Since posting my piece on tunes that get stuck in your head I have been amazed to discover that it is a well-known phenomenon and, like all the best minor mental disorders, there's a German word to describe it: Ohrwurm (literally Earworm)
There's an entry in Wikipedia. People have even written academic papers and newspaper articles on the subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/jun/22/popandrock
http://www.business.uc.edu/earworms
The last site describes 'cutting-edge earworm research' being carried out at the University of Cincinnati and even offers a virtual clinic outlining useful strategies for getting a song unstuck (from which I derived a grain of consolation in seeing my own remedy listed)
Which all goes to show that whatever you can possibly imagine it already exists somewhere on the internet.
Lizt's Hungarian Rhapsody - you lucky, lucky b*****d! Joe Simpson crawled down a mountain with a broken everything and Boney M's "Brown girl in the ring" looping round and round in his ears. For me it's usually Agadoo, by Black Lace - Lizt's Hungarian Rhapsody? .....ooooh
ReplyDeleteI didn't think think I knew Agadoo, so I checked it out on Spotify and now I'm wishing I hadn't.
ReplyDeleteDamn!
It's going to be one of those tunes that only the Beverly Hillbillies theme song can shift.