Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

At least in my head.

'switchin to glide' at gourmet fresh

Stereolab - "Miss Modular" at Whole Foods

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence

― Austin, Friday, June 17, 2016 2:27 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden

Cool! At this rate, maybe someday Siouxsie's "Lord's Prayer" will hit the in-store playlist.

Baby Huey & The Babysitters: "One Dragon Two Dragon" at Jack-In-The-Box.

Cool! I was just reading about them in Aaron Cohen's (brilliant, essential) Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power.

Queen: "Radio Ga Ga" at IHOP.

I also heard this odd, like underdub of the not obscure at all "Brown-Eyed Girl". Felt a little slower, more acoustic, and I don't think it had all the full-ham Van at the end (the "bit-by-bit-by-bit part). Definitely had the rest of the original vocal parts and backing. Checking the newest Bang Masters box on Spotify, I see there's the original stereo mix, a mono edit (probably the censored 45 mix), and then some blocks of earlier takes, which it kind of sounds like it was harvested from.

Listening further, I see that it was probably Take 6, the first full take. One of the things that was throwing me is that electric guitar part isn't quite there yet, and isn't as prominent in the mix. Also the drum and bass breakdown part appears here after the last verse instead of before it. The full-ham Van bit is also present and accounted for.

Gary Wright - "Love is Alive"

Not super obscure or forgotten, but I also don't think I've heard it in 30+ years.

i played it on my wzbc show a few months ago. a jam

It's a goodie.

Rivingtons: "Papa Oh Mow Mow" on outdoor Muzak at a shopping complex.

Modest Mouse: "Dashboard" at Which Wich.

"White Light/White Heat" at Trader Joe's this morning.

^^The only way that could have been more on-brand was if it was the Ralph Stanley version.

There's a great sample of "Love is Alive" backing "Wordz of Wizdom" by 3rd Bass, but even that was 30 years ago. (xposts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwvMgZfsD3Q

I remember hearing this when it came out and thinking, "Dammit, I've heard this somewhere before. Did she do this in Rufus too?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2fqonY1EuI

Fruitful day for this kind of stuff.

"Planet Rock" at HEB.

Wait, you live in Texas?

H-Town Baby!

"planet rock" will never be considered obscure hence you not having to mention the artist

HEB got the tunes!

Rolling Stones: "Respectable" at Wendy's, this location drawing from an extensive (mostly hits) Stones playlist during my visit.

Paul Anka’s swing-band “Eye of the Tiger” at Ace Hardware.

Dire Straits: "Water of Love" at Randall's.

band in the subway is playing srv"s 'mary had a little lamb'

Sparks & Jane Wiedlin: "Cool Places" at Which Wich.

Fleetwood Mac: "Songbird" and Van Morrison: "These Dreams of You" at P. Terry's.

Buncha deep cut '60s stuff at Freddy's:

Spanky & Our Gang: "Sunday Will Never Be The Same"
The Grass Roots: "Things I Should Have Said"
Hollies: "I Can't Let Go"
Byrds: "He Was A Friend of Mine"
Canned Heat: "Rollin' and Tumblin'"
Buffalo Springfield: "On The Way Home"

“Never Anyone But You” by the Clientele at Bartell Drugs.

i dig it.

QOTSA: "My God Is The Sun" and Buzzcocks: "Ever Fallen In Love..." at Five Guy's.

Right now in the supermarket: the Band’s version of “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” followed immediately by James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.”

Was it The Band? I couldn't find a version by them (on Spotify). It seems like a natural for them to have covered.

Camera Obscura: "Happy New Year" on the Holiday Muzak at HEB

For me, it's been brit bands as of late that really stood out...

Style Council's "You're the Best Thing" in Walmart. Not TOTALLY obscure, but pretty damn close (Just googled: #76 Hot 100, #31 Adult Contemporary, moderate MTV play at the time). Always cool to hear a bit of Weller over here though...

Oasis' "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" in a Target (not even released in America as a single iirc?).

Stereo MC's "Step it Up" at a Whole Foods.Not super strange, but it's always been hugely overshadowed by the previous smash hit "Connected" and I assumed mostly forgotten. The average person would probably recall them as as one hit wonder here, if they remembered them at all. (Also googled this: #16 Alt, #30 pop radio, #56 Hot 100, minor MTV play)

Also, I recall walking into a Gap store once and hearing some sort of drum 'n' bass/jungle/breaks type tune.... in 2000s suburban America... That was pretty cool.

My local gym's playlist has had a few anomalies as well. Mostly just the typical uptempo, current pop and rap but there's been some awful 2000s stuff in there that I had managed to block out of my memory until recently, like the the nu-metal "remix" version of Ludacris' "Get Back" for one.

Bizarrely, Genesis' "Taking it All Too Hard" and Scorpions' "Wind of Change" I've heard several times as well. Not exactly "pump up" music.

I also used to go to this gym which just used some dude's iTunes/ripped CD collection over the speakers, which included U2's Best of 1990 - 2000. So every now and then you'd get stuff like "Even Better than the Real Thing", "Mysterious Ways", and "Beautiful Day" come on shuffle (recognizable uptempo pop hits; good gym material), but you'd also get stuff off of Zooropa or "Miss Sarajevo" which is like Bono mumbling over Eno/Edge/Flood ambient washes + a minute Luciano Pavorotti opera section (definite vibe killers; bad gym material).

I think that Oasis track was a US single, it's just that America had long stopped caring (Charles Aaron or somebody wrote it up in Spin along the lines of "Another god-like Gallagher ballad, America shrugs--Wake Up Kids! Do you really want to hear Nickleback at yr Prom!").

If it was, I never heard it played anywhere and it certainly never charted. I remember it being in a movie or something though at some point though, I believe.

And that's saying something because even during that era of Oasis' new millennium nadir, I recall even their comeback track "Go Let It Out" from the year prior getting rotation on both MTV and MTV2 (and Liam Gallagher going on TRL to befuddle Carson Daly for all of 2 minutes) as well as my local modern rock station spinning it in between all the Drop D-tuned angst. Granted, it was completely forgotten after a couple months, but still...

"Stop Crying" is a decent tune. In an alternate timeline, '02 era Coldplay probably could have turned it into a smash. But it's little wonder why it flopped in the states. Poor vocal performance from Liam, substandard arrangement, probably little promotion for an out-of-touch band with tons of baggage/negative press that had flopped over and over for the past 5 years running.

toad the wet sprocket 'in my ear' at . . . cvs

Charles Aaron or somebody wrote it up in Spin along the lines of "Another god-like Gallagher ballad, America shrugs--Wake Up Kids! Do you really want to hear Nickleback at yr Prom!

How did Aaron find meaning in his life after the War on Scrunge ended?

Citizen King: "Better Days (And The Bottom Drops Out)" at Randall's.

Was it The Band?

What I noticed first, before recognizing the tune, was Levon's voice, and a guitar that sounded similar to Robertson's. But I can't find anything in a cursory Google search, so...maybe it wasn't the Band, or maybe it was one of Levon's solo projects or something. It was definitely Levon singing, though. I'm like...98% sure.

Listening now, that Oasis song would be good to hear at a Prom.

Obscure Singles Heard At Proms

Stevie Nicks: "Every Day" at CVS.

richard marx & donna lewis "at the beginning" at the grocery store

(second time i've heard it there in the past couple years or so so maybe it's actually being heard more than i think)

John Anderson: "Somebody Slap Me" at Kroger.

Good Lord.

His last Top 25 Country Hit, from 1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QzqV28LdJ8

It's stuff like this that makes you wonder just how deep the barrel is that their Muzak people are drawing from.

SHURAV DHAKAL
5 years ago
This plays at my local #Kroger everyday!
it's now stuck in my head

rhonda h
4 years ago
OMG! I work at Kroger. It is played at my store too! When we hear it my co workers say "Just slap him already so he shuts up." lol

KRDsonic
KRDsonic
4 years ago
@rhonda h I work at Kroger too and it plays in our store too. It's such a weird song D: