Every morning, I wake up with music in my head. It’s never original music — it’s pretty much always just a random pop song. Now, it would be useful if I woke up with new music — by me! — in my head, but no. I do occasionally dream new music, but I never remember it. There was the time in high school when I woke up in the morning with a melody in my head, convinced I had written something brilliant in my sleep. It turned out to be the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto, so in fact it was neither original nor brilliant.

I’ve often thought I should keep a pad and pencil next to the bed, just to write down the pop songs that are in my head each morning. I thought it would be interesting to see, even though I’m sure there’s no relevance to any particular song. At least I hope not. This morning, I woke up with Barbra Streisand’s “Evergreen” in my head.