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)

I used to love Which Wich. They’ve all moved out of Minnesota now.

Covid really did a number on them. Most of the ones here didn't make it into 2021. I was up in the extreme northern suburbs for an event today, and one of the few remaining ones was nearby. Tasty!

In other news:

Siouxsie & The Banshees: "Spellbound" at BIG LOT'S

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

Sniff'n'the Tears - "Driver's Seat" at Whole Foods

Floyd Gondoli or the Colonel anywhere nearby?

Freedom 90 george michael at prost.

hey it’s obscure _now_ imo

Don Henley: "Driving With Your Eyes Closed" at Which Wich

― Charlie Hair (C. Grisso/McCain

Weird -- I heard "You Can't Make Love" this morning

Building The Perfect Beast turns 40 in November.

Timely bump as I got a Which Wich coupon and found the nearest one to me today. Ended up hanging out for a bit to stay out of the heat. I heard:

Tremeloes: "Here Comes My Baby"
Rolling Stones: "Angry" (too soon? I see this one having legs with In-store Audio Networks)
Bruce Hornsby: "Across The River"
Talking Heads: "Stay Up Late"
Ramones: "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" (45 version)

When I was looking up that Bruce Hornsby song on his singles wiki, I noticed he's got a number of (well, three or four) big at the time songs I've only ever heard in stores.

otm. I heard "Across the River" last month at Publix

Burger place with Beatles/'60s Pandora:

Janis Joplin: "Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)"
Jimi Hendrix: "Can You See Me"
Dave Berry: "My Baby Left Me"
Mose Allison: "If You Live"

how is "freedom 90" obscure 'now' when it has actually endured on radio and in the public consciousness in general much better than other songs of his that were bigger hits at the time

lol i dont even own a radio or a consciousness

Just remembered that "Sunday Morning" by the VU was also heard this afternoon, and it fit in seamlessly next to the Peter & Gordon and mellow Beatles sides.

was also heard

reported, banned

how is "freedom 90" obscure 'now' when it has actually endured on radio and in the public consciousness in general much better than other songs of his that were bigger hits at the time

― dyl, Saturday, September 28, 2024

Still amazed it peaked at no. 28 in the UK. Must have been an 'inside job' at Sony

“Uncontrollable Urge” by Devo, so low volume as to be almost indiscernible, in the veterinarian’s office this afternoon.

"There's a Ghost in My House" by R. Dean Taylor heard at Goodwill
(fantastic record)

^^Nice. Halloween Muzak? I wonder if that one got a little bump from Last Night In Soho?

Ah maybe Halloween yeah. I didn't notice what else they were playing... the distinctive guitar riff on that is what caught my attention.

Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up

The other day I went to the local big box liquor store to buy beer. I was surprised to hear the PA playing a mix of classic '60s ska and rocksteady, which brought a smile to my face. I grab my beer, go the checkout and am greeted by a scowling person at the register. "Rough day?" I say, and she smiles, rolls her eyes and waves her hand around, as if that answers anything. "What do you mean?" I ask. She lowers he voice and leans in. "All day it's been like this," she says. "It started with jazz and now it's ... this." "You mean the music?" I ask. She nods and leans in again. "I need something to wake me up, something with words, not ... this." "I don't know," I say. "This sounds pretty upbeat." "I'm just tired of all this jazz," she whispers. "Well, try to enjoy it," I suggest. "It sounds pretty good to me."

I wish every place played old school Jamaican music.

Elastica's "Connection" at physio this morning--that was weird. Faint in the background, couldn't remember the title ("Stutter"'s my favourite).

"I'm just tired of all this jazz," she whispers.

She's gonna love it when the Ayler mix kicks in!

Moody Blues - "I Know You're Out There Somewhere", in a Taco Bell

Goodwill:

Dino, Desi & Billy: "I'm A Fool"

Maybe this is just dad rock now, but I was surprised to hear Ariel Pink ("Put Your Number On My Phone") at Whole Foods tonight. In hindsight, that song sounds like is was written for a weeknight at the grocery store.

Sounds like Goodwill has resorted to playing the records that they stock

(Tbh my idea of what Goodwill stocks is frozen circa the year 1993)

Goodwill no longer stocks records, or at least it seems to be undergoing an organization-wide initiative to get rid of them.

VYNL took over their record department & distribution, IIRC.

My local Goodwill still sells ‘em, but I haven’t bothered to sift through them in years. It’s all junk.

Wow -- Arcadia's "Goodbye is Forever" at Starbucks.

Ollie's:

Squeeze: "Hourglass"
Billy Joel: "I Go To Extremes"

Oldies Dairy Queen:

Shangri La's: "Out In The Streets"
Marvelettes: "I'll Keep On Holding On"
Hank Ballard: "The Switcheroo"
Sandie Shaw: "Girl, Don't Come"
Chiffons: "I Have A Boyfriend"
Tony Harris: "Chicken, Baby, Chicken"
Supremes: "When The Lovelight..."
Tommy Roe: "Everybody"
Carl Mann: "Mona Lisa"

ELO: "Rock'n'Roll Is King" at Whataburger (Extra-weird because almost everything else was 21st Century chartbusters)

Styx's "Come Sail Away" in the coffee shop earlier, which I like in a very narrow context: every 20 seconds I'd close my eyes, hoping that when I opened them I'd be back at my high school prom (which I didn't actually attend, but no need to get overly technical).

Freebirds:

Van Halen: "Cabo Wabo"
Robbie Williams: "Candy (More Candy)"*

*I'm in America where he had like three minor hits 20+ years ago.

Michael Penn: "This and That" at Whataburger

We circle back to the beginning.

We keep on talking, talking about "This and That."

"French Navy" by Camera Obscura at Walgreens

Kinda jealous of this tbh, my CVS is never playing music (maybe they should, might make the pharmacists less cranky) and most grocery stores I visit either don’t play anything either, or is so low as to be nearly inaudible.

Can’t believe I’m missing more places having background music like this.

Wilco’s “One By One” in a highway gas station. (This song finished 67th in our ILM Wilco poll.)

Which Wich:

The Cure: "Close To You"
Cardigans: "My Favorite Game"
INXS: "Beautiful Girl"

Santana & The Wreckers: "I'm Feeling You" at Whataburger

Coffee shop: "Kid Charlemagne." Played The Royal Scam endlessly in high school--I'd probably have to go back that far for the last time I heard it.

It does seem like that's the Steely Dan album that's least heard in the wild nowadays. Kind of surprised that "Kid Charlemagne" wasn't a Top 40 hit, it seemed big at one time.

Collective Soul: "Hollywood" at Cafe Express

Dread Zeppelin's cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" today at Tijuana Flats.

INXS: "Taste It" at Skeeters

Is there a Welcome To Wherever You Are revival happening? This is the second deep track I've heard from it on a Muzak in like three weeks.

There were tons of CD copies of it and Full Moon Dirty Hearts in late '90s Walmart cutout bins.