Ever get a song stuck in your head? For the past three mornings I’ve woken up with the song “Bills, Bills, Bills” in mine. Yes, it was originally done by Destiny’s Child, but I have the version done by Jonathan Coulton seemingly irretrievably lodged in my brain.

It turns out that ear worms (songs that are stuck in your head) are the result of a glitch in your auditory cortex, and there are two simple solutions:

a.) Listen to the entire song from beginning to end, or b.) Do some math

I’ve known about the first solution for a long time – in fact, it’s the most common thing people tell you when you complain about having a song stuck in your head. But the second solution, “do some math” was news to me. I’m no brain doctor, but I guess doing math forces the part of your brain that is misfiring to focus on something else, removing the ear worm.

For a few more interesting thoughts about music, check out this 3 Smart Things About Music post at Wired from last year. Oh, and if you want to hear the version of the song I had stuck in my head, you can find it on Jonathan Coulton’s site.