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"

I think it’s “Got it bad, got it bad…” etc though admitttedly Roth’s accent makes it sound kinda funny

it is, but I misheard it as "made" the first time and have never entirely shaken it.

I wanna take you to a fig bar! Fig bar! Fig bar!

Morrissey is a Racist = Sheena is a Punk Rocker

I've just seen Perry Anderson's name on the homepage and sung it to the tune of 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)' by Metallica.

“I’m in the Meal Deal” to the tune of We’re in the Money or, sometimes I’m Every Woman.

Haha

To the tune of ZZ Top's 'Velcro Fly"

"Do the Remko Scha"

MERV-13 to the tune of "Dancing Queen"

"kwisatz haderach" to the tune of "get back, honky cat"

I also have a stove box in the garage with everything written in english/spanish/french; whenever I see 'estufa' I hear guy picciotto singing it at the beginning of 'exit only'

Fettucine

Allo
Aalo-o-o-
Sunt eu picasso...

(from the Numa Numa yay song)

Whenever I see an album by Julian Bream, classical guitarist:

Julian Bream
Bream boat queen
Queen of all my dreams

Wamsutta

Wamsutta, wamsutta, bam a lam
Wamsutta, wamsutta, bam a lam

Hot takes -> "Hot Freaks", GBV

gaslighting -> “Nightclubbing”

Things that I say to the tune of “Eminence Front,” Part I pic.twitter.com/i7tA37rpwY

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) January 29, 2022

Not the same thing, but when I think of PJ Harvey's line "Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water" I follow it with "Come Mr tallyman, tally me banana."

Brisk Money
Put your Filas on

"Bomb calorimeter" makes me hum "Ein Keloheinu."

whenever i cook white rice the first thing i hear is lou reed shouting "WHITE RICE" like the intro to white light.

Verizon admonishments to pay online -- "your bill is just a click away" --->> chorus of Gimme Shelter

I can Creames Fartpoop
if I can't hold you tonight

I will too often find myself wandering around the apartment singing "I don't know where my phone is...." to the tune of that Nelly Furtado songs, which is double bad 'cos now I can't find my phone and I'm singing a Nelly Furtado song........
― m0stlyClean, Thursday, September 3, 2020 6:31 PM

oh see mine is "I want to know where phone is, I want you to show me" dunno if that's worse
― sarahell, Friday, September 4, 2020 7:15 AM

"Where is my phone" for me is sung to the tune of "Where is my Mind?"
― tater totalitarian (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, September 4, 2020 8:41 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

No no guys, it's to the tune of 'Where is the Love?'
― emil.y, Friday, September 4, 2020 8:52 AM

Today I found myself doing a Dylan / "Tight Connection" thing: "Has anybody SEEN my phone? Has anybody seen MY phone?..."

I sing "Here I go again on my phone" to the tune of Whitesnake a lot

I’ve been known to say to myself “Got phone… in pocket,” à la the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket” (which feels like an extremely dorky thing to do).

Cuz I've got one phone in my pocket
And the other one is giving a peace sign

Dem party bullshit always makes me hear the Doors:

She's a

*BOMP!* *BOMP!*

Debbie Wasserman Schultz!

― how's life, Monday, July 25, 2016 6:12 AM (five years ago)

i actually think of this on a semi-regular basis ... so today, to that same Doors song ...

she's a

BOMP! BOMP!

genderqueer lesbian frog

Ritorna, Madonna

to Whiney's favorite .... Kokomo

the new Fujiya Miyagi

That ain't no Portrait of a Lady
No portrait of your baby, your woman, your friend
That ain't no Portrait of a Lady, no way
But maybe it's a way for us to end

this is the POWER OF THE DOG (to the tune of this is the rhythm of the night)

mia wasikowska, mia mia wasikowska (to the tune of mr. dobbalina)

You can find me In the Cut

leche de coco to the first 5 notes of the funkytown melody

Oooh, I love the way you love the way you love me
There's nowhere else I'd rather be (la-di-la-di-liee-eee-eeeye)
Oooh, to feel the way I feel with your arms around me
I only wish that you could see-eeee The Spy Who Loved Me (Loved me)
Woah-ooh-oh-oooh-oh, The Spy Who Loved Me

"The Story of a Canceled Teen" to the tune of "Owner of a Lonely Heart"

I sing “I’ve been learning to troll” to the opening line of “Mama Mia”

I know when that hotline bling
It can only mean one thing
Diarrhea

Goodbye, Suzy Creamcheese
Who could hang a name on you?

Ask any Honda owner who's often left alone all by herself

When I walk my dog, he likes to kick and scrape with his back paws after he, well, poops. Which is a problem if I'm on somebody's lawn. And then one day I had a certain playlist on. So now in these situations, I like to croon quietly to myself--

No diggity (I got to bag it up)

(reading laundry care instructions)

“Tumble dry LOW, LOW, LOW, LOW…”

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Low_fr_tp.JPG

Every time my partner says "darling", I think (and sometimes say) "we're up against it." Which is a problem, because darling is my partner's go-to when addressing me.

The thing is, I don't even like 'Major Leagues' that much. But it's lodged in my head somehow.

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....

― mottdeterre, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 9:23 PM

A big lunch one for me is "break for lunch" => Break 4 Love by Raze

Can’t remember if I posted these above, but I do the same thing with “Armenia” for “America” (God Bless Armenia, etc) and — the coup de grace — “asshole” for “angel”:

JUST CALL ME ASSHOLE
OF THE MORNING, ASSHOLE!

https://xkcd.com/2665/

"time blindness" to the chorus of "Sky Pilot"

An ADHD anthem for the ages.

Did we do “Musk” -> “Tusk” yet?

Hard to see this on the shelf without a Dead Boys tune running thru my head:

https://www.cvs.com/bizcontent/merchandising/productimages/high_res/50428637289.jpg

Lol

Haha!