Yeah, I had to change up the title a little, just to keep things interesting. I realized recently that I myself am subscribed to so many Substacks, that I frequently decide whether or not to read a new post based on its title, and I’m sure I can’t be the only one doing that.
Anyway, if you’re new to the Earworms Challenge, it is a thing I do monthly as an experiment to evaluate the different songs that get stuck in my head. I noticed even as a teenager that I would get a ton of songs lodged in my cranium throughout any given day, and it made me wonder just how many I averaged per day, and what exactly caused some songs to stay with me and others to not. So at the beginning of this year I decided to go for it and just take one day and document each song and make a playlist out of them on Spotify. Each time I do this, I include the playlist here, along with commentary about some (definitely not all) of the songs on the list. I did June’s Challenge on Friday, June 7.
I’m Born to Run, but I Walk Alone
This list is a good one, as far as these lists go (haven’t really had one I didn’t like, but you know). I am always proud of myself when there’s lots of variety included, and there kinda was this time, but also some repeat artists. That tends to happen just by associations I have in my mind. One thing I sometimes do, although I didn’t this time (edit: just kidding, yes I did) is I’ll be singing one song for awhile, and if it happens to be from an album I know well, my brain will automatically transition to the next song on it. On this particular Friday, I actually woke up with a song in my head that had been playing in the dream I’d just had. That’s pretty unusual cos I don’t often remember my dreams. Anyway, here’s the list, you can check it out, and I’ll get on with the commentary.
Notes:
Growing Old on Bleecker Street, by AJR: This was the song in my dream, where I was actually sitting at a kitchen table with Jack from AJR and he was showing me pictures of a house they had in South Carolina, and I wanted to know which city it was in, since I grew up in SC. He couldn’t remember, and we were trying to figure it out. Kinda perfect that this is the song that was playing:
“I woke up last night from a dream That we’d grow old on Bleecker Street Sit by the fire and I’d play my guitar But dreams are only dreams”
This is from their first album, Living Room, and they were suuuuch babies then, they were so young! But this has always been one of my favorites from it. And that leads to the next song on the list…
Pitchfork Kids, by AJR: This is another Living Room track, and it’s considerably more textbook AJR than the calm, acoustic Bleecker Street. It got stuck merely because of its association with the previous track. That’s all it takes sometimes. Pitchfork is on several of the playlists Miranda (my firstborn) plays for us, so it’s no surprise I got it stuck. Speaking of Miranda…
Across the Universe, by the Beatles: This is my absolute favorite Beatles song, and if I ever end up getting song lyrics tattooed on me somewhere, this would be the source. Kinda surprising that I don’t have any lyrical tattoos, actually. Anyway, this is my Miranda song. In November 2008, having just watched the movie Across the Universe with her father, I kept singing the line “Nothing’s gonna change my world,” even as I took a pregnancy test that came out positive. Ohhh, the irony! She has been one of the best changes to happen in my world, and I have managed to succeed at turning her into a Beatles fan. Not that that was difficult. I don’t recall exactly why this song was stuck in my head on Friday, but I do remember lamenting that I don’t have a Beatles song that I associate with baby Betsy yet. All in good time, I suppose.
What We Live For, by American Authors: I was taking some video footage of Betsy (check out my YouTube Channel) and she gave me a big smile. I said something like, “Oh, I live for that smile!” and this song popped in my head. This is one of my favorite Authors tunes, and that is saying something, because I adore them. I honestly think they are one of the most underrated bands in existence. Everyone knows Best Day of My Life, and while I absolutely love that song, it’s definitely not their best. What We Live For is upbeat, fun, and happy, and it’s the perfect album opener for their record of the same name. It makes you feel like life is good and you just want to move. Whatever my emotional state when I turn on this song, it instantly improves as it plays. I love it so much.
I’m Born to Run, by American Authors: What We Live For is the opening track, and it’s immediately followed by this one, so this is another instance of my brain just progressing through songs of its own accord. Also a great song, one of the impressive things about it is that we pretty much get to hear Zac Barnett’s full vocal range and quite a bit of flexibility, too. This one’s fun to crank up loud and sing along, especially if you can keep up with Zac.
I Walk Alone, by Oleander: When this came out, I believe I was in 11th grade, and I ended up seeing them live opening up for Collective Soul that summer. Anyway, I absolutely loved this song. I never wanted to be like everyone else, and these lyrics just made sense to me. Not sure why I had it in my head Friday, but anyway, there ya go.
Creep, by Radiohead: Definitely their most iconic song, I think it’s nowhere near their best. They actually hated playing it live because for awhile people would only come to their shows to hear that one song, demanding it loudly and rudely, then leaving as soon as they finished. I’d probably hate playing it, too. Again, not sure why this one was in my head the other day, but I think everyone can relate to it at some level (I know I can).
I Wanna Get Better, by Bleachers: This came from a blog post I published the day before on my own blog, The Upside Downs. I was sharing the post on Instagram, and picked this song to go with my Stories about it because the piece I wrote was about self-improvement, so naturally I Wanna Get Better is what I thought of. I don’t think I’d heard the song in ten years, but that’s how my brain works. I might temporarily forget songs, but they come back to me when I need them. I definitely had forgotten just how catchy this one is, though.
Springtime for Hitler, from The Producers movie: This one I’m kinda embarassed by, but oh well. A grown up theatre kid, I love me a good musical, and this one is um, well, something else. Irreverently funny, it is definitely not for everybody. This song is on the list because sometimes I make up my own version to sing to Betsy at bathtime, as I did on Friday: “Bathtime for Betsy, on Friiiiiday…..” Yeah so that’s where that came from.
Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, by Cage the Elephant: Not the first time I’ve had a Cage song on an Earworms playlist. This time it was while I was writing FriYay on the Upside Downs. Just in case you haven’t read it yet:
I mentioned how there “ain’t no rest for the Moms,” and that was it. And since I’m already shamelessly self-promoting…
Crybaby, by Kristen Malcolm: Yes, my own song was stuck in my head. It pretty much lives there. Just in case you haven’t heard it yet, here’s the lyric video.
You can read the story behind the song here, and stream or download it here.
Born This Way, by Lady Gaga and Express Yourself, by Madonna: I’m listing these two together for good reason. I’m not sure why the first one got stuck, but it immediately led to the second. Note that I’ve never been a fan of either of these women, but they are both rather impressive, I’ll give them that. I view Lady Gaga as this generation’s Madonna. You’ve got two attractive blonde women with great (but not mind-blowing) vocal ability who have heavily used their sexuality coupled with shock value to make names for themselves (i.e., gold cone-shaped bra, meat dress, etc.), which I’m not hating on them for, that’s just what they’ve done. They’re both great performers who dabbled briefly in acting as well. Again, not really my taste as their flavor of pop music is just not my thing. If you listen to both of these songs back to back, Born This Way IS Lady Gaga’s Express Yourself. I could hear Lady Gaga’s chorus: “I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way,” and my brain seamlessly went into Madonna’s song with, “So if you want it right now, make him show you how/Express what he’s got, oh baby ready or not.” I know I am not the only person who’s thought this, far from it, in fact. I went to YouTube and searched for a mashup of the two songs and came up with a lot of results, actually. I was going to include a link to the first one I found, but I listened for less than a minute and my brain was begging to explode. Whoever made this mashup literally just had both songs playing simultaneously, which I consider poor form in terms of mashups, cos it was definitely audio overload. Just too much. Really though, listen to the two songs back to back and yeah, they’re the same song, just released decades apart.
you should see me in a crown, by Billie Eilish: Another female artist known for shock value, I actually do like Billie. I didn’t at first cos it seemed like she was just being weird for the sake of being weird, and I thought that was lame. It took me awhile to get her. She is truly vocally talented and her songs are good (her brother Finneas writes them with her, and I actually like his own songs way better than hers). I don’t know this song particularly well (I’ve mostly heard it sung by little girls at karaoke), but when Miranda started singing it after dinner, I knew it well enough that it took up residence in my head for awhile.
So that’s it for June’s Earworms Challenge! I didn’t talk about every song on the list (I never do), but that’s either cos I don’t remember what made it stick in my head or it just wasn’t an interesting reason, i.e. I heard it on the radio in the car or something. So now it’s your turn! Will you take the Earworms Challenge? If you do, be sure to comment with a link to your playlist and I’ll check it out and probably restack it. I’d love to hear! If you’ve never checked out my previous challenges, here’s the first one.
Thank you so much for reading! Please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe, and I’ll be back with a new Challenge next month.