BroadwayGirlNYC: Don't Listen to This

Oh my god, you guys.

I can barely listen to the Legally Blonde cast album without having it in my head for weeks!!!

Show tunes are inherently catchy, and that's what makes us love them so much.  In fact, it's what inspires us to hit the "repeat" button and listen to the same cast album, or sometimes even one particular song, over and over and over.  But you know that moment when all of a sudden you've gone too far?  When, without warning, the song has lodged itself into your brain to the point of no return? 

You are absolutely, incontrovertibly, mercilessly overcome by a song that's just too infectious.

This, my friends is the Curse of the Broadway Earworm.

Legally Blonde: The Musical, especially its opening number "Ohmigod You Guys," is -- for me -- the quintessential Broadway earworm.  At the height of the show's popularity, when casting for the new Elle Woods was taking place via an MTV reality show, the cast album even worked its way into my dreams at night -- incessant to the point that the dreams became nightmares!  I couldn't escape the armies of Elles chasing me through my subconscious!  

I know I'm not alone.  I brought up the topic to my friend Karen, who also regularly falls victim to the Broadway Earworm curse, and together we came up with this list of the songs that regularly take up residency in our brains.

But be warned: even reading the list below could make it nearly impossible to shake the melodies from your brain.

• "I Hope I Get It" from A Chorus Line
• "It's Gonna Be Good" from Next to Normal
• "Hair" from HAIR
• "21 Guns" from American Idiot
• "Master of the House" from Les Miserables
• "Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray
• "Oklahoma" from Oklahoma
• "Little Shop of Horrors" from Little Shop of Horrors
• "La Vie Boheme" from RENT
• "I Know it's Today" from Shrek: The Musical
• "The Bitch of Living" from Spring Awakening
• "9 to 5" from 9 to 5: The Musical
• "The Speed Test" from Thoroughly Modern Millie
• "Monkeys and Playbills" from [title of show]
• "A Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific
• "Hard Knock Life" from Annie
• "What is This Feeling" from Wicked
• "America" from West Side Story

Many of these are fantastic songs that I've previously loved very, very much.  But maybe they're too catchy for their own good?  Because it has gotten to the point where, even though these songs are great, I have to hit "skip" when they shuffle onto my iPod.

Out, damn Broadway earworm!!!

What show tunes get stuck in YOUR head the most?  Leave them in the comments.