I have certain songs I regard as my personal repertoire. You know those catchy tunes that get stuck in your head on a regular basis. And I'm not talking about just for a few days, I'm talking about years. Then you meet a really nice guy, you get married, and before you know it some of his repertoire becomes your own, or maybe as a couple you organically come up with new joint-repertoire tunes. Am I the only one?
Some of my original repertoire includes this camp song that my Dad taught me about African tribes that starts, "Oh, we're from Nairobi our team is a good one..." The lyrics are very un-PC to say the least. And yet I found myself humming it in the freezing cold this morning waiting for the bus. Matt's most egregious offering is "Turkey in the Straw" (need I say more). Once this tune gets in his head, you must replace it within fifteen minutes with a tune equally as persistent or "Turkey in the Straw" will remain for days.
As for a joint creation, we started singing "I'm wishing..." that horrible song from Disney's Snow White including the "aha-aha-aaa" part at the end that we--and now I am embarrassed to admit this--we harmonized in a most ridiculous manner that makes it all even more horrible than it originally was. Matt saw this part of the film a few years ago and was shocked that there was no harmonizing in the real film, it had become so ingrained in his psyche. So why is this? Does our repertoire reside in our lizard-brain? What's in your repertoire? (By the way, the Smurfs theme song is in my repertoire).
7 comments:
Really bad annoying songs from elementary school. Having a kid has also created this instant recall of songs I totally forgot about such as this gem I sing at meal time:
Hungry, hungry I am hungry
Table, table here I come
I could eat a goose moose burger
Fifteen pickles and a purple plum!
I'll spare you the other verses- it only gets worse. Any Butler Beavers out there remember that one?
Oh my goodness. For some reason (no, I don't understand it either) I always have motown songs stuck in my head even though I rarely listen to them.
The two that are eternally in my head:
Signed Sealed Delivered (my ex-roommate can attest to this)
"You want me to leave you
but I refuse to let you go!" (don't know the song title or even the rest of the song, but my current roommate tells me I sing this song all the time)
Hey, "I'm wishing" is also in my mental playlist! I probably got it from living with you...I never realized. Also, "There she is, Miss America." And I've never watched the show! I used to do Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" constantly but that's faded away (Scott is very grateful). Another one that has faded is "Yummy, yummy, yummy, I've got love in my tummy." It's been replaced by "Ugly Bug Ball" from Summer Magic and the Elmo theme son.
I LOVE this post. Since becoming married, almost any song B hears--but especially music from T.V. commercials--turn into "serenades" that he will sing for days. He takes the lyrics and replaces one word with my name, and once it's in his head, it goes on all night (or days).
Ex: Honda commercial featuring "Hold on tight to your dreams" became, "Hold on tight to LANE'S dreams." The worst was one day we were watching TV and an obnoxious sour cream commercial came on, "Do a dollop, do do a dollop of Daiseeeeeeeeey!" I waited for it and two seconds later he started with "Do a dollop..." I just looked at him and said, Oh Hell No.
Thanks for such a funny post :)
Lane, that "dollop" commercial is totally in our joint-repetoire. Thanks for getting it back in my head; I thought I had shaken it for good since we haven't had television for over a year.
GREAT post! I have many in my repertoire, but here's the latest that I just can't seem to shake:
Down by the banks of the hanky panky,
where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky...
P.S. Hap-hap-happiest of Birthdays. I'm so sad we missed the festivities, which I hear included not one, but two different kinds of cake. Wowza!
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