How do I get a song out of my head?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a song stuck in my head and I fear it’s going to be in there forever. Seriously, it’s been in my head FOR FIVE OR SIX DAYS now. Most songs I get stuck in my head last a few hours…maybe a day or two. But SIX DAYS? It never fails, I think about it every day at least once and then, once I do, I can’t stop thinking about it.
I’m sure many of you will find it amusing and it is a pretty unsual and amusing problem, but it’s seriously becoming unamusing to me. I’m actually starting to get a little worried/scared about it. What if I can’t stop thinking about it? It’s to the point now that I’m thinking about it SO much that every day I can’t help but think “is it out of my head yet?” in which I start thinking about it again! It’s progressing to the point where I fear I will never get it out of my head.

And the worst part is: It’s the theme song to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. UGH. I watched the video to its opening on a retro 80/90s site and I CANNOT GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD ever since I heard it. This was about a week ago, I kid you not. A week ago! How could I keep thinking about a song for a whole week? It’s not going away. How can I get it out of my head? Because I know tomorrow, as I lie in bed, I’m going to start singing it in my head again…because I’ve done that for six days in a row now. Really. Six days. Although for the last three or four it’s been mostly put in there after the thought of “ugh, I wonder if this song is ever going to get out of my head”…and that will make me start thinking of the damn song again and hence, SINGING IT ALL DAMN DAY in my head…like I’m doing right now.

So I’m serious. It’s funny and amusing, yes, and I expect you all to make fun. That’s fine…but please also SERIOUSLY give me an answer on to how to get it out of my mind, because it’s starting to annoy me and slowly starting to drive me crazy. : p

2

Scrub, rinse with warm water, flush. Repeat if necessary.

3

For me it helps to listen to a lot of other, different music.

Or you can just give it to someone else. I want to thank you for not mentioning which song is your current earworm.

4

Oh, but I did mention it.

5

Lalalalala I can’t hear you.

6

Listen to this 300 times.

:smiley:

7

This may seem counterintuitive, but what works for me is to listen to the song, all the way through, without any distraction. Really concentrate on the lyrics, silly as they are, and when the song gets to the end, turn it off and think of it no more.

I think there’s a little reptilian part of the brain that says “hey, I didn’t quite get that” when you sort of absentmindedly hear a song, and it won’t leave you alone until it’s had a chance to revisit the auditory input. It works for me.

8

Nooooooo, that song is* good!* Compared to some of the shit I get stuck with, anyway.

The only thing I’ve found that helps with earworms is to actually go and listen to the song that’s bothering you, and then move along and listen to some other stuff.

9

That’s it.

See how YOU like it.

It’s amazing how I’ve managed to not kill myself after having stuck that in my head for the last six days.
But now that I’ve got it open again, I guess I’ll take the advice of what two people have said: Listen to it in full again.

Here I go.

10

I gotta say it: this is a truly great post / username combo.

11

I’m prone to earworms (the one running around my head right now is *Dig *by In Current Standing) and it definitely helps me to listen to the song. Hoped it worked for you.

12

Try math. Add random numbers together. Take 2 and double it as many times as you can.
Do some long division in your head.

It’s going to kick on a different part of your brain and I’ve heard it can help.

13

As earworms go, you could do worse!

Run some Pee-Wee episodes through your head. Like the one where he demonstrates all the uses for giant underpants.

[Pee-Wee voice] “Heh-heh! A stylish vest!” [/Pee-Wee voice]

14

I’m not sure, but please try not to think of a white polar bear.

15

What works for me is to sing the Star Spangled Banner in my head. Since it doesn’t have any catchy hooks in it, my brain stops looping the other song.

16

If it’s any consolation, I’ve had “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” running through my head for a couple of days now.

(Though admittedly if you’re going to have a an earworm, that’s probably one of the better ones you could choose from.)

17

My friend shared this sure-fire cure with me. Sing The Police’s Message in a Bottle to yourself - especially the chorus. It will kick the hell out of any tune stuck in your head, but you’d better like The Police…

I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I’ll send an s.o.s. to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle, yeah
Message in a bottle, yeah

18

You could go to a theater and masturbate in public. That ended it for Pee Wee.

I think you have to laugh at yourself when you think of the song and play along with it. Don’t obsess over it. You will live another day to have a different song jammed in there sideways. Seriously, force yourself to laugh at the situation. Print up a bumper sticker that says: “when I’m emperor, The Pee Wee Herman theme show will be the national anthem. The word for today is EARWORM”.

Other techniques, listen to something like the Banana Splits theme song and then TRY to remember Pee Wee’s theme song. Then listen to the Mah Nà Mah Nà song done for the muppets. Hell, I can’t remember my own name now.

Just remembered that my sister and I did the Mah Na Mah Na song for our parents when we were kids.

19

Listen to something equally or more catchy–basically displace the old song with a new one. Hey, at least you can choose something a bit better.

(Although, then there is the chance you’ll get both stuck at once. That can have some amusing results though.)

20

My mom always used to say that you need to relax your jaw in order to forget a song. Take that for what it’s worth.

You could try singing the Gilligan’s Island theme to the tune of Amazing Grace.