The Melody Lingers On...

As you may know, the world lost one of the most recognizable song writers this past week, Robert Sherman, who with his brother Richard, wrote the score to many classic Disney films (they won several Oscars for "Mary Poppins")...and yes...every one's favorite Disney Magic Kingdom ditty:

It's A Small World After All

It is one of several songs that have a way of getting inside your brain and staying put. So if you do not want that to happen, don't click on that tune name. But if, like me, you actually like that song, go right ahead. I suppose one of the reasons I like "It's A Small World" is because I first heard and saw it at the New York World's Fair, on two different visits there--both of them memorable. I was about ten years old. Then, too, living in Central Florida, it could almost be our "theme song". I know that on hot and humid Florida days, if I am at the Magic Kingdom, I cannot think of a better place to cool off and relax than the "Small World" (which underwent a nice updating not long ago). Yes, I have family and friends who groan, but it beats the Tiki Room (the Sherman brothers wrote THAT song, too, by the way).

Did you know that there is an actual term for those songs that get stuck in our heads? Yes, researchers call them "Earworms". Indeed, at Dartmouth and other places, a fair amount of academic attention has been paid to the Earworms. (It is an effective name, and sounds like a cross betewen Earwigs and Earthworms, but I digress).

So, back to the Earworms... There are several other songs that fall into the ranks of once-heard-there-forevermore. Where we want to say, "Help, I can't get that song out of my head!"

Let's see... there's...

So Long, Farewell

by the incomparable Rogers and Hammerstein.

There Goes That Song, Again

from Kaye Kyser and Russ Monroe

And then there is the tune from Shari Williams and Lamb Chop:

The Song that Doesn't End

Any other suggestions for the uber-memorable, Earworm song category, friends?

Oh! Wait! Judy just reminded me of...

SKINAMARINKY DINKY DINK

How could I have forgotten!

It is appropriate, I think, to keep all these in mind when bidding an appreciative farewell to Mr. Sherman.

As The Songwriter (Mr. Irving Berlin) said, "The song is ended but the melody lingers on..."

And here is another nearly perfect rendition of the same, on a player piano roll:

The Melody Lingers On.

And this one is perhaps the best of the bunch:

More Melody Lingers On...