Two songs (one beautiful, one annoying) by Jacob Ryan Smith

Just a few weeks ago, Jacob Ryan Smith, an extremely talented composer and lyricist, got a call from John Curley. Jacob and John worked together to compose a song for Tom Tangney’s final show.

The song can be heard here:

“Working on Tom’s goodbye song was both an honor and a pleasure,” according to Jacob Ryan Smith. “John had told me how much Tom loved Stephen Sondheim, so immediately I felt a real kinship to Tom.”

A couple of days later, Curley called Jacob and asked him to compose a short song — no more than 30 seconds — that would be catchy and annoying. Curley was going for what is known as an ear worm, a song that gets stuck in your head and lives in there for quite some time and drives you nuts.

“At first, Jacob said he didn’t want to do it. He said he felt sorry for the listeners and didn’t want to cause anyone any great pain,” Curley said.

After a few hours, Smith sent Curley a song. It was Smith‘s first attempt and, as he told Curley, he didn’t want it to be too annoying. He just couldn’t make a song like that.

John rejected the song and asked him to try again and make it even more annoying. A day later, with much hesitation, Jacob Ryan Smith pushed the send button and sent the song that is now hated by so many listeners of the John Curley and Shari Elliker Show:

Listen to John Curley and Shari Elliker weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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