SFGate.com reports on the research of James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati, who has found that "some 98 percent of listeners were at one time or another bothered by a tune that wouldn't leave their heads." He has dubbed this phenomenon an "earworm," from the German ohrwurm to "convey the parasitic nature of the travel of songs into their listeners' ears, only to then get lodged and played on mental continuum." I can definitely attest to this affliction, since as recently as yesterday I was ranting about how the commercialized version of Journey's "Any Way You Want It" has mind-numbingly ingrained itself into my psyche, to the point of making one of my favorite Journey tunes unbearable.

The article goes on to point out some "common offenders;" if you're susceptible to this kind of thing you may want to skip this list: ;-)

the Kit-Kat jingle ("Gimme a break")
"Who Let the Dogs Out"
Queen's "We Will Rock You"
the Theme To "Mission: Impossible"
"YMCA"
"Whoomp, There It Is"
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
"It's a Small World After All"

As I mentioned, I know that I'm very susceptible to this kind of thing; right now, I'm replaying Coldplay's "Clocks" in my head after hearing it on the way to work. At least it's not as annoying as, say, Paul Lekakis' "Boom Boom Let's Go Back To My Room" (just for you, Ulana :-P) or some of the many suggestions in the Metafilter thread...