Words: 68
Average Length: 5.38
Difficulty: Yes

In constructing this puzzle, I wanted most of my grid-spanners to be phrases. That’s one thing I love about Tim Croce’s Club 72 puzzles; many of his long answers are conversational. (Check out his puzzles here. He posts challenging themeless puzzles every Tuesday and themeless or variety puzzles every Friday.)
A couple of other notes: I’m particularly (yet inexplicably) fond of the punny clues for 29 and 52 Down, and I’m always happy to include 41 Down in a grid; she’s one of the very greatest singer-songwriters ever.
Enjoy, share, follow, etc. Next up (1/16) will be a puzzle with tips for where to eat in Motown.