Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

Walk of Life is, at minimum, a top three grocery store song. https://t.co/mkpQkaAj5H

— Kaleb Horton (@kalebhorton) May 11, 2021

Dire Straits are fine, but this is a hard disagree for me

Just because BOSE salesmen used CDs of both bands to showcase their speakers doesn't mean that the two bands are in any way equal to each other.

One unique way they are related is that I was first exposed to a ton of their album tracks on store and restaurant Muzaks.

i heard a good one just yesterday in the grocery store but i've already forgotten what it was

i remember now! it was "shine" by years & years... which i know was a big hit in the uk, but i live in the states so i was v surprised to hear it in the wild like that

how can someone even enjoy music if they think “walk of life” is a top 3 anything

dedication, devotion

Us3: "Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)" at Fuddruckers

I dunno, hearing "Walk of Life" in a really bleak Costco in rural Indiana while scanning the bread might just make my day.

“Walk of Life” was playing in the grocery store earlier, and I was enjoying it so much I felt a flash of annoyance when someone cut through on the PA to make an announcement.

I wish it were obscure!

XP "Super Special Two-For-One Sale On Headbands! Boppa Lula Only Today!"

we got to move these
digiorno's pizzas
we got to move these chef boyardeeeeeees

“Walk of Life” was playing in the grocery store earlier, and I was enjoying it so much I felt a flash of annoyance when someone cut through on the PA to make an announcement.

I feel like Byrne would appreciate that.

True story.

While pumping gas at a Holiday station in rural upper Michigan today I heard Alphabet Street and Electric Avenue back to back which felt very out of place and amazing simultaneously

Relevant...

Huge riffs in unexpected places: When I was walking into @LiveCasinoPHL around noon today, "Rock Bottom" by @UFO_rockband came over the sound system! A few hours later they played "Gypsy" by @uriah_heep!

Almost made losing that huge pot with top two against middle set worth it.

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) June 10, 2021

Waiting for Somebody - Paul Westerberg

― how's life, Saturday, August 13, 2016 6:41 AM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just got Dyslexic Heart.

L'Trimm - "Cars That Go Boom" at the garden center

the pods that go bloom

Lately I feel like I have heard the Kurt Vile version of Box of Rain in grocery stores at least a couple times.

I’m a bar/restaurant where I just heard 311 “Down” for the first time in about two decades, and I can report that it still slaps

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 13, 2021

yesterday I walked past Five Guys in Cambridge, they were playing Jimmy Olsen's Blues by the Spin Doctors, then they played a song I didn't know but which was identifiably by The Nation of Ulysses.

Five Guys is usually pretty good for eclectic Rock muzak.

i heard "The Sound" at Vons the other day, i don't think i have heard any 1975's songs in the wild before.

Yeah, I heard "Kick out the Jams" at a Five Guys once.

I realized what it was before noticing if the "motherfucker" was included but my bet is it was not.

ALL THE WAY receives only toppings in black, Motherfucker

"It takes five seconds, five seconds of decision, five seconds to pick your mix at the Coke Freestyle machine!"

Kroger had "All Star" playing last night (foisting it on workers twice an hour should be a crime) but I would swear it was remixed or something to be even peppier and more upbeat.

^^This might not be it, but I read some time ago in Rolling Stone that Smash Mouth had to rerecord parts of it when it to RockBand because the digital multitracks had become corrupted*; iirc, among other things they had redo all the drums as those tracks had all disappeared.

*This was part of a larger article about the vulnerability of digital masters being discovered as more and more tracks from the then-recent past were getting licensed in 5.1 mixes for film and games.

Of course, it's really probably a "Top 40" radio mix that ultimately didn't have the legs or availability of the regular version.

DJ MILF's All Whistling and Turntable Work Mix (3:55)

<AS HEARD ON MTV'S ROAD RULES>

"All Star (Upbeat Version)" by Smash Mouth

"All Star (Clean-Up On Aisle 12 Dub)" by Smash Mouth Ft. DJ Kroger Signature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1uwIzI3SE

The Hib-Tone Radio Free Europe at Trader Joe's. I dutifully bought an extra bag of Scandinavian Swimmers.

Not obscure or CVS, but our local Giant plays Ex's and Oh's by Elle King probably 1 in 5 times I go there. That song puts me into rough headspace, which has only grown worse since I looked her up and learned that she is Rob Schneider's daughter.

Extended remix of Tom Tom Club's cover of "Under the Boardwalk" in Wawa.

(That's a convenience store for those of you outside the U.S.)

You usually find wawa under the boardwalk.

Disappointingly, there is no WaWa in Mahwah, New Jersey.

sounds like a TMBG track

“Love Me,” by Justin Bieber, at Dollar King.

https://www.spin.com/2021/08/gin-blossoms-alt-rock-saviors/

At a time in my life when the grocery store’s overhead PA system was my lifeline, Gin Blossoms were my alt-rock radio saviors — raining down hard truths about lust masquerading as love as I sat on a milk crate, turning cans so all the labels faced the same direction, always English side out

...

“Hey Jealousy” is a song best heard over a tinny in-store PA, where you can only grasp the high-end of the guitar and the vocals. Many, many years later while test-driving a 2009 Toyota Tacoma, the salesman suggested I turn on the radio to get a feel for the overpriced stereo he was trying to upsell me. “Hey Jealousy” came on immediately, and it felt different with the full range of woofers and tweeters — dulled, despite the broader dynamics, like eating your mom’s homemade pasta in your youth and then years later going to the Olive Garden. Something was lost in the translation.

Tegan & Sara: "Walking With A Ghost" at James Coney Island.

Jethro Tull: "Teacher" at Northern Tool

FB memories reminded me of one of my absolute weirdest pairing of song and restaurant, which happened just a few weeks before this thread was started:

Stone Roses: "Breaking Into Heaven"...at FUDDRUCKERS.

I think the version they played didn't have the intro.

Swing Out Sister "Waiting Game" at the grocery store just now.