What song is this? How to find the name of that song stuck in your head

Imagine this: you are having a good day! Seems a bit unrealistic, we know, but go with it. You are having a good day – you didn’t miss your usual bus, you ordered pizza for lunch, and it came with three oregano packets instead of two. You are walking out of the office and pass someone scrolling through Instagram Reels with the speaker at full volume. You resist rolling your eyes and continue walking, humming a song.

10 steps on, you suddenly freeze – why can’t you remember the song’s next line? To think of it, you don’t know anything about the song other than the four words you have been humming, all thanks to the ‘Reels-on-speaker’ person. What do you do next?

Turns out, there is no need to go unhinged over this. There are various websites/apps for you to use. They will not only tell you what the goddamn song is but also which movie or show you might have heard it in.

The only thing you remember is the melody

This seemingly frustrating situation has a relatively easy solution – Google Assistant. It is built into all Android devices. All you need to do is say, “Hey Google”. Once your voice assistant is active, ask, “What’s this song?” and hum, sing, or whistle the melody. On iOS devices like iPhones or iPads, you can use SoundHound or the Google Assistant app.

The song is playing in the background

Shazam is one of the most popular apps to recognise a song playing around you. However, you can also use your smartphone’s voice assistant – Google Assistant or Siri, to know which song is playing.

You heard the song in a movie or show

Finding a song used in a film or show is very easy. You can use websites like WhatSong or tunefind to discover all the songs used in a particular episode or movie.

They will not just list the names and artists of the songs but also give a short description of what was happening on the screen when the song was used. You can also refer to the IMDb page of the show or movie to get extensive information about the soundtrack.

You know the song and want to know where you might have heard it

Now, this is tricky. From social media platforms, advertisements to movie soundtracks, there are multiple places where you might have heard a song. You can search the artist’s name on websites like tunefind and WhatSong to get a list of their songs and instances where they were used. If the song has a Wikipedia page, it will also have a section mentioning its parodies, revisions, and uses.

And if nothing works, record yourself humming the song and send it to your group chat. Either you’ll get an answer to the tune plaguing you, or you’ll give the earworm to someone else and not suffer alone anymore – it’s a win-win!