The Official Google Blog has been running a series of posts about how Google has helped people in unusual ways. This story gives me great hope for those moments when I too can only remember how a tune (without lyrics) goes and want to find the title.
You ever hear a song that you wish you knew the name of? Usually you can just Google a few key lyrics to find the answer, but when the song has no lyrics, one has to get creative. This was the case a few years ago when I was tasked with finding out the name of that famous circus/carnival music, you know, with the calliope, like, the clown music people usually hum in situations when someone’s just done something silly.. you know, it kind of goes like “doot doot doodle-oodle oot doot do do?” Sorta? Of course it’s more likely that you’d recognize the tune if I could whistle it to you. Except everyone I’d whistled to, despite recognizing the tune, had no clue what the name of the song was.
So, on a whim, I googled it. That is, I went to Google Search, typed in “doot doot doodle-oodle oot doot do do” (without quotes, even!), clicked “I’m Feeling Lucky”—and guess what? It’s called “Entrance of the Gladiators”—also known as “Thunder and Blazes” — by Czech composer Julius Fučík. Good ear, Google, good ear.