Okay, do y'all remember that song from back in the '80's called "Run Run Away?" It was by a band called Slade. No, I don't think they had any other hits. They're probably going to be doing a VH1 "Where are they Now" on those guys any day now. At any rate, this song has been in my head *since MONDAY*. It's not a good song. It's actually a pretty annoying song. And I *cannot stop* singing it. The thing is No One remembers this song and they think I'm making it up or badly mangling some other, more well-known song like "Big Country" or something. Please tell me someone else remembers this stupid song. And while I'm posting, my question is: what songs are Stick in Your Head songs? Is there something about them that makes them that way? What is up with that Slade song?

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

Answers

Slade had loads of hits! Cum On, Feel the Noize, to name just one (though I like the Oasis version much better). They were a lot bigger in the UK than in the US, though.

I've had Richard Ashcroft's I Get My Beat in my head all week, but that's okay, because it's a gorgeous, amazing song.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

ah: Cum on, Feel the Noise. how could I forget? heh. I have to admit, I thought that song was by the Scorpions or something. You're lucky because I *never* get gorgeous, amazing songs stuck in my head. It's always something I can't stand like, oh crap and I can't remember the name of it, but it's that song from the 60's or 70's that starts off "What's your Name? Who's your daddy? Is he rich like me." god I hate that song....

And now, of course, it's getting stuck in my head.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

I only get stuck on the songs I hate, too. Lately it's been ABBA songs, because my husband's been listening to them upstairs in the office, and I can faintly hear them while I'm trying to fall asleep.

For awhile it was kids songs because that's about all I hear in the car, music-wise. Why do they make kids' tapes 20 minutes long, and record the SAME songs on both sides? Is it some sort of zero- population growth program, so you will vow never to go through the "Muppet Christmas" tape ever again by not having any more children? We have a Rugrats tape because Nora is a major Rugrats fan, and they've changed the words to "One Way or Another" by Blondie, and now I can't remember the original words! Argh!!! Oh, well, at least the Rugrats music is done by the guys from Devo, so it's not half bad in general...

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

mary ellen,

I made my sister a compilation tape of children's songs done by cool people because she kept singing "John Jacob JingleHeimerSchmitt" every time I went home to visit. Children's tapes are so evil.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

This is not exactly your topic, but what is up with hearing David Bowie on the MUZAK in the Eckerd's (and it was "Changes" which I really couldn't believe.) Do you think they saw it had violins in it and said "yeah, this will work well outside the perscription counter"

I am getting depressed that I am old enough to have all my favorite musicians showing up on Muzak, children's albums, Geritol ads, etc.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

"Cum On Feel the Noise" -- I thought that was Quiet Riot?

I remember "Run Run Away". It had an annoying video to go along with it, something about castles, right?

Sometimes I think of '80s songs I dislike, like "I Just Called To Say [This Song Is So Lame]" and "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This [Moaning]" and etc. And yeah, kiddie songs, too.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

"Cum on Feel the Noise" is deifnitely Quiet Riot. That was one of the first tapes I ever bought, back in second grade. I remember the Slade song, too. As for songs that loop in my brain and torture me, usually they are commerical jingles, like that horible one for verizon wireless or whatever.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

I've got several friends who *love* Dianna Krall(i hate her), and who insisted on playing a CD of hers at a get-together recently. She does a cover of an old blues tune called "Popsicle Toes"(that i also hate)---only now i keep singing its refrain over and over and over....it's been a friggin' *week* now !!

Get me some Thorazine before i go **MAAAAD* !!!!

[the song is on 'Napster', BTW]

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

Quiet Riot did a shitty cover version of Cum on Feel the Noize, which was originally done by Slade. Dammit! Noddy Holder is my friend David's cousin or something. They're from the town where I live, so I basically cannot escape them; I saw Noddy Holder coming out of the Pound Shop (like, the Dollar Store, only with way, way better merchandise) and he was looking around like he really wanted someone to recognise him. But since he lives here, no one gives a shit anymore. I should have run up to him and gone, 'What the fuck are you doing shopping at the Pound Shop? You're on The Grimleys and A Question of Pop every week, you cheap bastard!'

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

somebody RE-DID "Cum on, Feel the Noize???????" I think that's going to crack me up.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Yeah, and then Oasis covered it -- it's actually the best version. It came out in 1996, I think, and reminds me of a really happy, carefree time in my life, so maybe I'm biased. But I saw them doing it on an old episode of Top of the Pops last week and it made me want to go out and get really pissed. So it must be a good record!

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

I just saw something about Slade on VH1, so you were right on the mark, Gwen.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

off topic (again), but Happy B-day Jackie D. I read your weblog and you always crack me up. I'm going to try and find that Oasis version on Napster in your honor. :)

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

My favorite song to hate is from the late 70s. I worked in a Pizza place with a juke box and they were forever playing this song that had in it "(I can't remember the words)...do da do (up) da da-do da (down) do da da- do da do do da-take a chance on me ...". And then there is that song by that women with the birds in the background and it goes ".. looooviing you, is easy 'cause you're beautiful...and everytime that we ou ... glass shattering scale from about a high F". My daughter and I were in the Wizard of Oz play in June, so I have Ding Dong going through my head a lot. And "If I Only Had A Brain" is a great stress buster to hum if I'm interacting with someone who is lacking one. Rock 'n Roll favs. Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon." Steve ?arrrg's? "Fly Like An Eagle" And, I think it's a Rolling Stone song with the words "...won't get lost(?) again..." and the guitar does this great thing that goes from speaker to speaker.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Omigod, "Lovin' You" by Minnie Ripperton is a fabulous song! I think I like Macy Gray so much because she reminds me of Minnie Ripperton.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Jackie D - Happy Birthday! (probably late on that one) - what's the addy for your online journal?

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

I was telling my husband about this whole Slade discussion, and he said that when Oasis covered Cum On Feel the Noize, a lot of Americans were posting to (l)Usenet, 'Oasis covers Quiet Riot track!' to alt.music.oasis, and then all of the British people basically got really huffy that the Americans didn't know it was originally done by Slade, and it started a huge anti-American spam-fest.

So, yet another reason to stay away from Usenet.

And I've had Counting Crows' Hangin' Around in my head all day, but it's not annoying me too much, yet. Ian's letting me sing little bits of it, too, because he's tolerant like that.

(Lisa D, it's not a real journal -- because I'm lazy -- but it's at http://www.danicki.co.uk -- and thank you!)

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Now I can't get that new Aalyiah song out of my head, to the point where it was on continual play even when I woke up for brief moments in the middle of the night.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

I love muzak...my new office (that I have been in for two days) has musak piped in..and loud. Yesterday I heard "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. But the one I heard this morning, that has been going through my head all day is "Is she really going out with him"..does anyone remember that song? ugh!

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

"(I can't remember the words)...do da do (up) da da-do da (down) do da da- do da do do da-take a chance on me ...". And then there is that song by that women with the birds in the background and it goes ".. looooviing you, is easy 'cause you're beautiful...and everytime that we ou ... glass shattering scale from about a high F".

Bwa! OK, the first one is Fleetwood Mac's "Take a Chance on Me". Second one--"Loving You", Minnie Riperton, recently mentioned in Southpark's Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride episode...

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

Milla, isn't that "Take a Chance on Me" by Abba? Not that I would know, or anything.....

I'm slinking from the room now.......

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2000

"Is she really going out with him?" I think that's by Joe Jackson. Or someone similar, from the early '80s.

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

No, Lisa D., you're absolutely right! It is ABBA. I've got a good friend who loves both bands and I screwed up. Thanks for the catch. :)

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Milla, can you send me an email? I want to ask you a question...

-- Anonymous, July 26, 2000

Hmm. someone just told me "Is she really going out with him" is Rick Springfield.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

Dude, it's Joe Jackson. "Jesse's Girl" is Rick Springfield. So it's a common theme, I guess.

-- Anonymous, July 27, 2000

What a load of CRAP! you have no idea at all have ya! Slade's original version of Cum On Feel Tthe Noize is far better than Oasis & Quiet Riot. Where the fuck are Quiet Riot now, I guess they are in a old peoples home for old has-beens, what a load of crap there are too, couldn't even get a No:1 hit either. It proves that Slade's No:1 classic will be covered by all kinds of bands, it also proves how good the bloody song is in the first place...I rest my case.

As For Run Run Away, yes it does sound like a Big Country Song, The reason behind that, is that Big Country themselves pinched Slade melodies for ther own album...so please get the your fact in order, before shouting your big mouths off.

Let me tell you about Noddy Holder, this guy is something, he's down to earth, he's very ordinary guy, doesn't really matter what shops he goes to, just because of who he is. I go to Harrods in London, but it doesn't make me any better than you or anyone else for that matter.

Let me tell you this too, Slade have sold well over 500 million record sales, they have had 40 hit singles, 6 no:1's, 3 of them going straight to no:1 in one year, tell me how many rock bands can do that today...that's right...NONE! Because they are totally shite that's why.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 2000

"Ain't nothin' gonna break-a my stride, nobody's gonna slow me down. O, no. I've got to keep on movin'."

That one get's inside of my head a lot. I don't despise the song or anything, probably because it is no longer in rotation on radio and the only time I hear it is in my head, but it is a goober song.

No shit, "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" is probably #1 on the charts inside of my head...it could be worse. I mean, I do love cookies. It's kind of embarassing to realize I'm singing it in the stairwells sometimes, makes me feel like someone is looking at me going "Look at her ass-she sure does like the cookies".

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2000

"I wanna buy you a ring" Penney's Christmas commercial. Makes me want to go out and buy a big honking diamond to get that blasted phrase out of my head.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2000

Hey, Dave, do you like that band Slade?

Robyn: I think of "C is for Cookie" a lot, too. And your post made me laugh.

-- Anonymous, December 29, 2000

Hey Gwen, Glad I could return the favor. I wish you knew how often I've had to shut the door of my office so that no one could see me laughing so hard that I have tears running down my face and I'm making the terrible "I want to stop laughing now but I have no control" face-all thanks to your writings and drawings.

The song I've been singing this entire vacation has been the song in Sleeping Beauty, "I know you, I've been with you once upon a dream...". I can't stop singing it, my family has noticed and I think they are treating me differently, and I don't always hit the high note right on key. It's time to g

-- Anonymous, December 30, 2000