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The Ten Most Painful, Earwormiest Soundtrack Songs of All Time

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists | Comments (53)

1990_julia_roberts_pretty_woman.jpg

A bad, earwormy soundtrack song is a lot like jingles from local radio and television commercials — they’re not really meant to be good. They’re meant to stick in your brain and remind you, interminably, of the product the song is essentially advertising. And it just jangles and jangles around in your brain for hours upon hours, killing brain cells and offering an unwelcome reminder of the product you’re meant to buy. They work, too. How many of you know this telephone number: 1-800-54-GIANT? Or this telephone number: 588-2300? Likewise, you hear the songs below, and whether you want to or not, in most cases, you think of the movie. It’s brilliant execution. And it makes me want to tear the limbs off of bunnies and shove the stumps into someone’s eye sockets.

Here’s the ten most painful, earwormiest soundtrack songs of all time.


10. I Got You Babe, Sonny & Cher (Groundhog Day)

9. Gangsta’s Paradise, Coolio (Dangerous Minds)

8. Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler (Beaches)

7. Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith (Armageddon)

6. I Believe I Can Fly, R. Kelly (Space Jam)

5. “It Must’ve Been Love”, Roxette (Pretty Woman)

4. Kiss From a Rose, Seal (Batman Forever)

3. The Crying Game, Boy George (The Crying Game)

2. Lady in Red, Chris DeBurgh (Working Girl)

1. All Star, Smash Mouth (Mystery Men)









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Comments

Oddly enough, the cure for earworms is also from a soundtrack. Singing Lisa Loeb's "Stay" will cure almost any song stuck in your head. The theory is that it doesn't have enough of a hook to get all trapped.
I've tried it, it works.
Of course, if you don't know the song, you're completely screwed.

Posted by: MyySharona at June 23, 2010 10:58 AM

It looks like the Smash Mouth song is from Mystery Men. A cover of "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees was used for Shrek

(Apologies. You're right. I conflate the two, but "All Star" is the more painful, I think, even if it is from a much better movie. Noted and corrected. -- DR

Posted by: Liz at June 23, 2010 10:58 AM

I don't know either of those phone numbers you mentioned, DR, but it made me think of 'one-eight-seven-seven cars for kids' which I cannot unhear no matter how fast I switch the radio station in the car. Grrr.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at June 23, 2010 11:00 AM

hey, at least these songs have lyrics. you have no idea how stupid i felt walking around all day singing doo-baw-baw...chk...chk-a-chk-aaa after a recent screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Posted by: causaubon at June 23, 2010 11:01 AM

I don't know either of those numbers, but now I have 867-5309 in my head.

Posted by: mswas at June 23, 2010 11:05 AM

I'm pretty confident Aerosmiths tune is from Armageddon by, you know, the whole music video and everything

Posted by: beebop at June 23, 2010 11:07 AM

Or this telephone number: 588-2300?

EM-PIIIIIRE!!!!

Fuck.

I would say Amish Paradice is a bigger ear worm than Gangsta's Paradise. Really, Any Weird Al song is automatically 40-70% more ear-wormy than the original.

Aw damn, now I got that Seal song stuck now. He just wants a kiss from a rose on the grey, dammit! GIVE IT TO HIM!!!

/bursts into tears

Posted by: Vermillion at June 23, 2010 11:07 AM

1-800-FIX-MY-GLASS

Posted by: cleverpeach at June 23, 2010 11:10 AM

I'm personally offended that you left off Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now.

Oh, yeah. I went there.

Posted by: figgy at June 23, 2010 11:10 AM

Singing Lisa Loeb's "Stay" will cure almost any song stuck in your head. The theory is that it doesn't have enough of a hook to get all trapped.

Nonononono! That's why it's EVIL. There's no hook to repeat over and over so you end up singing THE ENTIRE GODDAMN SONG! It's like when Cartman hears Styx's "Come Sail Away".

Posted by: jM at June 23, 2010 11:11 AM

Argh the Empire ad. I hate it. The guy's voice gives me the uber jeebies.

Posted by: figgy at June 23, 2010 11:12 AM

My mother credits the Empire carpet ad for why she got her house's original hardwood floors re-finished. "Carpets may have been cheaper, but I will not let that mustachioed terror into my home."

And yeah, Don't Wanna Miss a Thing is from Armageddon, not Pearl Harbor. Fun fact about that song: It is only done by Aerosmith because Liv Tyler INSISTED her father outbid Celine Dion for the rights. So, it could've been worse. Also, the cure for that one is to listen to anything from A: Toys in the Attic or B: Honkin' on Bobo. Because, despite Aerosmith's propensity for crap, those are both really fucking good albums.

Posted by: Kevin at June 23, 2010 11:19 AM

Oh, P.S. Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega pops in once in a while and sticks around for about a week. But it's really only the beginning part... the doot-doot do do doot doot do do doot doot do do doot doot do do...

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at June 23, 2010 11:20 AM

...was that ever in a movie, though? So, nevermind, I guess. That's just a *general* earworm, not a movie one.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at June 23, 2010 11:21 AM

"My Heart Will go On" by Celine Dion from Titanic

I worked at a movie theater when Titanic came out. I have not been able to stomach the song or the movie since it played for nearly three months straight in the theater. That song was inescapable; it was all over the radio and TV too. The song still makes me quasi-insane.

Posted by: androstarr at June 23, 2010 11:30 AM

I know I'm old, but I've never heard half of these songs.

However, don't get me started on the themesong to The Banana Splits show.

Posted by: BWeaves at June 23, 2010 11:31 AM

hey Anna von Beaverplatz I think Tom's Diner WAS used in a movie... back in the 90's... Untamed Heart... I think :|

Posted by: Tammers at June 23, 2010 11:32 AM

All Star is by far the worst offender, and it WAS used in Shrek and Mystery Men, and it was the last 10 goddamn fucking minutes of Rat Race. How do I know? Because I worked at a movie theatre the summer it came out, and not only did I have to hear it while cleaning theatres during credits, but it also played on the CD we played for the lobby music. That repeated. Every hour. I have calculated that during the summer of 1999, I heard All Star about eleventy-billion times. Then it got into all of our employee's heads, and they exploded from the sheer stupidity of it. They were only 16-year old children. They didn't deserve to die!!! All Star will kill your brain cells and eat your babies. That song must be stopped!!!

P.S. Dustin, the Aerosmith song is from Armageddon, not Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor had that shitty Faith Hill song. Hey, why isn't that on this list???

Posted by: Commander Strikeher at June 23, 2010 11:34 AM

And let us also not forget "And I Will Always Love You" from The Bodyguard. The kind of song the neighborhood dogs like to howl along to.

Posted by: StoatCat at June 23, 2010 11:35 AM

"I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing.

hate hate hate

Posted by: mswas at June 23, 2010 11:44 AM

mswas: See, whenever I hear that song, the normal version does not enter my head. Instead, Old Man Herbert from Family Guy pops in there singing it as Obi Wan with a chorus of dancing Storm Troopers.

Posted by: Kevin at June 23, 2010 11:50 AM

Ugh. I was scrolling through, and each song was replacing the last one as the "dammit, this will be stuck in my head forever now" annoyingness of the day. Then I got to the comments, thinking, "Well, I can deal with Smash Mouth" and I saw the first commenter and now my brain is going

My, My, My, My, My WOO!

and I don't think it'll ever stop.

Posted by: esme at June 23, 2010 12:12 PM

Near...

Far...

WHEREVER YOU ARRRRRE...

Fuck Canada.

Also, I hate you for creating this list, D. More than I hated you yesterday, and I hated you a lot yesterday.

Posted by: TK at June 23, 2010 12:24 PM

I got "Day Bow Bow" stuck in my head thanks to an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mac states that it plays at the end of "The Secret to my Success" with Michael J. Fox. "Day bow bow... chick... chicka chi-ka... day bow bow... ohhhhh yeah!"

Posted by: Ty at June 23, 2010 12:33 PM

NO! NO! How DARE you rip Seal! That's one of the only soundtrack top 40 singles in my lifetime that I actually LIKE! WHY CAN'T I JUST HAVE THIS ONE SONG?!?!

*Sigh* Sorry. I really had to get that out of me. Worse than fucking "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" though? That's an insult.

Posted by: ChristianH at June 23, 2010 12:47 PM

@Liz: Wasn't 'I'm A Believer' written by Neil Diamond?

Also:

YOUUUUUUUUUUU'RE HEEEEEEERE
THERE'S NOOOOOOOOTHING I FEEEEAR

As well as:

LOOK INTO MY EYYYEEES
YOU WILL SEEEEE
WHAAAAT YOU MEEEAN TOOOOO MEEEEEE

Not even Nathan Fillion can make up for that.

Posted by: Aislinn at June 23, 2010 1:22 PM

I think it's a little harsh to have "The Crying Game" on here.

But how could you leave out "In The Air Tonight" from Risky Business. God damn song gets stuck in my head for days upon even hearing the drum opening.

Psst: I'll bet you've heard of that one BWeaves.

Posted by: PaddyDog at June 23, 2010 1:40 PM

I have fond memories of the 'Dangerous Minds' soundtrack. Granted, Coolio's track was the only one I really listened to, but....damn ya'll. DAMN. That summer in Hickory, NC? I was quite the bad ass white boy with all the windows down on my ride, "Gangsta's" on constant repeat. The song's intro alone was worth the price of the disc.

As for Aerosmith...pfft. They earned a Fredo-style boat ride on the lake after that atrocity.

Posted by: Barnes78 at June 23, 2010 1:52 PM

OMG TAMMERS IT WAS! I've never seen that entire movie all at once, and never from the beginning. I think I need to take a trip to Amazon dot com! Or possibly the $3 bin at my grocery store.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at June 23, 2010 1:57 PM

The "Overplayed" songs are the ones that really grind my gears.

I.E.

Fortunate Son -- we get it, Creedence = Vietnam. They had other great songs, too.

Every piece of music from The Watchmen. The weird thing about that one was, the Smashing Pumpkins-themed trailer was set with the perfect song. Then Snyder got it all wrong.

Over-used Classical music and "hey a black guy is walking down the street, quick cue up the rap music!" fall into this category.

Posted by: D-Day at June 23, 2010 1:59 PM

Kiss From a Rose is fucking gold.

Posted by: Steph at June 23, 2010 2:03 PM

Who do you call when your windshield's busted?
CALL GIANT GLASS
Call 1-800-54-GIANT
DONE RIGHT! DONE FAST!
Wherever you are call number 1-800-54-GIANT

...is this just a New England thing? I've been hearing it my whole life in the northern Mass/southern NH area.

Posted by: RyanH at June 23, 2010 2:03 PM

D-Day:

I respect the hell out of your footie acumen, but how can you say that "First We Take Manhattan" is over-played?

Posted by: PaddyDog at June 23, 2010 2:05 PM

esme,

YOU'RE WELCOME.

Also, are you the one that was allegedly entering the Alamo as I was leaving the Horror Remix? Or is gp lying to me?

Posted by: MyySharona at June 23, 2010 2:27 PM

How can you possibly put Roxette's trashy ballad in the same category as Boy George's "The Crying Game"?

Posted by: samantha t at June 23, 2010 2:29 PM

"Take My Breath Away"? Top Gun? I probably just focus on this as it beat out "Billie Jean" as my class's senior prom song. Forever affirming my rabid hatred for high school.

Posted by: sheshakes at June 23, 2010 2:29 PM

I used to dream of single-handedly save the world from a non precised menace and that everybody would hug me and thank me while "I believe" would be playing in the backgroud.
Then I realized I was a character in a Todd Solondz movie and that I should kill myself, I promise I'm working on it.

Posted by: rio at June 23, 2010 3:05 PM

I think the ultimate ear-worming song would have to be "America Fuck Yeah"
get that song out of your head once you listen to it
its pure awesome but ill be singing it for hours after i hear it.

Posted by: gilp at June 23, 2010 5:00 PM

@MyySharona: the universal cure for any earworm is Hanson's MmmmBop. Of course then you're stuck with MmmmBop.

And I fucking abhor that fucking Roxette song.

Posted by: Az at June 23, 2010 5:25 PM

I like one of these songs a lot.

I'm not saying which one.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at June 23, 2010 5:36 PM

I respect the hell out of your footie acumen, but how can you say that "First We Take Manhattan" is over-played?

I told ya that boy's not right.

Posted by: Jay at June 23, 2010 5:41 PM

figgy, Starship didn't make the list because that song is AWESOME. I'm not kidding.

"I Believe I Can Fly" is hands-down one of the worst songs EVER. Ugh, every time I hear it, I immediately flash back to junior high dances... my friends and I, hanging out, not dancing, one of us inevitably ends up in the bathroom, crying, because the boy they like said something mean/didn't want to dance/danced with that slut we all hate....

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at June 23, 2010 6:43 PM

Damn! I missed this entry when it appeared, but I have the all time winner for worst overall soundtrack (pick any song, doesn't matter).

That would be Ladyhawke, soundtrack by E.L.O. A vastly under appreciated and well made movie, probably because most people watch three minutes of it and then their head explodes because of the soundtrack.

(For those that haven't seen it, it's a fantasy/romance movie set in horses and swords kind of world....but with a ROCKIN DISCO GUITAR SOUNDTRACK BABY! YEAH!)

-Frob

Posted by: frobme at June 23, 2010 7:31 PM

'Over the Rainbow'.
Obvious.

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at June 23, 2010 8:18 PM

What a Feeling-Flashdance

Posted by: Tdog at June 23, 2010 8:53 PM

Oh, MelBiv. You are awesome in so many, many ways...

Posted by: figgy at June 23, 2010 11:50 PM

What? No Titanic?

Posted by: Travis at June 24, 2010 2:44 AM

I have to agree I'm puzzled at leaving off "My Heart Will Go On". Cintra Wilson once said someone could go through their entire life without listening to the radio, seeing a movie, or watching television, and yet they would STILL know every goddamn word of that song, it's so pervasive.

Posted by: Craig at June 24, 2010 9:54 AM

Wow, you managed to name the ten songs I hate worst in the world that weren't done by the Eagles. Nicely done.

Posted by: John Roberson at June 24, 2010 7:27 PM

For me, in addition to the above mentioned, There's Something About Mary ruined "Build Me Up Buttercup".

Posted by: Lola at June 26, 2010 1:27 PM

I thought you were going to use "pretty woman"

Posted by: james at July 3, 2010 2:44 PM

Dev was the hook singer on FEM's Like a G6 and she now really records her own singles. Dev's debut song from her debut album (which has yet to get a name) also features the producers The Cataracs, who also were on Like a G6! This song, named Bass Down Low, sounds like her other releases, such as Fireball and Booty Bounce! I wish Dev good luck and success in her music career.

Posted by: The Cataracs Updates at November 16, 2010 5:47 PM

...she's a maaaaniac, maaaaaaaaniac on the floor...

Posted by: seeder at November 18, 2010 12:22 AM