# Hardest recognizable song to hum? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 26, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795 "2003-08-26T18:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/21 "2003-08-27T10:53:50Z")
how about “The Entrance of the Queen of Sheba” by Handel? So many notes, so quickly. Been trying to whistle it for years. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/22 "2003-08-27T12:23:47Z")
“Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by the Crash Test Dummies. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![malaka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/23 "2003-08-27T13:46:10Z")
When I’m playing [Cranium](http://www.playcranium.com/home.asp), and I get a “team play” “humdinger”, I know I’m in trouble. I always end up laughing. Its hard to hum when you’re laughing. My rendition sounds like a machine gun: “hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm”. So, in that case, there is not a single song I can hum. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/24 "2003-08-27T17:07:42Z")
There’s a repeating 11-note theme near the end of Paul Hindemith’s _Mathis Der Maler_ which involves weird harmonies because it uses each note of the chromatic scale once, which I’ve never been able to hum with any confidence, despite the fact that I think it’s gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![rexnervous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@rexnervous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rexnervous)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/25 "2003-08-27T17:50:08Z")
“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. The whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/26 "2003-08-27T17:58:47Z")
Any song that features yodeling. ---
**Author:** ![cafletch14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@cafletch14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cafletch14)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/27 "2024-12-23T00:33:11Z")
Green Onions and Take Five are hard, Barracuda too. Some are too easy like Be-Bop-A-Lula, but I don’t even attempt any Metallica songs. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/28 "2024-12-23T13:58:49Z")
I’m willing to bet that in the intervening 21 years there are at least three such things to appear!! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/29 "2024-12-25T22:53:43Z")
Mr. Cage’s 4’33’'. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2024, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/30 "2024-12-25T23:30:12Z")
A lot of these suggestions seem to miss the point. Sure, there are songs that are hard to hum correctly, but the standard here is just that they be recognizable. I can easily hum, say, “Smells like Teen Spirit” or “The Star-Spangled Banner” well enough that a listener (who knows the song) would recognize it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/31 "2024-12-26T14:48:18Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Mr. Cage’s 4’33’'. I’d say that’s the EASIEST song to hum. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/32 "2024-12-26T14:55:39Z")
Revolution #9. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/33 "2024-12-26T16:30:30Z")
Whenever I’m humming my usual Bartok or Schoenberg at the local Thrifty’s, shoppers are always turning toward me and nodding in self-satisfied approval - “oh right - _that one!_ - catchy!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795/34 "2024-12-26T16:50:50Z")
4’33" is very easy to hum correctly, but so difficult to recognize that most people wouldn’t even realize you were humming a song at all. If rap works count as “songs”, then I expect many of them would be nearly impossible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hardest-recognizable-song-to-hum/197795.md?page=1)