Musical Tourettes

[Jamie Renton]

Aly Prince coined this phrase to describe the involuntary singng of a line or two of a song in response to someone saying something that reminds you of it. So, for example, if someone mentions a roof, you can't stop yourself from singing a bit of the Drifters "Up on the Roof", whilst mention of a river automatically results in the chorus of "Proud Mary"

I've got this condition under control, in so far as I'm able to stop myself from blurting out the songs that come into my head. Those songs however are invariably dredged from the darkest recesses of my unconscious.

A couple of years back we got a puppy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyXzwtIlZyg

It's now grown into a dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fgGNZYR5QM

If I'm ever asked to make a decision: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7WRLXPJBA

I'm not very good at making decisions anyway, because when I try to sit and think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlV2c9acGVs&feature=fvst

Enough, I've revealed too much, I shall stop now and say bye bye...OH SHIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksYJLmo9Cg&feature=fvst

[AndyM]

That's not just musical Tourettes, that's [i]bad[/i] musical Tourette's.

[Jamie Renton]

That's not just musical Tourettes, that's [i]bad[/i] musical Tourette's.

And don't I know it. What really rankles is that there's often a better song on the same subject. So when I see my dog, Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog" should be the one I think of. But do I? No, it's Lobo every single time*

* This is not entirely true: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v044SCWA4LA

[Jamie Renton]

Alas, my condition worsens by the day.

Yesterday when my daughter explained that her 8-year old cousin claims to have a boyfriend, this came into my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCdhMN1ZCO8

Is there no end to this torment?

[NormanD]

A doctor writes:
"It's worse than I imagined"

And asks:
"Why is she wearing a tallit?"

[Jamie Renton]

"Why is she wearing a tallit?"

You say tallit and I say tallis

[gary booth]

For some reason, young Polly's parents chose Claire as her 'stage' name? And yet from her first album onwards she's preferred the rather more formal P J Harvey.

[NormanD]

טַלִּית - take your pick. More important than ritual prayer accoutrements, however: do you say baygel or buygel. I go with the latter.

[Jamie Renton]

More important than ritual prayer accoutrements, however: do you say baygel or buygel. I go with the latter.

Buygel of course (Noo, you think I'm American?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-W6Z7YEF0M

[Hugh Weldon]

Rather than associate this often annoying syndrome with an embarrassing affliction that I'm sure none of us would wish to suffer, I always refer to a couple of singing clowns from Saturday morning kids tv called Trev and Simon whose catchphrase was 'We know a song about that'. (Adding, perhaps, 'and sometimes wish I didn't')

Part of the explanation lies in the fact that lots of clever lyricists picked up phrases in common currency and used them as titles or otherwise effective lines in their tunes. I can't recall many specific examples at the moment, other than the other day saying to somebody 'I don't blame you at all' and instantly having Smokey Robinson's voice echoing in my head.

I will return to this one probably - (and that's kicked off Costello's 'Two Little Hitlers' Oh well. And that's Fleetwood Mac isn't it. Stop now!)

[Adam Blake]

Not quite the same as Musical Tourettes but similar: do you find you have music going in your head all the time? Just like tuning into a radio station? It's just there and most of the time you're not really listening to it but if you want to, you just stop what you're doing for a moment and listen in and... there it is. Often, the music I put on to listen to is just to confirm that what I can hear in my head is actually what I think it is. I often wish I had perfect pitch. It's very handy for musicians (to say the least) but I think if I did, it would drive me crazy. But lately I've found that sometimes, just sometimes, it stops and there is relative silence. This used to disturb me profoundly (freak me out is, I think, the correct term) but I've grown to quite like it.

[Jamie Renton]

a couple of singing clowns from Saturday morning kids tv called Trev and Simon

Here they are covering Hendrix in their own special way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ixcNjq9d0
Swing your pants!

[Hugh Weldon]

Adam

do you find you have music going in your head all the time?

No, I guess this is more a professional musicians thing (?) - but I do have a sort of music of the spheres thing, a sort of aural dreaming if you like, or strictly speaking more noticeable just before falling asleep. Usually orchestral, symphonic, occasionally jazz. Quite pleasant really, though I've yet to have a 'scrambled eggs' moment. All my own work, not composed, known stuff, though you get that too of course.

Going back to the 'tourette's, it's not necessarily a word or phrase that triggers it. I once worked in a factory where one of the machines made a noise on one note - a crotchet followed by three pairs of quavers - which immediately had me singing Cilla's 'You're My World'. Similarly one of the chants we had on the Kop at Liverpool, 'come on you Re-eds' (same note x 3 then a third down - doh doh doh doh-ti) provided my mate Mark with one of the first lines of one of his songs - but the genesis of compositions is another thread I guess.

[Rob Hall]

Our car sounds a 'boing-boing-boing' alarm when you turn the engine off with the lights still on - the note is exactly that of the first note of the flute intro to 'Sloop John B', which always starts up in my head whenever it happens.

And I've mentioned this here before: when I used to cycle across London to get to work I found that I would often arrive with a tune by Traffic in my head. Nothing to do with the cars; just about a mile before I arrived, I was going past Barleycorn Drive.

[taiyo no otosan]

A while ago, I noticed I was always singing 'Three is the Magic Number' whenever I went shopping at one branch of a local supermarket, but not at the other. (In my head that is, not out loud!) After several months of this, I finally realised that there is a cigarette machine that plays a looped phrase that is almost identical to the start of of Bob Dorough's multiplication classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUXtUD81G-g