Ear Worm/Music/XYZ

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Y

• Nikki Yanofsky's I Believe, the anthem of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium managed to get this song stuck in the head of nearly every Canadian during the Games by creating an instrumental version to play at the end of each commercial break. The conclusion of each break was announced with: DUHDUHDA DA DUHDUH DA / DUHDUHDA DUH DA DAAAAAA! / DUHDUHDA DA DUHDUH DA / BUH DUHDUH DUHDUHDUHDUHDUHDUH DADADA!! However, the song seemed to simply disappear from the heads of everyone, along with the rest of the Olympic spirit, following the closing of the Games at the beginning of March.
• Chacarron Macarron by La Yanta is so strange and senselessly atonal, it becomes impossibly catchy.
  • Why...why would you do such a thing...For crying out loud, I just stopped reacting to that a year ago...
• Yes:
  • I'll be the roundabout/The words will maaaake you out n' out...
  • HEAD IIIIIIINNNNNTO THE HEADLIGHT! DON'T TUUUUUUUURN FROM THE RAIN!
  • Owner of a lonely heart... owner of a lonely heart...
• Yello - Oh Yeah. Chicka-chickaaaa.
• Yellow Magic Orchestra's Rydeen. Heck, anything by YMO.
• You Me At Six's Bite My Tongue. YOU KEEP ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT.
  • Hell, most of the songs on their Sinners Never Sleep album fit this trope.

Z

• Frank Zappa:
  • "Catholic Girls". The perfect combination of repetitive lyrics and a catchy tune ensures that it gets stuck in my head whenever I so much as think about it.
  • Oh man, you think Catholic Girls is an earworm? Well, let me tell you something. Don't know much about dancin', that's why I got this song. One of my legs is shorter than the other and both of my feets too long...
  • "Jewish Princess" and "Bobby Brown Goes Down" may be offensive to some people's tastes, but they are not offensive to anybody's ears.
  • The instrumentals are often as infectious: here are "Eat That Question" and "Peaches en Regalia".
• In the Year 2525 by duo Zager and Evans. The cadence of the lyrics combined with dark imagery of the future is unusual, particularly for a pop song of the 1960s.
• I feel it work, you know, I feel it in bed. Can't get The Zutons' "Pressure Point" outta my head...
• Norwegian singer Bertine Zetlitz:
  • Some of her songs are kinda catchy, for example her single "Girl like you". (Magical, mystical, life's a ball, never had a girl like you...)
  • Another of my favourites is another one of her singles, "Twisted little star". (Will you still remember, twisted little star, darker shining, silently surrender, twisted little smile, twisted's gonna last a while...)
• Jay-Z: "In New York, the concrete jungle where dreams are made, there's nothin you can't do..."
• Zapp & Roger: "MORE BOUNCE... TO THE OUNCE"
• ZZ Top: "Slip insde my sleeping bag..."

Unsorted

• That stupid barking-dog Jingle Bells that every half-assed radio station feels they have to whip out every Christmas.
  • It's worse than that. Jingle Cats was the original. And it's just cats meowing Christmas themes. And they tend to be bigger Ear Worms than the songs they're based on. They even have their own Youtube account.
• If you live in Recife, then this song will never leave your head.
  • Vem minha gatinha, venha meu amor, venha minha amaaaaada! Vamos fazer amor em cima da caasa!!
  • While we're in Brazil, "Eu Quero Ver o Oco" by hardcore band Raimundos manages to be heavy and catchy.
• I have no idea where this goes, but it's the Ear Worm that has lead a REIGN OF TERROR on my school, and it must be brought to public attention: "Frére Jacques, frére Jacques, Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong." Especially as I suck at French and don't know the words, I'm just making sounds. I copied that from The Other Wiki.
• Anything from the "Wall of Sound" of The Fifties and The Sixties. Phil Spector knew what he was doing before even while he went was going insane. On reading Volume 4 of Monster, where a villain took his nickname from "Be My Baby", that song refused to leave my head. That was just from a mention of the damn thing!
  • "Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley long enough, ain't no river wide enough..."
• Dutch novelty hit "Er staat een paard in de gang" ("There's a horse in the hall") has been stuck in my head for the past month. I'm now trying to drive it out forcibly. With Benny Lava.
  • Let me stick another one in there: "Ziet 'em goan, ziet 'em goan, me zen basketsloefkes oan" (To much dialect and to... 'strange' to put it in English)
• Pick a song from the 80s. ANY song. Doubly so if IT'S a one hit wonder.
• "I always flirt with death..." Its been in my head for MONTHS. Yes, all of it. Even the guitar solo? ESPECIALLY the guitar solo.
• "Banana Man", by Tally Hall. You're welcome.

Do you see banana man / hopping jumping 'cross the white-hot sand? / Here he come with some for me / freshly pick'd from banana tree.

• • Speaking of, it's peanut-butter jelly time!
• I, for reasons unknown to myself, get abrasive drum n' bass stuck in my head. A few examples: Aphex Twin's Ventolin, Venetian Snare's Mutant Cunt Sniffer, and Squarepusher's Steinbolt.
  • Speaking of Venetian Snares, Bebikukorica Nigiri has been stuck in my head lately.
• Looking for the Perfect Beat. Beat-beat-beat-beat... DO DO DO DO DO! * SLAM* DO DO DO DO...'
• Time. Time, Time... TIME! TIME TO UNDER-STAND THE HORROR!!
• "Insomnia" by the lesser-known band Lou and Peter Berryman is both about these and one of these (if only because of repetition). Although the full effect can't be experienced without hearing the song at least once, go ahead and look at the lyrics (under "Content")
• Oh, Mandy, oh, Mandy, so killing, oh, Mandy...
• Ever find yourself singing Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot days after you played it? Despite the fact that you can't make out if the lyrics are words or merely odd sound combinations?
• Oooh, aaah, oooh, aaah, oooh, aaah, get, get, get away, now...
• "Spanish Flea" is a classic Ear Worm.
• Ejo, Captain Jack! (Ejo, Captain Jack!) Bring me back to the railroad track! (Bring me back to the railroad track!)
  • When Radioactive Zombie was in Sea Cadet boot camp, this was the battalion-wide earworm. Put that rifle in my hand...'
• Japanese music as a whole for me. Really. She doesn't care that she can't understand most of it, it just won't leave her freakin' head.
• Koumi Hirose (of Cardcaptor Sakura fame) has one from her song titled "Promise". It's named 'Geddan'... because it starts at the refrain with the words "GET! DOWN!". This is one Touhou-related example.
• Daite Senorita, Yamashita Tomohisa. I have lost count of how many times its played in my head. Damn good song, though.
  • Also by Yamashita Tomohisa and Kamenashi Kazuya is their song as the temporary J-pop duo Shuji to Akira, known as Seishun Amigo. I have had it stuck on repeat in my head for 3 years now, to the point where it has become a mental screensaver.
• If you can manage not to get Mayonaka no Shadow Boy by Hey! Say! JUMP stuck in your head, I commend you for being the pretty much the only one.
• I defy anyone to listen to Kitto Daijoubu by Arashi all the way through and not end up with it stuck in their heads
  • Same goes for Sakura Sake.
    • Not to mention Matsumoto Jun's Yabai-Yabai-Yabai.
• Morning Musume, "Happy Summer Wedding" "Ba-da-pa-da, ba-da-pa-da, ba-da-pa-da-pa-pa, hai!"
• Oh, it hit me long before that. For that matter, a lot of surfing music is this way. Just look at Misirlou (used as the title of Pulp Fiction) and Soy Bomb (used in Guitar Hero). Surf music seems to eat and breathe this trope...
  • EVERYBODY'S GONE SURFING! Surfin' USA.
    • Ah-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA Wipeout!
      • SHIPOOPI, SHIPOOPI, SHIPOOPI! THE GIRL WHO'S HARD TO GET!
• Scandal: "Shooting at the walls of heartache, bang! bang! I am the warrior..."
• Hey, Eugene, remember me?
• I somehow managed to get Venus in Furs and Red Barchetta earworm-alurmadingdonged in my head AT THE SAME TIME. Yeah, beat that.
• "In the good old summertime, in the good old summertime, strolling through the shady lines with your baby mine..." A (very) oldie, but a classic.
• DVNO/four capital letters/printed in gold/'cause details make the girls sweat/even more... So far it's been three weeks, and is showing no signs of leaving any time soon.
• O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!
• The beat that my heart skipped sounded like this, BOM-BOM-BOM-BADY-lllaaaaaa-BADY-lawdy-LAWDY-laaaaa...
  • Thou shall not make repetitive, generic music.
• For some reason, Dan Fogelberg's "Run For The Roses" (a sweet, pretty, Tear Jerker ballad about the life of a Kentucky Derby racehorse): "Born in the valley/And raised in the trees/Of western Kentucky/On wobbly knees/With Mama beside you to help you along,/You'll soon be a-growin' up strong..."
• This accursed song is the most annoying song known to humanity. Years after first hearing it, I am still possessed with the urge to break out screaming "MY BOYFRIEND! HE LOVES ME! HE LOVES ME VERY MUCH! MY BOYFRIEND! HE'S SPECIAL! WE ALWAYS KEEP IN TOUCH! HE'S FUNNY! MY HONEY! HE LOVES ME VERY MUCH! MY BOYFRIEND, SO FINE!". This gets me REALLY weird looks. I may be gay, but it's really not helping his attempts to stay in the closet.
• "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes..."
• "DotA" by Basshunter. "Vi sittar har i venten, och spelar lite DotA..."
  • "Boten Anna". "Jag känner en bot. Hon heter Anna. Anna heter hon..."
• Speaking of asking for your attention: "BOOM! Do ya want it? BOOM! Do ya need it? BOOM! Let me hear it! Ladies and Gentlemen!"
  • Also: "BOOM! Here comes the BOOM! Ready or not!"
• "Under my skin, there's a fire burning, deep down inside there is loooove..." Though not so much that part as the Stupid Statement Dance Mix opening, which sounds so like nothing on Earth that when I first heard it, I initially assumed it to be a J-pop song. (The fact that it was paired with anime pictures didn't help.)
• Old Zakk Wylde's song has a very catchy banjo intro.
• That boy needs therapy. Tell me Frontier Psychiatrist isn't the biggest earmworm ever?
• Runnin through the monsoon, beyond the world...
  • For that matter, the obnoxious talk show host's parody of it ... I can't seem to find a link.
  • This gets really irritating with Tokio Hotel when you listen to some of their early German work from back when they were younger, because you can't sing along because you can't pronounce the words.
• While we're going international, we can't neglect this beauty by Versailles. That guitar will never leave.
• This. And it's got a horrible name, to boot.
• O Fortuna from Orff's "Carmina Burana."
• An absolutely nonsensical little work-song-turned-campfire-ditty that I have heard spelled at least two different ways. Here is a high-school choir singing it.
• "Je Veux te Voir" by YELLE (NSFW, especially for the bilingual).
• For me there are quite a few country music songs that are like this, including but not limited to the following
  • Why Haven't I Heard From You (1994)
  • Bop (1985)
  • Gonna Take A Lot Of River (1987)
• Sugar, do do do do do do, oh, honey honey.
• "Give Me Just A Little More Time" by The Chairmen Of The Board is enough of an earworm on it's own, but The Spinto Band's cover turns it into three earworms at once by combining it with "Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani and "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy, both of which share the same chords.
• I find that songs with "na na na" hooks get stuck in his head a lot, such as Hey Jude, Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, Land of a Thousand Dances, Centerfold, Katamari on the Rocks, E-Pro, Hush...
• L'Arlesienne: Prelude (sorry, the sound quality isn't the best)
• Kuutamolla The phrase 'Se ei mee pois', is Finnish for 'It won't go away'.
• Cadence calls. Those lovely little ditties that people in the armed forces run (sorry, double-time) to. Simple, repetitive, with motivating and/or amusing lyrics - in other words, the perfect earworms.
  • "Everywhere We Go" (most of you know it as the stadium song from Remember The Titans)
  • "My Grandmama Was 91"
  • "Ain't No Use In Looking Down"
• Almost anything by Röyksopp. Their latest track, "Happy Up Here", is especially addictive (and the music video rocks too).
  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY...
• "William Howard Taft". Luckily it can be cured by being infected by a different song.
• The Deep Dance 50 - 55 minutes of 90s dance megamix (incorporating many of the earworms mentioned above). Add to that a similarly awesome AMV and you get Animix.
• Windmills Of Your Mind lampshades itself.
• The Popcorn Song found here. I find this ear worm useful to blocking out other ear worms.
• I am a Gummy Bear! In multiple languages, too!
• Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, "Thou Shalt Always Kill". Contains a Lampshade Hanging with "Thou shalt not make repetitive, generic music" - repeated four times.
• And we can build this dream forever/standing strong forever/nothing's gonna stop us now...
• "Let the bodies hit the floor...let the bodies hit the floor...let the bodies hit the floor...let the bodies hit the...* ching ching* ...FLOOOOORRRRR..." Used as the theme for about a gazillion wrestling pay-per-views...
• Ai yai yai, I'm your little butterfly. Green, black, and blue make the colors in the sky...
• A disturbing number of chiptunes are highly ear wormy, if you're in to that sort of thing. Examples of ear worms are:
  • Dma-SC's Visitors from Dreams, from Darwinia
  • Most songs by Anamanaguchi, particularly Power Supply.
  • Trash80's B(a)it and Switch.
• Demoscene music tends to have its share of Ear Worms, too.
• Mekon/Röyksopp's Please Stay remix/Don't Go, sometimes played at TV sporting event football venues.
  • or mostly anything by Röyksopp for that matter: Eple (which was used as an Apple start up) and Happy Up There
  • How about Remind Me (cuse you Geico!)
• I have loads of these:
  • Probably a lesser known example, but "Right About Now! The Funk Soul Brother!"
    • Damn that song and Digimon for throwing it into their movie. I still dig out the soundtrack to that bloody thing to listen to all the Ear worms on it.
  • Crazy Frog's version of Axel F
  • The parade theme from Paprika, of all things. Here it is in ITS terrifying(ly addictive) glory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4doHF0dIuh0
• "If I Only Had a Brain" by MC 900ft Jesus. Not even Beavis & Butt-Head could resist it.
• Fantastic Cat. The sheer weirdness, and pidgin English lyrics make it even more so.
• Feeeeeeed my fiii-iiiire, let me put some dust on your fa-ace. Even non-German speakers are affected by Eisbrecher.
• "Living in the limelight, the universal dream, for those who wish to see..."
• Several of Dong Bang Shin Ki's songs (both the Korean and Japanese ones) are pretty persistant Ear Worms. Some of the best examples are Mirotic (Woah~oh~oh!), Rising Sun (RISING SUUUUUUUUUUUN!), Wrong Number, Triangle, Hug, Hey!(Don't bring me down), and Survivor (oh gods, I can't stop singing "Ima daremo ga Sur~vi~v~o~r!")
• I don't want to talk to you, I just want bang bang bang! I don't want to know your name, I just want bang bang bang! I don't want to meet your mom, I just want bang bang bang!
• "I know it's up for me, if you steal my sunshine!" For me, it's largely just the chorus, the looped sample of "More More More", and, for some reason, the line "L-A-T-E-R that week", but that arguably makes it worse.
• THIS!!! "Caipirinha, caipirinha..."
• "It's no surprise to me, I am my own worst enemy. 'Cause every now and then I kick the livin' shit outta me."
• Faggoty Attention by Adam Joseph. It repeats in your head over and over and over and over again.
• I'm your Tamagotchi, so happy that you love me, and we should be together, forever and forever!
• They call us problem child, We spent our lives on trials, WE ARE THE YOUTH GONE WILD
• I can't say no to you/Shouldn't let you torture me so sweetly...
• Wanna Bop With You Baby/Wanna Be-Bop with you till the break of day
• Gonna take a lot of river to keep this broken heart afloat/Gonna take a lot of river all the live long day/ Gonna take the Mississippi, the Monongahela and the Ohio/Gonna take a lot of river to wash these blues away
• But you don't want me any more, how can it be? Look what you've done to me! Oh, oh!
• Jozin! Z bazin!
  • Oh, there's even a metal cover (by Dawid Mika).
• Why! Do! You! Build me up (build me up), buttercup, baby, just to let me down (let me down) and jerk me around?
  • While we're on the Motown kick, how about "Heat Wave"?
• Push it to the limit!
• Marlene watches from the wall, her mocking smile says it all, she records the rise and fall of every soldier passing. But the only soldier now is me, I'm fighting things I cannot see, I think it's called my destiny but I am changing. Marlene on the wall.
• Dragostea Din Tei, better known as Numa Numa. Full feckin' stop.
• Fight the Power! Fight the power, fight the power! Fight the power, fight the power! Fight the power! We got to fight the powers that be!
  • WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME!
• Daisy Bell. Why, oh why is this song so catchy?! I've had it running in my head for a long while now. If it keeps up... I'm going to go insane... My mind is going... I can feel it...
• The guitar riff underlying Creme's "Politician".
  • Speaking of Ear Worm-y riffs, how about the diabolical guitar in "Plug in Baby"?
• Biffy Clyro's Mountains is one. Toss up between the chorus of "I AM A MOUNTAIN, I AM THE SEA, YOU CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!!!" or the bit after the second chorus with the cool piano in the background; "Cos you tear us apart / With all the things you don't like / You can't understand / That I won't leave / 'Til we're finished here / And then you'll find out / Where it all went wrong." I can't stop hearing it several times a day, starting from waking up in the morning. Even after hearing it on loop hundreds of times and learning how to play the guitar parts and sing the lead vocals at the same time, also on loop. It would be Nightmare Fuel if it weren't for the fact that I still love the song and thinks it is one of the best rock tracks ever made.
• ...everyday i'm hustlin...
• La noche me sirve de savana
• Nadie como tu
• Entra al cuarto....Suvele el volumen al radio.
• Body count's in da house
• ...Hungeeeer...
• ...come with me...
• Cool for Cats. DAMN YOU, SQUEEZE!
• Those who have heard the Ievan Polka know what I am talking about when I say "HELP!!!"
• Mistabishi - "Printer Jam". Built around the screeching sound of a dot-matrix printer.
• Musician El Guincho is very fond of these, exhibits A and B: Guincho/_/Antillas here and Guincho/_/Kalise here
• The band The Illuminoids has the tendency to mashup earworms TOGETHER, which tends to make them even catchier. Which is somewhat amusing when they mix the rolling stones, nirvana, and some recent hip-hop song together.
• I don't know about y'all, but I'm beginning to regret him ever getting a brand new pigbag
• For Flemish tropers: Samson en Gert songs. Especially their earlier ones. "Dit is de Samsonrock/De Samsonrock/die dansen alle honden in hun hondenhok!"
• The daughtry's 'I got over you' don't have a link to the song but damn if those chorus lyrics don't stick in your head.
• Sweet little bumblebee, I know what you want from me (doot doo doo doo doo da da)
• "I always turn the car around..."
• The abominable "Scotty Doesn't Know" has haunted me. I do not like heavily sexual music in most cases, especially when it's that descriptive and it's about cheating. This led to some uncomfortable moments.
  • I understand that opinion, but after seeing this Star Trek vid, can find nothing but lols anymore.
• "This flea is you and I, it's a bad thing, but a little thing, but a little thing..."
  • From the same group: "Electronics, electronics, moving with light..."
• Say what you will about Ice-T's notorious song Cop Killer, but once you've heard it...."COP KILLAH! Bettah you than MEEE! COP KILLAH! FUCK POLICE BRUTALITY!" It just won't freakin' leave!
• Any project involving Mike Patton that isn't Faith No More (or maybe Peeping Tom) doesn't seem like a likely source for earworms, but then somehow there's the Madness Mantra style chorus of Tomahawk's "Laredo": "The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river! The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river!"
• YOU'RE A SHARK
• Cause I'm Real! (The way you walk, the way you move the way you talk)
• Any of the songs from the musical adaption of Reefer Madness. Oh, good lord. That movie is One Ear Worm after another.
• I'd like to nominate EXEC_PAJA/.#Misya extracting. I think it's a great song, but do you know how annoying it is to have a song stuck in your head when you can't even understand the language it's sung in? For over a month? With no sign of it leaving any time soon?
• Stamp On the Ground is certainly ear-worm worthy. Listen to it all the way through twice, and try to deny it.
• Dui mian de nu hai kan guo lai, KAN GUO LAAAIIII
• Breaker one-nine, this here's Rubber Duck...
• Star Trekkin'
• Sway, sway baby, you're so audio! Kill your boyfriend, we could be together! Damn you Short Stack, damn you...
• Dunno if this is already on here but: WE LIKE TO PAHTY! WE LIKE, WE LIKE TO PAHTY!
• I have recently discovered the Ear Worm A Glorious Dawn
• Canadian Artists are particularly horrible about this. Besides Moe Clark and Nelly Furtado, listed above, main offenders here.
  • Gimme Sympathy by Metric has lived in my head for days, and it's my most played song on iTunes.
  • 1 2 3 4 by Feist. Oh lord. Good luck if this gets in there.
  • "And I'm here, to remind you of the cross I bear that you gave to me... you, you, you, oughta know!"
• Pretty much any song that repeats the same words over and over again. Example, "The Space Between" by Dave Matthews. Bonus points if the repeated words are NOT the song title. Example, "Some People" "If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys.
• What's that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monsteeeeeeeer?
• "What the hell am I doing Drinking in LA at twenty-six...?"
• Songs from childhood like:
  • John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
  • I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee
  • Found a Peanut
• We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful. Am I the only one who thinks this is cursedly catchy? It was so catchy just reading this page today it randomly popped into my head. I have no idea why.
• I'm bringing Paxil back.
• Katyusha. What? There's a reason it's one of the two (or three, if you want to count Korobeiniki) most-recognisably Russian songs that exist.
• White Army, Black Baron 'nuff said.
• Living miles, miles away from Denmark apparently doesn't prevent you from staying awake 24 hours just because you keep hearing Der- Der- Der party i provinseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!! in your head.
• Any sort of classic western ditty. Clementine ("Oh my darlin, oh my darlin, oh my darlin Clementine! You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine!") and "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad" are particularly catchy.
  • Two Sisters (at least the Clannad version) also counts. It doesn't help that it's so morbid...
• The Song of the Volga Boatmen is a Russian folk song that's become synonymous for laborous toiling and the Red Scare alike, though cases of the latter have nosedived since the end of the cold war.
• For Russian and Non-Russian Tropers alike: I dare you to get "Bird of Happiness" ("Птица Счастья") out of your head. I DARE you.
  • Also "Vologda" (Вологда) has this effect as well. (Skip to about 0:55 for the actual song)
  • PONPONPON by きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ consists of one line being repeated over and over, but extremely catchy.
• can't believe one of the all-time most annoying Ear Worms hasn't been mentioned... aaaa-gaaaa-doo doo doo, push pineapple shake the tree...