2022: The (Y)Earworm and Song Loops Highlights

Revisiting some old posts, cheerleading for the Substack App and this week’s earworm du jour

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

Gratitude

As 2022 nears its last days and the joys and stresses of the holidays ramp up, I thought it would be a good time to look back and see what we’ve accomplished since Earworms and Song Loops made its maiden voyage back in early May.

Before I get all misty-eyed and twinkle-toed, I wanted to offer gratitude to you all for being loyal readers of this Substack newsletter. Our lives are crazy busy and finding spare time to read a book or the newspaper or go to the movies is hard enough, so I truly appreciate you for whatever number of minutes you’ve dedicated to reading my musical memorical ramblings.

I wanted to also encourage those of you who read these newsletters in your email application to consider downloading the Substack app.

I hadn’t gone out of my way to promote it since its release in the summer, mainly because it was buggy and limited at first. But now, the app is robust and integrates with the audio and video clips I include in my stories seamlessly. I can only speak to the Apple app, I haven’t tried the Android version, but I hear that is also pretty solid.

This post will include links to previous newsletters -- gems from the archives I like to call them -- but they can also be accessed at my Substack page, earworm.substack.com.

Not that I want you to play favorites, but I would love to know which posts resonated and stayed with you the most. The comment section has been enormously insightful, but if you are one who prefers not to leave comments directly, shoot me an email and let me know your thoughts.

Earworm of the Week

Because I tend to go on and on sometimes, it is only fitting that the earworm that has occupied my brain the past several hours is the 1976 Stephen Bishop tune “On and On.”

I think this song appeared, though, more as a response to my day, which felt long and tiring (but not interminable -- I walk dogs and it was a gorgeous, clear and crisp day, so the exhaustion is due to physical exertion).

It’s one of those easy listening songs that seemed to emanate from the AM car stereo in our Chevrolet Caprice station wagon every time my mom drove me and my sister (and probably a couple of neighborhood kids) to or picked us up from elementary school. I used to hate/love songs like this back then — so sappy! — but now I have a love/love relationship with them.

It clicks those nostalgia buttons; it takes me back to those simpler times, when life was mostly up ahead and home computers were more than a decade away.

But also, I hear songs like this and I can’t find their equivalent in today’s musical climate. All the other genres of the ‘70s — hard rock, psychedelia, folk, disco, funk — there’s a band or artist today that is successfully incorporating those sounds in their music. But who are the easy-listening artists of today?

I ask this genuinely. Are there young singer-songwriters penning sweet acoustic songs, or heart-on-the-sleeve, tear-jerker ballads? Who is the Gen-Z James Taylor?

The Earworm Wayback Machine

Archive post #1

To christen my very first Earworm and Song Loops post, I turned to the one and only Britney Spears. I told the tale of my younger, cheaper self getting a tooth pulled at a knock-off dental office, and how the Britney channel was the only music channel I could handle listening to (I was given special headphones) while enduring the long and arduous extraction. You can read the whole thing below.

Britney Spears - Toxic

Archive post #2

A few weeks later, my earworm led me to write about young, thwarted love.

My own early teenage short-lived romance, yes, but also that of two teenage Swedish girls in a favorite film, Show Me Love, which featured the Foreigner hit song “I Want To Know What Love Is.” Journey’s “Who’s Crying Now?” dovetails itself into this story to make for the ultimate early ‘80s power-ballad duet. This one, I am told, was a favorite for a couple readers.

I Want To Know What Love Is

Archive post #3

Every so often I like dive a little deeper into the earworm universe. Write a post that tries to answer the question, “What are the different types of earworms one can experience?” This post attempts to (partially) answer this existential wonderment.

5 Surefire Techniques To Beat the Earworm Blues

Archive post #4

Although I’m happy with my early newsletters, it took me a few weeks to find my flow, writing complete personal essays and song explorations week after week. But by July, I felt I started to hit my stride. I wrote about going bald at 25 (Cinderella “You Don’t Know What You Got ‘Til it’s Gone”). About Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” and the age old question: what would life be like if we had eyes on our tongues? And I explored memory and dementia along with the Peter Gabriel song “I Don’t Remember.”

My new dog-walking business and a Sound Opinions radio show on the theme of songs in the form of questions would lead to my most viewed post to that point, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” In my research of the song, I discovered there was a documentary on Amazon about the history of this song by the Baha Men. If you haven’t read that one, check it out below:

Who let the dogs out?

Archive post #5

I did title this newsletter Earworms and Song Loops, so I feel I must honor the Song Loop aspect of that name.

Earworms come in many forms. They can be a movie or TV show theme. A TV or Radio commercial jingle. A nursery rhyme. Or a dumb YouTube viral video hit.

“(I’m at the) Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” may have not hit your radar in the late aughts, but it did hit mine. And a few million others, based on the viral success of this cannabis-inspired earworm of a song. I tried to tie it to my own stonery high-school daze as a suburban teen who happened to somehow become the president of his Jewish youth group. How successfully is up to you.

This one had my lowest views for some reason. Probably because of the drugs and blood. Oh yeah, there’s a bit of blood in this story.

I’m At The Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

These highlights are just a taste of the full meal that was 2022 for this newsletter. I’m excited to keep bringing you the songs and the stories that get stuck in your head and won’t let go. I have a bunch of ideas for 2023, including some added bonus posts for the paid subscribers! (hint, hint….)

I’m always looking for collaborators or guest writers for Earworms and Song Loops as I want this to be a community. A community of wormheads!

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Next week you will get part two of my top 100 songs of 2022 playlist. #26-50. Expect some recognizable names and others that you might be surprised are still around and releasing great, new original music.

Thanks again for reading and don’t forget to click the like (heart) button and perhaps leave a comment!

Happy holidaze,

Steve