Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

Only Love Can Break Your Heart by st Etienne at save on

"One More Try" by Timmy T at London Drugs. This was #1 in 1991 but it feels obscure today.

John Mellencamp: "Play Guitar" at Jersey Mike's Subs

The Band: "The Unfaithful Servant" at Kroger.

Steve Miller: "Space Cowboy" at Kroger (who've stepped up their lesser known tracks game)

Not really obscure but I heard "Wishing Well" in a taqueria yesterday. That song still slays.

Correct

Sonic Youth: "100%"
Sleater-Kinney: "Turn It On"
Wilco: "I'm A Wheel"
Sly Stone: "I Get High On You"

All at Freebirds

Junior Murvin Police & Thieves (but at Apple store, so I figured I’d get more select stuff- but i’ve not heard that in any public space outside of shows).

Rod Stewart: "Baby Jane" and Human League: "Fascination" at KFC

Christine McVie: "Got A Hold On Me" at CVS

Not obscure, but somewhat surprising: I heard Kacey Musgraves's "High Horse" in Safeway. Not that surprising as it's a current popular song, but it's weird that it was bookended by things like Christopher Cross and Celine Dion.

I guess the "best mix of the 70s, 80s, and today" format lives on in our nation's supermarkets.

Johnny Burnette & The Rock-'n'-Roll Trio: "The Train Kept-A-Rollin'" at Goodwill.

"Istanbul" by TMBG at Kroger.

I'm starting to get that this is like hearing "Red Rubber Ball" by Cyrkle in Otasco Drugs in 1985. You think, wow, this is kinda obscure until you realize that everyone's thinking that.

i'm trying to remember where i recently heard istanbul, and i was amazed by my 14 y/o saying "huh it's tmbg that's weird i love this."

"There's No Other Way" at Vons.

I guess the "best mix of the 70s, 80s, and today" format lives on in our nation's supermarkets.

I once applied for a job with one of those companies that chooses & licenses songs to create monthly music mixes for retail stores, etc. Seemed like it would be cool...

That is cool. Probably pays shit, though.

…And to contribute to this thread, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – "What I Am" at Smart & Final this past Friday. My coworker who is two years older than me (I'm 35) and has only listened to "alternative rock" radio since the 90s did not recall the song at all.

^^Have thoughts on that which I'll save for later/never share.

Van Morrison: "Alan Watts Blues" at the FedEx Store.

My coworker who is two years older than me (I'm 35) and has only listened to "alternative rock" radio since the 90s did not recall the song at all.

To be fair, that song (and, for that matter, the band) completely dropped off the airwaves after 1989.

Not in Texas!

The song anyway...

Interesting! I have literally never heard it on any radio station (or CVS or grocery store) since 1989, throughout the midwest and northeast. Even the "oldies" station here in upstate NY that plays Bon Jovi and "I've Had The Time Of My Life" doesn't play "What I Am."

I heard that one in Kroger too!

not a pharmacy, but I heard Teenage Fanclub in Next the other day

I just remembered when I moved to the U.S. I heard Camera Obscura in like every single clothes shop I went in

^^Have thoughts on that which I'll save for later/never share.

I will...soon.

The Wonders: "That Thing You Do!" at Kroger.

I just remembered when I moved to the U.S. I heard Camera Obscura in like every single clothes shop I went in

"French Navy" got a lot of play at Wendy's when it was first out.

I just heard a Muzak version of "Surf's Up" by The Beach Boys at the Palm Springs airport.

D’Lacy Hideaway in a supermarket in Miami Platja, Costa Dorada, Spain cheered me up today

"Can't Hardly Wait"
The Replacements
Pleased to Meet Me, 1987
Sire Records

Kroger
North Little Rock, Ark.
July 22, 2018 | 8:52 a.m. CDT

Just heard "You're An Ocean" by Fastball, which I haven't thought about since 2000.

Just remembering this now: I was at a Church's Chicken a few weeks ago, and they had this TV running a "Church's Network" channel that runs PSAs, Movie Trailers, and life style stuff. One of the videos was snowboard highlights reel soundtracked by "Dancing To The Beat" by Clarence Murray, a non-charting Southern Soul swinger from 1969 on the SSS label.

Rodney Crowell & Roseanne Cash: "It's Such A Small World" at Kroger.

“Hesitating beauty “ fucking wilco

"I Was Made to Love Her," by Stevie Wonder, playing in the work cafeteria at lunch. I don't know how "obscure" it is (being a hit and all), but I rarely hear it... It was a joy to hear that James Jamerson bassline in a public setting.

Aretha's "Day Dreaming" in CVS this afternoon. I'd never heard it on the radio before, and didn't even know it had been released as a single, much less that it was a hit (#5, 1972). Was wonderful to hear, though.

I heard James Brown’s “Living in America” at Whole Foods the other day

Not that obscure, just weird af in this context: Metallica--"Nothing Else Matters" at Wendy's.

That’s the feeling I get when I’m in the middle of my large fries

Air’s “la femme d’argent” at a food court at Tokyo Disneyland

Vitamin C at Chipotle

"Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town,” by Talking Heads, at Chipotle

(a bit surprised to learn that was actually the lead single from Talking Heads 77)

Diamonds and Pearls.

"Bang and Blame" at Chipotle. Maybe they hired the CVS programmer.

Ugh, that’s the worst r e m

It’s a good single