You know that song? The one that goes “la la la, ba dum, la la”? Dammit, what’s it called?
A new service says it can tell you. Midomi uses a Flash interface that has you sing or hum a fragment of that mystery song into your computer’s microphone. Then, hey presto, it shows you a series of possible matches.
I gave it the acid test: a song fragment that has haunted me since something like 1978 or 1979. Granted, it’s pretty obscure; I’ve never been able to track it down through technologies like Google or singing it to decreasingly patient record store clerks.
The lyrics, in case anyone out there can identify it (bearing in mind this is from a nearly-three-decade-old memory of the thing):
“Things gonna change, change for the better / You’d better get ready for the change to come / We’ve come a long way, but farther along / Things gonna change, change is gonna come / But we got, we got to keep going / People got to keep on growing / We’ll be all right, all right, right back on that rocky road”
Midomi, sadly, failed me. It offered 30 possibilities, and I can actually recognize a resemblance with a few of them, but none was my fabled mystery song. One that was way off was XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel”… yet, oddly enough, that’s roughly the same timeframe. (It does point to a few problems with their database, which lists the original artist on “Nigel” as Nouvelle Vague. Er, no – they’re a cover band specializing in post-punk songs some 20 years later.)
But don’t let my experience deter you. The site has some charming touches… including the ability to hear how other users have sung or hummed each of the search results. (mymail1800 just may have sung the definitive “Pop Goes the Weasel.”) And it’s the perfect occasion for serendipity; I’d never have known about Nouvelle Vague if not for Midomi. (Their 2004 album is downloading now from iTunes.)
Meanwhile, if you know what that friggin’ song is, please let me know so I can stop humming it obsessively. “But we got, we gotta keep going…”
The name of the song is “Things Gonna Change” by the band Cruiser, from their sole album “Rollin’ with the Times.” In my opinion it is an awesome song. It must be if you rememered the lyrics for 20+ years years since the album came out. You can find more information and download the whole album at the same place I got it:
http://robotsforronnie.blogspot.com/2007/08/cruiser-rollin-with-times-1980.html
It was just chance that I was searching the lyrics for the song and came across your post here. I hope I helped.
Brian, you GOD! Thanks so much!
I’m glad I could help.
Yes, by Cruiser. Love this tune.. I don’t understand why it’s not a much-played oldie.
HOLY WOW !! I have also looked for that song for years!!! Never found anything about it online, so had to give up & moved many times, and now just TODAY was thinking of it cuz, I wanna do a cover of it.. … and googled a few different ways … different parts of the lyrics as I recalled it … and found this obscure link in the results – like in page 3 or 4 of the google results !!
Damn glad I kept looking this morning – Thank you again in 2020 – its maybe now more relevant than EVER.
I remember it being on the radio daily, several times a day back around late 70’s or early 80’s but no one else in my circles knew the song, I figured because I moved west, maybe they were a local Ontario band or something…
Thanks, I will definitely do some kinda cover of it, and now I can give proper credits to the original authors !!
Also will purchase the album somehow …
You HAVE to let me know when that cover drops! Good luck with it!
Wow, I was literally just thinking of this song … again … 40 years after first hearing it at high school dances – and a Google search led me here.
This post ends a 40 year long quest to find the source of an ear-worm that’s been stuck in my head since childhood. I keep repeating the chorus but nobody knows what I’m talking about. Thank you a ton. Seriously, I owe you. You need something, you ask me.
Dean, it amazes me how many people have been on this same quest. I feel like one of the people in Close Encounters who all end up converging on Devil’s Tower. :)
I have been looking for this for literally YEARS… THANK YOU