These strange songs came out of nowhere!

You never see them coming, and yet they never stop coming. From the beginning of popular music to today, offbeat songs just keep pushing into our consciousness. As much as we’re conditioned to respond to formula-based songs that fit into established genres, the outliers just keep catching our attention and burrowing into our brains. Over the decades, there’s been a singing nun and chanting monks, weird mini-musicals from the likes of Queen and Paul McCartney, unlikely foreign-language acts promoting red balloons, taxi drivers and whatever “Gangnam Style” was. Unconventional instruments, animals (including the performer who thought she was a cow), cheerleader-esque songs and mashed-up genres also found fame. And in just the last year we’ve seen the charts topped by everything from a song based on a Korean drinking game to a country hit that was completely invented by AI. On this week’s “How We Heard It,” your hosts explore some of the strangest songs that have ever been made - funny, bizarre, racy, disturbing, catchy … and sometimes annoying in the long run. Expect the unexpected!