Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

I like the fact that I will first hear hit songs from seven years ago in a fabric store three years from now.

— Rachel Lichtman (@rachelichtman) December 5, 2021

Also relevant:

Everyone in CVS when “Steppin’ Out” came on pic.twitter.com/GhiAndT61L

— Rachel Lichtman (@rachelichtman) May 19, 2021

Just got my booster and as I’m sitting there in CVS that song by The Sundays came on… “it’s that little souvenir from a terrible year … here’s where the story ends” …ngl I adore that song.

— Lovefingers (@lovefingers) December 21, 2021

I was just in a Five Guys hamburger joint in which I can confidently say all the staff and all the customers (minus me) were 25 years of age and younger. What I heard in there was "Caught Up in You" by .38 Special followed by "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan.

It's not so much the rarity of the tunes as... I can't imagine how I'd have felt as a teenager going into a burger joint and hearing a (nearly) 40 year old song followed by a 49 year old song.

It's weird, but a lot of teenagers are just like "classic rock all the time. hasn't been the same since Bonzo died" etc. But yeah, I can't imagine walking to McDonalds and hearing the Andrews Sisters or something.

Skeevy message and all, I adore "Caught Up in You."

The musical universe of my kids is sooo big thx to streaming etc that when inekid goes off on how much he likes ricky nelson, the isleys, the stray cats, andrew gold, and sidney buchet, i’m just permanently “what color is the sky in your world”?

Someone made a good point on here recently that most music since the mid-70s or so has sounded “modern” (production-wise) in a way that wasn’t true with “old” music when we were kids.

The Style Council's "My Ever Changing Moods" played at a CVS. It was sandwiched between two generic country songs that were unknown to me.

Not exactly this thread but...

Velvet Underground "I'm Sticking With You" in a Montefiore Children's Hospital commercial.

The Style Council's "My Ever Changing Moods" played at a CVS. It was sandwiched between two generic country songs that were unknown to me.

― Patrick R, Monday, December 27, 2021 3:31 PM

i hear this in cvs fairly regularly and it makes my day every fucking time. love tsc and goddamn, what a tune.

have just been in stater brothers and heard no doubt's "it's my life" followed immediately by siouxsie's "the passenger." one or the other in isolation not that notable, but back to back and i was chuckling in delight.

At Torchys Tacos, got Oblivious by Aztec Camera. Nah, that’s standard 80s shit esp for Torchys. Then Lips Like Sugar. Fuck no, Torchys, that’s standard 80s for olds in USA.

Then Chant No. 1 by Spandau Ballet (which I initially thought was Haircut 100). OK that passes for obscure enough

"At which point I look around Frozen Foods and wonder: 'Is anyone else hearing this?'" William Gibson on Steely Dan is so good - https://t.co/sIPdN6cpTg pic.twitter.com/pgQgpZQqF3

— Good Steely Dan Takes (@baddantakes) January 24, 2022

#onethread

Huh, that thread references the concept that fine Columbian was weed not coke, and I cannot imagine that world. in my head, with no fine columbian experience.

Then someone invokes (and to their credit denies) Dan as either in, or adjacent to, Yacht Rock, and I’m like “fuck, were you alive then? cause ay, fuck, not imaginably the case.” imo.

fine Columbian will always be cocaine to me, I don't care what anyone else says

In the context of this thread it's coffee from Trader Joe's or your local Chevron.

Backing up a bit I would be stunned hearing “Chant No. 1” by Spandau Ballet anywhere in the USA, which you never would have before streaming services

Sophisti-pop classic 'Twist in My Sobriety' by Tanita Tikaram.

Skeevy message and all, I adore "Caught Up in You."

This song is basically a marriage proposal. How is it sleepy? Or was that the joke?

SKEEVY. Damn autocorrect.

I mean, I'm pretty sure "little girl" isn't literal.

Great Dan post.

Reminds me of when I'd hear "Pull Up to the Bumper" in Whole Foods.

Okay, just eating my soup samples and shaking my ass.

Stopped in a McDonald’s for coffee and, lo and behold, there’s ABC’s “Poison Arrow.”

Our local supermarket extended its hours until 1am, so we've gotten into the habit of doing our big in-person shopping at midnight - no one is in the store then except for an occasional last-minute alcohol buyer and the crew restocking the shelves. Lately the restocking crew have been playing whatever they want to while they work - last week we heard The Supremes' A Bit Of Liverpool. A couple nights ago it was Nina Simone's Here Comes The Sun.

Wow, I’d be stunned to hear either of those in a supermarket setting

Kacey Musgraves: "Pageant Material" at Rudy's BBQ

Prodigy - Breathe

followed by

Happy Clappers - I Believe

Bosley's (pet food store)

I have also come to love late-night grocery shopping during pandemic times. The other night:

The Waterboys - The Whole of the Moon

Not a chain store, so maybe not within this thread's purview, but the new locally-owned ice cream shop was playing Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight by Spinal Tap yesterday.

not obscure, not a cvs, but they played Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man" at my physical therapist's this morning

"Fade Into You" was playing as I got a tooth drilled into this morning, and then the JJ Cale version of "Cocaine." It was a little weird, but then again, I remember when "Blackwater" by the Doobies played when I was getting a radiation treatment.

wow the latter is extra nightmarish

It's an odd gambit— doctors and dentists have always told me that a lot of people bring their favorite music to these appointments and just put on their earphones, but I've never wanted to associate music I like with dire medical procedures, so I always deal with what they're playing over the speakers. I think once in radiation, I asked them to turn off "American Pie" for personal reasons.

Back in my oncology days, I'd listen to Blonde Redhead or Steely Dan on the iPod. Nice n' sterile.

Last time I had a crown put in at the dentist, he was playing some Black Crowes channel. I felt filthy afterwards.

The Southern Harmony & Dental Companion

lol.

More like Hotel Drillness.

Well-played, sir.

this is 100% true. When my partner was going on for heart surgery, in the waiting room the radio was playing some song that kept saying "I will fix your heart" (or maybe "i can fix your heart"). I never figured out of it was intentional or not but it seemed like "live" radio iirc

"Shake Your Hips" (Rolling Stones) at a San Diego Zoo snack bar.

Shake Your Hippos

Neko Case: "Bad Luck" in the lobby of a Sleep Inn.

Paramore: "Hard Times" and Sheryl Crow: "Hole In My Pocket" at Dairy Queen.

Ben Kweller: "Magic" at Walmart.

Which reminds me that one of the Pop Conference presentations is about retail soundscapes, specifically those at Walmart. Hopefully this thread is in the citations.

my friend just heard the sundays “here’s where the story ends” in cvs

it made her day. would make mine too

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/05/1096564202/gap-store-playlist-music-collection?

I've heard "Here's Where the Story Ends" quite a lot in the wild, still catches me offguard.

xp That’s cool… I had a side job at the Gap for a few years in the early 2000s, I was definitely interested in the playlists.