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kfitz

Earworm of the Week

I am frequently plagued by earworms. You know earworms, right — the songs that get stuck in your head? They seem inevitably to be the most annoying songs possible, and though their origins are often mysterious, for me at least, they can usually be traced back to some specific point of infection (muzak in the drugstore, commercial on the television, passing car stereo). And some percentage of the time, at least, recurring earworms are found to be connected to odd phrases of thoughts that trigger connections that link to lyrics that just won’t go away.

For instance, a couple of years ago I was plagued with an infestation of the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This, amazingly, I was able to trace back to the prescription for a certain pain medication, the thought of whose name inevitably tripped me into “chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool and all” for weeks on end.

Some, however, remain mysterious. Such is the current status of my most recent earworm. I find myself at the oddest moments — staring into the refrigerator trying to figure out what’s for dinner is a prime example — with Dope’s “You Spin Me Round” on repeat in my brain. And I’m clueless as to why. I inevitably come in right on the downbeat of the chorus — you spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record, baby, right round round round — as nothing in my thoughts seems to lead me there. And I’m at least not conscious of having heard the song of late, even in sampled or otherwise doctored form.

All I can hope is that going public with the infection will result in its rapid retreat.

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