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"

This weekend, I was charged with distracting my partner's dog with a freeze-dried "Wild Weenie" treat product. Unfortunately, just at that moment, I had "Angry Johnny" by Poe stuck in my head. It begins.

The Police Message In A Bottle gets triggered in my brain whenever I see KFC's local billboards Chicken in a bucket

I live fairly near Holloway Road in London, whenever I see reference to it or go past it I have to sing Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road"

xpost i'll send an extra crisp to the world

when I see the TRUE DETECTIVE thread my brain sings Undertones “true confessions”: “TRUETRUETRUETRUETRUE TRUE DETECTIVE!!!”

― brimstead, Friday, February 5, 2021 6:43 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

For me it's Devo's "Whip It": "Try True Detective / It's not too late"

The Police Message In A Bottle gets triggered in my brain whenever I see KFC's local billboards Chicken in a bucket

lmao

Wow, I somehow never connected the syllabic pattern of "Message in a Bottle" with my near-constant "Girlfriend in a Coma" trochee fixation.

Up to now I would almost certainly immediately sing "chicken in a bucket I know, I know, it's serious."

Now I am going to have to completely reassess "Message in a Bottle." In both directions! So like I can sing "Message in a bottle I know, I know, it's serious." But also everything like "kitten with a backpack" can be Policified, not just Smithsed.

This is mindblowing.

I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Girlfriend in a coma, yeah

lmao

ditto re immediately going to Girlfriend in a Coma!

probably due to the long-standing "chicken in a korma, I know, I know..."

when I was a kid everybody talked about Ozzy's "Crazy Train", but I didn't think I'd heard it before (turns out...I actually hadn't).

so I heard "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd and when they said "riding the gravy train" I thought they said "riding the Crazy train" and I wasl ike "why do people think this is a classic heavy metal song, wtf, there's an organ in it"

"i'll send an extra crisp to the world" is A+

Sammy Hagar
Let me slip away on you
Sammy Hagar
You’ve seen better days

"monkey of cheekiness" to the tune of slayer's "altar of sacrifice"

Not mine, but I stumbled on this account the other day and had a good laugh.

Cecil County Circuit Courthousehttps://t.co/p9n0YrVrul pic.twitter.com/CBfyGRxmr0

— Wiki Titles Singable to TMNT Themesong (@wiki_tmnt) February 24, 2021

Mingus (Joni Mitchell album)https://t.co/yDkIHUuF96 pic.twitter.com/Q7IYxgTzqb

— Wiki Titles Singable to TMNT Themesong (@wiki_tmnt) February 23, 2021

British Journal of Nutritionhttps://t.co/rB7jBgdrXa pic.twitter.com/XdV6n5qdQa

— Wiki Titles Singable to TMNT Themesong (@wiki_tmnt) February 21, 2021

that's amazing

reminds me of the "Devon County Council"/"Everybody Dance Now" thing I still think about a lot

Twitter with a blue check
Twitter with a blue check
Twitter with a blue check on

https://unbornwhiskeyy.tumblr.com/post/644104077733691392

When I hear the chorus of Lady Gaga's Poker Face, my brain always sings "come on Barbie let's go party" instead of "she's got me like nobody"

Me too - I think it's fairly common, weirdly

Ah, I should have googled that. I feel less alone now!

TMNT is total trochee fixation

Apologies for lame "obligatory relevant xkcd" but here

well that's a new word for me

^ found the non-English major

Sigourney Weaver, I believe you can get me through the night

Whenever the phrase “pooper scooper” is uttered (which happens from time to time), it is sung to the tune of the obvious ABBA song.

"take a chance on me"?

"take a dump on me"?

There's a popular trades aggregating site in the UK called Check-A-Trade and the music they use in their jingle is based on the last notes in the William Tell overture (Check-A-TRADE! Check A Trade Dot Com).
But whenever I see the name, I just get the opening chant from "Take A Chance On Me"

are the trades free?

I see where you're going with that but sadly not

Check-A-Trade Dot Com
Go tell your mom
Baby, trades are fun
Check-A-Trade's the one

(guess it would be "mum" in the UK though, huh)

I never understood why “dot cum” wasn’t the exclusive domain suffix for porn sites.

because porn is harder to misspell

whenever i see white rice in the supermarket or something i hear lou reed sing "white rice" to the tune of "white light", with the same immediacy as the opening bar, and it always makes me laugh

White rice/white meat

Huh. When I see white rice my head goes to Grandmaster Flash.

White... riiice... Vision dreams of passion / and all the while I think of you

when I see white rice, my head goes to the your terrible ideas thread and the one about "rice that is brown"

guided by voices:

issa rae don't worry / if the road's a little worn
it's a cold and filthy chasm / that we're traveling on

Magwitch
Magwitch, they call him Magwitch

Property Needs Assessment --> Self-Obsessed and Sexee by Sonic Youth

Property Needs Assessment all the way

(all the way)

kind of a stretch but my spouse is the chair an academic department committee that everyone just calls "AC" and whenever she mentions it I get this image stuck in my head, often another of our colleagues face in place of the puncher because they look sort of similar
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/EveryoneShouldBeKilled.jpg

Whenever I order sushi my brain starts singing, "weel may the eel roll, the eel roll, the eel roll."

popular Netflix docuseries: Murder Among the Mormons ----> "Welcome to the Jungle"

Walgreens vaccine to the tune of 'Christine Sixteen'

Hey to the tune of Pixies hey, every time...

My daughter’s partner began singing “chicken steak” taking with Caribou’s “Odessa” tonight & it will forever be burned in there

Chicken steak
Chicken steak
Chicken steak
Chicken steak
Chicken steak
Chicken steak
Who knows what she’s gonna bake?