Earworm of the Day: Chvrches "Tightrope"

I first heard about this song on NPR. Chvrches cover Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" Live at Billboard Women In Music 2013

Earworm of the Day: The Who's "Love reign o'er me"

Listen to it here.

Earworm of the Day: Sinnerman by Nina Simone

Nina Simone

I first heard this song in The Thomas Crowne Affair; you can watch the clip from the movie that used the song here. A search turned up this link on Nina Simone’s life — she was was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Here is a link to her official website.

Sinnerman (spelled as one word) is one of Nina Simone’s most famous songs and she recorded her definitive 10-minute-plus version on her 1965 album Pastel Blues. Simone learned the lyrics of this song in her childhood when it was used at revival meetings by her mother, a Methodist minister, to help people confess their sins. In the early days of her career during the early sixties, when she was heavily involved in the Greenwich Village scene, Simone often used the long piece to end her live performances.  Listen to her 10-minute version here.

Find the lyrics to Sinnerman here, and more about the song’s history here.

Earworm of the Day: Nothing Else Matters‬ by‪ Scala & Kolacny Brothers

Earworm of the Day: Helplessly Hoping

Find the lyrics here, listen to it here, and see a live version here. Heard on the radio on the commute to work, this makes me smile.

Earworm of the Day: The Only Living Boy in New York

The Only Living Boy in New York written by Paul Simon was recorded on November 15, 1969 as part of the fifth and final studio album by Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Listen to it here.

Earworm: 56K Modem

Earworm: The Chain

A few years after this album was released, I picked it up [along with a dozens other albums being discarded] beside a dumpster behind the Mifflin County Library. This  was before I drove, so I balanced the stack on my skateboard, and pushed them home through the back alleys to Walnut Street.

Listen to The Chain here.

Earworm: All the Gold in California

I remember hearing this song by Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers Band in 1979 on local radio stations WKVA and WMRF. Though not typically a fan of country songs, the vocal harmonies have always stuck with me.


Listen to it here.

Earworm of the Day: You’re The Storm

I originally heard this song by The Cardigans on Pandora.  I like the sound quality that they create, especially on the refrain.

. . . cause you’re the storm that I've been needing
and all this peace has been deceiving
I need some wind to get me sailing
so it's the storm that I believe in
you fill my heart, you keep me breathing
'cause you're the storm that I believe in




The rest of the lyrics can be found here. Not much into the video, but the music created.

Earworm: The Wayouts

Season 6, Episode 11 Summary: 
For his costume for the Water Buffalos’ masquerade party, Fred Flintstone picks a spaceman's uniform. Unfortunately, he goes out on a night when a local radio station has launched a publicity stunt about an invasion by space aliens, a stunt that backfires and creates a panic in the city. This episode is a remake of The Honeymooners episode entitled 'The Man from Space' from Dec. 31, 1955.





Lyrics can be found here.

Earworm: O Fortuna

The original text of "O Fortuna", from the Carmina Burana

O Fortuna is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the thirteenth century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate, and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and personification of luck.

The misheard lyrics here make me smile. You can find out more about O Fortuna here, including the actual lyrics and translation.

Earworm: Kashmir

Bond, an all-girl Australian/British classical crossover string quartet covers this song on their album Shine. Listen to their version here. Led Zeppelin’s 1975 version here. The riff has always reminded me of katydids on a warm summer evening singing to each other.

Earworm: Genki Sudo’s World Order

via very short list


“ Genki Sudo is an overachiever: a kickboxer, Greco-Roman wrestler, and retired mixed-martial-arts star who was known for his splashy entrances and flashy moves. He’s also an accomplished actor, essayist, and calligrapher, and the leader of a pop group called World Order. And in this excellent music video, he’s taking New York by storm. Like many other overachievers, Sudo has a personal motto—in his case, a motto (“we are all one”) that didn’t make sense in the ring but sits quite comfortably with his career as a song-and-dance man. Among other things, this is one of the most carefully synced videos we’ve seen. (Did we mention that Sudo is also the group’s choreographer?) And yet it’s interesting to compare World Order’s New York video with a similar one they filmed in Japan: If you think New Yorkers are jaded, check out the (non-)reactions of Tokyo’s passersby.”


Watch Genki Sudo’s World Order in New York City here, other links can be found here for the Tokyo video, and more.

Earworm: The Air That I Breathe

When our cat Birbanto decides to “shnub” his food, he channels part of this Hollies song:

“...Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe
And to love you.”

k.d. lang’s excellent version is here.

Earworm of the Day: Break on Through (to the other side)

Well, actually, any song by The Doors can become an earworm. For two years, starting in the summer of 1980, there was one student in most of my classes at the Art Institute who constantly talked about and played music by The Doors. Bill was quite the fanboy and would always be referring to their lyrics.

Some people believe that we only have a given number of breaths before we die. By the time I graduated, I came to believe that certain songs only need to be heard a given number of times in ones’ life. I have easily met that number and have my fill of any song by The Doors. I wish that there was a membership card or something that would exempt me from hearing Light My Fire, Riders On The Storm, Hello I Love You, The End, L.A. Woman, When You’re Strange, Love Her Madly, Love Me Two Times, and Roadhouse Blues. Been there, heard that, never need to hear it again.

Listen to Roadhouse Blues here, if you must.

Earworm of the Day: k.d. lang’s Constant Craving

“Even through the darkest phase
Be it thick or thin
Always someone marches brave
Here beneath my skin . . .”

The rest of the lyrics can be found here. Watch a video of the song here.