Song in My Head

I have this strange tick. I’m very susceptible to absorbing ambient sounds, music in particular.

Back in my musical theater days, this was a blessing. I played the soundtrack of a show 2-3 times softly in the background while I was doing work and would typically have the whole thing memorized.

Now, it’s a curse because I pick up everything. Really, everything.

Kelly Clarkson songs. Jingles for stuff like GAP and Hanes underwear. Television theme music. Radio station parodies. All flavors of elevator music. Trust me, I know it all.

To date, I can sing every McDonald’s jingle ever run in my lifetime – from McDonald’s take on “Mac the Knife” (“It’s Mac tonight!”) to the short lived rap-the-whole-menu jingle (“Big Mac, Mc DLT, a Quarter Pounder with some cheese…”).

It’s sad to catch myself cleaning the shower, singing sweetly, “You deserve a break today. So get up and get away…to McDonald’s” and thinking of crispy French fries. (Damn you, Barry Manilow, for writing the jingles that make the whole world sing!)

Very, very sad stuff, indeed.

Ever since the passing of Johnny Carson, I have been stuck – absolutely stuck – on “The Tonight Show” theme.

YA-da-da-DA-da. Doooo. Ya-duh-da-DA-daaaaaaaah!

(This is only a slight improvement from the last song I had in my head, "Dominick the Donkey.")

It’s proving to be a nuisance, as I’m using it to punctuate everything from opening the refrigerator (YA-da-da-DA-da. Doooo. Ya-duh-da-DA-daaaaaaaah!)
to sending an e-mail (YA-da-da-DA-da. Doooo. Ya-duh-da-DA-daaaaaaaah!)

I will do just about anything to get this out of my head.

(YA-da-da-DA-da. Doooo. Ya-duh-da-DA-daaaaaaaah!)

Comments

[Jim - PRS]

Well, you can help me clean the basement. I have a firm date to do that some time in 2010.