Obscure Singles Heard at CVS

"Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus at Vons. It sounded amazing.

Tweeter and the Monkey Man at a pseudo Parisian bistro in New York

Bony M: "Rivers of Babylon" and Kinks: "Picture Book" at Chuy's

digging in the dirt and celebrity skin back-to-back at kroger. also love will tear us apart, sometime in the last year.

again, not really obscure except the terrestrial radio stations here in sw ohio that feature retro musics don't even get close to this. not really forgotten, not big enough to be in whatever they think the canon is.

I stood in line at the federal credit union yesterday, listening to all seven minutes of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin.

Not gonna lie, kinda miss Muzak at times.

does muzak-qua-musak still exist?

erstwhile (billy bob fargo ref), is there any chance radio will take the hint from the hipster-curated-in-store-playlist algorithm or paradigm or whatnot or are the economics too much to oppose? my local 80s station will play i want to know what love is or waiting for a girl like every other hour but never that was yesterday or midnight blue or heart turns to stone, which is awesome beyond belief. i can't believe i forgot that song exists. stop with the your love and play all the love in the world or say it isn't so or since you've been gone or everytime you cry. i know every outfield song is essentially the same song but how is that any more redundant than playing the literal same song over and over? i can't fucking hang out in kroger or meiijer all day hoping to hear don't talk to strangers or change by john waite or show me by the cover girls. or going back to cali. never existed, says my local 80s station. wishing well, gone. you can call me al, gone. i don't think i've ever heard them play things can only get better, or all cried out.

i got so emotional when i watched that killers video of their electric blue cover, because everything happens so much, and that's what i'm talkin' about. why does this slay me so hard and make me so lachrymose? at the time i thought it were a middling song but now as oblivion approaches it's the middling that hits the hardest.

i can play anything ever on youtube but i don't want that; i want radio to recover that middle ground, like what if i'd been the one or the freaks come out at night or alphabet street or running with the night or it's a sin. or oh yeah or lessons in love. can dan and ned and alfred do a tedtalk on this?

i mean, NOW my local 80s station plays running up that hill now that it's a hit of sorts when they didn't before, but honestly you don't get to do that without playing yourself.

like , i know why in between days or once in a lifetime or don't change or even i got you loom so large in my psyche, but why do the honeythief or pop goes the world or stay with me by shakesphear's sister or perfect way or digging your scene or ah, fuck it, i quit.

i just can't explain to 80s me why there is and has been for 25 years or so 80s radio that doesn't play lovergirl or sign of the times or glamorous life or poison arrow.

The other day I was in my local CVS and heard a song I’d never heard before. This is not as regular an occurrence as one would think, because even if it’s not. song I like or have heard many times, I can usually pinpoint what’s playing to a certain degree.

Except the other day— I’d never heard Howard Jones’ “Everlasting Love,” apparently!

My memory of that song is riding in the backseat from the revival to the pizza place with a burned-out acid casualty lipsynching to it on the radio.

"Ever notice how you can see some of the notes float out of the speakers?"

The dub breakdown in the middle is the sound of puppies bludgeoned to death.

Yesterday at Publix I heard back to back Little River Band's "The Night Owls," Luther's "Stop to Love," and 10,000 Maniacs' "Candy Everybody Wants." Whew.

pplains, that's something. if that line was in some iconic scene of some iconic movie made/set in the Sixties, it would be an iconic "acid trip" quote.

I haven't been to a revival since.

Londonbeat's "I've Been Thinking About You" really dialed up the horniness at Trader Joe's tonight.

In CVS earlier, heard Chris Cornell (RIP) doing a godawful rendition of GNR‘s “Patience.”

while i was waiting for my vaccine at walgreens they played Eddie Rabbit’s “I Love a Rainy Night” which i hadn’t heard for…decades?

NKOTB's 'I'll Be Loving You Forever' iright now in Walgreens. Love this deeply stupid thing. 'The things you do is forever' indeed.

not too "crazy", but i heard that seal song at a microcenter this weekend. that has to be one of the greatest songs of all time

just heard In the Morning by Junior Boys playing over a Sunday Night Football segment about Deebo Samuel

sonic youth, "within you without you", last night in my local asian supermarket

Supermarket this morning was playing Bjork's "Venus as a Boy."

Al Green & Annie Lennox: "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" at El pollo loco

scritti politti "perfect way" at sprouts

Sparks: "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both of Us"
Indeep: "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life"
Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah: "Lake Shore Drive "

At Chuy's

Bob Dylan’s “From a Buick 6,” over the loudspeakers at Radiator Springs in Disney’s California Adventure.

Madonna: "Beautiful Stranger" at IHOP (not obscure, but kinda forgotten)

I've paid for you with tears
And swallowed all my fries

Da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, dum
Philly Cheese Steak Stacker

Not obscure, but I heard Bryan Adams's "Straight from the Heart" at CVS this morning and thought it really was the essential shopping background song.

Forlorn chemical lovesick vapors waft the clearance Halloween nightmare shelf while Santa sits with malicious windows in the bathroom

Willie Dixon: "The Seventh Son"
Georgia Satellites: "I Dunno"
Wilson Pickett: "Fire and Water"
Big Momma Thornton: "Hound Dog"

All at Slim Chickens

Joe Jackson - “You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)” in an actual CVS rn.

Thai restaurant I'm in right now has played back to back singles by Michael Learns to Rock

Correction, everything has been Michael Learns to Rock for 20 minutes

Joe Jackson - “You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)” in an actual CVS rn.

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, December 29, 2022 7:41 PM (

I hear this at Publix at least once a week.

Probably doesn’t count because Whole Foods has been playing “edgy” music in its stores for a while now, but I was surprised when the ‘Mats’ “Swingin Party” came on yesterday as I waited for the oyster man to bag my oysters. (Here in Philly, at least, Fridays are 12 for $12 oysters at WF, great treat when one can swing it)

If being strong is what you want, I need help here with this oyster

Gary's Got An Oyster

Dwight Twilley’s I’m on Fire used to often (like I heard it more than once) be played at the Taco Bell on Claiborne in New Orleans

^^Dwight Twilley Band -- formally known as Oister

SPOOKY

Billy Joel: "Until The Night" at a local seafood place.

In CVS earlier, heard Chris Cornell (RIP) doing a godawful rendition of GNR‘s “Patience.”

― west coast heat dome blues (morrisp), Saturday, September 10, 2022 5:44 PM (four months ago)

Heard it again, same CVS, it irritated me almost to an irrational degree; forgot I had encountered it previously until searching this thread.

this is what you ppl get for going outside imo

🖤

My local WalMart turned up the music in the store and parking lot.

I like the serendipity of shopping to music, but all they play is butt rock in a mostly black neighborhood - i.e., no JAMS.

The other supermarket that closed played Motown.

the moment I hear Black Betty in a store of any sorts, i immediately vandalize the place no questions asked

Bam a lam, thank you ma'am

As I've mentioned here before, I hear butt rock all the time in my racially-diverse grocery store.

What, are they supposed to play "Flash Light" 24/7? Of course not. But I'm not sure why I hear "Battle of Evermore" or "Slow Ride" in there either.

Late-70s Yacht Rock/Hot Soul Singles. George Benson. Bob Welch. Commodores. This isn't rocket science.

Gotta say that one advantage of living in Philly is that the local chain grocery stores only play the most astounding music. I heard “The Grunt” in my closest store a few months ago, nothing like hearing James Brown yell “MACEO” while looking at the chip selection

Just heard Peggy Gou's "Starry Night" in KFC on Tottenham Court Road.

Margo Price: "Hurtin' (On The Bottle)" at Smokey Mo's BBQ