Ear worm

Yesterday I woke up and an old friend had said in facebook "I'm getting married in the morning". Immediately I got that song from My Fair Lady going around in my head, "Ding, dong the bells are gonna chime!"... Also my grandpa used to sing that song quite often so it's really been burnt into the synapses. After 8 hours it had worn a bit thin.

This morning I heard Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty and thought oboyoboy wouldn't it be great if I got this song in my head today, but no, it's never the song you want, in fact an ear worm is by its very nature an unwanted tune. You can't will it into existence.

Tonight, I had one of those weird phenomena which I will call the obscure double earworm - or ODE.  I had a song in my head where, on the tip of my mind I could hear a vocal tone, and then a backing vocal hook line and no words at all for ages. After about half an hour of looking at the shape of the song in my mind and singing the line out loud, I got two words: He's racing... I went on Soundhound and tried singing the backing vocal, nothing close. Then I searched on the two words 'he's racing' in Soundhound, and I found something! It was ' the distance' by Cake.

I listened to the song in You Tube. Okay, that was definitely the vocal I was hearing, but it didn't have my backing vocal line. What the dickens was that tune?!!

Suddenly I heard the words. 'I want a girl with a short skirt and a looong jacket.' That's it, by Cake! O frabjous day!

Well, I must say, that meme arrived apropos of nothing...