I was browsing the net when suddenly I came upon this from the Canadian Communications Foundation:

Words and Music

For comparison, the U.S. show "Words and Music" was basically this: Bingo-style board with 25 clues on it of lyrics. One of four house singers (two men, two women) sang a song until one of two players buzzed in (I think) and guessed the word the clue was referring to. Correct, they gained control of the box. First player to get five boxes across, up-and-down or diagonally won. No end game, IIRC.

On NBC in 1969 or so, hosted by the Winker.

The Canadian show actually sounds engaging. Unfortunately, today the kind of people who would be good at the "words" part probably wouldn't know the "music," and vice versa. It's not like you have a whole library of standards out there that are known to the great majority of the population anymore. Musical game shows need to be lighthearted and not very intellectual these days, as The Singing Bee proves. (Apparently, though, they needed to be that way in 1966, too, judging by the success of the show.)

One show I thought should have lasted a bit longer was 1975's Musical Chairs. That was similar to each of the current shows in that most of the questions were about filling in missing lyrics. There was enough variety on the show to make it interesting as some of the questions were about who sang the songs themselves or what movies they were in, etc.; and having celebrities do most of the signing satisfied the appetite for celebrity-filled game shows back then.

For me, that was a lighthearted fun way to spend a half-hour. I almost think I appreciate that show more today than I did back then - the one episode in the trade curcuit is a good one featuring a young Irene Cara and the group The Spinners.

"Words and Music" was one of only two game shows to premiere in 1970.

The other, "Can You Top This?", was also hosted by Wink Martindale.