Help me get an ear worm tune out of my head?
Watched “The Great Escape” with my ten year old grand son today, and he loves the film. Ditto the dang theme song. Asked me to play it on You Tube for him so I did. Like four times. The child can’t get enough of it. It is a great theme but now it’s playing over and over in my head. Any ideas to get rid of it?
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Nooo lol. Might try that though thanks. We both enjoyed the movie and bonding time but I didn’t think he’d get obsessed with a movie theme. : )
Take a warm shower. Or exercise. Anything that you need to focus on.
I’d suggest the theme to Patton but it’s another World War II anthem that I find even more of an ear bug, but at least I like it. I er, first watched the film with my dad, and was hooked on the theme music for years after. I often conjure it up to crush and eradicate pop music ear bugs that I don’t want in my head.
Then you can watch The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly… :-)
(This version of that last theme might be better, BTW. The one I linked above seems a little softened.)
“Camptown ladies sing this song, doo dah, doo dah, ...”
“I got a mule her name is Sal, 15 years on the Erie Canal.”
“Oh my darlin,’ Oh my darlin,’ Oh my darlin’ Clemintine…”
“Oh, I’m a Yankee Doodle dandy, Yankee Doodle do or die. ...”
“When Johnny comes marching home again, hoorah, hoorah, ...”
Here’s a little quiz for you (for anyone, actually):
(1) Which of the above tunes listed by @kritiper ^^^ is not a traditional American song popular in the old days (pre-20th century, or at least pre-WWI), when “everybody” knew them?
(2) Do you know any of them well enough to sing at least a few bars with an approximation of the tune? If so, which?
And let’s add one to the list:
“Irene, goodnight, Irene, goodnight.
Good night, Irene, good night, Irene…”
Sugar, do do do do do do…
All the songs are very familiar to me except “I got a mule”. I’m pretty sure “Camptown Ladies” is from the north of England and “Goodnight Irene” is also from the UK but I could be wrong.
@flutherother,
Camptown Races – a song by Stephen Foster, from the pre-Civil War American South (listen)
Good Night, Irene – a radio hit by the legendary American group The Weavers in 1950, learned from revered American folk singer Leadbelly in the 1940s (listen)
The simple, down-to-earth quality of songs like these seems to transcend time and place. “Good Night, Irene,” for one, has an emotional resonance that gives it staying power. Good for driving out earworms, too.
Thanks for the links. I’m sure we used to sing “Camptown Races” in the school playground at one time. These songs were a part of growing up and we never thought of them as being American. It’s strange, but I can’t get that tune out of my head now.
@flutherother, uh-oh. Maybe you should listen to the theme from “The Great Escape.”
I grew up with a ton of Irish, Scottish, and English folksongs that we treated as “ours”—and they were, in a way, because a lot of our folks came from those places. We sang them in school, at camp, and around the piano at home.
People like Pete Seeger and the Weavers, along with many others, did a lot to make the songs of many nations and cultures part of a world body of music that everyone could enjoy. There was no such thing as “cultural appropriation” then. People were happy to have others enjoy and appreciate their culture and join in.
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