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"

Message from the wreckage, it is soft-rock shit
TLS handshake, the over-grown super shit

But I can't find my keyring anymore
Is it under something on the floor?
I need to unlock and lock my door
I should have left the house at four
But baby I can't find my keyring anymore

If Beale Street Could Talk to the tune of "These Walls" by Kendrick Lamar

douchebag in an Audi
I know, i know, you're serious

https://img.discogs.com/3oSqTlLZ-QFFPVjEgUuJapyIro4=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-7032799-1432192692-7771.jpeg.jpg

K-19, The Widowmaker
It was directed by Bigelow
It's hard times befallen, sub survivors
He's Liam Neeson, and I'm just Harry Fooooooord
K-19!

lol

Don't save the file
Don't change a thing
For me

US Politics March 2019: “I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled. The dreams in which I'm dying are the dreams in which I'm... killed”

PG Tips (the "tea of the English Working Class") = "I can almost smell [sniff sniff] your TB sheets..."

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

Whoa-oh here she comes
Watch out boy, she'll bomb your home
Whoa-oh here she comes
She's a cruise missile

eh, meant to underline cruise missile there to showcase the interchangeable parts.

xxp - PG Tips has a totally different association for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTam9BJJq9w&t=17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTam9BJJq9w&t=17

Oh well, it was supposed to be the PB Crisps ad from 1994

youtube with an error, i know, i know, it's serious

Occasionally I have to teach people how to use an espresso machine, and one crucial step is telling them to "purge the group head" which I always think to the melody "hang the DJ hang the DJ hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ hang the DJ hang the DJ" but I never sing it out, I just get a faraway look for a moment while it happens.

re: H&O, I was giving myself the giggles with "You're out of touch, I'm out of time / Blood runs out of my head when you're not around" earlier this week, shoutout to whoever shared that one upthread

🎶"It's not like salmon, but a little like trout and it's name is tilapia".🎶

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/960x540/p01bqhrp.jpg

every day is a SAFFRON ROAD ... frozen entrees on sale today ...

We buy these little satsumas that are branded as 'easy peelers', now renamed 'peaceful easy peelers'

emily, emily can't you see / sometimes your words just hypnotize me

Just picked up an early Dick novel

https://borgdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/world-jones-made-e.jpg

and I can't get the chorus of this out of my head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEuWE_pm5O4

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Teenage_caveman.JPG

Bam-Bam O'Riley

https://youtu.be/M3qoqkKCK3M?t=1689

It’s not that inexplicable — but when I see the word “Panama” (like on my TV right now, where soccer is playing), my head plays the obvious tune

d'oh... i got introduced to teenage caveman by that MST episode so i've certainly seen that Tom Servo riff, but forgotten it. and hear i thought i was on the cutting edge of dad song joke humor.

I was recently pouring vodka into a water bottle, so as to bring it someplace where it was technically not allowed, and I explained to my wife that it was stealth vodka.

We both immediately shouted STEALTH VODKA! in a Fred Schneider style

lol

A+

My cabin had a problem with an ermine that kept getting in, but we could never find and catch it. One day my boyfriend was over and his car was parked out front, and my cousin spotted a tiny ermine disappearing under his car. So she came in and reported, "John, there's a baby ermine underneath your car."

John: What?
Cousin: There's a baby ermine underneath your car.
John: WHAT?
Cousin (patiently): Underneath your car, there's a baby ermine.

Cousin and I looked at each other, had an epiphany, and simultaneously sang "Underneeeeaaaath your car, there's a baby ermine!" to the tune of Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes."

I don't know why, but my horrible brain has recently started torturing me with:

Here I am!
Rock you like I'm Herman Cain!

On a similar note, I keep singing "Joe Biden" to the tune of KISS's "Black Diamond"

loooool

TaskRabbit to the tune of "Phat Rabbit."

I started using a cpap machine this summer for sleep apnea, and mentally refer to it as the "apnea machine". When I put it on before bed now I hear Paul Westerburg saying, "how do you say good night to an apnea machine?"

Jordan Henderson will all be there
Mane Salah Firmino, what a scene

How do you mend
A broken poptart

It’s totally problematic
Whenever you’re around
Problematic

Pointer sisters voice

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.

― chap, Sunday, November 30, 2008 2:33 PM (ten years ago

when I read that Robert Mugabe died the other day, I thought of this

/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.

― chap, Sunday, November 30, 2008 2:33 PM (ten years ago/

when I read that Robert Mugabe died the other day, I thought of this

♫ Octa octa,
gimme the news,
I've got a bad case
of loving you ♫

*Octo octa obv

this content's not available right now ---> that joke isn't funny anymore by The Smiths

There's a store here called "Pet Places". My wife and I always sing it to the tune of "Face Dances" when we drive by.

Hunh, now this is happening to me, but to the tune of Love’s “Robert Montgomery”.

How do you think Arthur Lee wrote "Robert Montgomery"?

Triggered by seeing the thread 'The Irish' on ilx:

"Help the Irish,
One time they were just like you
Drinking, smoking cigs and sniffing glue
Help the Irish
Don't just put them in a home
Can't have much fun when they're all on their own
Give a hand, if you can
Try and help them to unwind
Give them hope and give them comfort
'Cause they're running out of time"

:-/

i'd make bolognese for ya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6iYWJxHqs

Better to 'God Gave Rock and Roll to You'.

To me, Octo Octa doesn't summon Robert Plamer.

It summons Thompson Twins.

https://youtu.be/APyl6Cnbfzw