How "I Got You Babe" Became a 'Groundhog Day' Earworm

Bill Murray in 'Groundhog Day'
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Columbia Pictures/Getty Images

On Feb. 2, the world holds its breath as a groundhog in Punxsutawney, PA emerges from its lair and observes or misses its shadow - an unscientific (if humorous) tradition to predict what the rest of the winter season will be like.

Of course, if you're a film fan, you're thinking of Groundhog Day, the 1993 comedy starring Bill Murray as a rude weatherman who changes his life after getting stuck in an unexplained time loop of unknown length on the second day of February. Every morning, Murray's character is awoken on his hotel clock radio by Sonny & Cher's classic "I Got You Babe" - a humorous start to his seemingly infinite repetition of the same day.

Screenwriter Danny Rubin said in a 2012 Reddit AMA that the cheery tune, a No. 1 hit for three weeks in the summer of 1965, was written into the film, mostly for its repetitive finale:

If you listen to the recording at the very end it sort of winds down with a big slow "I got yououououou baaaaaaaabe." You think it's over, then it creeps back in: "I got you babe! I got you babe! etc" I thought this repetition was perfect. The timing never worked out for them to use it in the movie that way, but I guess because it's a love song and because even though it's catchy it would drive you crazy after a while, it was always a good idea.

Take some time to listen to the song - and let's hope it doesn't curse you to days, months, or even years of living the same day over and over.

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