My officemate Scott got it right in record time.

The question was raised for me because the song randomly played on my iPod as I was walking to my car after work the other day and it made me pause (literally - passersby were confused to see my bulk stop suddenly in the parking lot and stare into space) and remember.

I think the song first popped up on my radar sometime in college when I first started listening to the fine LP (for this was back in the day of the black slabs of vinyl) Blood & Chocolate by Elvis Costello, mostly to drunkenly blare "I Want You" and "I Hope You're Happy Now" as I moped about the former girlfriend du jour in the wee hours.

But that particular song was hammered into my consciousness with another girlfriend who I spent a lot of time drunkenly necking with while, more often than not, Elvis C. was playing on her stereo.

I'm not sure if it was because of those specific reasons that the song resonated with me so. It certainly wasn't the lyrics of the song which are so pleasantly obtuse that they invite a million personal interpretations, each of them solipsistically correct.

It was that question which I posed to said girl when I received an email from her out of the blue. "Is it really you?" I queried. "Tell me why death wears a big hat."

"Um, because he's a big bloke?"

I guess maybe that's why that line stuck in my head so.

Which leads to my new question of the day: what songs or lyrics, despite (or because) of their obtuseness or subtlety, have stuck with you forever?

Discuss.