How to find out the name of a song stuck in my head?

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Finding the name of a song that is stuck in your head—often referred to as an "earworm"—can be a frustrating experience, but modern technology and structured memory retrieval techniques have made it significantly easier to identify these elusive tracks. Whether you remember a specific melody, a stray lyric, or even just the mood of the piece, there is almost always a path to discovery.

1. Leverage Audio Recognition Technology
The most efficient way to identify a song is to let technology "listen" to your memory or hum the tune.

Google Search (Hum to Search): The Google app on mobile is arguably the most powerful tool for this. By tapping the microphone icon and selecting "Search a song," you can hum, whistle, or sing the melody for 10 to 15 seconds. Google’s machine learning algorithms analyze the rhythm and pitch to provide a list of potential matches with percentage-based confidence scores.
   Shazam: While Shazam typically requires the original recording, it remains the gold standard for identification. If you are in a location where the song might be playing (or if you can play a cover version on another device), Shazam’s fingerprinting technology is unparalleled.
   SoundHound: Similar to Shazam, SoundHound is particularly robust when it comes to humming. It has been refining its voice-to-music recognition software for over a decade, making it a reliable alternative if Google fails to produce a result.

2. Utilize Lyric Search Databases
If you can recall even a small snippet of the lyrics, you have a high probability of finding the song through dedicated databases.

Genius and Lyrics.com: These platforms allow you to input partial phrases. Even if you aren't sure of the exact words, try searching for the words you think you heard followed by the word "lyrics." For example, searching "song with lyrics 'running through the neon lights'" will often bring up the correct track even if the lyrics are slightly misremembered.
   Advanced Google Operators: Use search modifiers to narrow down your results. Use quotation marks for exact phrases (e.g., `"standing in the rain" song`) or use the `-` operator to exclude irrelevant results. If you suspect the song is from a specific era, include that in your query: `"lyrics" 1980s pop song`.

3. Tap Into Human Expertise
When algorithms fail, the collective knowledge of internet communities is often the final frontier.

r/TipOfMyTongue (Reddit): This is perhaps the most effective community-driven resource. When posting, provide as much context as possible: the genre, the gender of the singer, the tempo, where you heard it, and any specific instruments you recall. The more detail you provide, the faster the community can pinpoint the track.
   WatZatSong: This website is specifically designed for this purpose. You can upload a recording of yourself humming or playing the melody, and other users will listen and comment with suggestions. It is a highly dedicated community that excels at finding obscure tracks.

4. Reconstruct the Context
If you cannot remember the melody or lyrics, try to perform a "contextual excavation" of your memory. Ask yourself the following questions:

Where were you when you heard it? Was it in a commercial, a movie, a television show, or a retail store? If you remember the show or movie, look up the "soundtrack" or "music from [Show Name]" on sites like Tunefind. Tunefind catalogs music by episode and scene, making it incredibly easy to find a song if you know exactly when it appeared.
   What was the mood? Was it high-energy EDM, a melancholic acoustic ballad, or a fast-paced jazz piece? Searching for "songs like [known artist] with [specific vibe]" can lead you to playlists that might contain the track you are looking for.
   Identify the instrument: If the song is dominated by a specific sound—like a synth-heavy bassline or a prominent saxophone solo—include that in your search terms.

5. The "Earworm" Strategy
Sometimes, the act of actively trying to remember a song causes it to slip further away. This is known as the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon. To bypass this, stop focusing on the song entirely. Engaging in a different, demanding cognitive task—like reading a complex article or solving a puzzle—often allows your subconscious to finalize the retrieval process. You will often find that the name of the song pops into your head when you are no longer forcing the issue.

By combining these digital tools with strategic memory retrieval, you turn a vague, haunting melody into a concrete piece of data. Start with Google’s Hum to Search for the melody, pivot to Tunefind for media context, and finally, rely on the Reddit community if the song remains elusive. Persistence is key; most songs, no matter how obscure, leave a digital footprint somewhere.