Brain Itch Songs

I just found a blurb about Brain Itch Songs and the top 10 of all time. Brain Itch songs are those that you hear and find them stuck in your head, and there they play, over and over , until you find yourself trying to force the song out. That usually embeds them deeper. They go away, and then can pop up again at random.

The Top 10 in the article is led by Beyonce's If You Like It Put a Ring On It. My radio time is pretty limited and in a stuck pattern, so I heard this for the first time just last week, and I admit that I immediately wanted to hear it again. It's like candy, or circle cakes, just gimme one more.


The other songs on the Brain Itch list were YMCA, Who Let the Dogs Out, I'm Too Sexy, Mambo #5, Tub Thumping, Mmm Bop, Don't Worry Be Happy, We Will Rock You, and 867-5309 Jenny.

Each of those songs has some measure of Brain Itch for me, but I have some others that make my list. The BIS (Brain Itch Syndrome) is, I find, OK when it's a song that you like and it's with you, not so good when someone with whom you spend a lot of time is experiencing BIS and sharing, and downright maddening when you get a BIS song in your head that you don't like. Dogs Out, Too Sexy and Jenny are all in that last category for me. I absolutely couldn't stand 'em then and I still can't.

The list represents a pretty narrow music diet, too. I would guess that most everyone has some songs on their personal list that are going to be way outside the mainstream. The BIS'ers come and go, too, and sometimes I don't even know their proper name. An old Paul Simon song from the Rhythm of the Saints album comes to mind. It starts with a tribal drum corps, I don't know the song's name, and when the song came out I found myself pounding out the drum solo (and aggravating everyone) at will.

Bette Midler's Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy afflicted me for a while. Crosby Stills etc.'s Judy Blue Eyes was a long time affliction. The opening riff from Purple Haze was a BIS for over a decade. Who among us has not been BIS'd by New York, New York? Or how about Friends in Low Places and, for me (and my son) the recently unearthed Start Wearing Purple?

Other music genres and obscure songs make my list, too. Bolero (the song from "10") was a BIS'er for years. There's some old country songs I found that stayed for awhile, like the Statler Brothers Do You Remember These and Susan When She Tried.

The family can all disappear into Black Velvet Band, the traditional Irish song, with a little suggestion. There's that song from Music Man in there ("...starts with a P and that rhymes with pool!"), a clump of ABBA songs (these are particulary addictive, be careful), a couple of Dean Martin's, and I'm not even going to begin telling you about the polka music that rattles in my brain.

Only two songs come to mind as BIS'ers that aggravate me: Whole Lotta Shakin' and Rock Around the Clock. Aaaarghhh....

So share some of your musical afflictions, it's cathartic, and yes, I liked Mmm Bop. There, I'm outed.

PS, Different Topic: Roddy boy was on Letterman last night. This is the first of his TV show appearances that I have witnessed, and it ain't pretty. Rod strolled out on stage confidently, giving a wave of acknowledgement to Paul Schaefer as the band played My Way. Rod was just plain weird, throwing a few factoids about the Ed Sullivan theatre (where Letterman's show is staged) at the host, grinning when Dave lampooned him and then using the familiar technique of avoiding the question when Letterman became serious. Rod reminded Dave -twice- that he has two daughters who need to know that their father didn't do anything wrong. As I watched, I felt clearly that Rod lives in multiple realities. I'm serious. This guy is behaving as if he has already had the big nervous breakdown and flitting from world to world, like changing channels. Rod behaves like a self-crowned celebrity, a fawning sychophant, a wronged champion of the people, a crook caught in the act and like he's running a stay-out-of-jail campaign, sometimes all within a couple of minutes.

Maybe he's only a little nuts. All those roles, except one, look like the real thing.