Rant #2,161: Can't Get It Out Of My Head

No, I am not talking about the historic U.S./North Korea summit, which is something that no one could have predicted even weeks ago, but something that President Trump accomplished against all odds.

Let's see how it all works out.

No, I am talking about something really innocuous: a song that you simply cannot get out of your head, no matter how hard you try.

That's one thing, but if you simply cannot remember the name of the song or the artist, it makes it that much worse.

I don't often have earworms--the popular name for these types of songs that stick in your head and won't go away--and I think that I don't often have this affliction because I really like such a wide range of music.

But every once in a while, I also succumb, and I did this past Friday into yesterday, and it still lingers a bit as I am writing this around 4:30 a.m. today.

Last Friday evening, after work, I did food shopping for my family. I often do this on Friday because it is simply a good time to do it, with my Saturdays usually wall-to-wall busy.

I was in my local supermarket, and although you usually don't listen to the music they play in the supermarket--it is usually like white noise to me--the store was playing a loop of early to mid-1990s hit singles--or the last, final period where singles were produced in the United States.

Actual singles were being produced on both tape--remember cassingles?--and CD back then. Vinyl was thought to be a dead format, and only a limited amount of singles were produced this way.

Whatever the case, I heard some pretty decent songs that I had pretty much forgotten about--in one ear and out the other?--and then, as I was working my way up I think it was the aisle with all the condiments in it--olives, salsa, ketchup, mustard, other such things--a song came on that I actually listened to as I was shopping, and I mean really listened to.

I could not figure out, or remember, who sang the song or what the title of the tune was.

As it played, I thought, and thought, and thought some more, and it really perplexed me.

If you have had your own personal earworms, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The song probably lasted about four minutes or so, and it was over--

But not really, because it was replaying on and on and on in my head, and I couldn't get it out of my head at all.

This continued for the rest of Friday, into Saturday, and while it was fading by Sunday, it was still there.

I thought it was one song, listened to that particular song to see if I was correct--I wasn't--and to say it was perplexing and frustrating would be an understatement.

Yesterday morning, sitting in my car preparing to go to work once the door into hell was opened, the song was still there, but it was really fading.

But as it faded, the hook actually got more prevalent, and I seemed to remember some of the words to the tune.

After entering work, I kind of forgot about it, but by the middle of the morning, it started to weave through my brain again.

So I did what I had to do--I took a few minutes off from doing what I was supposed to be doing and looked up the words that I remembered on the Internet.

"The Way" ... "The Way" ... "The Way" ...

Yes, eureka!, voila! I finally found out what my earworm was ...

"The Way" by the one-hit wonder band known as Fastball, from 1998.

The song is about a married couple who, one day, just want to shuck it all and do what they really want to do. They don't tell their kids of their plans, and drive away, but their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and they simply continue their adventure on foot, never to be heard from again.

And it is based on a real incident that happened back then that got a lot of press, where an older couple one day decided to not tell anyone, and go out on their own personal road trip. I believe one of the couple had Alzheimer's Disease, the other was not well either, and after missing person's reports scoured the country, they were both found dead.

I guess the theme of the song, without the unfortunate real-life result, resonated with just about anybody, and the song itself had a monster hook that just wouldn't stop.

Although it was named by VH1 as one of the top 100 singles of the 1990s, it only got up to No. 31 on the Billboard Top 40 Tracks list, although it did much better on the Hot Modern Tracks list, where it hit No. 1. It also hit the top spot on the overall singles chart in Canada.

The song--written by band member Tony Scalzo--was pretty inventive, as it started off sounding like someone was turning the knob of an old radio, and picking up hits of the day from the likes of Madonna. Jewel and Roy Orbison, until it revved into its own place in musical history.

It came out during a very transitional time in music. The Internet was starting to get going as an outlet for music, but it wasn't quite there yet. Some songs were being released as singles, some weren't, and some were being released as "non-physical" singles, songs being pushed as singles but without any physical single being released, with chart position based on airplay only.

"The Way" kind of touched all of these areas, and it probably hurt it as a chart entity. In fact, hearing it last week in the supermarket was probably my first connection with that song in about 20 years, which was probably the last time I heard it on the radio.

When it came out, it immediately clicked with me, and I ran out and bought the CD album it came from.

And there it sat, in my CD tower, for the past 20 years or so, until an earworm brought it back to me.

If you are in the mood for a real, honest to goodness earworm, here is the song's link.

At least you will know everything about the song if you have read this Rant. I started out with nothing but a memory, but I guess that was "The Way" my mental journey to find out what the song was began in earnest.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/b0wfu3tOrtQ