Personal soundtrack defaults

I've been interested for a while now in the concept of a default song. The idea was first suggested to me by a mentalfloss blog post, and I readily recognized its wisdom. But I think, at least in my case, it's necessary to distinguish between two types of default songs: subconscious and conscious.

The subconscious default is the song that is constitutively stuck in your head. The song you find yourself singing, whistling, humming, or doodoodoo-ing without realizing it. For me, this is Peter and the Wolf, specifically Peter's theme on the strings. The fun thing about Peter and the Wolf is that, in addition to music, you can also recite the narration to yourself. For example, "Peter made a lasso, and, lowering it over the branch, caught the Wolf by the tail and pulled it tight!" Or, "Don't shoot! Birdie and I have already caught the Wolf! Help us take him to the zoo." ("Lasso" is pronounced "lassoo" and the whole thing is generally pronounced in a fruity, British voice. Even when the narrator doesn't use a fruity British voice, such as Leonard Bernstein's version, he still says "lassoo". I don't get it.)

I have no idea why Peter and the Wolf is ALWAYS stuck in my head, but it is. It's embarrassing how often I discover that, yet again, I'm singing it aloud. Granted, I have danced in three different productions of it, but I don't see why that should make a difference. I've performed The Nutcracker more often, not to mention that Cara frequently uses The Nutcracker for class excercises, but never Peter and the Wolf (at least, not until she got a new cd of barre music which has an adaptation of Peter and the Wolf for tendus. But my, shall we say, affliction predates it). Certainly something that hasn't helped is my ipod's perverse tendency to choose Peter and the Wolf when I put it on shuffle.

The conscious default song is the one that the mentalfloss blogger was concerned with. Although the reasons for your brain selecting it are just as mysterious and subconscious as for the subconscious default, at least you have control over when you sing it. This is the song that you automatically sing to yourself to get something else (Peter and the Wolf, for instance) out of your head. For me it's The Beatles' Eight Days a Week. Such a great song. I delightedly belt it out while showering or trying to subdue some noxious tune.

What do you all think of this idea? Which song(s) have default status for you? What do you think that says about you? What do you think my defaults say about me?

I'm pretty sure my dad has default songs. He's always humming or whistling something. The theme from The Godfather and Faure's Pavane come to mind, but I could be completely wrong here. The only person I've polled so far, after much thought, admitted that she has no default song. That, consistently, the only song that is stuck in her head is whatever was playing on the radio when she woke up that morning. How boring. I wonder what it means to not have a default song. Perhaps someone without a default song also doesn't have a personality??