Phrases that, when you see them, you inexplicably start singing them to the melody of something else (and then will forever be associated with that)

--Whenever I'm in a convenience store and see Tillamook County Smokers beef jerky, I sing "Tillamook County Smokers" it in my head to the tune of Michael Jackson's "You Wanna Be Starting Something"

--Neurot band US Christmas has a CD on my desk called Eat The Low Dogs which I've spent the better part of a year singing to the tune of Bubba Sparxxx's "Take The Load Off"

shit, i was just thinking about this a couple hours ago. my brother said something that happened to be a song lyric I liked and i started singing it. forget now

Because of an old "Mary Tyler Moore Show" episode, I am incapable of hearing the name Anna Maria Alberghetti without breaking into "Anna Maria Alberghetti in a taxi honey..."

My Mom is very good at finding an appropriate song with very little prompting. I stopped testing her after I fed her the word "asparagus" and she sang it to the tune of some old song called "The Pair of Us."

Temple Of The Dog: Hunger Strike

I'm doing laundry....doin' lauundraaaaaayyyayayayayaya

haha, i do this all the time. must think... a similar phenomenon is when, apparently out of nowhere, you get a melody stuck in your head, and then realize that the lyrics to that song are what you were thinking/talking about.

oh man, this happened to me the other day. for better or worse it was 'dat nigga delmarrrr!' to the melody of 'that girl is poison' by bell biv devoe. i'm sorry ilx

ahahahaha

I think I'm going to be stuck with "I'm doin' laundryyyyy" from now on, thanks...

I'm sure I have tons of these, but can't remember any of them, so I'm glad there's this thread now.

Two trucking companies who work in the Rock n' Roll touring business always start me singing their names to the tune of Eton Rifles:
'Redburn Trans-fer"
and
"Edwin Shir-ley"

"Cheese and crackers" to the tune of "Shaved Women" by Crass. Try it out!

There was a Charlie Brooker article some time ago in which he said that every time Robert Mugabe was mentioned, his name started going around Brooker's head to the tune of Eleanore Rigby. The same thing has started happening to me since I read the article.

zydrunas ilgauskas gets sung to "hakuna matata" in my head
(i can't remember whether i thought it up on my own or not, but google finds some other people doing the same thing)

this isn't really the same thing cuz it isn't a phrase i saw, but i just heard it today on the radio, so: whenever i hear "jet" by paul macca and wings i always sing "jet! ooohhhooohoohoohhoo, RALPH NADEEEEEER, JAMES SPADER!"

been doing that for years. i can't even remember what the real words are.

Fairly often I'll see something that will prompt the melody to "Girlfriend in a Coma" by the Smiths.
For example, I was downtown and there was a midget handing out pamphlets, and I got "Midget with a pamphlet, I know, I know, it's serious..." in my head.

Oddly, I don't even know how the verses to "Girlfriend in a Coma" go. I barely know the song. But it only seems to happen with this song.

This happens to me all the time. Sometimes I'm not even sure I'm conscious of it.

To the tune of Tina Turner's "Steamy Windows" : "Skidby Windmill".

"The sharif don't like it
Lock the Taskbar
Lock the Taskbar"

thread is everything i wanted it to be and more.

Lock the taskbar is hilarious and also reminds me of a couple of years ago in school when we were told to use only sans-serif fonts in our drawings. After a pause, my studiomate Casey declares: "SER-IF: don't like it! ROCK the caption."

The shower in my last house had embossed directions for unscrewing the head:
<-- REMOVE | REFIT -->
ensuring Sepultura's "Refuse/Resist" was always in my head while showering, even for a couple of years after moving out.

"The sharif don't like it
Lock the Taskbar
Lock the Taskbar"

LOL my bf just told me he does exactly this one too!

My brain can't keep track of the Cure's "Wild Mood Swings" vs Stabbing Westward's "Violent Mood Swings". And since the Stabbing Westward tune came out before the Cure's album did, at any mention of the second I hear the melody of the first.

I used to make-up the car adverts for a local newspaper. Every week I’d have a complicated ad which would take 3 or 4 hours for a company called ‘Portland Carriage’ - everytime I’d have Frank Sinatra in my head singing it to the tune ‘Love and Marriage’.

The car dealership near my parents house - Aylesbury Honda - always gets their name sung to the tune of 'Help me Rhonda'

Chaka, Chaka, Chaka
Chicken & waffles
Chicken & waffles
Chicken & waffles
Chicken & waffles

Chicken & waffles
Let me rock you
Let me rock you
Chicken & waffles
Let me rock you
That's all I wanna do
Chicken & waffles
Let me rock you
Let me rock you
Chicken & waffles
Let me rock you
'Cause I feel for you
Chicken & waffles

This could be ILM's highest earworm risk thread yet. My version of "I'm doin' laundryyyyy" when I'm checking tags to split up the colds and warms: "I'll tumble dry ya"

Also stuck in my head, ever since record store coworkers tried to help a customer seeking "that Bob Marley song, Pajamas," leaving them mystified until she sang it for them:

Pajamas
Pajamas
I'm in pajamas with you
Pajamas pajamas pajamas pajamas pajamas pajamas pajamas
And I hope you like pajamas too
Oh-oh-oh

ahahaha

omg "I'll tumble dry ya" - laundry is never going to be the same!

"The sharif don't like it
Lock the Taskbar
Lock the Taskbar"

Takes me back to my college days, where, stumblinginto yet another cheap-ass mixer, my friends and I would break out into:

"I forgot my wallet...
Oh fuck, it's a cash bar!
Fuck, it's a cash bar!"

Until recently my local corner shop was called Akbar's, and every time I went there I would sing "Akbar's! I wanna take you to Akbar's!" (to the tune of 'Gay Bar', obviously). I do have loads more of these, but usually don't remember them aside from when I do it.

More annoyingly, I've found that whenever someone says "yes" in a certain manner, I have to finish it with "the rhythm the rebel". It is driving me insane.

Argh, "yes, the rhythm the rubbish, without a pause I'm taking out the garbage" went through my head for about a decade whenever I did the trash. What is it about chores that makes them such a breeding ground for these singsongs?

Any street name of the form 2 syllable word + avenue gets 'and I'm caught one more time up on duh-duh avenue' sung to it

On seeing a chinchilla in a city farm: "Chinchilla! Who got the keys to my bima?"

Shih Tzu, that's how we act when we team up.

(there are probably better ways to fill that in)

I'm always on the hunt for names and phrases that can be sung to "Camptown Races." My favorite so far is baseball player Yuniesky Betancourt.

When they lived in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, my parents used to take advantage of the lower gas prices in the U.S. by driving two miles south across the river to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan and filling up there. And when they passed the appropriate sign... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/23/29589361_c80f1d9834.jpg?v=0 ...my dad would usually annoy my mom by singing "Briiidge - to the USA!" Springsteen-style.

"Doug" substituted for the word "love":

Can You Feel The Doug Tonight?
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Doug
Doug Will Tear Us Apart
Now That We've Found Doug
etc.

WHAT

A friend was obsessed with switching out love for lunch: Lunch Will Keep Us Togwether, Lunch Will Tear Us Apart, The Greatest Lunch of All, Stop in the Name of Lunch, When a Man Lunches a Woman....

^^LOL esp. "when a man lunches a woman"

I feel the lunch, baby

then you guys will love this thread

Feel Like Making Lunch

I was hearing "no shakey shakey" to the tune of "push it" after seeing this

http://istor.indyarocks.com/trphotos/NoShakeyShakey1206254587.jpg

the mayor of my town is named fung and while he campaigned I couldn't stop hearing "everybody vote fung tonight" in my head

thank god the election is over

I fear we're veering from the question's intent. Nevertheless, I have to add that whenever I hear the John Denver & the Muppets' version of "Deck the Halls," when Scooter sings "See the blazing yule before us," I sing it as "See the blazing UB40."

as i was shutting my work computer down for the day - 'the server shut down' to the tune of 'the final countdown'

There's a call center company called Ruffalo Cody with an office in Athens that I would ride past, inevitably leading me to sing their name to the tune of "Buffalo Soldier."

There Will be Blood, sung to the tune of "She Will be Loved"

Upon seeing a Ralph Lauren Nautica box unwrapped this morning, I sung in my head, as always:

"Nautica, bloody red eyes go to, Nautica, bloody red eyes go to"

had to drive co-worker to a meeting in suburbs that involved taking highway 238 ... i warned him I would get the Misfits stuck in my head ...

We're on 238
We're on 238 ...

he was warned

On a recent camping trip someone used a Jetboil to make coffee and I had Jet Boy, Jet Girl stuck in my head for quite a while.

I absolutely do that with any number that ends with 38

My kid is hardcore into Pokémon lately and I get a bunch of their names set to tunes in my head.

Besides the obvious Siouxsie pronunciation of pikachu, I hear Stevie Nicks or Gene Simmons saying “golduck woman” and Stephen Malamus yelling “not here babe...torchic!”

My Bloody valentine
dead rotting valentine
you made me rip out your heaaaaaaaaaaaaart

Whoa, Antietam
We could make it together

Gonna see the Rona
Got a ticket for the Bay City Rona

Don’t think I’ve ever looked at the menu of an Indian restaurant without singing “Vindaloo!” to the tune of ABBA’s “Waterloo.”

totally owned by the actual lyrics of "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" for me

OTM

Here’s your ticket
Hear the drummer get triptych

Or substitute on the first line instead of you prefer

whenever i see last posted by ilxor "One Eye Open" I get "I'm Not Losing Sleep" by Julian Cope stuck in my head for at least 30 minutes

“Born Under Punches”/The Jerk
“Take a look at these cans!”

Lol, nice.

This is still a problem for me.

Various things get sandwiched into Hall & Oates' Maneater these days:

Whoa-oh here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll raise your boat
Whoa-oh here she comes
She's an airbladder

Me dealing with a constipated dog that I was walking last week had an rewrite of the Shoop Shoop song in my head.

"Is it in the street?
Oh no, that's just some sticks
Is it by his feet?
Oh no, that's melted Twix
If you wanna no
The dogg didn't go
It's still in his butt"

oh my God, that's super-relevant to my life right now.

*ugly kid joe voice* "10 things I still hate about you!"

(needs a "still" to work, in my head)

We watch a lot of Dodger games in my house and whenever Kike Hernandez comes to bat my wife sings “Kike, do you love me?”

it's a good day for you to learn alt-0233

Ha - sorry. Kee-kay.

I read right past that and wondered why he was coming to beat your wife.

"It's your turn..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LED83F8tW10

I was vaguely thinking of making spaghetti carbonara for dinner.

Now my head is like, "going to carbonara in my mind."

Can't you see the bacon

lol

in my mouth, it's paaasta carbonaara

Someone in my social media orbit posted something about how the way to deal with pandemic isolation plus winter isolation is to "think like a Norwegian."

And of course we all went off on a long mental vacation singing that to the tune of "Walk Like an Egyptian."

“How I got COVID,” to the tune of “How I Got Over”

Could also be “How I Got Rona,” I guess

whenever I see this thread I think of that Burger King ad with little people cowboys singing “Buffalo mini sirloin burgers” over a campfire

I’m currently reading Yoon Ha Lee’s Revenant Gun, every time I pick it up I start singing the title to the tune of The Who’s “Eminence Front” to myself.

I keep singing rona to the tune of Craig Mclachlan's Mona.

Recent thread gets High Plains Drifter by the beastie boys stuck in my head “read me my rights, as if I didn’t know this / threw me in the tank with TRUMP GOT COVID”

Ha, will now start singing Rona to Bo Diddley's "Mona."

every time I see the word “hotelier” in my head I hear Juvenile saying it

I feel like it happens w a couple of other words too, but that’s the one that makes me irl lol

I guess I'm sadly unaware of Bo Diddley's stuff - hadn't realised it was a cover! Thanks James.

“How I got COVID,” to the tune of “How I Got Over”

― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, October 10, 2020 4:15 PM (yesterday)

haha now -- 2nd level -- "How I got COVID" to the tune of "Crimson and Clover"

A few years back I glimpsed a story on the news where the headline was “Bizarre Manspreading Assault” (presumably, per Google, this one), for some reason my brain immediately inserted that phrase into the scansion of Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open The Door”, and ever since I’ve found myself intermittently singing “bizarre manspreading assault” under my breath to the melody of the Townshend song entirely unprompted by any reminder of manspreading or “Let My Love Open The Door”’s existence.
(I guess I could’ve posted that in this thread at any point since 2017 but this is the first time since then that an instance of the described phenomenon has lined up closely enough with a thread revive for me to a) Remember the thread’s existence and b) Not go “aww, man, I know this has happened to be before, I just can’t think of how or with what song.”)

wowwww

‘Mats
Wait, they don’t love you like I love you
#OneThread

Pinky & the Brain obviously already have an iconic theme song, but also: to the tune of "Blame it on the Rain."

there was a buttermilk culture/in the heart of the refrigerator

♬ "Demonyms spoken in claasss todayyyyyy" ♬

POLL pots, POLL pots, POLL pots, POLL pots

POLL pots, POLL pots, POLL pots, POLL pots

it's the new Oktoberfest Pretzels
they're 2 for 7 bucks
...

I mean, as the threadstarter I had absolutely no hopes for it. Turns out Lindelof did the right thing in the end, which I didn't expect in the slightest. Happy to have expectations undone.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, October 17, 2020 12:53 PM (three hours ago)

“I AM THE GOD OF THREADSTARTING!”

lol x2

big RAGGS aka the

The name of a certain lawyer who used to be mayor of NYC to the tune of “Gary, Indiana.” Been doing this since he WAS mayor, I think, don’t believe I posted it before/zingposting.

We watch a lot of Dodger games in my house and whenever Kike Hernandez comes to bat my wife sings “Kike, do you love me?”

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, September 26, 2020 9:20 PM (four weeks ago)

At this point in our household, "Randy Arozarena" is always sung to the tune of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer."