Songs To Drive Your Surgeon Crazy

You know that tune you hear on the radio as you're driving in to work that you just can't get out of your head all day? Now somebody has conducted a survey to discover which songs are the catchiest of all time. The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK asked 12,000 visitors to its website to listen to snippets of the top 1,000 songs over the past seventy years. The participants were then asked how quickly they could identify a song.

Since this survey was done in the UK, it doesn't seem all that surprising that the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" came out on top, able to be identified in about 2.29 seconds. Second place went to Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" which was recognized in 2.48 seconds. Third was Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" in 2.62 seconds. Go here to see the list of the top 20 catchiest songs in the survey.

Most of the survey participants must have been relatively young. I'm not sure many surgeons, especially the ones over 50, would be identify Hanson's "MMMbop" in 2.89 seconds. And I'm sure he would have you turn off your iPod if you tried. There are a couple of Elton John and Elvis Presley songs in the list that the more mature surgeons may be able to identify. But otherwise it looks like mainly the Gen Xers and above took part in the survey.

Frankly I don't think any of these songs are all that catchy. In my opinion, the tune that will stick to your brain and never let go was from the 1957 movie "The Bridge On The River Kwai." I dare you to play the video clip below. You'll be whistling the song until you want to tear your hair out.