Warning: reading today’s blog entry may just ruin your day.
This morning, the cheerful host on my local NPR station announced, “It’s been 40 years since Rupert Holmes topped the Billboard chart with ‘The Piña Colada Song’. This was simply an act of cruelty, as far as I’m concerned. Is it just me, or will you now be singing that stupid, annoying, ridiculous song, “If you like Piña Coladas, and getting’ caught in the rain…” ALL DAY LONG? I switched the radio off, but it was too late.
Singing a song in your head all day has an official designation: “Involuntary Musical Imagery”. You and I know it as an “earworm”.
I am plagued daily by this affliction, and I gotta say whoever penned the term“earworm” is a master describer. These songs simply will not go away. And it seems the more annoying the song, the greater it’s staying power, an excellent example of which involves the aforementioned “Piña Colada”.
Sometimes my husband will say, “I’ve got a song that I just cannot get out of my head. Do you want to know what it is?” I plead with him not to pass on this little earworm, because if he does, it is sure to stick around. He is usually kind enough not to share. But then I hear him humming the musical riff to “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple. If you don’t know what I am talking about, be glad. If you want to be reminded, and believe me, you don’t, click here: Smoke on the Water Riff
My husband favors earworms from the ‘70’s.
An earworm is bad enough, but an earworm for which I do not know the lyrics is even worse. Case in point: the song “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo, which has tremendous staying power, but I simply cannot figure it out. In my head I sing (over and over), “Huh huh huh, Minnesota Vikings”. Since it helps to know what is playing in the loop in my head, I actually look up the lyrics online, which are: “Fresh photos with the bomb lighting, New man on the Minnesota Vikings”. Here is that video: Truth Hurts by Lizzo
If you haven’t got a good enough supply of earworms of your own, here are some suggestions, straight out of my brain:
· Any song by Barry Manilow. “Copacabana” anyone?
· Any song by ABBA. Any song. As a public service to my readers, I will not mention any title.
· “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. Another song for which the lyrics remain elusive. Then there is “Bad Romance” and “Alejandro” by the same singer. Don’t even get me started. Please.
· “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé. HUGE earworm power and, again, the somewhat elusive lyrics.
· Most any Taylor Swift song, which I don’t mind having stuck in my head. I love Taylor Swift. But 5 hours of T-Swift? I don’t like anyone that much.
So, all I’ve done is annoy you, I know. I’ve passed on some of my most annoying earworms, and I’m sure you have many you would like to pass back to me. Thanks, but no thanks.
My sister unwittingly helped me empty my head of Taylor’s “Shake it Off” the other day while we were chatting on the phone. She happened to mention that she was going to see a live production of the musical “Mamma Mia”.
Oh man. “Mamma Mia, here I go again…”