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"

not the perfect thread for this but can''t think of a better one. i can't be the only person who has this bike computer and can't get on his bike without getting caetano veloso songs stuck in his head. this has been going on for like 15 years now...

https://content.mtbr.com/channels/mtbreview/images/products/large/product_425988_45370.jpg

Yesterday: “glass bottom boat” to the tune of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.”

One for the Canadians in the house, occasioned by my daughter’s purchase of some sour peach-favoured gummy donut-shaped candies:

Peach rings and pretty things
Let’s just see what tomorrow brings

A post-pedicure soundtrack: Rage Against the Machine, "Feet Now In The Dryer."

This one is not "inexplicable" but if I see the name France Joli I'm definitely singing it to the tune of her big hit "Come to Me," as in

France Joli
When you're all alone and feeling down
France Joli
When there's nobody else around

From the internet group "Wild Green Memes For Ecological Fiends"

https://i.imgur.com/cgAzkdu.jpg

Muskeg Memes For Alice In Chains Fiends

France Joli, for me, harks to the early 80s Enjoli commercial jingle:

I can bring home the bacon
France Joli
Fry it up in a pan
France Joli
And never let you forget you're a man

Cause I'm a woman
France Joli

lol I remember that commercial... was surprised years later to hear the Peggy Lee version and realize it was a real song

I looked it up on YouTube and it is actually late 70s.

(Insert usual "Why the fuck do I have a perfume commercial from 1979 permanently lodged in my head, and I don't know where I put my car keys yesterday?" rant here)

lol I remember that commercial... was surprised years later to hear the Peggy Lee version and realize it was a real song

Also done by Raquel Welch on The Muppet Show- as a duet with Miss Piggy!

Did someone say 70s?

Periodic reminder that Miss Piggy was originally named Miss Piggy Lee, as a parody of you know who

Almost forgot that Raquel Welch also did it as a duet with Cher on The Cher Show!

Man, those 70s really were exactly as remembered, weren’t they?

As 70s as a bead curtain, my dude

Nice callback! #onethread

Portaloo, couldn’t escape if I wanted to… pic.twitter.com/OkpduBQLVZ

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) July 5, 2023

Just texted my DnD group:

"I left my coffee with the orange lid "

And now it's

https://open.spotify.com/track/27HGiBpgclRBmkAmxNFa5v?si=qGc4pnnXSleegg0n4mm-Wg

(I Dream of Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair)

Don't let the days go by

Listerine

From the internet group "Wild Green Memes For Ecological Fiends"

― Do I look like I know what a jpeg is? (dog latin), Thursday, June 15, 2023 10:37 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

dog latin, thanks for tipping me off to that facebook group. It's a treasure trove.

"Just Be Good To Me" = "bear say hi to me"

Bacta tank, alright!

“Don’t save, I know what you’re sayin’…”

My cat’s treats are called Feline Greenies, which I always say to the tune of “Feelin’ Groovy".

Funky Winkerbean to the tune of "from the tambourine" from Abba's Dancing Queen.

omg

Bryan Adams's "Please Forgive Me" entered my head yesterday and wouldn't leave for hours.

but then inexplicably my brain made it a more mush-mouthed version that sounded like "Please Zbigniew, I know not what I do", so now that's all I can hear.

Denny Laine is in my ears and in my eyes

There's a chair store called Lovesac that I can't help singing (internally of course) like the B-52s' "Love Shack" whenever I see it.

It's called what now

Chairstore called Lovesac could definately be a Primus lyric

i had a look in the red cross shop in my lunch break and got super excited that they had loads of jeans in my size so giddy with excitement i tried a bunch on and bought them.
i only realized later that one pair are women's jeans (flies the other way round=exactly how i circumnavigate, yo)´- now when i wear them i sing "in my women's jeans" to the tune of susanne vega's "in my book of dreams" bustin up da gender stereotypes in alla dey faces
word

I'm Steve McQueen
I'm Martin Sheen
I'm Jimmy Dean
I'm women's jeans

I can't see the name Hayden Panettiere without thinking of the Beastie Boys:

Intergalactic, Panettiere, Panettiere, Intergalactic

I have to ask how often you see the name Hayden Panettiere!

Is that how you lot are pronouncing Pannettiere?

dog latin: for the purposes of this thread, yes. In a representative democracy, we reach a consensus on how to mangle the pronunciation of furrin words, and abide by that decision. My country, right or wrong.

morrisp: according to my attorneys, I don't have to answer that.

Lately when I feed my cats I find myself singing "foooood for caaaaats" to the tune of the Squeeze song "Cool for Cats."

This is in addition to the longstanding mental association with the old Far Side CAT FUD cartoon.

But the two don't really work together. I don't sing "fuuuuud for caaats." It's definitely "foooood for caaaaats."

“James Webb, James Webb”

When I see the Belvita line of breakfast crackers/cookies I have to sing it (internally) as is done for "Candida" in the Tony Orlando song.

Good one!

My place o' employment includes a Microbiology lab which tests for pathogens including candida albicans, so I'm well versed in Tony Orlando & Dawn running through my head.

Probably more for the misheard lyrics but
Kids - MGMT
"Control yourself, take only what you need from it"

I'm never sure what the lyrics are but I hear 'cheese, Gromit' in there every time

Chairstore called Lovesac could definately be a Primus lyric

I might have already said this one but whenever I see bacon in the supermarket it's PSB "How can you expect to be... bacon, seriously?"

“Great Wealth Transfer” —> Billy Bragg’s waiting for the Great Leap Forward… #classtraitor

If you were in middle school around the same time I was, maybe you will also hear this in a voice from a certain Miami bass song (track 3… IYKYK):

https://i.imgur.com/Y57kPQt_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand