We all like a good ear-worm, don’t we chums? This is my current one, it goes round and round in my head, particularly when I wake up in the small hours and am trying to get back to sleep. Drives me nuts, so I thought I’d share the pain.
So the story goes its author, piper Gordon Duncan, woke up one morning with the tune in his head after a heavy night on the sauce. He tried it out on his friends, none of whom recognised it, so he decided he must have written it in his sleep. Bit like Macca and Scrambled Eggs, I guess.
When our little band plays it at our care home gigs, the old folk tend to go into a trance – those who aren’t already asleep, that is. We go into a bit of a trance too.
Any other earworms?
Here’s the basic tune.
Here are some chords.
I would like to point out to the jury that I did not prompt this Breton-affiliated post.
You’re in the clear. I thought it was interesting that it made the journey.
I’ve got this on the brain at the moment.
Nice. Definite hint of REM there.
Great song great band .
It’s not typical Afterword fodder, but Let It Go from Frozen is surely one of the biggest earworms of recent years. I haven’t posted a video as I expect you could sing at least the chorus without prompting.
Having it stuck in my brain also led me to the best bit of useless trivia I’ve learned lately: Let It Go’s co-writer, Robert Lopez, is only one Oscar away from being a three-time EGOT. He is one of only 22 people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, and is the only person to have won them all twice. As if that isn’t enough, he has since won another Emmy, another Grammy, and another Tony, so needs another Oscar to have the full set three times over.
I don’t know about you, but that makes me wonder what I’ve been doing with my life…
I remember watching Frozen with my young kids and thinking what a strong song it was. Little did I know how often I would hear it in the years that followed. It must be in the hundreds.
Good call! This, likewise…
It used to be that I’d wake up at 5 in the morning with songs from Frozen or CBeebies going around in my head, owing to Minipaws favourite tunes at that stage in life. Now she’s a teenager I have random songs by the Pixies going around my head at 5am.
The worst song in the universe, as far as I’m concerned: A Groovy Kind Of Love.
Get out of my head, you fucking piece of shit.
I don’t know where it comes from, but I absolutely hate it.
Yes awful. Sympathies.
A single that sold 10 million copies in 1971. It was singer Sally Carr’s 80th birthday yesterday. Thanks for 55 years of torment!! 😆
My ears have been taken hostage by a very cheesy 80s euro techno song called Jabdah by an Italian called Koto. It’s terrible – but also tremendous.
I’ve got this stuck in my head
I was at a concert last and the support sang a song of which part of the refrain was OCD to the notes of Sit Down by James. I’ve got that stuck in my head now.
This is my current ear worm. And very welcome to stay.
What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?
Not gonna read any more of this thread due to the mental and physical pain and suffering I endured due to a drive-by Shakin’ Stevens incident last Christmas.
Not “Last Christmas” you understand, merely the most recent festive seasonal period. But you knew that.
This is in my head today
I haven’t heard it for many years – I have no clue why it popped up in my head this morning: but I can’t get the bugger back out again…
Great song. I had the riff of Jolene going around and around in my head last week.
Other recent earworms have included:
Nancy and Lee – Jackson
Dean Martin – Houston
Al Jones – All my friends are back again
RT – A love you can’t survive
Why, I ask you – why???
Currently it’s this one. In contrast to many posted above, I really like it. It pops into my head a lot recently…
Right now it’s Ricky Nelson’s Garden Party largely due discovering yesterday this video of Bob Dylan covering it in concert last year (and actually making a decent fist of it). The lines ‘You can’t please everyone so you you gotta please yourself’ might have been written for him (and I love the little chuckling ‘or try to’ after those lines at around 2.10)
I had a tune going round and round in my head all morning but now it’s gone and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Funny that, isn’t it?
For years now every time I have a shower the only bloody Song that comes into my head is David Essex – oh what a Circus and to my utter shame I manage to sing ( very badly ) the odd line or two . I don’t even like David blooming Essex. Is there a cure ?
Cool, sophisticated singles in 1973:
David Essex – Rock On
David Bowie – Drive-In Saturday
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly With His Song
10cc – The Dean And I
Paul Simon – Take Me To The Mardis Gras
Good pass Tig, gives me an excuse to post my favourite YouTube clip of the month.
That’s fantastic, especially the vocal take done with them all singing at the same time. I had imagined that would have required a load of individual multitracking.
This….. at the moment.
Due to my interest in a 5 cd box set from our friends at Cherry Red. Just a min- ute!
Bastard! Cats already left home, wife packing her bags ….
That’s more of a brain-worm than an ear-worm. AFAIAC the only remotely respectable record they made was If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody. Might pass on the 5 cd boxset.
On the other hand, if it contains gems like this…Freddie and the Dreamers, the face fungus years.
Lordy lord.
Recently moved office buildings and the security entry gstes play the first 2 notes of Bad Moon Rising. Higher pitch but the tone and timing is correct.
We are watching a series called This Town, set in the early 80s. There’s a lot of good music even if the show is not for you. I like it. Ska, 2-Tone, Blondie and more. So it’s Stop Your Messing Around…going round, which is one of the better ear worms, if you can choose.
MD for the soundtrack album was Dan Carey with lyrics by Kae Tempest. Covers by the likes of Self Esteem. Very good as these things go.
Series two not optioned, sadly.
Walk the riverrrrrrrrrrrr like a hunted animal. Top class earworm. You’re welcome.
There’s a billboard near my house with for a cycling store – its something, something, something in German and then a massive NO LIMITS!
no, no, no-no-no, no-no, no-no prizes for guessing what gets lodged in my skull every time I see it
I try to collect appropriate earworms, to recall and “play” internally, as I plough my slow circuit of Dostil Quarries cold water. Rhythm and repetition are the key, at an applicable bpm. Folky dirges are my favourites, with Gresford Disaster (Albion Band) and Oakham Poachers (John Kirkpatrick) two particular favourites. Paul Brady’s Arthur McBride also fits. Can anyone provide similar fare from outside the trad?
Learning songs which then become earworms is part of the territory, I guess. Currently, it’s this.
There’s nothing worse than having a Cranberries song stuck in your heeeeeeead.
In your heeeeeeead, in your head, in your head, in your head in your hea, hea, hea, head…
Yes, I know its an old joke and I shouldn’t let it linger……
“You can please all of the people some of the time, you can please some of the people all of the time, or you can be in The Cranberries”
A current Nottingham Panther by the name of Zsombor Garat (he’s Hungarian) has this as his song when he scores a goal.
I have mixed feelings…
It’s been a week now…
My latest earworm is a mystery, because it’s a song shared with me by @moseleymoles, and I don’t know what is called or who it’s by yet. It’s running through my head all day long and it’s quite delightful, but you’ll have to wait for our reviews to find out what it is.
I too find myself temporarily earwormed by a tune from one of my CD swap partners. I know exactly who it is but can’t reveal it here yet. Quite a nice one to be earwormed by, actually.
Earworms don’t usually last a long time with me, fortunately, given some of the horrendous bilge that sometimes worms it’s way in.
Coconut by Harry Nilsson…”you put the lime in the coconut…”
Pete Dello death a week or two ago reminded me of this Double earworm: you’ll be humming this and thinking about Slimcea at the same time – appropriate cos it is Bread-like.
I nearly spoiled a week in Italy (for me & my family) by having a 7 day earworm of ‘Man I Feel Like A Woman’ by Shania Twain.
Whenever it comes on (mercifully not that often) it brings a level of PTSD to the house.
Edit – It’s now lodged back in there. Balls
Why on earth did i open this thread
For me it’s ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’.
For about the last year I’ve had an earworm visit every 3 weeks or so by “A thing called love”. I have no idea why! I have some Johnny Cash songs in my collection but not that one. “6 foot 6 he stood on the ground….”
I was startled to find that I knew all the words and could sing it, despite never having owned it nor having heard it for many years.
I know that phenomenon also. I put it down to perhaps having a song on a tape off the radio – perhaps as part of a chart rundown. We were more tolerant 50 years ago. It wasn’t so easy to skip tracks – particularly if you were at the business end of a tight game of Ker-Plunk. So you just let them run.
This even though it’s used in a million ads and trailers.
My current top four in no particular order;
Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
Escape (The Pina Colada Song) – Rupert Holmes
The Second Arrangement – Steely Dan
Icehouse – Icehouse
I’ve found that most earworms can be dislodged/jammed by the vigorous application of Doris Day. The Deadwood Stage in particular blots everything out, without itself becoming lodged.
That’s the danger of applying another song to dislodge an earworm. If you’re not careful you can end up with an earworm that’s even harder to dislodge.
Today, so far, I’m earworm-free but there have been a few short-term ones over the last week. Mainly from my co-swappers CD mixes as I apply the necessary repeat listens. None of them REALLY annoying so I’ve not needed to forcibly dislodge them.
Doris has never failed me yet, but if she got stuck then I’d wheel out Adriano Celentano’s ‘Prisencolinensinainciusol’. Ol rait? Boom, boom, boom, diddly-dit…
@gcu-grey-area
If I may say so, Icehouse by Icehouse is a strange old ear worm! Great song though!
Welcome to my brain! I love it, so don’t mind it as an earworm. Seems to have replaced the long version of Flash and The Pan’s Waiting For a Train.
That’s another belter….stew and beans!
When it came out, I bought the 7-inch. I love stuff that trundles along at that song’s pace. Back in the day, I managed to do a crude, longer version, using – I think – my turntable, and a couple of cassette decks, and some time in the college audio suite.
There are several proper extended versions of it out there, and I still love that track.
Another belter of similar vintage is B-Movie’s ‘ Nowhere Girl’…
Today’s troublesome tune comes from Sir Nodsworth and chums. To be fair, I’ve had worse.
This week I can’t stop humming this glorious piece of jangly, guitar pop from Canada.
An earworm that I am not complaining about.
I love love love this song.
Ah, gorgeous that.
Currently (only mildly) earwormed by this. Specifically the chorus refrain, which I was reminded of by a song on swap partner @Retro2s disc. The rest of the song is not similar to it at all.
Matt Bianco – Sneaking Out The Back Door
Ok, then – time for the big guns
I never knew that was an “actual song”.
From the same era
This is mine. I only heard it for the first time a few weeks back, but it’s just wonderful….
Today, for some reason, it’s:
# Ain’t nothin’ gonna break my stride
Nodody’s gonna slow me down
Oh no – I gots ta keep on mooovin’ #