1 - weekly
2 Ram Jam’s Black Betty
the 1-800-safe-auto jingle
any military march
3 - a short nap or any other form of light sleep.
- How frequently are you afflicted by the phenomenon of songs being stuck in your head, a.k.a. “earworms?” (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Longer, or Never)
Daily
- What three songs, tunes, jingles, or melodies have most recently (say, within the last year) been stuck in your head as an earworm? If you have more than three, feel free to list them. If possible, please name the artists.
All within the last couple of days:
- La Marseillaise
- Scooby Doo theme song
- The Shot Heard 'Round The World - Schoolhouse Rock
- What strategies have you successfully used to rid yourself of earworms?
replace it with another is the only one that seems to work
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More or less daily. I can have multiple worms in a day, and each one may last anywhere from hours to months. Some come into my head regularly in some specific situation, like in the shower, or when I’m driving, or at work.
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Right now, I’ve got Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I was at a fair this weekend and saw a booth where they dress you up for “old-timey” photos and put them on, among other things, “Wanted” posters.
Recently, I’ve also had:
Zoot Suit Riot, by Cherry Poppin’ Daddies (with alternate lyrics about my pets)
Don’t Dream It’s Over by Crowded House
If You Really Love Me by Stevie Wonder
Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics
- Usually, I just let it go away on its own. But if it’s really bugging me, first, I try to listen to the song. If that doesn’t work, I try to replace it by listening to some other song. Apparently, just thinking of other songs can work, as reading through this thread proves. And finally, I’ll try to focus on something else - reading, watching TV, working.
1) There is always some song in my head.
2) Mine will switch base on seeing a phrase or hearing a tune. Right now Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor is in my head - lord knows what triggered it.
3) The only thing that kicks one song out of my head is finding another to replace it. When one starts to really annoy me I’ll go to YouTube and start playing some songs at random, to try to dislodge the earlier one.
- How frequently are you afflicted by the phenomenon of songs being stuck in your head, a.k.a. “earworms?” (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, Longer, or Never)
Whenever I listen to the radio for more than a few hours at a time. The frequency of that varies, but the most catchy songs definitely stay with me as earworms.
- What three songs, tunes, jingles, or melodies have most recently (say, within the last year) been stuck in your head as an earworm? If you have more than three, feel free to list them. If possible, please name the artists.
Poker Face, by Lady Gaga; Hot & Cold by Katy Perry…I can’t think of a third off-hand.
- What strategies have you successfully used to rid yourself of earworms?
Force myself to sing a different song, aloud. (Not too loudly, but it has to be with my mouth, not just in my head.)
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Often. Maybe a few times a week.
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Good earworms: songs you’ve never heard of from Jewish bands (such as this or this)
Bad earworms: Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl And I won’t Shut Up About It”, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Get This Tune Out Of My Head”, and really annoying songs from my brother’s basketball video game. -
Complain about it to my brothers so they can share the misery. Other than that, not much.
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Daily, with multiple songs.
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(a) Ice Cream and Cake from the new Baskin Robbins commercial has been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks now;
(b) I’m in Miami Trick, by LMFAO, which is the absolute worst because I hate, hate, hate that song, but it’s on every time I get in the car; and
© Don’t Pull Your Love, by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.Also, whenever Britney Spears has a new song released, it is guaranteed to be stuck in my head for a month or longer.
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Like a lot of others here, if I start really concentrating on something else (work, baby, tv show, etc.) then it will go away for a bit. But as soon as my mind is allowed to wander again, I’ll catch myself humming something, either the original earworm or another one. Also, sometimes just singing the song straight through (or what I know if it) will get it out of my system.
Weekly
**Suzy Q **- CCR - I have no idea why.
Down the Flood - It’s a Bob Dylan song covered by the Derek Trucks Band - It’s stuck in my head because I listen to the album too much.
The Guitar Man - That old Bread song. The band Cake does a overdriven funky guitar version of this song. There’s a guitar riff in the theme of the Cake version that gets played over and over and it gets stuck in my head.
Turn on the Radio/CD/MP3 player and try to get a different tune stuck in my head
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Monthly, on average.
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Beat it (Michael Jackson). There have been others, but this has come into my head many times recently. Blame Guitar Hero: World Tour more than MJ’s death.
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Pick out a song I like, and “listen” to that instead. This always works.
…
showin’ how funky
strong is your fight…
Not sticking to the protocol, but yes, I go through earworm phases.
There is one advertising earworm that has driven me crazy for years, despite it’s incipience and demise… haven’t heard it in years, but it see3ms to have a viscous subliminal nature that makes it psychically adhesive. Three simple tones and three syllables echoing in my synapses-
♪♪ By Men - nen! ♪♪
It’s more sticky and cloying than actual speed stick.
My daughter and I used to do that, it’s funny.
Funny, as I read this I realized I’m having ringing in my ears. That’s an interesting tidbit there, Una. My ears ring quite often, though not as often as I have earworms.
I’ve found what cures earworms though. Post to this thread. Rhymin’ Simon is now a thing of the past.
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Daily.
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a. The Jitterbug Phone jingle. Every time my husband mentions his phone, or I see the damn thing, that jingle invades my brain.
b. The last annoying commercial or song I heard, whatever that may be. Sometimes it can even be a set of numbers, like a phone or SS #.
c. I have a default earworm! When nothing else is playing, I default back to a particular tune. It may be jazzy one day, or slow and melodic the next. It took me 20 years to identify the song. Turned out to be background music from The Neverending Story, a movie my son watched repeatedly as a child. -
Listening to some other music will usually erase the earworm, unless its unusually aggressive. Always best to choose a song you like, just in case it sticks too.
A recent trick I have had some success with is to relax, focus on the earworm, and trail off into a descending musical scale. Kind of like bringing the song to a close.
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Daily or Weekly. I’ll go through periods when there’s always one stuck in there, and then nothing for while. But it’s rare to go longer than a week.
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Within the last couple of weeks:
- Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Coming Down, Johnny Cash version
- ABBA, Momma Mia (I feel so ashamed)
- Steve Goodman, City of New Orleans, Arlo Guthrie version
- Man of La Mancha, from the play of the same name, Original Broadway cast
- Pink Floyd, On the Turning Away
- Sometimes they go away, more commonly I have to listen to a new batch of music. Sometimes one of those will stick in the previous one’s place, sometimes not, but either way the old one gets washed out. Sometimes something that requires several hours of concentration will make one go away.
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Daily. Every morning, when I get out of my car and turn off my radio, I get stuck with the last song playing and will have it on my mind until I go home from work. We’re not allowed to have a radio playing at work, so the song stays there until I hear something else. It drives my colleagues insane, since I usually sing out load, but only a few lines or words and then start over.
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Today it’s Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man After Midnight) from ABBA. Yesterday I believe it was My Humps from the Black Eyes Peas. Can’t remember what it was last Friday.
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As mentioned, a different song (any song) usually does the trick, although sometimes a song is so persistent it remains for days. Any task that requires my full attention also usually works (at least for a couple of hours afterwards).
Weekday poster, non-US btw.
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Daily. Sometimes several times a day. It’s worse when I’m tired.
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It varies so much - as a musician it can be whatever I’m rehearsing at the time (I once had “Battle on the Ice” from Alexander Nevsky going in my head so loudly I couldn’t concentrate - my officemates thought I was having a migraine) or just any annoying but catchy tune.
The latest really annoying tune is off this UK television commercial. I hate it so, so much.
Personally I find Jonti Picking (he of Weebl fame) to be master of the earworm, especially songs like Kenya, Pork and Crabs. He’s also done the definitive earworm about earworms.
- A sufficiently powerful distraction. Sometimes it’s another earworm, sometimes it’s something else that draws my focus enough to break the persistent replaying of the tune in my head.
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Frequency?
Constantly. Occasionally it will be the last thing I heard. Often I have no idea where it came from. -
Recent songs?
The current one is “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley (I have no idea where it came from)
Before that was “Vincent (Starry Starry Night)” by Don McLean
Banana Phone - www.albinoblacksheep.com (It’s my SO’s alarm setting on his phone. He uses it because he knows it will stick in my head)
I don’t really remember the older ones, because they are always there -
How to get rid of them?
I can’t. The best I can do is replace a really annoying one with one of my choice. The theme songs from Gulligan’s Island, and The Brady Bunch both work very well for this.
I’ve wondered in the past if there is any correlation between people who always hear music in their heads, and people who are musicians of one form or another.
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I’ve almost always got one or more songs stuck in my head. Usually just one.
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Lately it’s been “Daylight” by Matt & Kim, it’s in a Bacardi commercial. Occasionally it switches to “Turn Around” for some reason.
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Generally, obtaining the some and listening to it as many times as possible. Sometimes that knocks it out of the loop in my head. Other times, it only makes it worse.
- Weekly
- “Boom Boom Pow” (Black Eyed Peas)
“Poker Face” (Lady Gaga)
“Hollaback Girl” (Gwen Stefani…I was at an event this weekend where this was played REPEATEDLY)
I realize this makes me look like a tween…I have a 10-year-stepdaughter and watch So You Think You Can Dance,so I blame it on those two factors. - Crank up conflicting music on iPhone and hope something else doesn’t get stuck…would much rather be humming Tori Amos or Sinead O’Connor.
Professional singer checking in here.
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Constantly. If I don’t hear any music and I’m not making any music at that moment, my mind will merrily fill in the silence for me. Awake or asleep.
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My number one earworm is whatever I happen to be working on at the moment.
Earworms not related to work from today include the opening phrase of ‘No Greater Love’ (last couple of hours.), ‘Luiza’ by Antonio Carlos Jobim (much of the afternoon.), ‘Chasing Pavements’ by Adele (most of the morning.)
- I’ve never had an earworm that could survive listening or playing a different piece of music. If there’s no stereo, instrument or music at hand, I can make one go away by trying to hum two different earworms one note at a time, but that’s only for extreme cases.
I’d be curious to hear from other working musician/singer types. For me, an earworm is an important tool in memorization. Some pieces are easier to get to the earworm stage (learning Rossini is the earworm equivalent of smearing yourself with honey and staking yourself to an anthill, for instance.) than others (Berg’s ‘Wozzeck’ was a particularly strange thing to have looping away in your mind’s ear.) but they all get there sometime. So, while it’s just as annoying to me when a tune keeps coming back, it’s a good signpost for me on the way to learning a piece. Anybody else get that?