An estimated 92% of us experience earworms. Despite the annoying times we can’t get a chorus or a hook of an overplayed pop song out of our heads, getting a really good earworm stuck can be one of the best things, ever. We here at Nerdist are dead set on bringing you those types of songs—even if only for the weekend. So shove this into your grey matter!

For the last few days, it’s been hovering around 40 degrees here in Chicago and although a childhood spent in New England conditioned me to actually like cold weather in some ways, there are occasionally a rocky few days to get used to it. I thought I would be fine this year. Currently, I am not. Something has apparently broken inside me and my cold weather hubris is completely gone, resulting in a day of blasting the heat, copious amounts of coffee and all the sweatshirts I own. Being so focused on the cold (read: cursing about how freezing I’ve been all day) has overwritten any other ideas I could have had for this column and replaced them with the following cold-related songs.

J. Geils Band – “Freeze Frame”

Sure it’s a flimsy connection to the alternate definition of “freeze” but we’ll just have to deal with it since my brain is more concerned with adjusting to the current and much worse temperatures coming my way. Plus, come on, this song is damn catchy and the video is bananas. In addition to being a shining example of ’80s music videos, it also has some of the most un-settling frames of video ever recorded at the 2:40 mark.

Image: My goddamned nightmares

Foreigner – “Cold As Ice”

I admit, this still isn’t a song about weather per se, but ambient temperate-based songs oddly seem to focus more on the warm side of things. There are a few strictly cold weather ones out there but I’ll be damned if I ever share “Baby It’s Cold Outside” a.k.a. “The creepiest song ever written.” Although, I have to admit, the updated-for-consent version is pretty rad. Despite it having nothing to do with weather, a simple Google search for winter/cold songs returns “Cold As Ice” near the top of most lists compiled. So who am I to break that tradition? [Side note: speed up “Cold As Ice” (or any Foreigner song for that matter) to 1.5 speed in the YouTube video controls and try and tell me it isn’t begging to be covered by a ska or punk band]

Simon & Garfunkel – “A Hazy Shade Of Winter”

It feels a bit strange ending on a song that could be considered a downer. I think most Simon & Garfunkel songs have that distinction by default because of their style even when they objectively… well… feel damn groovy. Even if it’s out of context, the line “But if your hopes should pass away/Simply pretend that you can build them again” sticks with me as being fairly positive. Listening to this song in the coming cold weeks and briskly walking through the city to its beat will keep me warm enough and allow me to try and pretend that cold weather doesn’t bother me. If I do that hard enough, maybe I’ll make it to spring without noticing.

What are your favorite cold weather tunes? Share them in the comments below!

Image:  The Shining – Warner Bros.