Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

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)

trouble - lindsey buckingham

also hear a LOT of Rumours in CVS

i hear a lot of saint etienne in supermarkets and drugstores

My fave supermarket plays nothing but 60's soul.

I think I answered this elsewhere, but our CVS had "The Sign of Fire" by the Fixx...I flipped!! It started this whole Fixx thing with me for a while.

This morning at CVS I heard REM's "At My Most Beautiful."

somehow, even though it tanked, that's the single from up i hear most often by far. only in grocery stores and drugstores obv.

Thin Lizzy - Don't Believe a Word at Walgreens

Followed by this random pop punk/emotronic ish:

http://thepasstheband.bandcamp.com/track/cross-walk-stereo

Which, just like, I mean, I expected anything else as a follow-up.

Sunday afternoon: Ric Ocasek's "Something to Grab For."

Semisonic: All About Chemistry

― 50 Shades of Greil (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, October 11, 2012 1:56 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just heard this at Taco Bell.

At Publix this a.m:

Jesse Johnson ft. Sly Stone - Crazay

Book of Love - "Modigliani (Lost In Your Eyes)" @ Which Wich

I had my purchases in hand but continued to wander the aisles because Joe Jackson's "Breaking Us In Two" was playing and there was nobody in line ahead of me.

I caught Steppin' Out in CVS last week!

I heard that Joe Jackson song in a CVS too ("Breaking Us In Two"), and wondered if Badfinger ever sued/threatened to sue/got joint writing credit.

I had my purchases in hand but continued to wander the aisles because Joe Jackson's "Breaking Us In Two" was playing and there was nobody in line ahead of me.

― naus,

done on purpose by CVS corporate

All I hear at the drugstore now is the opening riff of ''Down on the Corner,'' played ad infinitum as the theme to the Walgreen's in-house ad.

Sam Phillips- "Baby I Can't Please You" at Wendy's (seems like this song is an evergreen on restaurant/drug store/supermarket muzak)

REM - "All The Way To Reno"

― da croupier, Wednesday, October 17, 2012 10:53 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And this was played earlier.

i heard the beverley knight version of "keep this fire burning" in a shitty off-brand cafe in heathrow. i mean, okay it hit #16 but that's kind of a deep cut in 2014. when "rock with you" came on afterwards i was like okay cafe, you got me.

Neither one very obscure, but back to back in a rather high-end department store: George Jones' "The Race Is On" and Tiffany's "Only In my Dreams." Probably programmed by hipsters, maybe not all THAT surprising.

done on purpose by CVS corporate

reminds me of the great Not My Fault columns 'what is the minimum number of hanging plants required to give the illusion that we care?'.

Fleetwood Mac: "Think About Me"* @ Whataburger (followed by, uh, "One Week" by BNL)

*Maybe not obscure by ilx standards, but I don't think I've actually heard this on the radio outside of a 'classic disc' airing of Tusk.

Key Food in Brooklyn always has a deep-cut 1960s Top 40 mix going on, and I like the fact that they play even the cornball stuff that you would think would try the patience of many customers - not to mention the young folks who work there.

Thanks to them I got hipped to the 1967 track "A Girl Like You" by the Young Rascals.

Not obscure by any definition, and yet I did not expect to hear Def Leppard's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" at my local discount supermarket today. Doesn't sound like a supermarket song to me.

Chuy's

Jessica Simpson: "I Think I'm In Love With You"
Paul McCartney: "Queenie Eye"

I've heard all three third eye blind songs that I know exist within the last week - in a walgreens, a trader joes, and an asian grocery store

I've never even heard of those songs.

Slim Chickens

Animals: "Roadrunner"
Joe Hill Lewis & Big Walter Horton: "Hydramatic Woman"
Lee Dorsey & Betty Harris: "Love Lots of Lovin'"
CCR: "Hey Tonight""

i swear this entire thread is C. Grisso/McCain's epic 13-year effort to troll us

kudos either way, really

The Lightning Seeds - Life of Riley

at Ace Hardware. I mean, I like hearing obscure singles from my childhood when I'm out at a store, but sometimes it doesn't make much sense.

― peace, man, Thursday, April 2, 2026 6:14 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Where the fuck were my Ian Broudie-heads at? This joke was a small slice of heaven!

simple minds - i travel on Co-op instore radio today

No trollin'

Freebirds

Kiss: "Deuce"
Deep Purple: "Pictures of You" (unfortunately not a Cure cover)
Pablo Cruise: "Raging Fire"

Talk Talk "It's My Life" at Heathrow airport Terminal 3, Gate 22. Strange place to spend a few minutes with Mark Hollis.

Mod Pizza

Small Faces: "Don't Burst My Bubble "
Rolling Stones: "Off The Hook"

A soft, slow, achingly wistful cover of A-Ha’s “Take On Me” (minus the pistoning synths) is not the magic bullet for a Mother’s Day morning trip to the grocery store, no sir

Whataburger

Pat Benetar: "All Fired Up"

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps in the men's room at the Houston Intercontinental Airport, guitar solo while taking the piss

Arcadia's "Goodbye is Forever" right now at this Starbucks.

Came here to say it was nice hearing Bananarama's "The Wild Life" at Starbucks this morning, which for the first half-minute I thought was Roxette before recalling it. Looks like they're honing in on mid-80s obscure follow-up singles.

not obscure but hearing al green's "here i am (come and take me)" at a flying j fuel pump in the middle of nowhere two weekends ago was awesome and surreal.

...and sexy

worlds hottest flying j

not super obscure but just heard 'Astral Weeks' (the song) at Trader Joe's, not really a single as it's seven minutes long

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps in the men's room

we have crosswalk buttons that say 'Wait!' when you push the button, and I invariably reply with 'they don't love you like I love you'

lol I'm gonna have to exert an effort to not start doing that

Local pub for wings, one 45-minute window: "Cinnamon Girl," "Highway Star," "Maggie May," "No Time," "Reelin' in the Years." It's almost like I'm a type, a cliche, and someone's pushing all my buttons.

Modest Mouse’s “Dashboard” at my Starbucks.

A few years ago now but heard Tina Turner's "Look Me in the Heart" for the first time at a bookstore in Vietnam, of all places. Beautiful song

CVS

George Jackson: "Aretha, Sing One For Me"