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)

weird, i was thinking about "why does it always rain on me" the other day. it got like, two or three weeks of trial airplay on US alternative radio and cracked the top 40 of a couple of airplay charts, but was really out of step with the direction pretty much any american radio format was headed at the time. i can my remember my mom doing mocking, voice-cracking impressions of the sad-sack chorus.

Yeah, and we already had Matchbox 20 to deal with.

The Crusaders: "Street life" at Schlotzsky's.

Fran Healy has a beautiful voice

That’s his name right?

When I was 17 I visited some relatives in England and my uncle took me to a dark dank rock club somewhere.. I was crestfallen when ALL the fucking bands sounded like matchbox 20/eve 6 etc is was horrible

Fran Healy is his name.

One of the other Travis dude's is married to Kelly McDonald.

On further research, I see it was the bass player, and they've been separated since 2017.

Jeff Healy Band: "Stuck In The Middle With You" (yeah, that one) at Randall's.

Sunday morning at a Washington, DC Walmart: Re-Flex, "The Politics of Dancing."

Half Price Books was playing “Let Me In” by The Sensations while I was browsing today. Great obscure oldie.

I was at a Half-Price some time ago, where I heard the Peter Noone version of "Oh! You Pretty Things".

Checking a note on my phone, I see I heard "Your Imagination" by Hall & Oates and "That Girl Could Sing" by Jackson Browne at Beck's Prime last month.

I did not know there was such a thing!

Xp

I think it was one of Noone's first singles after leaving the Hermits.

https://www.zeroto180.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Peter-Noone-45b.jpg

This pic is in the Hunky Dory CD booklet:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/90/52/d8/9052d8addc7788716f36ce868492249d.jpg

lol wow.

love "Let Me In" - a favorite on the Chess Records rock-n-roll compilation I grew up with. Wee-ooh!

At our local deli / supermarket my daughter and I were disconcerted to hear Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta" - fans of Peep Show will understand

My sister told me she heard "Kid Charlemagne" at Walmart today.

Clean this mess up here in Aisle 28,
Those tube socks and the bait.
Just get it all out of here.

Is There Cash On The Card?
Yes, There's Cash On The Card!
Then I Think I'll Treat Myself To This King-Size Candy Bar

*i know it do not qualify as obscure in at all a strict sense but i smiled and dug*

Sweet “Little Willy” at Floor and Decor.

i suspect all the other fucking olds buying tile knew it. but only maybe.

Nine Days: "Absolutely (The Story of A Girl)" at Kroger.

In my FB memories today I see I posted 9 years ago about hearing "Airbag" by Radiohead at Carl's Jr.

in the next world war
in a jack-knifed Jack In The Box

Duran Duran "My Own Way" at Petco

obviously not obscure, but for a while there i was hearing 'come on eileen' every time i went into cvs. now it's 'ride like the wind'

For me it was "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" or "Mad About You". Also within that time frame that was happening I was stuck at a Kroger for a couple hours one time and heard both "Heaven Is..." AND "Circle In The Sand", so (for awhile anyway) Belinda Carlisle made the world go round.

Just bought a new cat litter box to the tune of Nik Kershaw’s ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’ at Petco!

obviously not obscure, but for a while there i was hearing 'come on eileen' every time i went into cvs. now it's 'ride like the wind'

― mookieproof, Sunday, July 12, 2020 3:49 PM bookmarkflaglink

Heard that at CVS yesterday! If you heard someone doing the Michael McDonald parts from the greeting card aisle, that was meeeeeeee!

wish someone would play the Saxon version of the latter.

Burger place w/a CSNY Pandora yielded:

Led Zeppelin: "That's The Way"
CSNY: "4+20"
Cat Stevens: "Oh Very Young"

booker t + the mg's — 'time is tight' in stater bros

Chvrches: "Get Out" at Kroger.

have just heard 'space age love song' by a flock of seagulls in stater brothers and it reminded what an absolutely gorgeous song it is.

The wonderful Incapable by Roisin Murphy at Argos, Silverburn, Glasgow

10-ish years ago, I was getting an MRI to confirm whether or not I had a brain tumor (yes, benign pituitary adenoma). They let you listen to the radio station of your choice on headphones made of plastic tubes like they use to have on airplanes. I put on WFMU and, as a good omen, the first song was Buzzcocks' "Harmony in My Head."

Glad you recovered, um, Hideous Lump.

amazing story. hilarious and heartwarming. thank you for sharing.

my contribution for today: overheard a mother mildly complaining to her daughter about having to wear a mask in the grocery store on wednesday afternoon. daughter (i'm guessing 12-13) says something like, "well mom, wearing it is for everybody's health." cue the impressions "keep on pushin." i just started laughing because it was so perfect.

this is one of the most underrated threads on ilx, imo.

yeah wow HL, that's amazing. and glad it's turned out okay!

i once worked in an office building in a shopping center with piped-in music, and when I stepped outside after my last day they were playing "Good Riddance" by Green Day

I hope Skid Row's "Get the Fuck Out" plays when I leave mine

Hospital for heart surgery (not for me), radio playing a song with the chorus 'I will mend your heart'.

As a side note, the name "Hideous Lump" predated the tumor. So it's not gallows humor, just a dark coincidence.

"the fez" by the dan at home depot.

a couple of weeks ago i heard "hey nineteen" playing at a mccormick and schmicks i was walking past.

that was at least a hit! "the fez" is a darned good one for this thread tho.

"The Fez" is indeed impressive

Stop and Shop in Glen Cove, Long Island is playing Pure by the Lightning Seeds (obscure enough this side of the pond).

"heartbeat" by taana gardner heard at trader joe's.

"Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones after the medical clinic put my call on hold - "It's not easy facing up, when your whole world is black"