Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

Social Distortion: "I Was Wrong" at a pizza joint.

...and "Kinky Afro" by Happy Mondays.

The Replacements: "I Will Dare" at Randall's.

Love Will Tear Us Apart at a Smith's grocery store

Gorillaz: "On Melancholy Hill" at Target.

Speaking of incongruous music at CVS .

Pfft, I mean, yeah. Anyone can tell you that while Walgreens is your place for ambient and trance, their industrial section has been pilthy for years.

There's a CVS I'm in sometimes that has $5.99 CDs like that. IIRC, according to their barcode stickers, they date back to 2006-8. Mostly catalogue stuff: Diana Ross' Diana; Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs; The Rod Stewart Album.

They've also got a batch of new release DVDs that are just as old--Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull for $25.

My local supermarket, back when I lived in Western Mass, had a small, cheap CD section in the late '00s. One day I found two -- TWO! -- John Coltrane live discs that I'd never see nor heard of before. They were kinda bootleg-looking, and presumably recorded from radio broadcasts, but one had what instantly became one of my all-time favorite Coltrane pieces.

I Heart Radio's Christmas music channel, playing in the halls here at work, just played Squeeze "Christmas Day."

References to Morecambe and Wise will mean nothing to 99% of the people here.

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

...and again at Lowe's.

4 hours later, I Heart Radio just played Squeeze again.

i heard a goddam andrew thomas kompakt pop ambient deep cut at half price books, it was weird

David Crosby - "Hero"

have just heard julia fucking holter in the dentist's office. hell yes.

Father John Misty: "Total Entertainment Forever" at Taco Bell.

“Really Sayin Something” Bananarama and FB3 in the Xmas return line at Kohls.

Scritti Politti "Perfect Way" in At Home: The Home Decor Superstore

Hope you and your teen friends played along to an 80s montage of wackiness, like wearing lampshades, playing throw pillows like drums with spatulas and "framing" each other.

Ran into either a curated playlist or Pandora channel for Morris Day at Dairy Queen:

"Color of Success"
"The Walk"
"The Character"
"The Oak Tree"

And some other stuff before something switched for:

The Spinners: "Love Don't Love Nobody"

Richie Valens: "Bony Maronie" at KFC.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Stop" at Pepperoni's.

The Shadows of Knight's "Gloria," followed immediately by Joe Cocker's "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" at the supermarket yesterday.

"Don't try to live your life in one day" by Howard Jones at a local farm-market kind of place (which I had forgotten existed) followed by "Transmission" by Joy Division (which I had not forgotten about but was confused to hear in that setting).

"Thunder Island" at a fresh thyme market which I had to google because I've heard it many times but had no idea who did it and apparently the same guy wrote the theme song to the Office

...and was also the lead singer for somewhat obscure 60s/70s rock bands Spirit and JoJo Gunne.

“Someday, Someway,” by Marshall Crenshaw, at Target.

Ghost: “He Is” at McCarran International Airport, Terminal D

Crowded House - Fall at your feet - community centre bathroom

fastball "you're an ocean" - taco bell

Ghost: “He Is” at McCarran International Airport, Terminal D

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.),

Wow!

heard Prince's "Strollin'" just yesterday!

wasn't a CVS though, it was a Target!

Ghost: “He Is” at McCarran International Airport, Terminal D

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.),

Wow!

Is it possible the music player person didn't know who the "He" was

INXS: "Listen Like Thieves" at McDonald's.

At Pennsy Food Hall next to Madison Square Garden, prior to a Billy Joel show, amongst a steady stream of big '70s hits by Stevie Wonder & Paul Simon, came E.L.O.'s "Last Train to London."

A twofer at Safeway today...
First, Semisonic's lesser known, but just as good "Closing Time" followup "Singing in my Sleep"

Secondly, Counting Crows' "Einstein on the Beach (For An Eggman)".
I don't think I'd heard it in a good 15 years, yet that "The world begins to disappear" hook was still etched deep inside my brain.
Strangely, I always thought this was one of their biggest hits as I recalled hearing it played frequently on the radio years after its initial release. But after quick googling, it looks like it was a brief #1 on modern rock at the time which didn't cross over in the slightest to any other format. The single's page on RateYourMusic has 0 reviews and 20-something ratings. Even on Spotify, it doesn't seem to make it even into their top 30 most played songs. "Mr. Jones" alone has roughly 150x more plays than "Einstein on the Beach"....

"Singing In My Sleep" has become quite the supermarket jam.

Today at Five Guy's:

Lynyrd Skynyrd: "Double Trouble"
The Clash: "Janie Jones"
Franz Ferdinand: "Right Action"

Ben Lee: "Catch My Disease" at Kroger.

"ring the alarm" by tenor saw at chipotle, notable because i think i heard it there like many years ago. they still got it.

The Cult “Wild Flower” at Nordstrom Rack

I thought I had posted this before, it was quite a while ago I heard The Slits' version of "Grapevine" at Chipotle. There's definitely some hipsters programming the music there. xp

I was quite surprised to hear "Wrong Impression" by Natalie Imbruglia at my local grocery store in Atlanta, GA.

Oldies at McDonald's, seemingly the most obscure being The Dixie Cups: "People Say" & Eddie Cochran: "Cut Across Shorty".

Maybe not too obscure, but definitely inappropriate on an unseasonably warm Saturday morning: "Don't Cry Out Loud" by Melissa Manchester at the Strack and van Til (local very nice yuppie) supermarket.

Also, "Wildfire", where there came a killing frost while buying gardening supplies at the Ace Hardware. That song makes me want to stick my head in an oven. It did in the seventies.

Hillary Duff: "So Yesterday" at Kroger.

Ariana Grande - “Baby I” at Trader Joe’s.

Travis: "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" at Which Wich.

I also went to this big outdoor flea market, and amongst the radio stuff, Hip Hop, and Tejano being blasted in booths, I heard "Blue Jeans" by Lana Del Rey.

I kind of wish I lived in a place where Travis was obscure