That Tune In Your Head

I’d like to know why this happens, but I wouldn’t even know how to get Google to spit out the truth. What do you search for?

Ever get a song caught in your head? I asked this question of some friends plus the one spouse I have here at home, and found this is a universal experience.

It’s also universally annoying.

The way it works for me is, a small portion of a song (what we used to call the hook when I was in radio) repeats and repeats and repeats. There’s no rhyme or reason or trigger that I can think of. It just happens.

Yesterday it was Gary Lewis and the Playboy’s immortal “Sure Gonna Miss Her.” All I got was the first seven seconds – the bridge to vocal. There’s a very nice Spanish guitar riff played twice in this little segment. That’s not enough to be a mitigating factor.

I’d like to know why this happens, but I wouldn’t even know how to get Google to spit out the truth. What do you search for?

Maybe more importantly, can it be stopped?

5 thoughts on “That Tune In Your Head”

  1. Thanks. I really didn’t know where to start.

    My favorite quote from the BBC – “Researchers have previously argued that catchy songs work by causing a “brain itch” that can only be scratched by repeating the tune.”

    So, I have a Gary Lewis brain itch. My life is now complete!

  2. My remedy has always been to listen to just 5 or 10 seconds of a song that I LIKE, then turn it off. Usually the new song will replace the old one. If I’m going to have a song bouncing around in my head, at least it’ll be one that I like.

  3. That happens to me at least once a day! Usually it’s the chorus that gets stuck in my head.

    I find that listening to the song usually does it for me. Of course it’s kind of torturous when something gets stuck in your head at the beginning of a work shift and you have to wait until 11 to go out to your car and find it on your iPod and crank it on the way home.

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