Top 3 songs that get stuck in your head...

[Maddy McCall]

Poll question: Top 3 songs that get stuck in your head...

Top Three Songs that get Stuck in Your Head:

According to http://portal.compuserve.com/gatewaynet/menu/ the top three songs are listed below.

VOTE FIRST, and then CHECK MY POST AT RESPONSE NUMBER ONE to see the order as voted on by John and Jane Q Public. Let's see if DU's voting public in any way resembles the general public.

I didn't include an "other" category, but if you would like to elaborate (and discuss how much these three suck) then feel free :-) .

[Maddy McCall]

1. The answers:

1. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
2. "Baby Back Ribs" jingle from Chili's Restaurant
3. "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

Call it the playlist from hell. But the real No. 1 song that gets stuck in our heads is different for each of us, according to University of Cincinnati marketing professor James Kellaris. He's done so much research on this odd and annoying phenomenon that he has coined a term for it: earworm.

snip/

Stuck songs have these traits in common:

They are relatively simple.
They are repetitive.
They contain an element that surprises the listener, such as an interrupted pattern or something that violates expectations of what comes next.
The most common culprits are songs with lyrics.
They stay stuck in our heads for a few hours on average.

There is no cure, but these treatments sometimes will work to rid your brain of the repetitive earworm:

Don't worry about it. (If you take this advice, just don't listen to Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" or you're sure to trade one stuck song for another.)
Listen to different music.
Distract yourself with another activity.
Try singing the entire song--and not just the snippet that's stuck in your head--even if you can't quite remember all the lyrics.
If that doesn't work, go find the forgotten lyrics. Kellaris theorizes earworm is the brain's attempt to resolve missing information. By finding out the complete lyrics to a song, you might be able to "unstick" it.
Erase the offending song by singing the theme from "Gilligan's Island." (We have no idea why this would work, but if you're desperate...)
There's even a folklore cure: Chew on cinnamon sticks.

More at: http://portal.compuserve.com/gatewaynet/menu

[On the Road]

4. For Me, It Would be A Tie Among About 25 Songs

all by "They Might be Giants".

I've never heard a band write songs that are so difficult to get out of your head. Even if they have the stupidest lyrics and sound like advertising jingles sung by an 8th-grade geek, they are impossible to get rid of. They would include, but are not limited to:

Mr. Me ("..yo, yo, yo...yo, yo, yo...")
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Whistling in the Dark ("A man came up to me and said 'I'd like to change your mind/By hitting it with a rock' he said though I am not unkind")
She's Actual Size ("Words fail, buildings tumble, the groung opens wide...")
Dinner Bell Ring ("I don't want a pizza, I don't want a piece of peanut brittle...")
Nightgown of the Sullen Moon ("Fell in the door and you fell on the floor...")
Snail Shell ("I want to thank you for putting me back in my")
South Carolina ("Crash my bicycle...")
I Hit My Head ("I was unsupervised, I had a real good time, until I...")
Spiraling Shape ("The spiraling shape will make you go insane")
James K Polk ("In 1844 the Democrats were split...")

TNBG are truly champs of the earworm.

[wyldwolf]

2. Ballad of Jed Clampitt (Beverly Hillbillies)

I have a really bad habit of taking those words and putting them to other tunes.

Rock. pop. christmas songs. I've even rapped it.

[Ilsa]

3. Der Meistersinger (Wagner)

Can't help it sometimes. If I could just get to the end of the Overture.

[ironflange]

5. At least it's not the entire Ring

That baby'll kill the whole day.