Yes, I won a major singing competition

I know what it's like to be on "American Idol" or "The Voice."

I, too, have been in a singing competition.

I won. By singing "Strangers in the Night" into a telephone after Mrs. Brad mocked me.

I have started four consecutive paragraphs with the word "I." So let's change it up.

This is a story that goes back to the late 1980s, shortly after we moved to the Fairfield-Suisun area. Mrs. Brad and I were getting ready for work on a weekday when the radio station (KUIC, in Vacaville) had one of those wacky morning-radio giveaways called "sing for your supper." The DJ would name a song and the first three callers would sing it, with the best rendition winning a gift package (a gift certificate to a restaurant, bumper stickers, etc.).

Instead of the usual pop or novelty songs, this time they asked for "Strangers in the Night," the legendary Frank Sinatra tune.

I snorted and listened as two callers chimed in and tried to sing. They didn't know the words. They didn't know the tune.

"Come on!" I shouted at the radio. "Everybody knows the words. 'Strangers in the night, exchanging glances . . .' "

Mrs. Brad looked at me with confusion.

The DJ refused to award the prize, since the contestants didn't know the song. He asked for more callers.

I scoffed again. Mrs. Brad told me I should call, because I would win.

"Nah," I said.

No one was calling.

And then it started. Chicken sounds.

"Buck-buck-buckaaa! Buck-buck-buckaaa!" (That seems right to me, but imagine the classic chicken sound people make.)

Mrs. Brad was clucking at me. She was calling me out. My wife was saying I was afraid to call the radio station.

We all know how this should have turned out. I was an adult. Peer pressure shouldn't mean anything to me. Someone calling me "a chicken" shouldn't be enough to force me to do something I didn't want to do. I was a moral free agent!

"Buck-buck-buckaaa! Buck-buck-buckaaa!"

I laughed and shook my head. Ridiculous.

"Buck-buck-buckaaa!"

I'm not sure what happened next. The next thing I knew, the KUIC DJ was answering the phone. I had grabbed the phone in a fit of pique (no one calls me a chicken!) and called the station. I told him my name and from where I was calling.

A minute later, he introduced me. On the air. Mrs. Brad, listening while she brushed her teeth, came running out after she heard my voice over the radio.

Needless to say, I sang the song. Beautifully, I believe.

I even imposed a slight falsetto and a quiver in my voice for effect (" . . . before the night is throoooooough!").

Like a true professional, I sang until I was asked to stop. Actually, I kept singing until I was asked a second time to stop, but that's what professionals do.

I won the prize. I was the only contestant.

Later that day, I arrived at the Daily Republic and was greeted by a co-worker who heard me on the radio that morning and laughed at me. Later that week, I drove to Vacaville to pick up my prize. Even later that week, Mrs. Brad and I dined at the restaurant that awarded the gift certificate.

It was the taste of victory.

So yeah, I know what it's like to sing in a contest and win.

My two-fold secret? Be motivated by your spouse's childish insults. And be the only contestant who knows the words.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.