Chris Gallup of Sweet Dreams takes orders from her truck in Rockford, Mich. Sweet Dreams who claims to be the first in the area to use 'Popeye The Sailor Man' music for trucks. (Photo by Emily Zoladz)

Ice cream truck music: Even those who've never heard the term know exactly what it is.

It's often a different song in different neighborhoods or cities, but all it takes is the distant chime of the first few notes to shift your thoughts from a sweltering day instantly to Mega Missiles, Klondike Krunches or Towering Tornadoes.

Children pop out of houses clutching coins and dollar bills, chasing their favorite symbol of summer as it rolls down the street.

"The kids hear that music and get happy. They come out dancing and screaming," says Mario Herrera, of Holland, Mich., who oversees a fleet of Good Time ice cream trucks.

But it's that unforgettable music — "Turkey in the Straw," "The Entertainer," "Pop Goes the Weasel" — that starts the little feet pattering, the taste buds salivating and the "Mom, I need some change, oh please, pretty please" whimpering.

In my neighborhood, it's "Popeye the Sailor Man," and I can hear the Sweet Dreams truck when it's still two blocks away. But why "Popeye"?

"We've been using that since Day One. We went through a list of songs and we liked 'Popeye,'" says Marie Dietz, of Belmont, Mich., who's operated Sweet Dreams with her husband, Tim, for 16 years. Their three trucks travel neighborhoods around Grand Rapids.

"It says that's our truck. We were thinking about (changing it) because some of the other trucks have taken on 'Popeye' music, so they copy us. But if you change the music, what do you go to? The music goes with the truck."

It certainly does. Technically, those simple tunes activate brain cells that quickly identify this as an ice cream truck. These neurons then send electrochemical signals racing for quarters to buy frozen treats.

Of course, in some people's brains, these neurons send out for sledgehammers to destroy the source of the music played over and over again as trucks orbit neighborhoods.

No problem. When noise complaints pile up, veteran Good Times ice cream truck driver Anna Viveros, of Holland, says she just switches to another ditty.

That's because most trucks are equipped with little black boxes — made by Nichols Electronics in Minnesota — loaded with eight of the most popular ice cream vehicle tunes, each activated with a simple twist of a button. Owner Mark Nichols' dad started the firm in 1957.

"Those are the top sellers over the years, very popular public-domain songs or nursery rhyme songs (that are) old, common folk melodies," he said of classics such as "Little Brown Jug."

"Kids know immediately what it means. It kicks off the beginning of the summer."

Of course, some vendors prefer "self-authored stuff that's very unusual," which Nichols can load into one of his devices. (Kraft Foods even once used Nichols' devices to play Dean Martin's "That's Amore" in Canadian pizza delivery trucks after getting permission to use the song.)

Mr. Softee, popular in the Northeast, has its own truck jingle and, in Great Britain, lots of ice cream vendors apparently play "Greensleeves," maybe because kids think it's Christmas every time they roll by.

Last year, a guy named Michael Hearst recorded a CD, "Songs for Ice Cream Trucks," in hopes of updating the inventory of ice cream truck tunes. Songs included "Tones for Cones" and "Ice Cream, Yo!"

Another industrious fellow, Daniel Tannehill Neely, even wrote a paper on the history of the phenomenon: "Ice Cream Truck Music, The Sound of Frozen Novelties." He presented it to the Society for Ethnomusicology's annual meeting in 2000.

Neely's research found street vendors have used music — bells, harmonicas, barrel organs — to sell ice cream since the early 1800s, eventually turning to music box devices and the 21st century's digital gadgets.

The technology may have changed the past two centuries, but most ice cream music remains the same. Go to YouTube and you'll find numerous videos of trucks chiming out those familiar, old ice cream jingles.

Herrera says one of the most popular ditties that gets young kids traipsing after ice cream trucks these days is one of the oldest — "Turkey in the Straw," better known by some as "Do Your Ears Hang Low."

But that's only because popular rapper Jibbs happened to borrow the melody for his 2006 hit single, "Chain Hang Low," even using an ice cream truck to introduce his video for the song.

TRUCK SONGS

Some of the most popular ice cream truck songs:

— "Turkey In The Straw" (aka "Do Your Ears Hang Low," "Chain Hang Low")

— "The Entertainer"

— "Little Brown Jug"

— "Camptown Races"

— "Sailing, Sailing (Over the Bounding Main)"

— "Red Wing"

— "Brahms Lullaby"

— "La Cucaracha"

— "Popeye the Sailor Man"

— "Pop Goes the Weasel"

— "Yankee Doodle"

(John Sinkevics is a reporter for the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press. He can be contacted at jsinkevics(at)grpress.com.)