Ear Worms: Music Stuck in Your Head
The other day I had a snippet of song stuck in my head. I couldn’t remember where it came from, and I couldn’t sing it well enough to have my husband help me. Much later, I remembered it was from a movie preview we had seen the night before. Those snippets of music are called ear worms. They can make you
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crazy or inspire you. Because music is not something I understand well, I’m turning this post over to my husband, a personal chef and a great lover of music. He has experienced the joy and annoyance of ear worms. Here’s his take on that music scrap that sticks in your brain:
“…Someone saved my life tonight, sugabearrrrrrrr…”
Ear worms. I get them, often. Daily sometimes. They can drive me and those around me nuts. Or, on a day when I can roll down the car windows, turn the volume up to an absurdly high level, and let loose with the worm du jour, phrasing the lyrics just so and bending that note in the middle exactly the way it should be bent, provide me with intense satisfaction.
“…I knowwwwwwwwww we’ll love aggggainnnnnnnnnn….maybe tomorrrrrrrow, maybe tomorrrrrrrrrrrrrrroowwwwwwwww…”
It’s not noise, it’s sound. It stands up as a whole. Four short, perfect notes from a lap steel, the break in “Something in the Way She Moves”, or the sound of change in a vending machine in Joni Mitchell’s “Empty, Try Another”, having no other reason to be in my head except for the unique staying power of each.
“…You’d better commmmme in my kitchen, cuz it’s boun’ to be rainin’ outsiiiiiiiiiiiiide…”
My love my ear worms. I own ‘em. I’ll wake and sit on the side of my bed trying to focus, to find the voice of a Gwen Stefani or a Ry Cooder in my head, already up and raring to go. Or, the opening to “Cracked Actor” on David Bowie’s “Live at the Tower”, the one with David Sanborn on sax and Earl Slick on lead, doing its damnedest to get me to go vocal, even in a crowded room. Dwayne Allman’s classic opening to “Statesboro Blues” makes me whistle every time. Literally. Including in the elevator and grocery market. Location doesn’t matter, only the sound matters. (Ok, if I’m in say, a stairwell or a men’s room with tiled walls, both of which offer perfect acoustics, I’m letting it fly for certain). It’s in and it’s coming out.
“…Fair Mexican maidens play gitarrres and sing, songs about Billy, their boyyyyy-bandit king…”
Anything could be the source. My folks are Sinatra and big band fans, so it’s the music of my childhood. “Fly Me To The Moon” is just as likely to make an appearance as “I Wanna Be Sedated”. The soundtrack to the TV show “ER” has been known to stay with me for days. Background noise, rhythms, squawks, clanks – seemingly, if it has a beat, it’s there. Or can be.
“….Paaaaaaaaperback Writerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…”
If I’m lucky, those around me will be kind or at least tolerant, amused even. I’m no fun to be around on an afternoon drive when I’m in the clutches of a worm, I admit that. Still, I have to think that someone listening might wonder what the connection from one worm to the next might be, and where it came from; that I can’t be the only one enjoying the affliction.
“…I’m gonn dooo bad thaaangs with yoooooooooooooooouuuu…”
—Quinn McDonald is a writer and life- and creativity coach. She owns QuinnCreative, a company that offers training seminars and workshops in journal writing.
Tho like you I’m bound to launch into songs from any era I’m bad for spontaneously erupting with bits of jingles for products advertised in my youth.
‘Oh, I wish I was an Oscan Meyer wiener….everyone would be in love with me!’
‘Can’t get enough of those Sugar Crisp, Sugar Crisp…’
They tend to stick around for a day or two and then are gone again for a few months….. then bring about fresh smiles.
—Jingles are specifically designed to cause ear worms. Sounds like it works for you! -Q
Norm
October 31, 2008
Quinn and Kent, good post.
OK, now you’re going to start hearing what I’m hearing.
“A-angie, A-angie, when will those clouds all dis-a-peeear” (Rolling Stones, but you knew that)
And how about “Remember me and you, I do, I think about you day and night, it’s only right ….. So happy together” (Turtles)
Hah
Vicky F
—Yours are ear worms I can identify with, particularly the Angie one. I had a Three-Dog Night song stuck in my head off and on for years, but just half a line, and I couldn’t identify it, and all the Googling in the world didn’t find it for me–at the time I didn’t know it was 3DN, just a snippet of lyric. One day, I heard the song and pulled off the road and wrote down more of the lyric and then waited for the station to identify the song. A bad case, for sure! -Q
Vicky Ferguson
November 1, 2008
Quinn,
Dave and I are forever with kids TV “ear worms” and it drives us mad sometimes. Every time Emma sees a Stanley Steamer carpet cleaner truck on the road she sings “1 800 Steamer, Stanley Steamer gets your house cleaner.” Talk about a funny thing she’s going to remember from her childhood! Right now I’ve got a song about Ohio in my head from Fox News Radio. The kids are singing it too. I guess it’s all in the marketing with the jingles!
Hope all is well with you, Kent and the cats!
Kathy
—I think they make jingles for kids. It sure works! –Q
oboerista
November 1, 2008
Kathy, you reminded me of one of the earliest earworms I experienced. When we were young, my folks would often let us spend the weekend with our grandparents. Nana, a Bible-thumping Babtist if there ever was one, would dress us up and take us to church on Sunday. In those days, the kids would spend about 20 minutes in the full service before being paraded off to Sunday school classes. At the appropriate moment, the choir would let loose with “Yes, Jesus loves me” to which I replied at the top of my lungs, but only once, “knock-knock for Knickerbocker Beeeeeer”!
Anonymous
November 2, 2008
Kent, hey quite the writer! Nice details – really made the music come alive. And it planted my own ear bug with Paperback Writer. That is a one hard song to get out of my head.
But at least I’m not signing I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer wiener. That tune is unbearable!
—Paperback Writer is a classic ear worm. I know far too many verses! -Q
Bo
November 2, 2008
Whoops, just realized I called them not ear worms, but bugs. Oops!
–Yeah, but they are all the same thing. I didn’t know what they were called till about half a year ago when I heard a program on them. I just called them ’songs stuck in my head.’ -Q
Bo
November 2, 2008
Oh, this rings so true! (pun intended)
Right now, I have the ear worm equivalent of a kaleidoscope in my head, from all the choral music I sang at our concert today (which ran the gamut from Tavener and Beethoven to gospel to a Nigerian folk song. You can’t say we don’t have range!)
Interspersed of course with the theme songs from kid’s television.
My head, not necessarily somewhere that’s safe for adults or children.
—-You and Kent have something in common, then–Kent has a whole collection of ear worms, some come and go, some stay for a while. But congratulations on the concert! I know it means a lot to you.
–Q
leavinglaw
November 3, 2008
Hello Kent, I have a BIG EARWORM….France Gall – Ella, Ella Elle l’a…
ELLAA ELLE L’AAAAAA WHOOPTOOPTYDOO WHOOPTOOPTYDOOO….!!!
Mariannetm
November 3, 2008
Edidently I spent way too much time planted in front of Saturday morning cartoons, Sky King, Roy Rogers, My Friend Flicka……
I’m getting prepped for a Dylan concert next week so I have all sorts of scraps ringing back & forth between my ears from his vast catalogue. “The Times They Are A’Changin”…..
Norm
November 3, 2008
Oh, yes, Norm…now you’re talking major ear worm. Before you head off to the concert, download Brian Ferry’s version of that song off his “Dylanesque” CD. it will stick with you for days!
Anonymous
November 3, 2008