Why do songs get stuck in your head?

The Straight Dope ^ | October 16, 2009 | Cecil Adams

[kanawa]

Gene Austin - My Blue Heaven (1927)

[mysterio]

Hey, everyone, remember that song "Barbie Girl?"

*backs out of the room, snickering*

[equaviator]

Dr. John’s version’s nice too

[oldteen]

I bet it is. Did a search...couldn’t find it tho.

[19th LA Inf]

Thanks for posting the link to "My Blue Heaven". I'm at my dialup-equipped outpost in the woods now, can't wait to get home and play it.

I actually met Gene Austin in 1960. He was playing at a hotel in Seattle, with a girl drummer and a country-western type guitar player. Thirty-three years down the road from My Blue Heaven, and later he turned up running a club in Dallas, then moved to Las Vegas and ran for governor of Nevada.

[goat granny]

When you reach my age, you have a hard time recalling anything. Your just getting a preview of whats heading your way...:O)

Sometimes, in my head I just yell at it to STOP IT when the brain gets into a feedback loop..

The really frustrating thing is the information your looking for oozes into your brain hours after you need the information...The brain needs to be defragged like a computer...

The good news is you don't have Alzheimer's, if you did the information is gone forever and not just late showing up..

[Mr_Moonlight]

Despite all this, no one really knows what causes earworms or how to get rid of them. Common removal techniques include replacing the tune with a different one, trying to distract oneself with something else, listening to the piece in question, talking to others about the earworm, or just waiting the worm out.

Or just smashing yer guitar to smithereens and walking away from its wreckage in utter disgust .. THAT'LL get rid of 'earworms' fer sure! Then again, there is always yelling at the radio or television or whatever got the stuck tune into your head in the first place and then throwing a shoe at it ... what the heck? Gotta work better than all the psycho-babble this article suggests .....

[Mr_Moonlight]

While watching the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" many years ago, I caught a snippet of classical music in the "Sea of Monsters" portion ~~~ It was - and is - Bach's "Air on a G String,"

I know that YS piece well, as a Beatles fan m'self, when that part comes on I always exclaim: "Ahhhhh BACH!", in keeping with Hawkeye's advice to Radar when Radar wanted to get friendly with the chick Nurse (in M.A.S.H.)

[Slings and Arrows]

Have you considered switching to decaf?

[Mr_Moonlight]

hahahahaaaa :)

[aruanan]

Why do songs get stuck in your head?

An effective hook?

[Loud Mime]

see post 48! :^)

[equaviator]

“Did a search...couldn’t find it tho.”

What-where did you search?

[equaviator]

“I bet it is. Did a search...couldn’t find it tho.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JESFMO1Hl4M

Works for me!

[Political Junkie Too]

The latest one out my way is:

1-8-7-7 Kars for Kids
K-a-r-s Kars for Kids
1-8-7-7 Kars for Kids
Do-nate your car ta-day

-PJ

[equaviator]

More from Dr. John...aka Mac Rebennack (sp)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX15ziypzs&NR=1

[Revolting cat!]

I don't think that I can take it,
'cause it took so long to bake it,
And I'll never have the recipe again,

Oh, Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[equaviator]

This’ll Killya!~

“Men you been lookin’ all around for the women
But they always been right there
Nowadays a woman has to haul off ‘n hit a man
T’ make him know she’s there
Other night a woman came up ‘n hit me
Like I wasn’t even there
Yeah, hmmm dawned on me, man
That a man been doin’ a woman unfair

Y’ gotta wait for your woman
Let her know you’re there
I knew I had to go out ‘n tell all of the women
That I knew they were there
Now ev’rywhere I go
The women all know that I know
Mmm, there ain’t no other place to go but there

I’m talkin’ about women
Yeah, I’m talkin’ about women, man
They don’t have to hit me
To make me know it’s there
None o’ my women have tears in their eyes
You can ask ‘em about me I swear
‘n they’ll tell you
That’s one man I swear
Yeah, that’s a man
‘nuff about tellin’ you this

Hmmm, y’ gotta wait for your woman
Let her know you’re there
I knew I had to go out ‘n tell all of the women
That I knew they were there
Now ev’rywhere I go
The women all know that I know
There ain’t no, there ain’t no other place to go but there

I’m talkin’ about women
They don’t have to hit me, man
To make me know it’s there
None o’ my women have tears in their eyes
You can ask ‘em about me I swear”

-Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, 1972

[TheConservativeParty]

Ah, Boston! I love that stuff! “More Than A Feeling” is wonderful, beautiful guitar work. “Hitch a Ride” is another Boston favorite of mine.

[Slings and Arrows]

And people say I’M evil!