links

Songs Stuck in My Head

Feb. 23, 2011: "I Still Remember" (Bloc Party).

Feb. 18, 2011: "Hey Ya" (Outkast).

Feb. 17, 2011: "Hello" (Lionel Richie).

Feb. 16, 2011: "Material Girl" (Madonna).

Feb. 15, 2011: "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar" (Felicia Day).

Feb. 11, 2011: "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" (Looking Glass).

Feb. 7, 2011: "Traffic Light" (The Ting Tings).

Jan. 31, 2011: "Holding Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler).

Jan. 30, 2011: "Fortunate Son" (Creedence Clearwater Revival).

Jan. 25, 2011: "Hot n Cold" (Katy Perry). I have heard this song once in my life. How can it be stuck in my head? Why can't I have something I like stuck in my head? I feel cheated somehow.

Jan. 20, 2011: "Galactic Empire State of Mind". I can't watch this without getting a stupid grin on my face.

Jan. 7, 2011: "Miss Otis Regrets" (Cole Porter, though the version I have stuck in my head is that performed by Kirsty MacColl with The Pogues).

Jan. 4, 2011: "Amen, Brother" (The Winstons). Also, watch this video for a history of the Amen Break. The video is somewhat long and dry, but worth it.

Dec. 22, 2010 - Jan. 2, 2011: Various selections from Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!

Dec. 17, 2010: "LA Woman" (The Doors).

Dec. 16, 2010: "Born to Run" (Bruce Springsteen).

Dec. 1, 2010: "Somebody's Watching Me" (Rockwell).

Nov. 30, 2010: "Ebeneezer Goode" (The Shamen). This is really inexplicable.

Nov. 29, 2010: "I'm on Fire" (Bruce Springsteen).

Nov. 26, 2010: "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (U2).

Nov. 22, 2010: "Killer Bee" (Beach Buggy).

Nov. 18, 2010: "Springtime for Hitler" (from The Producers, Dir. Mel Brooks).

Nov. 17, 2010: "99 Luftballons" (Nena).

Nov. 16, 2010: "Material Girl" (Madonna). 'Cause we are living in a material world, and I am a material girl. Just so you know.

Nov. 11, 2010: theme song to The Big Bang Theory.

Nov. 5, 2010: "Found Out About You" (Gin Blossoms).

Oct. 29, 2010: "Mr. Brightside" (The Killers).

Oct. 20, 2010: "Just a Little Lovin'" (Dusty Springfield).

Oct. 11, 2010: "The Eye of the Tiger" (Survivor). This is awesome. It feels like I'm eight years old again.

Oct. 5, 2010: "Danger! High Voltage!" (Electric Six).

Sept. 22, 2010: "Let's Lynch the Landlord" (Dead Kennedys).

Sept. 19, 2010: "Wishing Well" (The Airborne Toxic Event).

Sept. 18, 2010: "The Prayer" (Bloc Party).

Sept. 14, 2010: "VietNow" (Rage Against the Machine).

Sept. 12, 2010: "Hunger Strike" (Temple of the Dog). This was very unexpected, and inexplicable.

Sept. 11, 2010: "Whisper to a Scream" (The Icicle Works) and "Cherish" (Madonna). 80's weekend!

Sept. 10, 2010: "Put Your Records On" (Corinne Bailey Rae).

Sept. 9, 2010: "We Are All Made of Stars" (Moby).

Sept. 1, 2010: "Ruby" (Kenny Rogers). Thanks to Tiger Roholt for this link, and for getting this song stuck in my head.

Aug. 26, 2010: "Rockit" (Herbie Hancock).

Aug. 21-24, 2010: Random songs from the Playstation game Little Big Planet thanks to my wife's newfound addiction to that game.

Aug. 19, 2010: "Son of a Preacher Man" (Dusty Springfield).

Aug. 17, 2010: "Alice" (Tom Waits).

Aug. 12, 2010: "The Mating Game" (Bitter:Sweet).

Aug. 10, 2010: "A Beautiful Mine" (RJD2), which is the theme song to Mad Men.

Aug. 6, 2010: "Bad Romance"/"Paparazzi" mashup (Lady Gaga). Her songs are basically interchangeable anyway.

Aug. 1 - 2, 2010: "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" (from 30 Rock, Season 2, Ep. 2).

Jul. 21, 2010: "Traffic Light" (The Ting Tings).

Jul. 20, 2010: "This Modern Love" (Bloc Party).

Jul. 15, 2010: "People Keep Comin' Around" (Tindersticks). Also, see July 8, 2010 below.

Jul. 12, 2010: "When Doves Cry" (Prince).

Jul. 8, 2010: "Rehab" (Amy Winehouse -- as performed on Glee). It is amazing how Glee can make almost any song sound cheerful. I would love to see Glee perform some Tinderstick's songs.

Jun. 22 - 27, 2010: "No Surprises" (Radiohead).

Jun. 15, 2010: "Do What You Want" (Ok Go).

Jun. 12, 2010: "I've Got My Mind Set On You" (George Harrison's version). I haven't had this stuck in my head since about 1990. It would be completely fine with me if it doesn't happen again for another twenty years.

Jun. 10, 2010: "I Still Remember" (Bloc Party).

Jun. 7, 2010: "Rocket" (Goldfrapp).

Jun. 2, 2010: "Take Me Out" (Franz Ferdinand).

May 27, 2010: "This Too Shall Pass" (Ok Go).

May 26, 2010: "Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac).

May 24, 2010: "The Ghost in You" (The Psychedelic Furs).

May 23, 2010: "Remedy" (Little Boots).

May 13, 2010: "Skyscrapers" (Ok Go).

May 10, 2010: "Safety Dance" (Men Without Hats).

May 8, 2010: "Great DJ" (The Ting Tings). My wife just bought the album,

which hopefully explains the onslaught of Ting Tings stuck in my head.

May 4, 2010: "One More Time" (Daft Punk). I just watched Interstellar

5555, which was insane, but fun. The film revolves largely around this song.

Apr. 30, 2010: "That's Not My Name" (The Ting Tings).

Apr. 29, 2010: "Hello" (Lionel Richie).

Apr. 23, 2010: "Money Talks" (AC/DC).

Apr. 20, 2010: "Just Like a Star" (Corinne Bailey Rae).

Apr. 19, 2010: "Little By Little" (Groove Armada).

Apr. 8, 2010: "That's Not My Name" (The Ting Tings).

Apr. 7, 2010: "Hey Ya" (Outkast).

Apr. 5, 2010: "Ace Tone" (Holiday).

Mar. 26 - 31, 2010: "Sometime Around Midnight" (The Airborne Toxic Event).

Mar. 21 - 24, 2010: "Black Velvet" (Alannah Myles) and the theme song to

RuPaul's Drag Race.

Mar. 23, 2010: One of the worst kinds of songs to get stuck in my head are

songs that I don't actually know. Here is an example. My wife was telling

me about a Canadian TV show that she watched as a child about a stray dog that

would help people in need. I think it was called The Littlest Hobo. Believing

that I must have seen this show, she sang the theme tune to me hoping to jog my

memory. I've never seen this show. However, I now have the little bit of the

tune that my wife sang stuck in my head. My internal jukebox has even

extrapolated on the theme somewhat to fill in the blanks from my wife's

performance, thus supplying a snappy bass accompaniment. Fantastic. I only

know one line of lyrics, and I'm gonna hear that in my head all day.

Mar. 18, 2010: The bass line that appears towards the end of "Smallpox

Champion" (Fugazi).

Mar. 17, 2010: "I Will Survive" (Gloria Gaynor).

Mar. 15, 2010: "1963" (New Order).

Mar. 7, 2010: "Remedy" (Little Boots).

Mar. 6, 2010: "Midnight Train to Georgia" (Gladys Knight and the Pips).

Mar. 3, 2010: "Mathematics" (Little Boots).

Mar. 2, 2010: "Oh Oh I Love Her So" (Ramones) and "Thunderstruck" (AC/DC).

Today was a good day.

Mar. 1, 2010: "Gold" (Spandau Ballet). This is torture!

Feb. 28, 2010: "Evil" (Interpol).

Feb. 26, 2010: "Panama" (Van Halen). Apparently, this song is about a car.

Feb. 25, 2010: The bass line from "Groove is in the Heart" (Deee-Lite).

Infectious!

Feb. 24, 2010: "In My Arms" (Kylie). I blame my wife for this.

Feb. 23, 2010: "Goodbye Horses" (Q Lazzarus) and "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vita" (Iron

Butterfly). I was clearly stuck on a serial-killer-movies theme that day.

Feb. 7, 2010: "Little Red Corvette" (Prince).

Feb. 1, 2010: "Jump" (Van Halen).

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of "ear worms". I often get songs stuck in my head for hours, sometimes days. It can drive me crazy, especially when I only know a fragment of the song and it is that little bit that keeps going through my head all day. I often find myself finger-drumming on whatever surface is nearby to the tune, sometimes so emphatically that my wife can figure out what tune it is by my drumming, and by knowing what I've been listening to lately!

The worst time of my life for ear worms was about ten years ago when I worked as a recording engineer at a small local studio in Boston. When working on an album, sound engineers often are required to listen to the song they are recording on a loop for ten to twelve hours each day. It can get quite maddening. Especially when you notice a mistake, and after listening to the song hundreds of times, that mistake starts to sound right.

I found that the best way to deal with ear worms was to purge them -- just listen to the song that is stuck in my head until it goes away, like an itch that needs to be scratched. This page contains a list of the songs that have been stuck in my head. I thought I might keep a record of them. Maybe this will help to purge them? Maybe I'll find a pattern? Maybe I'll just discover that I have really bad taste.

Looking over my list so far, I find it surprising how many songs get stuck in my head that I don't actually like. That's a worry. It is also odd that so many of these are songs that I have not heard in years. Often, what gets stuck in my head is triggered by a TV commercial or something on a film soundtrack. But there are many on this list that seem to have just popped into my head for no identifiable reason.

One possible avenue to explore is whether there is some connection between the songs that happen to get stuck in a listerner's head most frequently. Given that so many pop songs are based on the same chord structure, could it be that the songs that get stuck in my head often have some such formal similarity? (If you don't believe that pop songs are based on the same chord structure, watch this video of the Axis of Awesome.)