Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

Great radio jam

i don’t wanna see the sights - charlatans at torchy’s centennial CO

― a single gunshot and polite applause (Hunt3r), Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Great song, man I love those first four, five , six Charlatans albums...

Beatles "Nowhere Man" in a Harris Teeter, which is obviously far from obscure, but it did make me think about how rarely I hear the Beatles in stores or eateries despite being hugely popular across generations. Is it too expensive to license or something?

Probably just too old? If I'm hearing them in the wild, it's almost always alongside other '60s/'70s music.

...and if it's not, then it's one of the big hits mixed in with other Pop hits through the ages.

Lee Dorsey: "Do-Ri-Mi"
Gary US Bonds: "Dear Lady Twist"
The Cadillacs: "Nag"
Bob & Earl: "The Harlem Shuffle"
The Toys: "May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone"

All at Dairy Queen

Wow, love that last one… I only know it from the One Kiss box

good dq

The Cadillacs and the Toys are so associated with one song each for me, impressed you'd hear something different in a public setting.

Was The Cadillacs song “Naggy Nag”(?) i’m listening to it now… It sounds like a rip-off of “Yakety Yak”?

(Looks like The Cadillacs also did “Buzz Buzz Buzz,” but I guess the Hollywood Flames version must be the most well-known…)

(to be clear, the main Cadillacs song I knew was “Speedoo”)

Looking harder, I think this was the Halos' original version of "Nag". I googled it at the time and came up with the Cadillacs.

Ah, looks like that’s a different song (interestingly, this fellow J.R. Bailey was in both the Halos and the Cadillacs)

Huh, looks like the Halos were also the guys backing up Curtis Lee on “Pretty Little Angel Eyes.”

..."Who Put The Bomp..."!

Bass Singer Arthur Crier's grandson is Keith Sweat!

"Who Put The Bomp..." too!, I meant.

The employees in the costco tire department were cranking the shit out of "break my stride" the other day

soemthing about those synths and that driving beat made it a popular one on the 80s nights at the local club here, like people would yell during it

have always felt that somewhere in 1983 electric avenue was supposed to choke out break my stride for fucking EVER, but somehow bms survived and here we are.

Wilder ended up producing No Doubt.

If you gotta blame somebody.

“the sound” by the 1975, at rite aid

The right aid imo

Dionne Warwick - “you’re gonna need me” in Home Depot

need her in home depot right now, been sitting in aisle 6 for ten minutes

Favourite coffee shop, right now: "Radio Free Europe." (LZ's "Rock and Roll" before that, but I hear that a lot.)

I hear "Losing My Religion" constantly out in the world, making me dislike a song I've always disliked even more. I never hear "Radio Free Europe."

Sting: "Love Is The Seventh Wave" at HEB

I heard "Field of Gold" at Home Depot recently.

Sent me back to those months working at Liquor Depot in 1994. How that one, Billy Joel's "The River of Dreams" and Elton John's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" just rotated with each other, over and over and over and over again. Certain songs that when I play them back in my head, I only hear them through shitty retail P.A. speakers.

"Stuck On You" by Lionel Ritchie another one. That played all summer long at the waterslide, interrupted occasionally by "PURPLE MATS, ALL PURPLE MATS MUST BE RETURNED AT THE FRONT."

purple mats is a good band name at least, forgetting the trauma. altho i guess it sounds like a replacements trib act, which would be very risky to perform properly

Purple Mats: A Tribute To Prince *And* The Replacements

Updated The Playlist (after 3 1/2 years):

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Qvc8uzVk4bDpMeW6p2lc6?si=WeLFdjwOTFSSK8QLAcyn2A&pi=u-DHyTVDxlRsiB

Is there a count ceiling? That’s almost 1000! Well done.

Just hears Right Place Wrong Time Dr John at King Soopers. I dont know if obscure. But it was backed up by v v not obscure Horse w No Name, then v v v v v not obscure Mr Bluesky (extended mix). I think the ELO lasted 15 mins.

Hmm now Joan Jett. HMfLY

stars are stars- eatb at torchys

fuck i dont care if it was a single anywhere and i dont care if it’s on torchy’s spotify clone targeting my demo— this owned, i regret nothing

Oldies Dairy Queen again:

Impalas: "I'm Sorry (I Ran The Whole Way Home)"
Stompers: "Quarter To Four Stomp"
Buddy Holly: "Well…All Right"

Never heard of that middle one; "Well...All Right" one of Holly's best.

I hadn't either. According to the shot of the 45 label in this YouTube, they were an act from the stable of writer/producer Gary S. Paxton of "Ally Oop" and Skip & Flip fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n95hdb7RKkI

According to the trivia buffs in the YT comments, a pre-"Monster Mash" Bobby "Boris" Pickett was a Stomper.

Paxton's Wiki page is a trip. Some pearls:

His work throughout this early-1960s period is scattered over various labels, mostly his own, which he seemed to open and close on a constant basis, making regular use of the five studios he owned. Over the years, Paxton built a reputation as an eccentric figure in the recording industry. Brian Wilson was known to admire his talents, and Phil Spector to fear him. His creativity and knack for promotion were legendary, but could also run to excess: once, after a local radio station dismissed one of his records ("Elephant Game (Part One)" by Renfro & Jackson) as "too black", he assembled a protest parade down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, consisting of 15 cheerleaders and a live elephant pulling a Volkswagen convertible. He was arrested after the elephant got scared and began to defecate in the street.

...

On December 29, 1980, Paxton was shot three times by hitmen (allegedly) hired by Vern Gosdin, a country singer he was producing, putting him out of the music world for eight years and nearly ending his life. After the trial, he visited the men in prison and forgave them.

...

Appearing on his gospel album covers in a halo of facial hair and a tall-top cowboy hat, Paxton infused his religious work with the same eccentricity, individuality, and hippie humor that had characterized his 60s material in Los Angeles: acting the role of the Jesus freak, likening himself to "an armpit in the body of Christ", and crafting song titles like "When the Meat Wagon Comes for You", "Will There Be Hippies in Heaven?", "I'm a Fool for Christ (Whose Fool Are You?)", and "Jesus Is My Lawyer in Heaven".

Not exactly obscure, but a bit unexpected: my local Food Bazaar was blasting "Fight For Your Right to Party" a few weeks ago.

I heard this thing at Publix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2REh2XpwDo

My friend just posted on FB about hearing "Take Your Mama" by Scissor Sisters AT WHATABURGER

WTFBURGER

...and now he just posted about hearing "Had A Dad" at the washateria.

...and now I'm hosting a pub quiz at a BBQ joint, and as I come in they're playing "Parklife"!

*What is going on today?*

Psychedelic Tyme @ Goodwill

Amboy Dukes: "Journey To The Center of The Mind"
Electric Prunes: "Get Me To The World On Time"
Donovan: "Wear Your Love Like Heaven"
Zombies: "I Want You Back Again"

And also:

Junior Walker & The All-Stars: "(I'm A) Road Runner"

the good thing- talking heads
at torchys again and it’s v clear i should never list things from this non-cvs again, they have a gen-x streaming svc channel. but it is soooo good lol.

so this is my final torchys listing :-/

Streaming channels are perfectly fine. More places use them than one would think.

Buncha OMD at Dairy Queen. Standouts were "Secret" and "Maid of Orleans" (demo).

I'm glad someone out there's playing the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

(Plagiarizing a joke I helped originate 31 years ago.)