Stuck Tune Syndrome

Here are "the top ten offending tunes" found in a study of 1000 university students.

1. "The Macarena"
2. "I'm a Little Teapot"
3. Theme from Gilligan's Island
4. Chili's baby-back ribs jingle (we seem to spared this in Canada)
5. "1812 Overture"
6. "The Gambler"
7. "YMCA"
8. Two Dr. Pepper jingles
9. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"
10. Themes from The Andy Griffith Show and The Odd Couple

The study was done in 2001 by James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati and is reported by Larry Dossey in The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things. Which is not to say that earworms are healing -- just that music has power we don't understand.

Kellaris found three traits in the "stickiest" songs:

1. excessive repetition
2. musical simplicity
3. incongruity ("the beat or lyric defies the listener's expectations).

Dossey says, "One unfortunate individual claimed that a tune from an Atari 260 video game had been humming in his head since 1986."

Don't get me started on Roddy McCorley . . .