Songs That Stick In Your Head

Inspired as usual by the Smoking Christian, I have compiled a short list of songs that stick in your head. A strange but frequent phenomenon, songs that stick in your head affect everyone.

Why does this occur? I suppose it has something to do with the song itself. Repetitive and stupidly simple seems to be two common characteristics. Also they are played/sung ad nauseam by DJs and church choirs. You hear them a lot.

Everyone has developed a technique for avoiding them. I have mine. First I eliminate the source (this is difficult when in church), then I start humming an equally obnoxious tune from the list below and finally I sing the Ave Maria at the top of my lungs until purged.

Here is my list. (You’ll note that I have avoided advertising jingles like “You deserve a break today, so get up and get away to McDonalds…” and “Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, that is what I’d truly like to be…” and “See the USA in your Chevrolet…” so as not to give offense to the beloved ad execs among my readers—mind control artists of the underworld though they may be.)

Put the Lime in the Coconut by Harry Nilsson
Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
It’s a Small World by Robert and Richard Sherman
The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens
That's the Way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine Band
The Little Drummer Boy by Davis, Onorati and Simeone
Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield
Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus
Tie a Yellow Ribbon by Tony Orlando and Dawn
I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton
Do Re Mi by Rodgers and Hammerstein
I Exalt Thee by Pete Sanchez Jr.
Anything by the Steve Miller Band