For the past two weeks I have had bits of a song’s melody in my head, but I couldn’t remember any words, and that made it tough to remember. Then, last night, I remembered a bit of one line, which, in my brain, went “Didn’t it seem right to walk along the beach last night”, but I still couldn’t find the song from Googling that, either. (It turns out that the word is “sand,” not “beach”.) Amazingly, though, as soon as I remembered that line I remembered the end of the stanza as well its title “It could be we’re in love”. Then I was able to find it by Googling.
It amazes me that my brain had been working unconscionsly on this thing for weeks, and finally the neurons came through for me.
The song is “It Could Be We’re in Love”, released in 1967 by The Cryan’ Shames, a Chicago group. It’s a good but not a fantastic song, but it’s catchy and somehow it was lingering in my brain and popped up for unknown reasons. There are two versions, one with laughing in it and another with some psychedelic vibrato. I’ll put up both.
First, the better 1966 psychedelic version released on LP: (psychedelic vibrato at 1:41).
And here’s the laughing version, from the 1967 single (laughing at 1:49):
I’ve a pop song snippet stuck in my head which consists of four beeps, made with human voice, on different pitches. It’s driving me nuts because it’s impossible to search it up!
Anyone?
Wild guesses :
19 by Harold Faltermeyer?
… what period are we talkin’?
Nothing is impossible for internet search engines these days. I googled “song with four beeps of different pitches” and of the five or six songs that came up, I think these are the two most likely results:
Beep Beep – The Little Nash Rambler
Drive my Car by the Beatles, which includes the lyrics “Beep beep, beep beep, yeah!”
Of course, I don’t know if either of the above songs correctly identify your ear worm, but the thing that blows my mind is that it is possible to get any results with very vague search terms.
Herbie Hancock – Metal Beat
Wow I love it when this kind of thing plays out – yeah, the “sleep committee” is at work – how do they do it?
Sugar and Spice is on the Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) movie soundtrack. Every tune on it is a gem.
…[reads PCC(E)’s comment ]
Oh hang on – the recording in that movie is by The Searchers… I have Anthony Peter Hatch as the songwriter… “under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale” (1963).
So The Cryan’ Shames’ version is a ‘cover’ released 1966.
How ’bout that! I’m adding both to my standard playlist!
Oh, I forget to mention that one, also done by the Cryan Shames. Here’s the video:
Vide supra 😁
I had a similar experience years ago when someone asked me to name four words that ended in ‘d-o-u-s’. The first three were easy, tremendous, stupendous, and horrendous, but the fourth one never came, so I gave up searching. Then, about a week later, I was reading, and the word ‘hazardous’ exploded into my brain like Santa telling us to drink Coca-Cola. What I was reading had zero baring on the word. Somewhere in my head, I continued to search for the missing word, and I wasn’t let down.
I play the NYT spelling bee, where you’re given 7 letters and have to make words out of them. It’s not very challenging, but it is relaxing. Anyway, one day I played the game for a few minutes in the morning and then got busy with other things for the rest of the day. Then, late that evening, when I was reading an article about Oscar Wilde and saw the word “effete” (of course), this thought suddenly popped into my mind: “‘Effete’ is one of the answers to today’s Bee.” And it was.
Similar to your experience, I was struck by the fact that my subconscious mind was somehow still engaged in the search for answers to a puzzle that my conscious mind had forgotten all about.
It’s a pretty good metaphor that we are largely LLMs with a thin crust of consciousness.
That weird thing where you suddenly remember something that you’ve been trying to remember? Yes, I’ve come to rely on that weird thing. It’s like the mind works on it while you sleep.
I only vaguely remember that song, though.
I hear an influence from You Didn’t Have to be So Nice by The Lovin’ Spoonful.
Sugar and Spice has an intro that reminds me of Hey There Georgy Girl by The Seekers.
Indeed! The Spoonful was a better band and this song is better than the one above. The Spoonful song came out a year earlier, too.
The Spoonful had John Sebastian, and Summer in the City as well as Do You Believe in Magic. And others.
There’s a song “Could It Be We’re Falling in Love.”
https://youtu.be/EU4UTDrSwQc?si=4ynhsX9ezG1LWRFi
Soul song. And it is by an underappreciated group, the Spinners. Here is what is surely their best song, and a very soulful one. The guitar intro is fantastic (credit the Funk Brothers), and it makes you want to get up and dance. The soprano part is great, too:
The song was co-written by Stevie Wonder, produced by him, and he plays on it.
The pesky brain has a mind of its own sometimes.
You said the magic words :
Jimmy Dale Gilmore –My Mind’s Got A Mind Of Its Own (Butch Hancock, writer) : https://youtu.be/fUv2DWWBIuY?si=0qQ1ThAvIywAFk3k
… I haven’t heard this original, I’m familiar with the live covers by Phish (where I first heard it): https://youtu.be/QJXjsVa7rb0?si=TgwokxhpShtB5-KU
Oh, fine, so now I have Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Darling Be Home Soon” in my mind. There are some covers of that one. I especially like the one done by Tedeschi Trucks Band.