# Funny how you never forget songs. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939 "2012-10-06T21:32:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/1 "2012-10-06T21:32:31Z")
Paula Abdul’s Straight Up just came on the radio. I’ve probably not heard that song in 15 years but I still knew every word! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/2 "2012-10-06T21:54:36Z")
I impressed **Mrs. FtG** a week or two ago by singing along to The Cowsills’ version of _Hair_. But that was sort of a fluke for me. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/3 "2012-10-06T22:54:16Z")
I can still remember _the tenor part_ of some songs I sang with University Choir 20 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/4 "2012-10-06T22:57:44Z")
I probably hadn’t heard _Over the Hills and Far Away_ by Led Zeppelin in 15 years but I could still remember exactly when to start head banging when I heard it a couple months ago. (Paraphrasing Butthead: “No, it gets better, trust me.”) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/5 "2012-10-07T03:26:52Z")
It’s been a while since I sang The Star Spangled Banner; they played it before an outdoor symphony concert in San Francisco a few weeks ago and didn’t miss a beat. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/6 "2012-10-07T11:24:54Z")
I often think this, when I hear a song from 20 years ago. Just how much of my brain is filled with the lyrics to crappy songs from the 1980s and 1990s, and is this part of the reason I completely forgot I had a shopping delivery booked yesterday, until I got home 20 minutes too late and found the card through the door saying “We tried to deliver the groceries _you_ ordered at the time _you_ specified, but you were out, you great mook” (or words to that effect)? ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/7 "2012-10-07T11:41:16Z")
Moving to Cafe Society from MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/8 "2012-10-07T12:03:36Z")
On the way home from work last week, Jethro Tull’s **Thick as a Brick** came on the radio, and I sang for 20 minutes. Its amazing how one can memorize huge blocks of lyrics, even when they don’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/9 "2012-10-07T15:41:43Z")
This is why I recommend my AP students sing their class notes if they are having trouble remembering them. Music sticks with you forever. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/10 "2012-10-07T16:01:06Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > I often think this, when I hear a song from 20 years ago. Just how much of my brain is filled with the lyrics to crappy songs from the 1980s and 1990s I had the same thought today as I was driving with my kids. We sometimes put the radio on ‘scan’ and I will sing along with whatever crap comes up during the 5-second window…today I had a heck of a streak, correctly joining maybe 10 songs in a row. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/11 "2012-10-07T16:25:52Z")
A funny/embarrassing one: Last night, my oldest niece (known on this board as the Diva) celebrated her quinceanera. I had a couple of margaritas and still managed to remember all the lyrics of “The Humpty Hump” by Digital Underground, even though I hadn’t heard it in years. And no, the Diva was not embarrassed to see her crazy auntie dancing to that, she was too busy dancing with her friends. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/12 "2012-10-08T06:02:29Z")
I still remember \*Le Marseillaise \*that I learned in French class 55 years ago! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-how-you-never-forget-songs/636939/13 "2012-10-08T06:35:30Z")
Earlier this summer Elton John’s _Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding_ came on the radio. I hadn’t heard the song in maybe 15 years and knew every single word of it. It is strange how our brains work. “The roses in the window box have tilted to one side…”