Words You Can’t Help but Sing

Wednesday, January 153 min read

Certain songs seem designed to get lodged in our brains forever. It's not uncommon to be mindlessly doing the dishes only to start up with the chorus of a song you haven't heard in ages. There's a real word for this — "earworm." This descriptively named phenomenon can help you out in an orthographical (spelling) conundrum. If you can’t remember how to spell a certain word, try putting it to a little melody.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Possibly the most well-known example of a sung word, Aretha Franklin’s 1967 Motown hit spells out "RESPECT" just twice — but it makes a lasting impact. The first two letters of the word are also sung by background vocalists throughout, further driving home the theme, as in:

(Re, re, re, re) when you come home
(Re, re, re, re) ‘spect!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Gwen Stefani proved she's no "Hollaback Girl" when her 2004 hit skyrocketed in popularity, becoming the first song to achieve 1 million digital downloads. But for many of those listeners, the song is remembered for something quite different — teaching us how to spell "bananas." How many "a's"? How many "n's"? Thanks to Gwen, we know that, "This sh*t is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S."

L-O-V-E

As the subject of countless songs, love is all over the music charts. Perhaps the most famous example is Nat King Cole’s wedding standard “L.O.V.E.,” which breaks up the word across multiple lines:

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone you adore

Ashlee Simpson’s 2009 hit of the same name repeats “L-O-L-O-L-O-L-O-V-E” throughout the chorus. And in a micro trend that same year, Katy Perry spelled out the word in the lyric, “L-o-v-e’s just another word I never learned to pronounce,” in a collab with 3OH!3 on the song "Starstrukk."

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

It’s the tune that launched a little animated mouse into the hearts and minds of generations to follow. Written in 1955 to introduce The Mickey Mouse Club TV show, the song in which this lyric appears is officially titled “Mickey Mouse March.” While many of the verses aren’t commonly known anymore, the core singing of Mickey’s name is still trilled by children around the world.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y

Cool kids in the 1970s pumped themselves up before a night on the town by blasting this Bay City Rollers hit. Kicking off with a shout of “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!” on repeat, the song also spells out “S-S-S-Saturday” at multiple points throughout the lyrics. Who doesn’t love Saturday?

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

Fergie scored a Billboard No. 1 hit single with 2007's “Glamorous,” a song from her debut solo album. In addition to repeating the title word no fewer than nine times in the chorus, she spells it out in the intro to the track: "G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S." She also pulled the ol’ spell-out-a-word trick in another hit, “Fergalicious,” when she spelled out her name, “I’m the F to the E-R-G, the I, the E”; the word "tasty," “T to the A to the S-T-Y”; and the word "delicious," “D to the E to the L I C I O U S.”

S-O-S

The three letters in the acronym S.O.S. are always pronounced (which actually makes it an "initialism"), but ABBA made them memorable by putting the letters to music in their 1975 tune. "S.O.S" — which is a nautical call for help due to extreme distress — is used to echoing effect in the chorus:

So when you're near me, darling can't you hear me
S. O. S.
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me
S. O. S.

F-R-I-E-N-D-S

As proof this is one musical trend that’s here to stay, Marshmello’s 2018 hit “FRIENDS” spells out the friend-zone relationship status over and over again — just in case you didn’t get it the first time. The music video has racked up over 830 million views since its debut, in part thanks to the catchy declaration of purely platonic love.

Photo Credit: Walter Iooss Jr / Contributor/ Getty Images

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