Earworms Challenge #3

Here we go again!

Ok, I am actually behind on this, because I did this challenge on Saturday, March 16 and I am just now getting to posting it. This one was a good one, and I’m kinda stoked about the variety included this time.

If you’re new here (welcome!), the Daily Earworms Challenge is where I, for an entire day, make note of every single song that I get stuck in my head, and compile them into a Spotify playlist. I began doing this awhile back because, well, it’s something I always wanted to do. I realized one day, probably as a teenager, that I seemed to get a ton of different songs stuck in my head during the average day, and my nerdy self wondered roughly how many it usually was, and what kind of variety there might be. Did I ever even take on this challenge back then? Of course not. This is only my third challenge, after all. If you’d like to read the first one, you can here:

And just for giggles, here’s the second one.

So this is the part where I give you a general rundown of how today’s challenge went, and let me tell you, I kinda loved this one. It was alllll over the place genre-wise, but one common theme I noticed was movie soundtracks. I had the melody from one of the songs from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie stuck in my head, but by the time I tried to search it and figure out which song it was (they’re all instrumental), I’m only kinda certain I chose the right one. Once again I left out a song I don’t like and at this point I don’t even remember which Eagles song it is (I don’t like them, all their songs sound the same. Don’t @ me. They have great harmonies, I’ll give them that). So here’s the list! Give it a listen and see what you think.

Notes on a few selections

King of Anything, by Sara Bareilles: I woke up with a very sore back thinking, I just hurt. So the line “All my life I’ve tried to make everybody happy while I just hurt and hide…” came to mind. Also this is one of my favorite songs to sing at karaoke.

Goin’ Back to Hogwarts, by Team Starkid: My daughter Miranda texted me early in the morning from Orlando, where she was with her school’s Fine Arts Department on a trip to Universal Studios. They were going to be at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter that day, and she wanted some idea of what souvenir to get for me. So this popped into my brain. If you’re a Potterhead and have never watched Team Starkid’s A Very Potter Musical, you need to carve out about three hours of your time and do so. It stars Emmy winner Darren Criss as the boy who lived, and it’s hysterical. “Did you know that here at Hogwarts, we’ve got a hidden swimming pool?” is the line that really got stuck. Here’s a link to a playlist of the entire thing on YouTube.

I Wish, by Skee-Lo: I don’t think I’ve even heard this song in its entirety since about eighth grade, but this one hit wonder gets stuck in my head fairly often.

Lovin On Me, by Jack Harlow: Ugh I don’t even like Jack Harlow, and the only reason I have even heard this song at all is cos it shows up often in an ad on Spotify (nope, we don’t pay for Premium). I had a conversation with Miranda about the way he always says the word “baby,” you can tell it’s definitely him. It’s more like “bebbe” when he says it, and at one point she and I kinda wrote our own little parody of this song but made it about my younger daughter, Betsy, who is one year old: “she’s just one and she’s still a bebbe.” And yeah that’s how it got stuck in my head that day, I was singing that to Betsy.

Last Resort, by Papa Roach: This happened cos I was looking in my closet for a t-shirt to wear, and couldn’t find one I wanted since so few were clean. I grabbed one of my remaining ones and said, “This is one of my last resort t-shirts.” Boom, that’s all it took.

Prettiest Girls, by Pharrell: This is from the Despicable Me soundtrack, and it gets stuck in my head often cos I always say (about Miranda and Betsy) that I have the prettiest girls. And I do.

Beautiful Things, by Benson Boone: I don’t think I’ve ever listened to this song all the way through, but it’s pretty much inescapable lately, and it is in that same Spotify ad with the aforementioned Jack Harlow song. This was the first entry to come up on Spotify when I was searching “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera. Boom, stuck. And it’s no wonder, cos it is suuuper catchy.

Shiny, by Jemaine Clement: Another movie soundtrack song, from Moana. This resulted merely from washing the cars.

Jump in the Line, by Harry Belafonte: Another soundtrack song, this, of course, is from Beetlejuice, which for a long time was Miranda’s favorite movie (and mine too, as a kid). This one got stuck cos I sent the following meme both to her and to Ian. (Credit goes to Jonathan Edward Durham, username thisone0verhere on both X and Instagram)

Ok, I believe you

If I Had $1,000,000, by Barenaked Ladies: I’ve always loved this song, and I’d totally do it at karaoke if I had someone to sing it with me, since it definitely needs to be a duet. This one got stuck because I was looking for something for Betsy to wear for St Patrick’s Day, and I realized she didn’t have a green dress to wear to church. “But not a real green dress, that’s cruel.”

Doctor Worm, by They Might Be Giants: I sing this one to Betsy a LOT. Singing helps calm her down when she’s upset, and I actually end up singing quite a few TMBG songs to her. They do have actual kids songs, but even their regular hits are good ones to sing to a kiddo. This is a long-time favorite of mine, and Miranda’s, too.

Ok, that’s it for Today’s Earworms Challenge #3. What did you think? Are you willing to take the challenge, yourself? If you do, I’d love it if you left a comment and linked your own Spotify playlist! This really is a lot of fun, so why not give it a try?

Thanks for reading! See you next week with another playlist, and probably even sooner, since I just released a new song, Weight of the Wall, so you’ll be able to read about that in a day or two, as well.