The Daily Epic Earworm For December 21, 2025

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: Bon Jovi — “You Give Love a Bad Name”

Bon Jovi had achieved some minor success with their first two albums, but it was 1986’s Slippery When Wet that launched the band into the stratosphere. The album has achieved diamond status and has sold over 15 million copies in the United States alone. The album’s lead single, “You Give Love a Bad Name,” set the tone for how successful the record would become. The song rocketed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and became Bon Jovi‘s first chart-topping hit.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

However, the epic earworm was not so successful in its original incarnation. The song was written by legendary songwriter Desmond Child. The original synth-pop version was called “If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man),” and it was recorded by Bonnie Tyler. The song was released earlier that same year, but it only reached #77 on the Hot 100. Child felt that the song could do better, so he rewrote it with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. The new lyrics and hard-rock edge made all the difference, and the rest is history.