The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119894   Message #2607651
Posted By: Jim Dixon
08-Apr-09 - 06:14 PM
Thread Name: Req: Song/Artist: You got me hypnotized baby
Subject: RE: Req: Song/Artist: You got me hypnotized baby
Here's my final message on this subject, unless someone gives me some more clues:

I can't find the requested lyrics with Google. (I can find lyrics that contain SOME the phrases quoted, but none that contain ALL of the phrases quoted.)

I can't find any information about the commercial described in the request.

The best I have been able to do is suggest some song titles that MIGHT be the song requested, but without any lyrics to confirm it.

Allmusic.com lists (it says) 442 recordings of various songs called HYPNOTIZED. Many of them have sound samples, so you might try listening until you recognize something.

*
This experience (and others like it) have inspired me to write this advice for songwriters: USE GOOGLE TO TEST YOUR LYRICS FOR CLICHÉS.

For example, Google found—

66,600 web pages that contain "got me hypnotized"
38,000 web pages that contain "you got me hypnotized"*
6,500 web pages that contain "you've got me hypnotized"*
39,900 web pages that contain "I don't stand a chance"
21,500 web pages that contain "put me in a trance"
19,800 web pages that contain "got me in a trance"

Any phrase of 3 or 4 words that gets that many hits is obviously a cliché and should be avoided.

I will hazard a guess that "You've got me hypnotized" wasn't a cliché when Irving Berlin wrote it in 1911, but has become one since then.

--
*Showing, I suppose, that 85% of people who use clichés aren't very good at grammar, either.