Everyone gets songs stuck in their heads that just won’t go away. They sneak into your subconscious. They are epic earworms that you find yourself humming uncontrollably, singing in the shower, or tapping the beat to with your foot or ballpoint pen when you should be working. Sometimes they even keep you awake at night. Whether they are current hits, one-hit wonders, movie soundtrack gems, holiday favorites, or songs from your youth, their catchy vocals, riffs, hooks, and choruses seem to linger for days.
Here, those songs find a home, no matter the genre. Here, those epic earworms are revisited, explained, and celebrated. Here, you may find the song that haunts you tomorrow. Here is today’s unescapable song of the day…and the story behind it.
Today’s Epic Earworm: Thomas Dolby — “She Blinded Me With Science”
English new wave artist Thomas Dolby hit it big in 1982 with “She Blinded Me with Science.” The song is still his biggest hit 23 years later. The epic earworm topped the charts in Canada and was certified gold there. It reached the Top Ten on Billboard’s Dance and Mainstream Rock charts, as well as the Billboard Hot 100, and fared well in several other countries as well.
The Scientific Process
What many people didn’t know about the song is that Dolby had the entire music video for the song storyboarded out before ever writing the song itself. The singer even lined up real-life British scientist Magnus Pike to be a part of the video and the song. Pike played the Director of the Rest Home for Deranged Scientists in the video and can be heard shouting “Science!” and other interjections in the song.
When the hit television show “The Big Bang Theory” filmed its original pilot, “She Blinded Me With Science” was used as the theme song. Unfortunately for Dolby, that pilot never aired. When a new pilot was filmed, the ditzy character of Penny was in, and the street-hardened, manipulating Katie character was out. Not only was the whole trajectory of the plot scrapped and replaced, but so was the theme song. Dolby was out, and the Barenaked Ladies were in.
Dolby seems to be doing well for himself, despite the loss. He founded the Silicon Valley software company Beatnik and is a member of the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Dolby leads Peabody’s Music for New Media program. He still writes, records, and produces music, as well.
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