A classic number in the New Orleans brass-band repertoire is "When We Danced at the Mardi Gras." When it's played by a brass band, of course, it's an instrumental and you don't hear the lyrics aned hence don't hear the title. A given tune can become fairly familiar even to a person who never learns its title.

When I first came to New Orleans, I'd hear the beginning of this song and think they were playing "My beer is Rheingold the dry beer." The first line or two of the two tunes are virtually identical, but the tunes become significantly different for the rest of the verse.

It was about 15-20 years before I fnally learned the true title (and heard the lyrics) of this song that I always associated with the big Rheingol sign above the center field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds.