# Why do songs get stuck in your head? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 21, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628 "2009-10-21T17:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![457i6tyug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/ecccb3/32.png) [@457i6tyug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/457i6tyug)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/1 "2009-10-21T17:00:09Z")
This is clearly a case of neurosis or OCD. Take a clonazepam or Xanax and you won’t have this problem any longer. Or simply relax and keep your focus on your goals for the day and these songs won’t get stuck in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![frogprof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@frogprof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frogprof)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/2 "2009-10-21T18:17:21Z")
Gee, thanks so MUCH for the “America” earworm – it may be better than [the song, by the teen “star’s” father, that shall remain nameless] but it’s STILL STUCK IN THERE! I am _constantly_ afflicted by these blasted things … maybe because I grew up in a musical household? (Every party ended around the piano and organ with my dad – who couldn’t read a single note – playing Broadway showtunes. I didn’t listen to “pop” music really until I was a senior in high school. :eek:) Even now, I walk around grinding my teeth, which have worn a pattern visible to my dentist, in time to music that I hear in my head. Oh, well, at least it’s not voices … ---
**Author:** ![cmoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cmoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmoose)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/3 "2009-10-22T04:06:56Z")
I think few people go through the children’s ride in Disneyland without having “It’s a small world” stuck in their heads for several days. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/4 "2009-10-22T06:14:11Z")
Link to column: > **[Why do songs get stuck in your head?](https://www.straightdope.com/21343998/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head)** I’d like to say that I’ve forever had issues with songs getting stuck in my head. Usually it’s songs I like. It can be stuck there for hours, or sometimes days. Sometimes longer. Unfortunately for me, I have the song “Freshmen” by Verve Pipe (I think?) stuck in my head. For months. I used to feel neutrally about the song, but my mind’s CD player is skipping the track and keeps repeating elements of the song over and over. I can temporarily replace the song with another song, but it comes back. It’s getting creepy. One theory I have is that there’s a certain pitch of sound we can hear that is central to the song’s main theme. For instance, I think the sound of the ceiling fan in our apartment bathroom has a pitch which is the central theme of “Freshmen,” and every time I hear it (several times a day) it brings the song back to mind, and it’s stuck there until I can replace it with something else. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/5 "2009-10-22T06:15:12Z")
> [@cmoose](#): > > I think few people go through the children’s ride in Disneyland without having “It’s a small world” stuck in their heads for several days. I love to start humming or singing that song at people, right before or after I tell them I’m getting a song stuck in their head now. It never fails to work. It’s like a virus. ---
**Author:** ![Igor70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc79bd/32.png) [@Igor70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Igor70)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/6 "2009-10-22T16:53:44Z")
I’m glad at least to see that the phenomenon has a proper name. I had given it my own moniker, the “Manilow Effect,” after having Copacabana stuck in my head forever (“Her name was Lola . . .”). I can’t think of anything worse. But one advantage of getting old is that it seems that I don’t get earworms nearly as often or for as long. Does this happen to anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/7 "2009-10-22T19:39:35Z")
> [@cmoose](#): > > I think few people go through the children’s ride in Disneyland without having “It’s a small world” stuck in their heads for several days. A friend of mine worked as a singing waiter at Disney for years. Don’t ask him about “Small world”. Just… don’t. Fans of _Tiny Toon Adventures_ will remember [this.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiHU7gnLF90) ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head/514628/8 "2009-10-23T19:11:07Z")
It’s a Small World doesn’t affect me. Not sure if it ever did. Maybe the number of times I’ve heard it has inoculated me. > [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Fans of _Tiny Toon Adventures_ will remember [this.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiHU7gnLF90) I wonder who had more fun with that: the animators, or Cree Summer. Powers &8^]