Tuesday, November 4, 2014 10:35am ET by  
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'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls named 'catchiest song' in new scientific study

A new study has revealed that 'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls is the catchiest song ever as participants in the experiment were able to recognise it in just 2.3 seconds despite the fact that it was released as a single 18 years ago.

The experiment focused on an online game named 'Hooked on Music', which was developed by the Museum of Science and Industry (Mosi), and formed the study that examined what makes a song memorable.

'Wannabe' by the Spice Girls came out on top, but the hit was closely followed by Lou Bega’s 'Mambo Number Five' and Survivor’s 'Eye of the Tiger', which were named the second and third catchiest tunes and were recognised in an average of 2.48 seconds and 2.62 seconds respectively, according to results presented at the Manchester Science Festival.

The study was led by Ashley Burgoyne, a computational musicologist from the University of Amsterdam, and he explained:

"All of the tracks we examined are among the best-known pop tracks in the UK, and none of them showed extreme differences in recognisability between their hooks and their least-catchy moments: no more than 30 per cent of what would theoretically be possible. But given that constraint, the catchiest songs also showed the greatest differences in recognisability between their hooks and their verses or bridges."

The Top 20 catchiest songs as named by the study are as follows:

  1. Spice Girls - Wannabe - 2.29 seconds (s)
  2. Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5 - 2.48s
  3. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger - 2.6s
  4. Lady Gaga - Just Dance - 2.66s
  5. ABBA - SOS - 2.73s
  6. Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman - 2.73s
  7. Michael Jackson - Beat It - 2.80s
  8. Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You - 2.83s
  9. The Human League - Don't You Want Me - 2.83s
  10. Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing - 2.84s
  11. Lady Gaga - Poker Face - 2.88s
  12. Hanson - Mmmmbop - 2.89s
  13. Elvis Presley - It's Now Or Never - 2.91s
  14. Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet - 2.94s
  15. Michael Jackson - Billie Jean - 2.97s
  16. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon - 2.99s
  17. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time - 2.99s
  18. Elvis Presley - Devil in Disguise - 3.01s
  19. Boney M. - Rivers of Babylon - 3.03s
  20. Elton John - Candle in the Wind - 3.04s

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Check out the Top 10 most memorable songs from 'Hooked On Music' here: