I always suspected there’s an expression for when a song gets stuck inside your head, but as I found out, it’s not what you’d expect.
It happens to me quite frequently; songs getting stuck in my head that is. According to HowStuffWorks, this phenomenon can be described as follows:
Experts say the culprits are earworms (or “ohrwurms,” as they’re called in Germany). No, they’re not parasites that crawl into your ear and lay musical eggs in your brain, but they are parasitic in the sense that they get lodged in your head and cause a sort of “cognitive itch” or “brain itch” — a need for the brain to fill in the gaps in a song’s rhythm.
Sounds like a reasonable theory to me. The song that’s crawled its way into my head at the moment is King of the Road by Roger Miller. I’m not really a big fan of country music, and this happens to be on my car’s music player. Yes, I put it there. Don’t ask…
As an experiment, I want to see if it’s catching. So come on now; be a sport and sing along…
Trailer for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
ain’t got no big regrets
Two hours of pushin’ broom
Buys a eight by twelve four-bit room
I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road
Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination: Bangor, Maine
Old worn out suit and shoes
I don’t pay no union dues
I smoke, old stogies I have found
Short, but not too big around
I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road
I know every engineer on every train
All of the children and all of their names
Every handout in every town
Every lock that ain’t locked when no one’s around
They sing, trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
About two hours of pushin’ broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road
Trailer for sale or rent
Rooms to let, fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
About two hours of pushin’ broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I’m a man of means, by no means
King of the road
Lenny Says 