Gary Brown: Mickey Mouse Club song an unusual earworm in dark of night

Was the Mickey Mouse Club a cult?

I ask this not out of ridicule or regret for having watched the daily television show as a child. I kind of had a thing for Annette. I think I had a crush on her. So, they were good years.

It's just that six or seven decades later, I seem to still be singing the theme song. I sort of feel indoctrinated.

"Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?

"M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E."

I was singing it – "The Mickey Mouse Club March," it's formally called – in my sleep the other night. Or, technically I was singing it instead of sleeping.

"Hey there, hi there, ho there, you're as welcome as can be.

"M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E."

I got that far with no problem. I sang the song silently in my memory in spite of -- perhaps because of -- recollections that came back of me an my older brother playing games or putting together puzzles on a card table in the living room while the show aired on our family's black-and-white television late in the afternoon, just before our father got home from work.

Especially, I recalled the chorus, word-for-word with another cartoon character's emphatic interruption of it.

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"Mickey Mouse! (Donald Duck!)

"Mickey Mouse! (Donald Duck!)

"Forever let us hold our banner high

"High! High! High!"

I think it was either Donald Duck's raspy protesting voice or the exclamation points that kept me awake.

Remembering the Mouseketeers

I have no idea if the original Mouseketeers did any of the singing. The parts of the introduction song that I remember were animated, as I recall, the singers unseen, and the cartoon included voices of Walt Disney's cartoon characters. Still, as I sang it I saw those first Mouseketeers in my mind. I've mentioned Annette, but my memory also recalls Bobby, Darlene, Tommy, Doreen, Darlene and others, including Jimmy, the old guy.

Johnny was among them. I remember him because he later played Lucas McCain's son, Mark" on "The Rifleman, another of my favorite television shows.

At least that's the show I have as a memory. Younger viewers might remember other Mouseketeers during a 1970s revival called "The New Mickey Mouse Club." And the later "All-New Mickey Mouse Club" featured such soon-to-be-well-known stars as Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake early in the 1990s.

I was well into working by those years, of course. I never thought to step away from the newsroom in those days, and watch those Mouseketeers on the conference room TV.

So, the Mickey Mouse Club song that kept me awake away recently was one that began the oldest of those shows, containing lyrics that led into other song and dance performances by kids who had Sharon, Karen, Lonnie and Dennis written on the front of their white shirts.

"Come along and sing a song

"And join the jamboree.

"M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E."

Researching what was lost

There were musical interludes, of course, during which I didn't have to remember the words. So, I just kept time with my hand against the bed.

"Are you tapping your finger?" my loved one asked.

"Um, yeah."

"Well, stop."

I thought it was an over-reaction – kind of Donald Duckish – but I let it go. That early in the morning it would have been too difficult to explain my only excuse for the drum beat – "Hey, I'm singing here ..."

Besides, who had time to pause in the melody. I couldn't stop thinking of the music.

What bothered me, and what no doubt kept me awake, was I knew there was more words to the song. But, I couldn't remember them. I had to look them up the next day

Some website called my missing portion the "bridge," and talked about the Mickey Mouse Club being a place where kids had fun, met "new faces," and went "new places," "all around the world we're marching." It apparently was too educational or inspirational for my childish mind to file away for future sleepless nights.

So, as my insomnia continued, I kept skipping to the "outro," a portion of the Mickey Mouse Club March that appeared to have been burned into the musical memory portion of my brain.

"Yay Mickey!

"Yay Mickey!

"Yay Mickey Mouse Club."

The cheering continued. No wonder it was difficult to get back to sleep with all that decades-old clamoring going on. I was remembering pretty loudly by that point. And I was having fun. I've never had so much fun at night with an earworm. Or a cult, for that matter, if it was one.

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Gary Brown: After decades, Mickey Mouse Club song remains on my mind