What is the catchiest single ever? An impossible to answer question, one could suggest. Nonetheless, a large-scale experiment has shortlisted a number of songs that seem to have particularly embedded themselves in the public consciousness.
12,000 people took part in the online experiment / game - organised by Manchester Science Festival and Museum of Science and Industry with the assistance of University of Amsterdam - which asked participants to say whether or not they recognised a song based on a short clip.
The song that was identified quickest - an average of only 2.29 seconds - was the Spice Girls' Wannabe, followed by Lou Bega's Mambo No 5 and Survivor's Eye of the Tiger.
There is another motivation behind the research, with Dr Ashley Burgoyne of the University of Amsterdam telling BBC that "while it is fun to know this - because people love music but in the long run - if we have a better understanding of how the musical memory works, we are hopeful that we can move into research on people with dementia."
You can take the Hooked on Music experiment yourself here, and the top ten is listed below:
1 - Spice Girls - Wannabe
2 - Lou Bega - Mambo No 5
3 - Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger
4 - Lady Gaga - Just Dance
5 - ABBA - SOS
6 - Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman
7 - Michael Jackson - Beat It
8 - Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
9 - The Human League - Don't You Want Me
10 - Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
