Siri® versus Alexa®

(Screenshot by BobbaLew.)

“Siri,” I said to Siri, the voice-recognition personal assistant computer-thingy on my iPhone; “play ‘Louie-Louie’ by the Kingsmen on YouTube.”
Gotta say “YouTube” or she rifles through my iPhone music files, finding nothing.
“Here are some videos of ‘Louie-Louie by the Kingsmen’ I found on the web,” Siri said.
Nine clickable YouTube videos on my tiny iPhone screen.
Yowzuh! This is Dick Tracy stuff; utterly beyond imagining back in 1962 when I graduated high-school.
I fingered one — the YouTube link above.
“Dah-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp!”
Straight from “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” what the sousaphones played while marching.
The greatest rock-‘n’-roll song of all time!
Every time I hear it I start swaying to it.
What prompted this were two things:
-a) A lifeguard at the Canandaigua YMCA swimming-pool told me she’d try “See Ya Later Alligator’ with Alexa® on her smartspeaker, and -b) a fellow retired bus-driver said he asked Siri who was smarter, Siri® or Alexa®.
Siri’s answer was “That’s all right with me……”
??????
This began when I reported to that lifeguard one of her coworkers said “See Ya Later Alligator” to a young girl departing the exercise-gym. Her coworker got the look. The young girl was dumbfounded, and thought that exercise-coach weird.
That lifeguard is old enough to understand “See Ya Later Alligator,” so I asked if she knew what year it was a hit, and who sang it. “This is probably before yer time. It was a hit the year you were born.”
“Bill Haley and the Comets, 1955,” I said.
“I’ll hafta see if Alexa® can play it,” she said.
So after I got home I tried it with Siri® on my iPhone. Trial-and-error, as always; gotta say things just so.
But Siri® got it.
The other night I tried “Louie-Louie,” the greatest rock-‘n’-roll song of all time.
“Louie-Louie,” as covered by the Kingsmen, became a hit during 1963-‘64, my junior year of college.
I used to play Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” on a college piano, and segue into “Louie-Louie.”
“Dah-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp!
Bah-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp!
Ah-Louie-Loueye; Oh, no. We gotta go.”
And Louie-Louie had a risqué reputation. Wording was slurred, so “I’ll never leave her again” sounded like “I’ll never lay her again.” The FBI analyzed the lyrics to prove the song was dirty, but missed “I’ll never lay her again.”
Years ago at the Mighty Mezz, in its gigantic newsroom, I once declared “the greatest rock-‘n’-roll song of all time is......” Suddenly complete silence — you could hear a pin drop.
“‘Louie-Louie,’ as covered by the Kingsmen,” I said.
“NO-NO-NO!” people shouted. The newsroom erupted. Hits from the ‘80s and ‘90s were loudly declared superior. Utter cacophony!
A friend who daycared my dog, who I once worked with at the Mighty Mezz, says it’s Chuck Berry’s “Johnny-B-Goode.” Yes, but “Johnny-B-Goode” doesn’t get me rockin’ like “Louie-Louie.” Not even Jerruh-Lee with “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”
“So Siri, ‘Louie-Louie’ by the Kingsmen on YouTube.”
“Dah-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp!
Bah-Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp-Bomp! Bomp-Bomp!
Ah-Louie-Loueye; Oh, no. We gotta go.”
My guess is Alexa could play it too.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over 12 years ago. Best job I ever had — I was employed there almost 10 years — over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern. (I had a stroke October 26th, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well. That stroke took away nine years of classical piano training.) (“Canandaigua” is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)