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...and hints, large and small.

...or maybe it's a very simple, straightforward puzzle this week, with no assistance required...

Well I think I've got it. It's not a particularly difficult initial solve, and the down phrase emerges early enough to help with identifying the extra letters.
But it's the endgame.
My version works in that I can exchange the four pairs of letters, four from a column and four spread out in a row.
Then I THINK I move the now-vertical four to a symmetrical place on the grid, which I THINK shows it can't do what the song says.
That leaves the bottom line, which I can fill with the alliterative phrase from the song, so long as I obliterate word one.
While I can't see in the rubric that that's (obliterating) what I should do, anything else doesn't work. The unchecked letter match and I still end up with words everywhere, so that "apart from the final phrase" worries me a bit.
Referee?

Yes, Zabadak, that's got to be it regarding move 2. Should have seen that myself. But that complicates the goings-on in the bottom row. I have no problem with the phrase from the song - as I said on the other thread, it isn't a real phrase justified by a dictionary. Still, what's the explanation for the letters from move one disappearing and being replaced by four seemingly random ones to complete the phrase?

Hi loge, I took the line beginning "Then ..." before the one containing the phrase to justify the deletion.

The four seemingly random letters don't replace the four that were moved. Rather, as per the lyrics, the four are placed by the entire phrase.

I don't understand 'apart from the final phrase' either. Surely the final phrase is a real phrase.

'replaced' not 'placed' of course

Indeed Ginge and Buzzb. I should have read the lyrics more carefully.

I stand by my assertion that it's not a real phrase, though. It's not in Chambers, certainly. The individual words are real but when put together they make sense but there's no lexicographical support. So I think the caveat is fair.

Nice puzzle and sorry, Ploy, that I made such a bloody mess of it!

Thanks, zabadak (post 3) and ginge (post 5) for clearing up two sticking points for me.
Just to be absolutely clear, zabadak: moving "the now-vertical four" results in four blank cells, right?

(For the sake of completeness, is it too soon to ask for a hint for:
* the parsings of 18ac and 16dn
* the "para group" in 6dn?)

16 Kitty is an old word for jail.. Loo inside Rec all reversed