Sunday, March 1, 2015

Today was one of those annoying days when I get a song stuck in my head and can’t get rid of it.  I had to look up an address and it ended up being on South Street.  Well I couldn’t resist a couple of bars of “Meet me on South Street” by the Orlons, I believe.  I even had to go on line and look up the lyrics because I couldn’t remember why it was the best street.  “To have a ball with you.”  How suggestive was that to a teenage girl in the 60’s?

I have been told that the German’s have a word for this brain problem.  I looked it up and ended up finding out that we call this phenomenon an ear worm or a brain worm.  The German word is Ohrwurm.  I was so ticket.  I wanted it to be something like oberstickterobesquedom.  I love German don’t you?  It is just such a puzzle and I love puzzles.

I ended up reading the Wikipedia page for ear worm.  I couldn’t believe all the stuff written about it.  I thought I was the only one who did this.

It seems that Poe wrote a story called the Imp of the Perverse about ear worms.  I have got to look that one up and read it.

Twain also must have been bothered by ear worms because he has a story entitle, A Literary Nightmare. Another one I must look up.

Wikipedia suggests that people with OCD are more prone to ear worms.  Well that sure isn’t me!  (One who had to look up the German word for ear worm.)

My biggest hoot was that Sponge Bob Square Pants had an episode about the subject matter.  I have never seen this show but now I must.

The article went on to say in judgment, by I forget whom, Queen’s “We are the Champions” is the worse song for ear worms.

I don’t know if you have even stayed awake at night singing “Afternoon Delight”; when in fact you don’t like the song nor did you have a copy or have ever request it to be played but that is truly annoying.

The night I tossed and turned around singing “The Star Spangled Banner” was one where I thought I might just beat my head against the wall.

My remedy for beating this obsession is to get up and read.  Or go listen to a song I at least like.  In the middle of the night it is not nice to play music while others are sleeping and I can’t find my headphones.  More times than once I have gotten up to read and read a line that caused me to start singing a different and even more annoying song in my head.

I once told a therapist that I sang songs at night and drove myself nuts.  She thought I meant that I was singing them aloud.  Would that be something?  I stayed all night with my father once after my mom died and he sang all night long.  It drove me nuts and I never stayed in the house again.  To make it even worse he sang spirituals.  It is a wonder his neighbors never complained.  Perhaps they were all saved by his nocturnal habits.


And to all of you out there with OCD that have ear worms I leave you with…Delta Dawn what’s that flower you have on…  OMG!


I didn't know what to post as a photo so i chose a bigass pile of cabbage rolls.  Now I want one.

1 comment:

  1. My list of ear worm songs goes like this:
    Candy Man by Sammy Davis, Jr.
    You Light Up My Life, Debby Boone
    Achy Breaky Heart, by Miley's dad
    A few months ago after my husband's death, I found myself thinking that I wished that I could start all over again on my life with him & that led me to the lyrics from a song from Jesus Christ Superstar (one of the few mutual favorite musicals that he & I shared) Could We Start Again Please? To me that was a good ear worm - it expresses so much the feeling that I had & could not express in words. Music just buries itself in our brain & comes out in these ear worm moments, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete