How do you get rid of earworms?
I don’t know about you but most that I get are songs I really can’t stand. I wonder why? 😕
I was once told that the best way to get rid of earworms was to hum The Girl From Ipanema, but I find this doesn’t work for me. Any other ideas?
casa azahar 
Oh, great. Guess what I now have as an earworm?
Even worse, I have the version of ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ that the Monty Python lot used to do to fill in time at odd moments, usually while dressed as dowdy women.
To get rid of earworm, I try to sing to myself (completely silently – it avoids having people point and laugh). Something I know well is best, so that I can even ‘hear’ all the instrumental bits. It needs to be a piece with substance and meaning. Try ‘Hallelujah’.
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You think you got earworms? Try hearing “It’s a Small World After All” sometime! Disney has much to answer for.
“It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all,
It’s a small world after all —
It’s a small small world.”
Repeat ad nauseum…in a high pitched child’s voice. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
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I can never remember enough of the song to get any stuck in my brain. How do you hum ‘TGFI’? I’ve tried and failed.
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I think that’s one of the most annoying things about earworms, alji, that it’s usually (for me anyhow) just one snippet of a nasty song going round and round and round in my head.
Hallelujah is definitely a good choice, Ivan. But in fact I quite like Girl from Ipanema (the Astrud and Joâo Gilberto version with Stan Getz). The problem is that although I might temporarily get rid of an annoying earworm by singing something else to myself, as soon as I stop and let my guard down it comes sneaking back again. Gaaaa!
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I don’t know, and I wish I did. My earworms are usually commercial jingles, which are doubly annoying because I really dislike commercials and wonder why I would fixate on a tune advertising something I don’t want and don’t use. Gaaaa! (What a useful word you have given me there, Az.)
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You’ve got me going now az! I can’t get this out of my head;
I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner
I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee
And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue
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Ah, a Suzanne Vega earworm.
Prevention can be better than cure. Even when want to listen to the radio I have a CD ready to go. If the radio starts playing something that I know from bitter experience will be an earworm, I can stop it before it starts. The mad lunge at the controls might be the best exercise I get all day.
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Hiya Azahar, So you are my new Spanish visitor 🙂
I cheat – I accept that earworms exist, I accept that I cannot stop them from invading my mind. I do NOT accept that they rule me. I create scurrilous words to go with the tune. Indecent, slanderous, nasty words and thoughts which fit the music! It works well until I accidentally sing my words out loud in public!
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Hi Archie and welcome!
I have to say that lately I’ve had a recurring earworm that isn’t too hard to live with – REM’s Losing My Religion.
It came about because one of the two radio stations I listen to here has probably the shortest playlist of any radio station I’ve ever come across. I tend to have it on in the background when I go to bed as it’s somewhat ‘easy listening’ and if I listen to it for even half an hour I’m sure to hear REM.
My favourite radio station here (Radio 3 España) is wonderfully eclectic, but sometimes too bizarre for ‘going to sleep’ music.
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The Girl From Ipanema get’s my vote. I could spend the whole day listening to the way Astrud Gilberto sings ‘Ah’…as in …and when she passes/ Each man she passes says ‘Ah’.. It’s the most erotic moment in recording history.
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get’s? gets!
(Also…Getz)
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Ha! (gets/Getz)
I agree, it must be one of the sexiest songs ever recorded.
And Stan did help out with that more than somewhat considerably.
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Erotic music? You’re right – That Ahhhh is so very special – so how come I’m remembering Jane Birkin – Je Taime – – –
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Nahhhh, Je T’aime was trying too hard to sound sexy. Though I did like it back when I was a teenager.
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I just hauled out an old cassette with the Gilberto/Getz version and have listened to it totally cranked up on the stereo … oh man!
*wilts limply in chair*
az
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I could also listen all day to how Joâo Gilberto sings ‘aaahhhh’.
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Nog and I now are disputing who is ‘sexier’ … Joâo in the very sexy intro singing in Portuguese or Astrud later on in English. I think they are both equally sexy.
And how the hell did they get Stan Getz to do that recording with them? Without him it would have been nothing special.
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I rest my case. We’re now listening to the rest of the tape (which I haven’t heard in years) and it’s basically elevator music.
She is even destroying Harry Nilsson’s very gorgeous ‘Without Her’! Gaaaa.
I’m also wondering if she is responsible for the sixties ‘doodoodoo, dabadabadaba’ crap that you hear in most sixties films (including Butch Cassidy) , or if she was just going with the trend.
One hit wonder I reckon.
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Azahar,
The story behind the song is interesting. Joao (sorry – I can’t do the tilde) said it’s about a man bordering on middle age, sitting at a cafe besides Ipanema beach, watching all the gorgeous women go by and realising that they’re way out of his league.
When he went into the studio with Stan Getz, they realised they needed a woman to sing it. Not knowing who to get, they brought in his kid sister. She’d never sung before. She’s as flat as a pancake throughout, isn’t she? But lovely nontheless.
You can’t blame her for Butch and Sundance, though. I think the main hit is Sacha Distel, but I’ve no idea who the female backers were.
Flat female singers have their place. Sandie Shaw. Ronnie Spector. Damn! What was the name of that women who also sang artfully flat in Chick Corea/ Stanley Clarke’s ‘Return To Forever’?
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My favourite earworm killer is ‘The Rhythm of Life’ (currently used in Guinness adverts in this country, but it’s been around for 40 years).
Regarding the Girl from Ipanema, have you heard ‘The Boy From..’, about a girl who falls in love with a Welshman? It’s from ‘The Mad Show’, and Millicent Martin recorded a wonderfully funny version.
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Damn and blast and fucking Christ! I woke up with an earworm this morning, and it won’t shift.
“You waited something something something/ Don’t know why I didn’t come.”
(Nora Jones)
Nauseating, bland, wallpaper-music, supermarket-impulse-purchase-CD shite!
Let’s have another go at winkling it out…
Tall and tanned and young and lovely…
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I keep getting a horrific earworm and I don’t even know what song it is or who performs it.
Gaaaaaaa!
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My latest earworm is something that is played in one of my team cycling classes. I think it´s portuguese since it´s got a hip hopped samba rythm in it…
Really weird…
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I mean brazilian of course 😳 samba rythms remaked in a hip hop fashion and sung in portuguese – an language I only know a few phrases in…
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My mind has gone temporarily blank as to what that genre of Brazilian music is called. A prime example would be “Quem Que Caguetou” by Tejo, Black Alien and Speed (you know – the one where the guy says followmefollowmefollowmefollowmefollowme…, which can be heard here: http://www.tunes.co.uk/tunes/featured/8787.html
I’m not helping any with the worm removal, am I?
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I have been having songs in my head for hte past 3 yrs It’s so annoying.And worst of all It happens more when outdores especialy in school. Sometimes I think people can hear me, And I get scared that someone will say something. I ussually play songs in my head that are oldies from 60’s and 70’s also 80’s. I never play new songs.Like I’ll either have the time of my life from dirty dancing or I’ll have madonnas vogue. it’s so annoying.
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Personally, my definition of an earworm stems from my childhood in the 90’s. I watched a lot off cartoons, even the commercial breaks, but one commercial that made my earworm that still plays in my head even now was one touting the model toy horse series, Grand Champions. If you don’t know the ad, the jingle goes, “Grand Champions – the most beautiful horses in the world.” It’s no “It’s a Small World” to me, but it’s been playing in my head for ages!
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