Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

last week, I went to a different location of the grocery store that I always go to (where I've heard everything reported on in this thread) and it was all instrumental smooth jazz.

Heard "Fascination" (the Human League song) in At Home. Not so obscure, but at the same time not something I can ever remember hearing in a store, while out and about, at least since the 80s.

not exactly fitting for this thread, given its status as an underground classic, but i was surprised to hear "Vitamin C" by Can at a Chipotle in south Phoenix last month

Very interesting to see this, because there was something I've wanted to post here for a while but I felt it might not be relevant. At the gym I go to - and this is why I hesitated, I wasn't sure if a gym is comparable to CVS or a similar retail outlet, but anyway - they normally play one of two things, a) a spectacularly dull classic rock mix, with CCR played at least once every half hour, or b) a Top 40 dance mix. Well one day recently I was doing my exercises and suddenly Can's "Vitamin C" came on. I don't know why, or what algorithm brought that about, but there it was.

Bowie's "Sound and Vision" in the supermarket just now.

IMHO that counts! Although it crystallizes something about this thread to me, which is that there's at least two versions of this. One is where retail playlist designers design or lease some algorithm meant to add "hippitude" (I'm guessing) - hence the Can and Television and Buzzcocks and so on. The other is where an algorithm meant to capture popular, well-liked music omnivorously consumes anything that's ever charted or been semi-popular or was released as a single by a top-40 act.

A third version of this kind of works as a fusion of the first two. BACKGROUND: Both my Mom and my sister are merchandisers for a magazine & other goods company that services most of the major chains in America. This jobs takes then into multiple stores daily, incliding CVS, Walgreens etc. Occasionally they'll ask me about some song they hear in those stores. one that sticks out was a single by JD McPherson, a neo-Rockabilly guy who's on Rounder, which was getting a lot of play in drug and grocery stores. I imagine his label, knowing that there is no place for him on commercial radio, instead turns promotion towards Muzak and related services. His song gets played in stores, getting exposed to way more ears than any terrestrial radio could (since alot of these services can guarantee one spin being heard coast-to-coast in thousands of Krogers), and hopefully a % of those hearing said song will Shazam it with a purchase or stream following.

So you get a song that is already kind of hip and at best will only be semi-popular chart-wise rubbing shoulders with the latest dispatches from Adele, Taylor, or Meghan Trainor in every grocery/drug/clothing store.

I think this was discussed somewhere on ILM when it broke, but it needs to be here too:

http://www.chartattack.com/news/2015/10/09/someone-just-uploaded-their-complete-collection-of-kmart-in-store-background-music/

Not me, but a friend is at Pearson Airport in Toronto and heard the Yardbirds' "I Can't Make Your Way" over the PA.

"Sleeping Satellite" by Tasmin Archer in a local burger joint (#32 in the US).

Lulu: "Oh Me Oh My" at Goodwill

...and Mercy: "Love Can Make You Happy"

Doobie Brothers - "Echoes of Love" at my local supermarket.

War: "All Day Music" at the FedEx Store

Reminds me that I heard "Cisco Kid" last week st the supermarket.

Steve Miller: "Dance Dance Dance" & Boz Scaggs "Breakdown Dead Ahead" at Krogers

The Yardbirds' "For Your Love" at Walmart.

Not obscure, but it's still kind of strange to hear "London Calling" when I'm (lost) in the supermarket.

Holy Shit!

Big Star: "September Gurls" at FUDDRUCKERS

the fuck are you doing at a Fuddruckers

Elton John "Tower of Babel" at Foodtown

ok woah.

Lyle Lovett: "Private Conversation" at Randall's

INXS: "Disappear" at Fuddruckers

Lyle Lovett: "Private Conversation" at Randall's

very austin

...except I was in Houston, but yeah...

I actually used to hear that track a lot in stores late '90s/early '00s.

whoops, i don't know why i always thought randall's was only in central texas

Not exactly obscure, but the huge at the time and now forgotten David Gray: "Avalon" at Jason's Deli

Squeeze: "Pulling Mussels (From A Shell)" at Which Which (not that obscure, but still somewhat surprising on a non-80s only muzak)

Happy Mondays - 'Step One

In Guitar Center.

*'Step On'

OMD - 'Souvenier'

In Starbucks.

Two different days, two early Elvis Costello's

"Crawling To The USA" at a pizza place
"No Action" at Fuddruckers

And this shouldn't count, but I had an extended project meeting at a local coffee house yesterday that was bringing the Punk/Post-Punk with full album airings of Pink Flag and Entertainment!.

Also at Fudds: Talking Heads: "Love-->Building On Fire"

local coffee houses absolutely do not count although that was probably pretty good listening!

It was! The amazing thing to me is this place isn't in some hipster enclave, but rather a strip mall wedged between two fairly large and untrendy subdivisions. I think some of the staff are punks, because I've heard similar stuff in there before, but not to the degree of full albums.

Yesterday the gas station I work at played Reel Big Fish's cover of "Take On Me." I have that on CD and I hadn't even thought about it in fifteen years.

Nirvana: "Molly's Lips", Rolling Stones: "Rip This Joint", and Black Crowes: "Sting Me" at Freebirds

ZZ Top: "Doubleback" at Randalls

Galaxie 500 - Tugboat - IKEA parking lot

wow that's a good one ^

^ Impressive.

Not impossibly obscure, but Morrissey's "Suedehead" is exactly what I didn't expect to hear in Bunnings [massive blokey hardware warehouse in Australia] recently.

Go-Go's: "Speeding" at Kroger

Badfinger "Maybe Tomorrow" at Foodtown

Liz Phair: "Supernova" at Fuddruckers

...and Split Enz: "Six Months In A Leaky Boat"

Classic Gold for this thread:

Lisa Loeb: "I Do" at Taco Bell

Followed up by Carole King: "Jazzman"

Just heard Icicle Works — 'A Whisper to a Scream' in Albertson's.

Georgia Satellites: "Battleship Chains" at Kroger

I heard "Don't Pay the Ferryman" in Safeway.

Otis Redding: "(I've Got) Dreams To Remember" at Fuddruckers