What’s That Song in Your Head?

Do random songs ever pop into your head? I’m not talking about how some catchy tune was being played on the radio recently, or when a buddy is singing something and, like musical cooties, you pick up the melody. I’m talking about some song just droning on, inside your head with no discernable origin. This happens to me, a lot. I think there should be a science behind it, a study of it, an ‘ology,’ something like a dream journal but without all the school girl implications.

This latter idea, of journaling it and trying to see some pattern or gain some understanding, came to me this morning when I was exhausted from a fourteen hour work shift. In my head was that song “I swear” (at least, I think that’s what it’s called) by Boys II Men. You know, “…and I swear, like the moon and the stars in blah blah….I’ll be there.” Or something like that. See? I don’t even know the words.

I have never owned this song, never spent mornings listening to it, forced by my mother’s bad taste (as was the case on so many rides to school growing up). Nothing like that. But it’s one of those songs that got a lot of play…somewhere. It’s been inserted into me. I have no idea how it popped into my head this morning, but it did, and it interests the hell out of me.

There’s always some little song in my head. A lot of times it’s a grand show-tunes. I grew up with musicals so this makes sense. I’m often whistling something from, say, “seven brides for seven brothers” or “the music man.” The melodies there intrigue me. I think they’re fun. They keep me entertained. I get why those might pop in.

So where did Boys II Men come from? I don’t particularly like the song. Mostly, I find it annoying. But I couldn’t shake it. It haunts me still. Some part of it must agree with my mind the way an awful, ugly shirt can sometimes be the most comfortable thing in the world to wear. It’s embarrassing almost.

Does this ever happen to you? I’d like to compile a list of the random songs that pop into my head and see what, if anything, it means.