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For Kristina Riggle, a 35-year-old novelist from Kentwood, Mich., it’s “Come Sail Away”. But when the song starts looping over and over in her head, it’s not always Styx that’s singing it.
“There was an episode on South Park where Cartman sings it so I’ll hear it not only as Styx, but as Cartman,” she says. “It adds another level of irritation to the whole experience.”
Dealing with an “earworm” – a song that eats its way into your brain and refuses to budge for minutes or hours or days – can be irritating, but it’s never been the focus of much study until researchers at the University of Montreal decided to look at obsessive melodies.
Some songs are “stickier” than others, researchers say.
“Repetitive songs will be more likely to get stuck, as well as songs without really profound words,” says Sylvie Hebert, professor at the University of Montreal School of Speech Therapy and Audiology. “Lots of la-la-las and doopity-doopity-dahs. Also, the songs that get stuck are very familiar songs. And it’s usually the chorus that gets stuck.”
The tenacious nature of simple songs with sappy lyrics may explain why so many parents still have the dreaded Barney song looping around in their brain. Or in the case of Riggle, the mother of two who’s haunted by “Come Sail Away,” some mindless Backyardigans beat.
“My kids went through a phase where we listened to a Backyardigans CD from the library,” she says. “It’s cute the first five or six times but then you just want to rip your hair out.”
Earworms usually happen when people are in a positive emotional state and participating in non-intellectual activities, like walking, researchers say. And musicians’ earworm usually last longer (although on the plus side, they may be looping a passage by Bach or Chopin as opposed to Bad Romance or “It’s A Small World, After All”).
Researchers did an online survey of French-speaking participants and came up with a list of the top pop songs that refuse to pop off. (Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” is right near the top and The Muppets' "Manamana" also makes this. ). Other obsessive melodies can be found here.
As for getting rid of earworms, Hebert says her subjects sometimes jettisoned the tunes by concentrating on something else. Or by infecting someone else.
“Some said they would sing the song to somebody else,” she says. “It wasn’t very efficient, but people said they did that.”
Feel like sharing your pain? Pass your “favorite” earworm on to us!
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Yesterday, after Rue McClanahan died, I couldn't stop hearing or humming "Thank you for being a friend"
Once it was "Ride of the Valkyries"
But that was during a particularly messy breakup.
Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega!
Oooo yeah, don't hear that often but it is annoying.
"titties" by dangerous idiots
MIne is that Mcdonald's ad with the fish.. Singing
"give me that filet o fish gove me that fish" It's the most annoying thing!!!
And worse they sell a fish that says all that at Kmart
You will think I'm nuts.....but here goes. When I have an "earworm", (didnt know it was called that), I can get rid of it quickly by humming (to myself) the old childrens nursery rhyme, "Mare's eat oats and doe's eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy........a kid'le eat ivy too, wouldn't you." Now, here is the kicker....I was at work one day, and I heard my buddy humming this very tune. I asked him about it. I thought it was weird to hear some other adult humming this nursery rhyme...............he says to me, "I hum that tune to get rid of some other song that is stuck in my head."
Try it. It works. The "earworm" is gone, and does not come back.
Grateful Dead - "Touch of Grey". Especially the lyrics, "I will get by. I will get by. I will get by-y-y. I will survive." I have that song stuck in my head nearly every morning when I wake up. But, I happen to love the Grateful Dead and I do miss Jerry Garcia so very much, that it never seems to irk me or drive me to tears like, let's say..."My Sherona"! Oh, crap! Why did I have to bring that up? ERRRRRRRRR!!!
I Can't Go For That by Hall and Oates
"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since we've no place to go - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow". This song has been haunting me for several years...my husband is SO sick of hearing it!!!!
The best cure for an earworm is to listen to music----different music than the earworm, of course. Works every time!
Earworms, I like it - very appropriate. I have several but it's mainly The Pina Colada song. Drives me crazy. I'm going to try the suggestions here to rid the evil beast.
brusha brusha brusha
new ipana tooth paste
get some new ipana
its healthy for your teeth
I get rid of "earworm" by purposefully choosing a song I prefer to sing over and over and start singing it instead. Almost always both songs stop soon after.
"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head". Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!
Don't settle for second best, ....baby......MADONNA
The theme song to Disney's Peter and the Wolf
I have literally had hank williams I'm so lonesome I could cry AND a song with no words, I think the name is Bahia by Jethro Tull stuck in my head for many many years! Like maybe 15 -20!!!!!!
Thank You for Being a Friend has been stuck in my head, too - especially the ending.
My 12 yr old got into the old Barney and Friends song (for some unknown reason) and kept humming it all through dinner one night. Man was I ticked when I couldn't get that damn song out of my head for a week!
Even just thinking about it, it starts playing and won't stop! UGH.
Call it what it is...TUNE COUTIE....Why? because you can give it to someone else...like a communical disease...TUNE COUTIE
The other day I discovered a band called Within Temptation on YouTube. I heard their song "All I need", which was on one of the Vampire Diaries episodes. Since then the song refused to leave my brain. I hear it over and over in my head.
The one that drives me and my girlfriend crazy has to be the theme from "Sanford and Son"
For years it was the original 'These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. My brother LOVED to infect me with it without notice. He would just walk by me quitely singing it and then I was infected...sometimes for days. After the song was redone by Jessica Simpson, I no longer have a problem with it. 'Manamana' is a bad one for me now but usually when I get a song stuck in my head and I finally realized it was the song playing when my clock radio went off in the morning.
We have Fiesta ware dishes, so every time I wash them I get "All Night Long" by Lionel Ritchie stuck in my head, starting with the line "We're going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever". Ouch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiLziusKW4s
You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yachet, your hat stratigacly tipped over one eye...........AAAHAHHHAAHHH!!!
Give me that filet-o-fish. My students just gave me a fish that sings that song and what was once an acute earworm is now chronic.
"All Summer Long" by Kid Rock is great for walking miles!
College was bad, for 6 days I had, "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine," stuck in my head. Â Just that, none of the rest of the song. It was enough to make me think I might have bigger problems.
To Aloura- I feel your pain. I had that song stuck for a week and after a few days off it was back for another week. It drove me crazy and everyone around me who had to listen to me sing the same tedious line over and over.
lol
McDonald's "give me that fillet of fish, give me that fish"...my buddy often sings it right as we are putting our helmets on to snowmobile and with the drone of the engine, it almost always gets stuck! His place is in Paradise Michigan, so I often get David Lee Roth's "just like living in Paradise" stuck in my head too.
Thanks!!! Most people don't know where Paradise MI is. I unfortunately do and now will hear that song while driving thru there.
We're off to see the wizard- the wonderful wizard of oz, because because because................................STOP
my favorite earworm is "City of New Orleans" ,written by Steve Goodman, made famous by Arlo Guthrie. Just before he came to Kerrville Folk Festival, "City of New Orleans"Â was stuck in my head for 3 entire weeks. I told Arlo about it, backstage. I told him I kept screwing up the lyrics, but ,hey, it happens". he said, "Yeah, I've been know to that myself" LOL. He also signed my t-shirt :)
Most of my friends are songwriters. Songwriters get earworms that no one has heard before. That's where a lot of new songs come from :)
Makes sense!
Not all earworms are dorky!!! Some earworms are really great songs!! :)
Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall & Oates ... Hall and ...
You get the idea!
its quater after something ,,,, hhhuummm hhhuuummm,,,,huuum,,,,,,I NEED YOU NOW......
It's a quarter after one, I'm a little drunk and I need you now - wah a wah-wah!
OMG.....for the last 4 days....running through my head.....glad I'm not alone lol
WOW!!! I thought I've been going NUTZ!!! I wake up with a FEW words from a song & it's Soooo Annoying!! I'm really GLAD I'm Not Alone with this TORMENT!!! Now I have something "NEW" to add to my list of probs..."Earworm!" GRRR-8! "It's a quarter after 1...I'm all alone & I need you nowwwww..." & Lady Gaga's "LaLa lalalala LALA lalalala....!"
The Frito Bandito song, Blondies' "Call me", Stories' "Brother Louis", Kinks' "Lola", these must be the voices in your head that make you crazy. At least I like the Frito song, and the Brother Louis song.
On a canoe trip a couple of years ago, I had "Kung Fu Fighting" stuck in my head for two days. <shudder>
"In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight..... a-wema-weh, a-wema-weh, a-wema-weh, a-wema-weh......"
EVERY time I hear that on any radio station I have it going through my head for weeks! LOL
Just the 'a-wema-weh, a-wema-weh' part. Aaarrrggghhhh!
"I'm Henry the eighth I am, Henry the eighth I am, I am..."
Oh my Gosh! Most people don't even know this song...
I got married to the widow next door, she's been married seven times before. Everyone was a Henery... Uh Oh! Awww maaann!
En-er-ee the 8th I am!
Second verse, same as the first!
Now whip it, into shape, shape it up, get straight, go forward, move ahead, try to detect it, it's not to late to whip it. Whip it good!
All you people shut up! I've got Johnny Winter's "Be Careful With a Fool" right now, and I like it!
Hahahahahahaha
I've always thought that since I'm a trained musician, that that adds to it. Now the article confirms it. Right now I'm on one of my favorites: "The Entertainer," by Scott Joplin. Think it was in the movie, "The Sting" with Robert Redford & Paul Newman.
Anybody got a new one for me? lolol
"Solace" a jazz tempo dirge w/a Beguine influence by Joplin...I use it to get rid of all the others when they happen...it even works on the theme from I Dream of Jeanie...oh no there it goes again!
Yes, and having perfect pitch just makes the songs sound even more real. I think of "changing the channel" as if I were changing the tuner knob on a radio, and pick some random song to focus on for about 30 seconds. And my husband taught me when that doesn't work, to replace it with "The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, "... Sung slowly and deliberately, this one works every time! Oh yeah, and I LOVE "Solace", much more than the more well-known Entertainer. I believe Solace was also in "The Sting".
I agree with you on 'Solace'.....IIRC, it was the flipside of 'The Entertainer' on 45.....
The theme to "The Andy Griffith Show."
In fact, when my teenage daughter gets an earworm I whistle this to replace it. She hates that she's getting another but is glad for the relief. The replacement earworm doesn't stay around as long.
For me it's often.... ice, ice baby and i love to torment my grown daughters by passing the joy along! LOL
The National Anthem!! Or The Star Spangled Banner. I don't know what it is about those songs. I woudlnt say I go around being extra patriotic or anything either! But those are my earworms.
FYI:
National Anthem = Star Spangled Banner
"All I want to do is eat your brains" by Jon Coulton all day for the past 3 days. Even when I first wake up. Stupid Zombies. Guess it's appropriate.
OMG, me too; now it's stuck again!!!