There's a song in the air

[venta]

When I lived in Oxford, and got real milk delivered by a real milkman, it was inevitable that I sometimes had to leave notes saying "no milk today". At which point I was left singing No Milk Today for the forseeable.

When I used to help out at the beer festival in Darlington, one of the staple ales severed was the (now, I think sadly defunct) Butterknowle Brewery's Old Ebeneezer. In between pulling pints, I invariably sang bits of the sea shanty about "the good ship, Ebeneezer". This was particularly annoying, because I only know about a line and a half of it. Why a shanty I barely know instead of the perfectly excellent Ebeneezer Goode? I don't know. I don't do it on purpose.

Sometimes, I don't even need a phrase to be actually mentioned in a song. On the mercifully rare occasions I have to mess with my Windows desktop settings, I invariably end up warbling faintly to myself The shareef don't liiiike it... lock the taskbar, lock the taskbar! Once heard, it cannot be unheard.

Today, I walked through Reading's centre and observed that the Early Learning Centre had shut. Which means as soon as I've managed to forget it was there, I won't start nearly so many of my working days singing Magic Streets - We went to the Early Learning Centre, with the money that I'd lent yer....

There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of things which make me burst into song (usually, for the sake of everyone around, quietly). Does anyone else have similar problems? What sends you off into a song?

Comments

[zotz]

Whenever I pass (or, indeed, think about, damn you) this Mexican restaurant on Victoria Street, I start singing The Warren Zevon song Carmelita.

Dear God. According to WPedia, GG Allin covered it. This I have to hear.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

The Car Song. Not the one by Elastica, but a song that pops into my head whenever I drive, clean, or think of my car. It goes like this: "Little car, doo doo doo, little car, doo doo doo". It also applies to tea: "cup of tea, cup of tea, doo doo doo, doo doo doo". Recently it has acquired new verses, most notably when filling up with diesel or sitting on the toilet. It seems to have nothing to do with me, I find myself just singing it. It is beginning to get on my nerves.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's an important point that all mine are involuntary. I don't pass ELC and think "hey, Shed Seven wrote a song about that, I could sing it". I just find that I already am doing.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Everything. If it isn't song lyrics it's obscure bits from sitcoms (I can't say 'sarcastic' without it becoming Brian Damage saying 'sar-car-stic', for instance). I suffer earworms all day long.

I don't shop in Iceland because otherwise I am the mum who's gone to Iceland. Lots of everyday phrases become Camptown Races if they have the right metre ("sausage casserole for tea, doo-dah, doo-dah"). narenek and I have been known to go through the whole of the theme tune of Bread of a morning ("Got to get up..."). "No Milk Today" will be with me most of the morning, since I finished the pint earlier and you've set it up, but I will get rid of it when I buy some more, at which point it will either be 'drinka-pinta-milka-day' or 'Accrington Stanley' for a bit.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Camptown Races is dreadful for infiltrating everything. I didn't think of that one. I don't think I suffer similarly from spoken word bits - although I do say them, it's usually deliberately. Another phrase which got much adapted was the "I'm on a horse!" from the Old Spice ad a few years ago - so "I'm on a train", or "I'm on the phone". But again, that was usually voluntary on my part.

you've set it up

Sorry!

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't know the song, but have just listened to it. It wasn't immediately obvious why the song goes with the restaurant, but I think I shall attempt to avoid finding out in case I catch it :)

I had to look up GG Allin, too. Seldom does someone like that have an even odder birth name!

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I am confident I need say only one word and someone else will be compelled to complete the reference:

Phenomenon.

[zotz]

The word "Mariachi" crops up in the first line. I was in a Mexican restaurant in Tucson in October - Guadalajara Grill, highly recommended - and a Mariachi band came in and played. I was singing it to myself for a while after that too.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Do doo do doo doo!

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

It's the modern-day "shave and a haircut". I am convinced of this.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

In my head it fits to the tune of Blue Oyster Cult's Astronomy - "phe-no-me-nonnnnnnnnnnnnn! ah ha!" - for obscure but persistent reasons, going back 20 years or so now. Sigh. One day I will get rid of it and then I'll just have Mnah Mnah instead, and that won't be any better.

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

All the time, about everything but usually I have no idea I'm doing it until someone points it out (At school I remember asking who was singing the Robin Hood song (a regular offender. No idea why) only to be told it was me).

Far more importantly, that seems an awfully cruel thing to do to an ale, staple or otherwise.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Any discussion of software piracy inevitably results in a certain amount of You Are a Pirate. Which is a shame, because it's one of the hardest-to-shift earworms I've ever encountered! (Aside: "Free as in speech or free as in beer?" "Neither. Free as in pirate!")

[venta.livejournal.com]

that seems an awfully cruel thing to do to an ale

You've got to be firm with these very strong ales, or there's no knowing what they might do.

I can spell, honest.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Now... why exactly did I follow a link to something described as a hard-to-shift earworm?

Yo, ho fiddle-de-deee...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

My work here is done! :-D

[j4.livejournal.com]

"Bag for life". Iggy Pop. No need to thank me. :-)

[ceb.livejournal.com]

Augh!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Andreas seems to start singing the Peppa Pig theme tune whenever he sees a pig, or, in extreme cases, something of the right shade of pink. I'm sure I do it too, but I'm less self-aware.

[pm215]

I get this particular earworm whenever somebody mentions the domain registration company Nominet...

[cjwatson]

Part of our sysadmin team at work is referred to as the "webops" (i.e. "web operators"). Ever since I saw it re-hyphenated as "we-bop", I have great difficulty contacting them without getting a "We Go Together" earworm: chang chang changity chang webop.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with the RPG In Nomine.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's a relief - when I started reading that comment I was afraid you were going down the Hanson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHozn0YXAeE) route... :)