Jukebox In My Head

The other morning, I awoke to the usual sound of my beeping alarm clock. Almost instantaneously, the jukebox in my head started playing "Rosanna" by Toto. All day long, "Rosanna, Rosanna" went through my head. The next day, the same thing happened: the alarm clock beeps and a song plays in my head: "Amanda" by Boston. Later on, it was "Holly Jolly Christmas." It nearly drove me crazy. I don't mind music streaming through my brain; I just want variety. Because after a while, "Holly Jolly Christmas" becomes an instrument of torture.

Mark Twain wrote a short story about this strange happening called "Punch Brothers Punch." I read this in 9th grade and haven't been able to forget the jingle since then. The story portrays a guy who reads a jingle in the newspaper, and it is so catchy and so easy to say that his brain repeats it constantly until it nearly drives him to the brink of insanity -- then he passes it off to another unsuspecting soul and he is free of the jingle. The jingle then tortures the second guy until he passes it off -- and on and on and on.

Why am I telling you this? Because I'm tired of "Rosanna" and "Amanda" and especially "Holly Jolly Christmas" and I want to pass them off to you in the hopes of getting some new music playing in my head. Oh, today it was "Somebody to Love" by Queen. So now I'll be perusing my Napster playlist for new songs to torture myself with tomorrow.