Beware of the Sweet and Sour Earworms!

Those songs that get stuck in your head…

Although I have had a centipede on my face, luckily I’ve never experienced a worm in my ear.

But, you know those songs that you hear and get stuck in your head? Those are “earworms.” (Yes, it’s a real thing, The New York Times corroborates in this article.)

I’ve fallen prey to earworms… you probably have, too!

You hear a song on the radio, or a word jolts your memory, and suddenly you have these wriggly tunes/lyrics hanging around in your ear for hours (or sometimes even days!) without your consent. Sometimes I’ve even woken up with one of these worms in my ear for no apparent reason!

It’s not right, it’s annoying, but even worse — these worms can even turn you off songs you previously liked.

Suddenly you find yourself humming a song that you hate in an effort to tempt that worm out of your ear and into your mouth just so you can spit it out!

Sounds gross, I know, but sometimes it’s the only way.

I was challenged by Mike Butler to share some of my earworms — the good, the bad, and the fugly. So here are the songs that have wriggled around in my head at random times without me calling for them.

Some are actually kind of sweet, some are sour, and some want to make you throw up a bit in your mouth.

I’ve rated these earworms’ level of danger:

😃 — kinda sweet

👍 — mostly harmless

😤 — pretty annoying

😤😤 — sour

😤 😤😤 —BE VERY AFRAID

So have a listen… But, BEWARE!

You may go away humming tunes that were better left buried in the sands of time.

My Top Earworms (in no particular order)

Last Christmas 😤😤

You know it’s Christmas season (or at least Thanksgiving day) when you hear Last Christmas come on the radio.

Every year George sings that he gave his heart away and got rejected… but then he goes and does the same thing EVERY YEAR! It’s been decades, please learn already!

While there are some songs of George Michaels I like, this is not, never has been, and will never be one of them.

It didn’t help that in my first job (as a barista), this song came on the radio every 30 minutes. I didn’t have time to get it out of my head before I had to go back to work and get the worm all over again.

This song may have died its own natural death except that George Michael ironically had to go out on Christmas day. This unfortunate coincidence of events meant that Last Christmas made a comeback to the Top 10 radio hits.

Let’s face it, almost every Christmas song (with the possible exception of Silent Night) is an earworm, but Last Christmas is one of the hardest to get back out of your head.

Alors On Dance

On my first visit to Romania, this French song was a hit on the radio. My fellow roommates and I would be riding through the countryside headed to set up kids camps belting out “I love dance!” (Ok, so I don’t speak French.)

We asked our Romanian guide to make us a “Euro-trash tape” as he called it and he added this song for our listening joy.

I think this song is charming. The repetitive chorus means it will get stuck in your head.

But just dance on and keep shouting out, “I LOVE DANCE!”

This earworm is the kind you want to hold in your hand and play with until you accidentally kill it (like I did with that earthworm in preschool).

I like to move it 👍

I never had strong feelings about this song. In fact, it can be ok in mild doses. However, my kid’s preschool teacher caught Covid (she was fine) and we had to go into full quarantine and not leave our apartment at all for two weeks.

With two small kids, that’s an extreme request.

This was the time my daughter with autism decided to obsess over this song and play it for the full 14 days non-stop. Even when I lay down to sleep, in my head I kept hearing: I like to move it move it. Do you like to move it move it? Let’s move it move it move it move it move it move it move it move it….

Time for some air on the balcony anyone?

Paint me a Birmingham 😤😤

I do like new country (sorry) but Tracy Lawrence's voice is a little grating even on a good day. Then he goes into this tedious song about painting a picture of “a Birmingham” (Which did you know that means a kind of porch, not like the city Birmingham? Me either.)

It sounds a little creepily over-obsessive about some girl that’s not that into him. “Could you paint me back in her arms again?”

Ok, get the ick off.

My dad used to turn this song up on the radio. “Kids, listen!” and then sing it out with a smile using an exaggerated accent.

I always thought of it as “that song that Dad liked.” But did he like it? Or like to make fun of it? or like to hear us say: DAAD NOOOO!

With Dad, sometimes it was hard to tell…

(Paaint me a Birminghaaaaaam.)

Bad Romance/Poker face 😃

I like it, but it’s an earworm. A psychological study actually named Gaga’s Bad Romance as the biggest earworm. But, Poker Face is more earworm-y for me. (This Gaga song also made the Top 10 Earworm list).

In fact, I walked straight out of church one bright Sunday afternoon and with: “Popopopoker-face popopppopopokerrr.” Then I stopped short before I got to the second “face.”

Maybe wrong time, wrong place?

Those tricky earworms.

The Family Finger Song 😤😤😤

This kids song makes you want. to. die.

When I was a kid, we had the much more harmless “Where is thumbkin? …pointer… tall-man, etc.” (Ok, my mom once ended the song right on the “where is tall man” when she realized her middle finger was dancing right up there in the rear-view mirror for the car behind to watch and wonder. Still, the thumbkin song was innocent compared to the Finger Family.)

Kids for some reason seem to love Finger Family and play it over and over.

Baby Shark was the only song big and bad enough to take down this O.G. earworm offender. For that, I feel something akin to fondness for Baby Shark.

Millions of Peaches 😤😤

I heard this song at Taco Bell some time in the 90s when it came out. Taco Bell always seemed to play a reject track that they probably got somewhere for free. They always played the same songs very loudly.

I only ever heard Millions of Peaches a handful of times, but it was one of those songs that would sneak up and earworm me at random times.

I felt sure this song was a reject. But, apparently I was just young enough to miss that it was a hit?

Then as an adult, I heard a few talking with fondness about Millions of Peaches as a song of the 90s era.

So, wait that was a real song and not just a Taco Bell earworm made to torture people? People enjoyed it?

…Did you like it?

No Sugar Tonight 😃

At 15, I was graduating high school and was set on taking photography classes. I signed up at the community college a few minutes away. Then, right before I was set to go, they said I couldn’t attend “unsupervised” as a minor. So, instead of un-enrolling me, my dad put on his hero cape and signed up with me.

We had fun taking pics on our manual cameras, and the dark room was the best. You’d “dodge and burn” your piece and stick a white piece of photo paper in chemicals and watch your photo magically appear. I thought it was hilarious when the teachers said that digital would take over the field in five years time. Alas, it was true.

One guy in class believed that Classic Rock was the only station to listen to. There’s nothing like No Sugar Tonight coming on the radio while you’re turning 16 and developing your own photos in the dark room.

Sure the song gets stuck in your head, later. But so what?

Kiss Me 👍

My brother crushed on Leigh Nash hard, but I just found this song very annoying when it came out. That didn’t keep the song from getting stuck on repeat in my head. That’s just the insidious way earworms work.

I don’t still hate the song, but I do still hate when it gets stuck in my head.

There She Goes with Leigh Nash’s voice works much better for me.

How You Remind Me 😃

Nickelback is a band people love to hate.

They once had an hour slot on the Romanian radio. My husband rolled his eyes and went to change the station.

“Don’t change it,” I stopped him. “This is my favorite.”

He looked at me eyes wide. “I married a rocker-ița?”

I admit, their songs are earworms. But I’m ok with that.

The Trapeze Swinger😃

With this song, it’s hard to know… Is it officially an earworm? Or once you listen to the same 5 measures repeated for a full 10 minutes, you just forget that you had a life before this song started?

I saw Iron and Wine play this song live in Austin. So, once you hear a band live, you leave liking their songs.

It’s a rule.

Billie Jean — Michael Jackson 😤

I had to listen to this song every morning for two years at my job as a sign language interpreter.

It matched a warm-up exercise for elementary school kids in gym class. Don’t ask me what Billie Jean has to do with stretches, because I can’t answer that.

Sorry, MJ but I never need to hear this song, again.

Fireflies — Owl City 😤

I like fireflies, outside, in the summer. The song, though is iffy.

Fireflies should be playful and fun but just seems overly hipster. It forces you to listen to it while you wonder every time why it annoys you and if that makes you a bad person.

Then it gets stuck in your head and you can’t get away. …Which is probably how a firefly feels when you trap it in a jar.

Lean On 😃

This song was popular the year my husband and I got married. We both liked the snazzy ryhthm and kept trying to figure out who sang it. Then, they boomed it out on the beach as we sipped on ice coffee while slowly getting burned in the sun.

Little did we know, we were going to have to hitchhike back from our mini-vacay.

It’s catchy enough to be an earworm, and yes, it was overplayed, but this song was a part of fun memories.

Paper Planes-M.I.A. 😃

This song is super catchy and you find yourself singing the lyrics which just sound strange without any context. “All I wanna do is [bang bang bang bang] and take your money.”

However, I love M.I.A.’s satire in this piece. And the Slumdog Millionaire kids pull your heart out with their cuteness as they ride on trains.

Wild rose 😤😤😤

This song is the absolute worst earworm ever. It played on my hour long bus and I’d consider getting off until I remembered I’d have to wait an hour for the next one.

Wild rose would get stuck for days. And I can’t stand the song!

Dragostea din Tei (the numa numa song) 😃

Contrary to popular belief, Russians don’t sing this song, Romanians do. This piece pokes fun at guys and some lame pick up lines. Then they’re surprised when the girl is underwhelmed.

O-zone sings: “You want to leave, but you’re not taking me?!”

A lot of fun. But, definitely will sing it all day.

Crazy 😃

Do those earworms make YOU crazy? Probaablyyyyy.

Now, go check out Mike Butler’s best and most dangerous earworms:

(Have these ever wormed their way into your head?)

What are YOUR song earworms? I’d love to hear your best and worst picks in the comments!