C.C. Pyle’s First Annual International Transcontinental Foot Race, better known as the Bunion Derby, was a plodding, disorganized event that taxed the health and sanity of the runners and was largely greeted with indifference by the American public.

Fortunately, a new book about the race fares much better.

Geoff Williams’ “C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race” (Rodale, $25.95, 322 pages) turns out to be a briskly paced, entertaining account of that 3,400-mile event. Subtitled “The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America,” the book brims with fascinating detail, interesting characters and drama — even though most Route 66ers already know who won. This is the first in-depth book about the race of which I’m aware.

The book should be of interest to Route 66 aficionados because much of the Bunion Derby took place on the fledgling U.S. 66 and provided early publicity for the highway. The U.S. Highway 66 Association even underwrote some of its costs.

Route 66ers also know about one of the runners — Andy Payne of the Route 66 town of Foyil, Okla. He figured the $25,000 top prize would pay off the family’s farm and help him woo a new girlfriend, Vivian. Despite going against the world’s best long-distance runners, Payne became an unlikely contender.

Overseeing it was the infamous C.C. “Cash and Carry” Pyle. Part promoter and part conman, Pyle saw the race as a potential cash bonanza. But the foot race became drenched in so much red ink, it was questionable whether the top runners would receive prize money at all. Because of absurdly Spartan accommodations and broken promises, Pyle was so despised by the runners that they cheered when his luxury travel vehicle was seized by creditors. Pyle even stiffed an Oklahoma City repair shop for a $288 bill.

The race started in Los Angeles with 199 runners. Almost three-quarters would drop out before the New York City finish. Almost 50 runners dropped out from the hellish uphill slog of Cajon Pass alone. Runners said the second-worst time was when they were caught in a blizzard west of Amarillo.

The hardships they dealt with were staggering — primitive roads, desert heat, numbing cold, sunburn, lack of food and chronic injuries from running 30-60 miles a day, seven days a week. Black runners were threatened by white supremacists. A few runners got hit by cars. A few suffered nervous breakdowns. By the time the remainder made it to New York, they looked more like POWs than athletes. Somehow, nobody died.

The winner finished the 3,421.5 miles in 588 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds. That’s 5.8 miles per hour. That’s equivalent to a 4 1/2-hour marathon, all the way across the country, every day. Over bad roads. And in all weather conditions.

The 1920s were an era in which endurance events such as marathon dancing, nonstop flights and flagpole-sitting were all the rage. But the Bunion Derby has to be considered the endurance event of them all.

Bunion Derby runner Phillip Granville said: “Lindbergh only sat down and drove an engine for 36 hours. I ran for 84 days, on my feet.”

Highly recommended.

The Missouri Department of Transportation wants to relocate Missouri Highway 266 a few hundred feet north so it can better accommodate Springfield-Branson National Airport.

However, a lot of residents at a public hearing on Monday questioned whether relocating the highway was cost-effective compared to widening the existing one, reported the Springfield News-Leader. Those skeptics included a number of business owners, who located on Missouri 266 in part because it’s an old alignment of Route 66.

There were plenty of accusations of conflict of interest, and those beefs appear to be valid. There were plenty of other beefs, too:

Property owner Jim Rogers said he and others on the south side of 266 have based their businesses on proximity to the road, part of historic Route 66.

“This design comes in and puts their property on a second tier,” Rogers said. [...]

MoDOT engineers estimated preserving the current route would cost more because some utilities would need to be relocated and MoDOT would have to acquire property for widening 266 and building an access road to the south. When pressed, however, Juranas said no cost comparison was done between the two routes.

“What made you think it would cost more? You haven’t asked,” said Rogers, who along with several other property owners expressed willingness to donate land for the needed expansion if the current roadway is maintained. [...]

In response to a question about anticipated traffic volume on the new road, Juranas said the 2004 traffic study indicated as many as 50,000 vehicles a day could use the road by 2018.

When asked for a comparative traffic count for Glenstone Avenue, Juranas consulted Price, who said about 30,000 cars a day currently drive the busy thoroughfare.

That answer generated groans and expressions of disbelief from the audience, which did not appear to accept that traffic on the new expressway would rival busy Glenstone.

“You’re way off on your numbers,” said Russ who owns property on the current road.

I heard from others familiar with this situation that Route 66 would be still accessible with the Missouri 266 relocation plan. But it probably would look like a ghost town because businesses would quickly abandon that alignment.

Then again, if Missouri 266 stays where it is because of the obvious public outcry, Route 66 probably would change somewhat because of the likely widening of the road.

I’m not sure what can be done about the latter situation. Springfield, Mo., is a fast-growing city, and improvements to its basic infrastructure — including roads — are inevitable. About the only thing that preservationists can do is to ensure that the future changes be as unobtrusive as possible and stay within the character of the historic road.

The Cafe on the Route, based on Route 66 in Baxter Springs, Kan., will be paid a visit tomorrow by a film crew from the Food Network for an episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” reports the News-Record of nearby Miami, Okla.

The segment shot at Café on the Route should be shown in a Route 66 series that will air in approximately six months, according to Cat Figgins, a researcher and coordinator with Page Productions, the producer of the travelogue show. A production crew with the show is scheduled to arrive Tuesday. [...]

Could it be the producers of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives were attracted to Café on the Route by the story of how, in 1876, members of the James Gang robbed the Crowell Bank? Or that Baxter Springs is one of those charming little out of the way towns where a fine food dining establishment stands out like a Gucci suit under a Stetson?

After all the Café on the Route menu includes sure local favorites like strip and ribeye steak, grilled chicken, catfish, and fried onion, but all with a twist. The Baxter Springs Strip can be had with an avocado and pepper glaze and the flap jack ribeye stuffed with onions, mushrooms and Provolone and topped with a chopped tomato sauce. , Grilled chicken is adorned with a raspberry garlic sauce and the catfish is crusted in cornmeal, almonds and walnuts. The Tobacco Onions are fine slivers, flour crusted, fried and crisp.

With that kind of food, I don’t think Cafe on the Route fits into the “dive” category.

I’ve been told that the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla., also will be featured on the show.

I’ll try to find out what other restaurants will be checked out by the network. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 8/2/07: The Joplin Globe has a story about the Food Network taping. It sounds like host Guy Fieri was at Clanton’s Cafe in Vinita, Okla., earlier.

During the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla., I briefly met Jim Michalec and his business partner, Kristine Ramey, of the Route 66 Advertiser.

I wasn’t as sociable as I could have been because I was half-gassed from working at the Ray’s Motel preservation project. But I had enough lucidity to ask for complementary issues and other information about the publication.

In recent weeks, I finally found time to look at the Route 66 Advertiser. What struck me is that before June 2006, there were no newspapers about Route 66. Barely six months later, there are two — first, the Route 66 Pulse and now, the Advertiser.

The Advertiser’s first issue was in January, the second was in June, and I’ve been told the third is scheduled to come out early next month. It aims to be bi-monthly. The Advertiser’s name is descriptive enough — it writes short stories about Route 66 businesses that buy ads.

Like the Pulse, it’s a free publication, and it’s distributed to its customers along the road. The Pulse’s content is positioned as more as a traditional newspaper, with photographers and correspondents, and more coverage of events along the road. But, like the Advertiser, it takes an advocacy stance in support of Route 66.

The June-July issue of the Advertiser contains feature articles about the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla.; Friends of the Mother Road; the Dick Jones Garage; and an interesting Route 66 saga of when Michalec’s car broke down in Arizona. The mini-stories about advertisers contain nuggets of history and good cheer. The only misstep was an ill-advised editorial that supports recertifying U.S. 66.

In my brief meeting with Michalec, there was little doubt he is a Route 66 enthusiast. He likes to meet people, and he has driven the route in each the past four years. The URL of the newspaper’s Web site (still under construction) is telling — Rt66Forever.com. The stories also reflect someone who’s loving every minute of being on the Mother Road.

I’ve held reluctant doubts about the viability of a Route 66 newspaper. With many of the Mother Road’s business owners ekeing out a living, it would be hard for a newspaper to build a sizable advertising base. The second and more daunting hurdle is distribution. The cost of shipping newspapers down the 2,200 miles of Route 66 is immense.

(Disclosure: I turned down a prominent position at the Pulse because of these very concerns.)

However, the Advertiser may have a couple of advantages over the Pulse:

• Its June issue had a greater percentage of ads than the Pulse’s June issue. Remember, that was just the second issue of the Advertiser, while it was the Pulse’s eighth.
• The Advertiser is based in the Route 66 town of Joplin, Mo. It’s doesn’t have to travel as far to meet with businesses and distribute issues. The Pulse is based in New York.

So I’m intrigued to see what Michalec and Ramey have up their sleeves for the August-September issue — and the future. It’s not wise to discount those who are enthusiastic about what they do.

(Route 66 Advertiser can be reached at 417-682-2111 or e-mail advertiser (at) rt66forever.com)

Aretha Franklin’s big hit from 1985 uses the freeway, aka interstates, as a metaphor. But the actual freeways shown in the music video don’t look nearly as inviting as the footage of old Detroit cars.

Also of note: That’s Clarence Clemons, of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, playing saxophone.

The song contains yet another reference to pink Cadillacs. More on that later.

The Illinois Route 66 Heritage Project and Pontiac tourism are hosting a meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Pontiac’s City Council chambers to get opinions on how to guide the historic highway’s future in Illinois, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph.

The meeting … will help develop the “interpretive master plan” with Schmeeckle Reserve Interpreters, a Wisconsin company hired by the Heritage Project.

The meeting is designed to give the firm a better understand of what people want to see in the future along the local stretch of Route 66.

“The plan will basically say how to interpret the highway in the future and how to build or capitalize on it,” said Patty Ambrose, executive director for the Heritage Project.

Illinois has taken the lead in several aspects of Route 66 tourism, including a good preservation program and excellent signage along the various alignments. It’ll be interesting to see what the locals and the Heritage Project come up with during the meeting.

Yahoo! interviews Belgium resident Swa Frantzen, whose Historic Route 66 site was established in 1994. It the first World Wide Web site about the Mother Road.

He started the site to test his university’s servers, but also had a desire to inform computer users about Route 66 and help the Mother Road’s struggling businesses.

On Friday, I paid a lunchtime visit to the newly resurrected Route 66 icon, Wrink’s Market of Lebanon, Mo.

Even though longtime Route 66 aficionados will see changes in Wrink’s that indicate the convenience store remains a work in progress, I noticed two things that should gladden their hearts:

• Terry Wrinkle, one of the sons of longtime Wrink’s operater Glenn Wrinkle, has carried on his father’s gift of gab. This is not a criticism.
• Wrink’s is again making sandwiches the old-fashioned way — only when they are ordered, and with fresh ingredients.

One thing veteran Route 66 travelers will notice is a new marquee above the original metal awning, adding “Historic” to the “Wrink’s Market” sign. A new Route 66 shield also is prominent. Although the architectural neon lights have been repaired, the original “Market” neon sign was regrettably sold at auction shortly after Glenn Wrinkle’s death at age 82 in 2005.

Inside, past shelves of snacks and a large cooler full of soft drinks, was the new deli area. I was pleased to see locals chatting as much as eating. Route 66 author Michael Wallis fondly calls these “liars’ tables.”

Deli manager Vicki was busy making sandwiches for the lunchtime crowd. You fill out a form checking off the meat, condiments, cheese and bread you want in your sandwich. One good sign was that she wrapped the to-go sandwiches in paper, not plastic.

There are seven types of meat available, including liver cheese and pickle loaf. And yes, the list includes radio host Paul Harvey’s favorite from Wrink’s, bologna.

The long list of condiments includes both mayonnaise and Miracle Whip (sandwich buffs know the difference), along with tomato and the uncommonly seen bread-and-butter pickles.

By the way, Terry Wrinkle buys his tomatoes from local farmers, like his dad did. That’s why the tomatoes have so much flavor, unlike supermarket tomatoes.

I ordered the 99-cent special — chopped ham sandwich with tomato, mayo and bread-and-butter pickles on wheat bread.

The sandwich was juicy and tasty. It reminded me of the hand-crafted sandwiches at Eisler Bros. Store in Riverton, Kan. It seems simple. But a freshly made sandwich will hands-down beat a sandwich that sits for hours in a refrigerator case.

Although hoagie buns and Texas toast are available, Terry Wrinkle says most locals stick with the white or wheat bread.

“We tried to do some things differently, but people like the way he (Glenn Wrinkle) did it,” he said.

“And that’s what we’re doing now.”

Many of the store’s old coolers and freezers are gone, simply because they were shot, Terry Wrinkle says. One of them left “an inch of rust” when it was removed.

But he’s busy trying to transform Wrink’s into sort of a local history museum. These photos shown below are on the beverages cooler, and Terry Wrinkle vows to cover the entire cooler with them.

Plenty of other memorabilia, brought in by longtime customers or from the Wrinkle family collection, eventually will be displayed.

There’s room for new stuff, too. These T-shirts and ball caps feature the new Wrink’s logo, drawn by Terry Wrinkle himself. T-shirts are priced at $9.99.

On the original counter where his dad once sat is a guest book. Wrink’s reopened less than two weeks ago, but the book already contains signatures of travelers from Illinois, Ohio, California, Washington, Florida, Michigan and El Salvador.

Terry Wrinkle worked for his father beginning at age 4. He’ll draw from those experiences, plus working for three years at QuikTrip in Kansas City, to keep Wrink’s running smoothly and profitably.

Storytelling ability must be passed on genetically. Like his father, Terry Wrinkle spun dozens of yarns while I was there. Ask him about the 180,000 pennies he found in the store. Ask him about his father’s football prowess. Ask him about the pranks that he and his dad pulled on longtime customers. Ask him about the giant cigarette lighter on the counter.

Shortly after his father’s death, two women rented the Wrink’s building for two years but never reopened it. The two eventually were evicted. During an auction to liquidate their inventory, Terry Wrinkle said he got the itch to reopen Wrink’s himself.

“During the auction, I saw a lot of people and saw the place come alive a little bit,” he said. “I wanted to see it run. I didn’t want to see it die again.”

We briefly stopped our conversation so Terry Wrinkle could conduct a transaction with a customer.

“Thanks for coming here,” Terry Wrinkle said when he handed him his change.

“I’m glad you’re here,” the man said.

I and many other Route 66ers agree.

(Wrink’s Market, at 135 Wrinkle Ave. in Lebanon, Mo., is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day but Sunday. Its phone number is 417-588-8966.)

Dida Zende, an artist based in Berlin, is looking for at least one old gas station along Route 66 to repaint so it resembles a FIT art gallery (above). It would be repainted mostly white, with a bit of red trim and the FIT logo. Zende wants to come do this free of charge in November or December, and the grounds of the property would be cleaned up to boot. If you have an old gas station property you’d like spruced up or know somebody who would, e-mail Zende at zende (at) gmx.de to make arrangements.

• A reader has pointed out the Markeroni.com site, an online community of history buffs and travelers devoted to tracking down historical markers across the country. Markeroni also has a blog, in which several Route 66 sites were among the 13 Cool Snarfs (a snarf an actual visit made to a historical marker).
• The Kit-Kat and Friends Great All-American Road Show is making a stop at Afton Station on Route 66 in Afton, Okla., at noon Aug. 2. This is a tour that commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Kit-Cat Clock.
• Famed Route 66 author Michael Wallis and photographer Michael Williamson are on a tour to promote their Lincoln Highway book. They’re blogging about their experiences as they go west on the Lincoln. The site is here.
• Deb Hodkin, curator of the Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, Calif., points out an excellent feature in the Bakersfield Californian about Joe de Kehoe, an expert about Route 66 in California and the Mojave Desert.
• Son Life Church at 1203 Vandalia in Collinsville, Ill., is hosting a Cruizin’ in Antiques Car, Truck and Bike Show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to benefit the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle Fan Club. For more about the event, go here.

The Inland Press-Enterprise of Southern California published an excellent article about Juan Pollo restaurant chain owner Albert Okura and his efforts to restore Roy’s and the nearly abandoned town of Amboy, Calif.

“Everyone who has owned Amboy has been in it to make money,” he said. “You can’t.

“I see this as a marketing avenue for Juan Pollo restaurants. In the next 20 years, the biggest growth in Southern California will be in the Mojave Desert. Everything is built out in the Inland Empire.”

But no, he won’t launch a Juan Pollo in Amboy.

“That would not be in character with the town,” he said. “Amboy has the potential to be the greatest Route 66 attraction on the West Coast. There’s nothing like it anywhere. The good thing about the town is that it’s paid off. There is no debt.”

This is where the chickens come in.

“Primarily, we will fund the restoration through the company,” Okura said. “We will pay as we go, however long it takes. What we get is the good will. I will get more good will by keeping it, as best I can, the way it was.”

There’s a lot more interesting material in the article. Okura just trying to make progress, even if it’s slow.

The Press-Enterprise also produced a 4 1/2-minute video at Roy’s.

The Route 66 town of Needles, Calif., wants to revitalize its downtown, and is seeking input from residents on how to do so, according to the Mohave Daily News.

One of the ideas floated sounds intriguing:

A Hot Rocks and Rods on Route 66 event is currently envisioned as an alternative energy fair with music. The NDBA is hoping that service organizations and businesses will be interested in participating in the event, which is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 11.

The group collecting the ideas is the Needles Downtown Business Alliance.

I always thought Needles was an unpolished gem, especially with its closeness to the Colorado River. Yeah, it’s hot much of the year, but so is nearby Kingman, Ariz. That hasn’t stopped Kingman from becoming a fast-growing city. All Needles needs, it seems, is some imaginative leadership.

John Korelc, the founder of what became the Launching Pad Drive-In on Route 66 in Wilmington, Ill., died at age 87 on Friday in nearby Joliet, reports the Joliet Herald-News.

The Launching Pad originally was called the Dari Delite when it opened in 1960. That change the restaurant’s name to its current moniker in 1965.

The restaurant became famous across the country after they found something to make it distinctive. That was a 28-foot tall, 500-pound fiberglass green giant with a space helmet.

“The Launching Pad was his life,” said his daughter, Sharon Gatties. She worked at the restaurant and later she and her husband, Jerry, became the owners, until they sold this spring.

Korelc retired in 1986. But an article five years later said he was still making occasional deliveries for the restaurant and helping in its kitchen.

Morey Szczecin bought the restaurant a few months ago.

The demand was there for years. Finally, on Oct. 23, the critically acclaimed “route 66″ drama that aired from 1960 to 1964 will start to be officially released on DVD.

Unofficial DVDs of “route 66″ have floated around for years, many of them of erratic quality. This upcoming release by Roxbury Entertainment, in association with Infinity Entertainment Group, will be digitally remastered for the highest quality sound and picture possible, according to a news release.

The release also says that Roxbury is producing a new movie called “Route 66,” slated to be out in 2008.

The DVD will contain just the first season, or 15 episodes, of “route 66,” plus unspecified “special features.” It retails for $29.98. You can preorder it from Amazon.com, which lists it for as low as $20.95.

A sublime song by a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Kris Kristofferson:

It looks like he’s strolling through Route 66 country in the Mojave Desert.

If any person should publish a Route 66 book about the Windy City, David G. Clark is one. And that’s what he and Arcadia Publishing have done with “Route 66 in Chicago” ($19.95, 128 pages).

However, I would first recommend his other book about the Mother Road. More on that later.

“”Route 66 in Chicago” is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of vintage and current-day photos and drawings of the city’s historical sites and architecture, with many of the images from Clark’s own collection.

Clark’s love of history is evident and deep. For him, the roots of Route 66 don’t begin when the road was certified in 1926. They go back centuries, when Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the area, and later in the 1800s, when farmers and businessmen had to figure out how to transport their goods to Chicago. At first, it was by rivers, canals and stagecoach trails. Then the railroads came. Then the roads. All of these modes of transportation tended to overlap each other over time and blazed the way for future alignments of Route 66.

Whoever reads “Route 66 in Chicago” probably will learn a few things about the City with Big Shoulders.  For instance, there once was a quagmire called Mud Lake that was part of the Portage Trail between the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers. The lake was navigable by small canoe only 45 days a year; the rest of the time it was mud. (Mud Lake eventually dried up when development altered the water table.)

The “Serving the Traveler” and “Surviving the Interstates” chapters will likely be most useful for Route 66 travelers. They point out historic hotels, restaurants and other landmarks that once existed or still remain on the Mother Road.

“Route 66 in Chicago” proves to be a worthwhile historical undertaking. However, Clark’s earlier book, “Exploring Route 66 in Chicagoland,” is more practical for Mother Road wanderers and comes highly recommended. “Route 66 in Chicago” is more of a companion volume.

Here’s a nice slide show of scenes along Route 66. This YouTube video also is notable for Bruce Springsteen’s live-in-concert version of “My Oklahoma Home,” which is performed with Western swing flavor by The Sessions Band.

The song comes from Springsteen’s new DVD, “Live in Dublin,” which is also available in CD form.

So a bridesmaid again she is.

Rory Schepisi, who finished second in CMT’s “Popularity Contest,” finished runner-up in yet another reality television show, this time “The Next Food Network Star,” on Sunday night.

The loss had to be a bitter pill to swallow. Amy Finley, who ended up as champion, was eliminated earlier but brought back when another semifinalist, Jag, quit after being confronted for fabricating portions of his background.

Given the circumstances, many viewers probably thought Schepisi had the title wrapped up, but online and cell-phone voters apparently decided otherwise (or many potential voters didn’t participate because Schepisi was the obvious favorite).

Schepisi may have lost, but her new restaurant, Boot Hill Saloon & Grill in Vega, Texas, is a big winner, and so is Route 66. As of 10:30 p.m. CST on Sunday night, the Route 66 News post about her opening a restaurant on the Mother Road had gained more than 900 page views since 6 p.m. That’s a heck of a lot of publicity for her, her restaurant and Route 66.

UPDATE: As of 11:30 a.m. July 23, there have been more than 2,700 page views on Route 66 News of Rory Schepisi-related items in less than 18 hours.

The boost in traffic also has broken the Route 66 News record of most page views in one day. It’s now at 4,400 page views, with more than six hours remaining in the 24-hour period.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.

The Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph has filed a story about the Rock ‘N Rods on Route 66 festival in town this weekend.

There’s not much Route 66 content; it’s mostly about vintage cars and how they’re modified.

I also took note that among the musical entertainment are The Blasters and Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, both which play great road music. In fact, the Pantagraph has an interview with Commander Cody himself.

Ron Stahl of the Daily Oklahoman does a near-heroic job tracking down obscure museums in the Sooner State, including a few near Route 66 that escaped my notice or haven’t visited yet.

I have heard about the relatively new Route 66 Vintage Iron Museum in Miami, Okla., but didn’t know about its special collection:

One of the largest collections of Indiana-born actor Steve McQueen’s memorabilia is in Miami, OK, at the Route 66 Vintage Iron Museum. McQueen was a motorcycle racer, and Tony Holden, the museum owner, is a Steve McQueen fan.

The Vintage Iron Museum has more than 25 old bikes, including a 1919 Australian GCS motorcycle that is believed to be the only one left in the world.

Museum manager Chris Martin said the McQueen memorabilia is a big surprise to visitors. “Most people don’t know we have McQueen stuff when they come in. Then they go ‘wow’ and get pretty excited,” he said.

Martin said the McQueen items include two motorcycles, a Husqvarna racing bike and a 1949 Indian Arrow. Fourteen of McQueen’s racing trophies also are on display.

Another one is the Elsing Museum at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Willard Elsing collected rocks at his shop in Joplin, Mo., on Route 66 for decades and donated his collection to the university in 2001.

Another one is the Ida Dennis Willis Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys in Tulsa. There’s no Route 66 connection that I’m aware of, except the Mother Road goes through town. Still, it sounds like a side trip of interest.

In the past week, someone posted on YouTube the performance by Randy Newman and James Taylor of “Our Town” during the 2007 Academy Awards. The Oscar-nominated song came from the hit animated movie, “Cars.”

You’d better watch this while you can. The Academy had inexplicably banned YouTube from posting performances of songs during the telecast. So if you missed this song, here’s your chance.