I've got something in my ear

If you've got ohrwurm, then you've got a song you can't get out of your head.

What a word. Literally translated as earworm, it's concise, precise, perfect; ideal for those tunes that squirm in somewhere between getting up and leaving the house, only to be coaxed out by your mid-morning apple.

You know the type, those irritatingly catchy pop songs that get stuck in your head like a broken record.

But the beauty of the ohrwurm is that it's also a positive affair: as likely to refer to the good songs as the bad, I'm assured.

I was a kid with earworms, and I'm an adult with them too.

I've had to play Astral Weeks every night for three years just to get to sleep such was the chronic earworm it gave me as a student (more of which later).

But today it's not even a proper song.

During my audience with Stevie Wonder (me and a few thousand others in Birmingham in September), he broke off to sing a tune, a remarkable falsetto affair that contained just two words.

"Barack Obamba, Barack Obama," he yelled, high pitched, back and forth, big smile.

It's been in my head all day. I have intermittently annoyed colleagues with it. And even writing these words means the itch will be harder to scratch.

And this despite 'Little' Stevie being responsible for more than just earworm - he brought 'Big' George Boeteng on stage midway through the set, thus providing the most surreal gig going moment I've witnessed in my live music-watching career.

Stevie was magnificent and now my earworm is President.

All together now: 'Barack Obama, Barack Obama'. Repeat to fade.

More earworm news to follow.