Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

I like Afterburner but yeah outside of "why am I hearing Sleeping Bag at CVS?" insanity I don't know why anything from it would make regular rotation on rock radio now

― da croupier, Thursday, October 11, 2012 2:32 PM

I tweeted this a few days ago. Recently:

Duran Duran - Do You Believe in Shame
Michael Penn - This and That

Semisonic: All About Chemistry

Grocery store, not CVS, but "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins.

Not a CVS but I recently heard "I Am The Slime" by Zappa when I was getting my hair cut

once heard the entirety of they might be giants' flood on the walmart radio station.

jesus buddy were you waiting for an oil change or something?

ie it wasn't some worker blasting flood thru the store pa, it was the corporate radio station piped into walmarts coast to coast for some reason doing a 'showcase' on flood.

haha i think (dear god i hope) it started soon after i arrived and i may have indeed lingered to take it in, hear 'twisting' for the first time in however many years, take half an hour to decide whether or not i want poptarts, etc. something very fucked about hearing this blasting at walmart though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zNoxjUUyec

hahaha that's better than what I was guessing, which was "Your Racist Friend"

I heard Cracker's cover of "Shake Some Action" in CVS just two nights ago.

Others:

Boz Scaggs - Miss Sun
a-ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV
Tyler Collins - Girls Night Out
Toni Childs - Don't Walk Away

Huh I heard echo beach at Barnes & noble last week.

weirdest one i remember was "change your mind" by neil young while i was standing in line to get painkillers a few years ago. must've been a radio edit. felt appropriate.

Michael Penn - This and That
also, this song is so classic

Heard "Let's Hang On" which was a minor Top 40 for Barry Manilow at a Rite Aid once.

Sunrise by Duran Duran at Papa Ginos a month or so ago.
Why would THAT happen?

lite rock cover of Catch the Sun by Doves @ my bank

"Heaven's on Fire" by KISS was playing on at least two separate occasions at the CVS by my college

not an obscure single really but jarring in the soft-rock context, heard "More Bounce to the Ounce" at the local grocery store a few months ago

REM - "All The Way To Reno"

ie it wasn't some worker blasting flood thru the store pa, it was the corporate radio station piped into walmarts coast to coast for some reason doing a 'showcase' on flood.

― balls, Thursday, October 11, 2012 5:25 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That is exceptionally weird and now I want to listen to that album which I haven't done in years.

It's not obscure but I was euphoric when I heard Amy Grant's "I Will Remember You" yesterday.

was picking up prescription for antidepressant at walgreens and they were playing "i wanna be sedated." no lie.

heard velvet underground - oh! sweet nuthin' at walgreens last week

Sugar Ray's "Chasin You Around" at Met Foods. The second single off In Pursuit Of Leisure, the album after the last one anyone cared about

not obscure but heard like a 10-minute Tool deep cut in a 24 hour kroger once. it was weird because there was usually just soft rock & r&b playing there

a couple visits to shop rite ago i heard the 12-inch edit of "she's always in my hair"

I'm just gonna use this thread for obscure songs heard in any retail setting:

Roxy Music - 2HB in Noodles and Company yesterday.

The other week in Morrisons they were playing 'If I Could Talk I'd Tell You' by the Lemonheads (a #39 smash in 1996).

Heard the Kinks' "Juke Box Music" in a grocery store a couple of years ago. Barely a hit in the US in 1977, never played on "classic rock" radio.

lol i heard donna lewis's flop second single "without love" in a cvs once

Heard "For What It's Worth" by The Cardigans in the grocery store the other day.

not that obscure really but heard dennis deyoung's "desert moon" followed by madonna's "this used to be my playground" on KRGR kroger radio last night, the algorithm was feeling some super intense nostalgia apparently

Thought this was a revival of this thread: albert hammond, "it never rains in southern california"

Not obscure, but I really enjoyed hearing Scritti Politti at CVS yesterday.

I heard the song 'On the Beach' by Neil Young at the grocery store once.

Heard "Couple Days Off" by Huey Lewis & The News last night at Whataburger.

Heard "Emerge" Fischerspooner at a Florida water-park

https://soundcloud.com/hennessyyoungman/cvsbangers

haha thank you, a classic

Jack In The Box is good for these. Today it was "Wild Wild Life" by Talking Heads, and last time a couple weeks ago I heard "Canary In A Coalmine" by The Police.

It's not obscure but I was euphoric when I heard Amy Grant's "I Will Remember You" yesterday.

alfred i'd start straight up bawling

I heard that really sterile, generic, terrible ballad by "Sergio Mendes" from the 80s...."Never Gonna Let You Go"...in a Zaxby's.

whenever i'm in cvs i hear "shattered dreams"

I heard Jack Wagner's "All I Need" and Richard Marx's "Hazard" once in an Albertsons during a 4 hour shift. I remain convinced that they had not changed their Muzak since my childhood.

and whenever I hit the "from this empty heart" falsetto several mothers in the cold medicine section scowl

hahaha. I can't help not singing along to that tune either. that or "All I Need is a Miracle".

haha otm

Shopping for pencils and invisible tape at CVS this morning I heard "Soul Drifter" by Lindsey Buckingham!

^^^^ I've heard it at CVS too

Manu Dibango - "Soul Makossa," in H.E.B. yesterday (though for some reason, in that store, the only place you can usually hear the music without straining your ears is in the restroom)

Twenty-nine. Keep that number in mind.

Neither obscure nor CVS, but "I Love a Rainy Night" at CVS.

In this song, Eddie Rabbit sings the phrase "I love a Rainy Night" three times in each verse and four times in each chorus. And eleven times in the fadeout.

There are 339 words in the song, and 158 of them are repetitions of the song's title.

(By the way, the two verses are identical. The laziness is impressive.)

Do you know what the song is about? It's about loving rainy nights. There's no story or metaphor beyond that.

One of the only other details in the lyrics is "in the moonlight shadows." Hey. Eddie. Do you know what there ISN'T, on a rainy night? Motherflippin shadows.

And yet it is still a catchy-ass song. I can't, as the kids say, even.

I know "Sylvia's Mother" isn't really obscure, but it's increasingly just gone. But there it was at CVS, sounding beautiful as ever.

Great Clips:

Taylor Swift: "Last Kiss"

Whataburger

Bangles: "Walking Down Your Street"

^^ a jam

James Coney Island

Elliott Smith: "A Fond Farewell"

Jason's Deli:

Elliott Smith: "Independence Day"
Chicago: "Happy Man"

Half-Price Books:

Bryan Ferry: "Let's Stick Together "
Emmitt Rhodes: "Promises I've Made"
Morrissey: "Every Day Is Like Sunday"

our local taqueria mini-chain:

"Downtown Train" - the Tom Waits original

(They played Maggie May a few songs later for those who'd been denied their Rod Stewart fix.)

"Down by the River" at the coffee shop--perfect apocalyptic-snow music.

Slim Chickens

Sparkletones: "Black Slacks"
Carla Thomas: "Baby I Like What You're Doing To Me"
Animals: "Dimples"
Phish: "Heavy Things"
Cream: "I'm So Glad"

"Boot Scootin' Boogie," breakfast in Sebringville, Ontario in a small diner. God, I used to hate that song. Chuck Eddy couldn't do it, but Philip Jennings on The Americans brought me around a little--and the setting couldn't be more ideal.

Freebirds

Echo & The Bunnymen: "The Cutter"
That Alan Jackson 9/11 song (these things always weird to hear sandwiched between bangers whilst out and about)

Whataburger

Vitamin C: "Smile"
Madonna: "Keep It Together"

which version of "Keep..."?

I don't really know much about the Madge discography outside of the major hits. What versions are there to choose from?

Busy Day

Half-Price Books:

Kraftwerk: "The Model"
Peter Green: "In The Skies"

Taco Cabana:

Jamiroquai: "Alright"

Walmart:

Pink Floyd: "On The Turning Away"

Whataburger

Michael Penn: "No Myth"
98 Degrees: "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)"
Hootie & The Blowfish: "I Will Wait"

That Hootie song is what this thread is all about: the lead single from the album <after> Fairweather Johnson!

Whataburger again

Lifehouse: "The First Time"
.38 Special: "Back Where You Belong"

Also heard that Hootie song again.

I can't stop

Chuy's

George Harrison: "All Those Years Ago"
Rossington-Collins Band: "Don't Misunderstand Me"
General Public: "Tenderness "

"Under My Thumb" at Trader Joe's. Not exactly an obscure song, but just a weird vibe at a grocery. Luckily there were no Hells Angels there to keep me from the snacks.

Taco Cabana

Spoon: "Do You"

Ross

Lulu: "Feelin' Alright"

Daryl Hall -- "Foolish Pride." Good song!

Freebirds

John Melon Cougarcamp: "Ain't Even Done With The Night"

Target

Juan Gabriel: "El Noa Noa"*

*I'm not sure how obscure this one is (it comes up in the middle of JG's "This Is..." playlist), but the surprise of hearing something sounding (to these ears) like a Spanish version of "Alabama Getaway"-era Dead (with much better singing, natch) on a rainy afternoon at Target was worth documenting.

That’s cool for sure

"I Wanna Be Your Dog" at the coffee shop--so low, I can barely identify it.

at the risk of being a dick: that is not an obscure single

tbf c. grisso/mccain seems to live in an entirely different world from us, which may or may not be texas

If you scroll upthread to months ago, the general consensus seems to have been that this thread had evolved into something else.

Music's always low volume at the coffee shop, so took me a minute before I realized "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" was playing.

Walmart

Fleetwood Mac: "Silver Springs"

Ha--was just about to post...Standing there waiting for my coffee, I zoned out as I was paying: "What is that...?" (no vocals, trying to identify the guitar). Duh--"Like a Hurricane." Which is like The Godfather to me: I listened to it a few hundred times in high school, then just stopped. Neil Young films excepted, good chance I hadn't heard it this century.

HEB

Greg Kihn Band: "The Break-Up Song (They Don't Write 'Em)"

Seems like this one always get preceded by a "Deep Cut" bumper whenever I heard it on Classic Rock radio.

"Slow Ride" right now at the coffee shop...summoning every ounce of self-restraint not to go full Elaine for the edification of the one other person in here.

HEB

The Hooters: "Day By Day"

Whataburger

Rob Thomas: "Streetcorner Symphony"

"Will It Go Round in Circles" by Billy Preston at Vons.

That one deserves its own special category, major hits (in this case a chart-topper) that nonetheless still have become obscurities worthy of this thread. I don't think I've *ever* heard it out and about.

Heard a really nice, super chill, Muzak-y instrumental version of The Carpenters’ “Only Yesterday” in an Indian restaurant.

Five Guys bringing the heat

Interpol: "The Heinrich Maneuver"
Gin Blossoms: "Cajun Song"
Third Eye Blind: "Good For You"
Doors: "The Changeling"
Offspring: "(Can't Get My) Head Around You"

Damn... I know all those groups, and none of those songs.

XP

...and Depeche Mode: "I Feel You"

At Fred Meyer: "Victoria" by the Kinks, which I don't think I've ever heard before -- I've known the Fall's version for 30+ years.

HEB

Queen: "I Want To Break Free"

Freebirds

Van Halen: "Best of Both Worlds"
Bon Jovi: "Get Ready"
Led Zeppelin: "Thank You"
Rolling Stones: "Dancing In The Light"
Lee Michaels: "Do You Know What I Mean?"

Which Wich

REM: "Sitting Still"
The Cure: "The Kiss"

When I came in they were playing this Macklemore-esque Hip Hop song* about the restaurant.

*As opposed to a jingle--this thing was like 3 minutes long.

The Smiths - Hand in Glove in Trader Joe's this morning.

Eno/Cale - Spinning Away at Lenscrafters

Tim Hortons, big windows to let in the dusk: "West End Girls."

The coffee shop is evidently celebrating Clemenza Day: "Surrender," "Every Picture Tells a Story," "Do Ya" within a 30-minute window.