"Tally Ho" single - the a-side was a less-than-subtle paean to LSD, and the b-side is this sloppy slab of garage rock. the quasi-live sound of the recording and the drunken unison shouting of "Tally ho!" at the start of each verse is kind of fun.

However, the Detroit Wheels are no match for the juggernaut that is the Clean's "Tally Ho". The New Zealand band's debut single from 1981, this "Tally Ho" is one of those songs that obliterates the line between "annoying" and "catchy", using a piercing keyboard-riff spike that punctures the cerebellum with a drum-machine mallet.

Winner: THE CLEAN

"Tally Ho" by the Clean

"Tall Ho" by the Detroit Wheels