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: Blur — “Song 2”
English rockers Blur had already established themselves in the UK by the time they released their fifth studio album in 1997. The self-titled record became their third to top the UK Album chart and also their third to be certified platinum or better. The album was the first, though, to really catch on across the pond in the United States. That was largely due to the popularity of the album’s second single, “Song 2.”
The song stayed on Billboard‘s Modern Rock chart for 26 weeks, peaking at Number Six. The song was so catchy that it is still getting tapped for commercials, movie trailers, and movie soundtracks today. From soft drinks to automobiles to computer processors to silver screen action scenes, the song’s catchy hooks and woo-hoos make it a hard earworm to avoid, and an even harder one to shake.
Laughing All The Way To The Bank
What most people don’t know about “Song 2” is that it was never meant to be on the album. The band initially wrote the song as a slow, acoustic demo, and the trademark woo-hoo chorus was originally whistled. As a joke to their record label, the band decided to speed up the tempo and give it the loud, distorted, aggro guitars…and of course, trade the whistling for the now famous woo-hoos.
Blur put the placeholder title of “Song 2” on it and snuck it in as the second track on the album. To their surprise, the label loved the song. The stylistic change from their more Britpop sound to alt-rock wowed the record company. The song was two minutes and two seconds long, was the second track, and had two verses and two choruses, so the title stuck, and it, fittingly, became the album’s second single.
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