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Allegedly How Great Thou Art was adapted from a Russian Orthodox prayer or incantation by an American missionary in Ukraine in the early 1930s. I tend to find this a little hard to believe, because the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic was not a welcoming place to be for Ukrainians at that time, let alone American missionaries. I realise this is something of a niche obsession, but if anyone can shed further light on the matter, I'd be grateful.

That sounds like the storyline for the second English translation of the lyrics / poem - that of Stuart Kine. He supposedly first heard the hymn as the Russian translation of the German translation of the original Swedish hymn (from the 1880's) in Ukraine in 1931.

Hine subsequently reworked the lyrics into the 'How Great Thou Art' form most widely known today, though a few passages were subsequently revised to create the Manna Music version that would become a hit via its heavy usage in the Billy Graham campaigns in the 1950's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Great_Thou_Art
 
Yes. It uses MP3's or something instead of tapes. But the sound files are made from the original Mellotron tapes so the sound should be identical. Here's a sample :


I've actually got the Micro one which is even smaller. It's not really a synthesiser, it's not generating any new sounds like say a mini-Moog . But you can play chords on it, you can blend two different instruments and since there are 100 'tapes' that gives a potential 10,000 different sounds. It has a switch to move octaves so I think that it covers pretty much a normal size keyboard. I only bought it as a bass instrument, but actually it has a tremendous potential.
 
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You could probably make your own samples if it uses standard MP3 encoding.
 
I had a dream a few nights ago where Jeremy Corbyn was leading a march of his supporters, and they were singing this song:

It keeps popping into my head, despite not having thought of it in years before the dream. Note: I have no strong opinion on Mr Corbyn.
 
I had a dream a few nights ago where Jeremy Corbyn was leading a march of his supporters, and they were singing this song:

It keeps popping into my head, despite not having thought of it in years before the dream. Note: I have no strong opinion on Mr Corbyn.
The song is called 'We Are Not Going To Make It'. Why would they sing that song?
 
Have you ever had a random song going around in your brain for no reason? I had ‘A good heart these days is hard to find’ and I’ve not heard that song for ages. Is my brain trying to tell me something?
 
Have you ever had a random song going around in your brain for no reason? I had ‘A good heart these days is hard to find’ and I’ve not heard that song for ages. Is my brain trying to tell me something?

In the charts at the same time and often in my head!

You Got It
by The Traveling Wilburys.
 
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We have threads on this! Good threads. A good thread (these days) is hard to find...

The songs in my head are always that, songs. Never orchestral pieces or instrumentals. It's hearing words or phrases that sets them off.

Thus, yesterday we were out and I saw some far-off landmark. Mentioned it to Techy, wow, fancy seeing that from this distance! From a distance! God is watching you...

So those two lines, which are all I know of the song, were playing in my head for the next hour or so. Might even have got THAT little scrap wrong but I'm not making the mistake of looking it up, ohhh no! I'd never get rid of it.

At work an electronic sound goes off which sets me humming a Chris Rea song. I don't know any words to that one or its title but I still hear it in my head and join in tunelessly.
 
Have you ever had a random song going around in your brain for no reason?

All too often. It frequently occurs when I'm cycling, perhaps due to the rhythmic nature of the activity.

It's not too bad when it's a song I like and to which I know the words, but it can go bad: the afternoon I spent on the bike with (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window? stuck in my head was a particularly low point...

maximus otter
 
I got a new mobile a couple of weeks ago and set the alarm sound to my preferred one-that-sounds-a-bit-like-the-sea-or-birdsong.

It start with a couple of acoustic guitar chords that are exactly like the intro to "Friday I'm In Love", so that is stuck in my head most mornings.
 
A bit of synchronicity here. About 2 weeks ago, I was watching Room 1408 and in the scene when Mike Enslin is sat in the diner opening his mail, The Weight by The Band is playing in the background. The chorus became stuck in my head and I was humming/singing it for most of the following week. Last weekend, I'm autoharp strumming and melodeon-squeezing at a folk festival session in a pub I've never set foot in in my life before. 2 musicians(both guitarists/male-female duo) then start playing The Weight. So now it's going around in my head for another week. Then, on Thursday night of last week, my parents pop around to my place for a meal. Guess what my mother is singing as she is taking her shoes off in my hallway? Yep, 'take a load off Annie, take a load for free.......... ' That's when I looked to the ceiling and nearly shouted, "OK, what the HELL is going ON?"
 
Sometimes you may have picked up the song subliminally in a shop. I work in the local Co Op and we have a selection of the lower end of the hit parade from many years warbling in the background. I'm not usually aware of it but will find myself sometimes singing along almost unconsciously to something that was last heard by human ears in 1983. Or waking up in the morning with Bonnie Tyler reverberating, only to find out that it's on this week's loop on Cooperative Radio.
 
We have threads on this! Good threads. A good thread (these days) is hard to find...

The songs in my head are always that, songs. Never orchestral pieces or instrumentals. It's hearing words or phrases that sets them off.

Thus, yesterday we were out and I saw some far-off landmark. Mentioned it to Techy, wow, fancy seeing that from this distance! From a distance! God is watching you...

So those two lines, which are all I know of the song, were playing in my head for the next hour or so. Might even have got THAT little scrap wrong but I'm not making the mistake of looking it up, ohhh no! I'd never get rid of it.

At work an electronic sound goes off which sets me humming a Chris Rea song. I don't know any words to that one or its title but I still hear it in my head and join in tunelessly.

I did search first before starting this thread. But you know the search...
 
Sometimes you may have picked up the song subliminally in a shop. I work in the local Co Op and we have a selection of the lower end of the hit parade from many years warbling in the background. I'm not usually aware of it but will find myself sometimes singing along almost unconsciously to something that was last heard by human ears in 1983. Or waking up in the morning with Bonnie Tyler reverberating, only to find out that it's on this week's loop on Cooperative Radio.

I do work in a shop but we usually have slightly more up to date stuff. A few years back the company was saying money and had unsigned artists songs, they were not great.
 
Although mines more appeared out of nowhere than stuck.
If I ever hear this tune again I might snap .. I worked for a while in a supermarket and this tune was played EVERY MORNING for about a year 15 minutes before the doors opened to brainwash us so we'd all presumably do a cheery "Hello!" to customers, exactly at 7:45 am EVERY MORNING when most of us still had hangovers and were still waking up .. the absolute nerve shattering stabbing piano notes intro that felt like you were being slapped around the face, the plastic performance lyrics and the stress that you're in the last 15 minutes to get everything right and then you're thrown back into groundhog day EVERY MORNING that instead actually puts you off remembering important stuff with this fucking song .. I need to track down the person in head office who decided "Hey! .. this will cheer all of our staff up!" ..

edit: and to be fair, it's an upbeat and funky tune now I listen to it again 'on my release' but any tune that's played to you EVERY MORNING is going to do your head in .. the staff used to sing along to it but changed the lyrics from 'hello' to 'fuck off' .. it could have been worse I suppose it could have been that all yellow song by Coldplay *shudder* .. my ex used to love that song, possibly part of the reason why she's my ex.

 
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A bit of synchronicity here. About 2 weeks ago, I was watching Room 1408 and in the scene when Mike Enslin is sat in the diner opening his mail, The Weight by The Band is playing in the background. The chorus became stuck in my head and I was humming/singing it for most of the following week. Last weekend, I'm autoharp strumming and melodeon-squeezing at a folk festival session in a pub I've never set foot in in my life before. 2 musicians(both guitarists/male-female duo) then start playing The Weight. So now it's going around in my head for another week. Then, on Thursday night of last week, my parents pop around to my place for a meal. Guess what my mother is singing as she is taking her shoes off in my hallway? Yep, 'take a load off Annie, take a load for free.......... ' That's when I looked to the ceiling and nearly shouted, "OK, what the HELL is going ON?"

Could be worse - it's a great song.
 
I have songs or riffs running round a lot of the time when I'm on my own. Often find a tune coming after waking/getting up, usually something from years ago, never anything recent. They don't really get stuck though apart from maybe a couple - Party Fears Two, The Associates, which has a great repeating motif, & an old blues/swing tune Glory of Love, Big Bill Broonzy version. I hardly ever whistle but when I do, I often find it's one of these. Kind of a habit..

A fairly obscure one I woke up with recently - My Name is Jack, Manfred Mann.
 
I have songs or riffs running round a lot of the time when I'm on my own. Often find a tune coming after waking/getting up, usually something from years ago, never anything recent. They don't really get stuck though apart from maybe a couple - Party Fears Two, The Associates, which has a great repeating motif, & an old blues/swing tune Glory of Love, Big Bill Broonzy version. I hardly ever whistle but when I do, I often find it's one of these. Kind of a habit..

A fairly obscure one I woke up with recently - My Name is Jack, Manfred Mann.

Is that the one that goes on about the Greta Garbo home for wayward boys and girls? I have vague memories of that song...
 
The B-side is a bit rum.

Don't tell me you've got a copy of the single - what is the B-side? Unless you're referring to their song actually titled 'A B-side' which I do have a copy of, & which I think is on the B side of their 'Ragamuffin Man'.

yours
A. Pedant
 
Don't tell me you've got a copy of the single - what is the B-side? Unless you're referring to their song actually titled 'A B-side' which I do have a copy of, & which I think is on the B side of their 'Ragamuffin Man'.

yours
A. Pedant

You nerd.
 
I went to sleep last night unable to shift Gladys Knight's theme tune from the Bond movie Licence to Kill from my mind. Hadn't even heard it recently, haven't seen the film in ages.
 
I got the Adam Ant song "Prince Charming" running in my brain. It's an awful song. Ugh! Hate it.
Listen and get infected too!
 
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This happens to me at times of extreme fatigue or stress. I can recall staying in hospital when my daughter was very ill and couldn't get Neil Innis of the Bonzos "I'm the Urban Spaceman" out of my head.
This whole phenomenon was superbly illustrated in the 2003 docudrama "Touching the Void" in which a badly injured mountaineer took days to descend a mountain and became delirious with pain, dehydration and hypothermia. In one protracted, nightmarish scene he has a horrible, distorted and echoey version of Boney M's "Brown Girl in the Ring" permanently looping in his head.
 
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