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Random songs in supermarkets

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    Random songs in supermarkets

    (and other high street stores, retail outlets, etc)

    Torch by Soft Cell. A fine song and a big hit in the early eighties, so not unknown by any means, but not something I expect to hear when walking down the aisle of Morrisons in 2019. It would have been no surprise at all to hear the often played Tainted Love, but Torch isn't a song I remember hearing a great deal even.when subjected to 'gold' stations or perusing at nostalgia compilation albums.

    Maybe it wasn't even down to the track that it felt out of place, but the fact that the supermarket in question is in an an area of the North East that is a little bit cold in a cultural sense, and appears to have a large demographic that would have been reasonably old even when the song came out.

    #2
    I once heard a Captain Beefheart track in my local Morrisons.

    "Too Much Time" from the Clear Spot album is one of the most commercial things he ever did. .It was even released as a single in it's day but it was still astonishing to hear it in a supermarket.

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      #3
      Not a supermarket but—about six weeks ago—I took Fräulein Pepys to a posh Austrian spa for her birthday.

      What was the first piece of music I heard? Ken fucking Dodd.

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        #4
        I once heard Independence Day by Comsat Angels in Chatham Woolworth's - I think it was part of a soundtrack album that they were playing. This was back at a time that Woolies used to play actual records in store.

        Well, it was back at a time that we actually had Woolies, come to think of it.

        Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
        Not a supermarket but—about six weeks ago—I took Fräulein Pepys to a posh Austrian spa for her birthday.

        What was the first piece of music I heard? Ken fucking Dodd.
        Tears for Souvenirs was massive on the Innsbruck club scene when I was last there.

        It wasn't, obviously.

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          #5
          My local Weis does the best of the early 80s/Golden Age of MTV. And not just the obvious like "Take on Me" and "Safety Dance" but deeper cuts like Cyndi Lauper's song from The Goonies and The Fixx' "Red Skies at Night," which didn't make the US top 40

          My local Trader Joes plays a hodge-podge of classic r&B, pop and indy, much of which I don't recognize.

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            #6
            I also went to an Italian for lunch last week and they were playing the Nuggets compilation

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              #7
              Maybe not too surprising in the UK, but in the Land of Enchantment it came as a surprise to hear Radio Radio by EC & the Attractions at a Target a few days ago.

              Many many yrs ago I had a friend who stocked shelves at a grocery store. I stopped by to pick him up after his shift and could hear Robot Man by The Scorpions. Turns out he sabotaged the sound system as he was leaving work.

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                #8
                Late last night and early this morning I've heard that Lumineers song playing in the establishments I've been in. It's an annoying song.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                  ITears for Souvenirs was massive on the Innsbruck club scene when I was last there.

                  It wasn't, obviously.
                  It was Tears though.

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                    #10
                    Officially, yes, but it's known by either title.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                      Officially, yes, but it's known by either title.
                      No, I meant that was the tune playing in the sauna. (I wasn't being a pedant. Certainly not about Ken Dodd.)
                      Last edited by Stumpy Pepys; 22-10-2019, 08:59.

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                        #12
                        I always thought Underpass by John Foxx was an unusual choice to have in regular rotation while I was working in Poundworld.

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                          #13
                          Perhaps he used to work there.

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                            I also went to an Italian for lunch last week and they were playing the Nuggets compilation
                            I once spent an evening at an Italian restaurant where the background music was Judge Dread.

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                              #15
                              Seriously? I mean, 'how'?

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
                                Seriously? I mean, 'how'?
                                Yes, I couldn't work it out. The restaurant was in Germany and run by an Italian family. It's not mine to determine which nationalities should listen to what, but I'd never have expected "Up With The Cock", for example, to have been high up on an Italo-German's playlist.

                                They didn't play Judge Dread all night, it was just the one CD.
                                Last edited by treibeis; 22-10-2019, 10:44.

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                                  #17
                                  The coffee shop I go to each morning have been playing 70s and 80s soul / RnB etc, this week such as Kool & the Gang, George Benson and Evelyn “Champagne” King. None of it was music I particularly embraced at the time but I’ve been really enjoying it and told them so. Usually it’s current radio fare.

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                    Yes, I couldn't work it out. The restaurant was in Germany and run by an Italian family. It's not mine to determine which nationalities should listen to what, but I'd never have expected "Up With The Cock", for example, to have been high up on an Italo-German's playlist.
                                    I'd not even expect that one to be high up on the most ardent Judge Dread fan's playlist, let alone that of an Italian restaurateur based in Germany.

                                    Unlikely fact: In terms of reggae releases, Dread was outsold only by Bob Marley in the UK during the 1970s. (Well, according to Wiki - but it's hard to see who else might've competed over a period of time: Desmond Dekker, Ken Boothe and Dave & Ansell, for example, were limited to just a couple of hits each.)
                                    Last edited by Jah Womble; 22-10-2019, 11:23.

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                                      #19
                                      I thought Judge Dread was black for years. Apparently so did many of his Jamaican fans.

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                                        #20
                                        The greeter at the Asda where I used to work (later sacked for referring to a batch of bread rolls recently out of the oven as a shade of brown not heard since the 1950s) told me that some people used to find Asda FM on their home satellite systems and listen to it away from the supermarket.

                                        No particularly odd songs played on there apart from the usual suspects about heroin, but I remember being on shift when news of the Queen Mother's death broke and the tone slowed right, right down.

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                                          #21
                                          Maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised as Iceland is a bit like that, but the Bonus supermarket in Egilsstaðir, a tiny town on Route One way out in the east, was playing Radiohead's Karma Police when we stopped for supllies a couple of days back.

                                          It seemed entirely appropriate considering we'd driven for hours through snow and on icy roads.

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                                            #22
                                            Walking through the local shopping centre this morning, imagine my surprise on hearing George Harrison's What is Life? on the PA.

                                            All the more so considering the opening guitar riff to this song is one of my clutch of recurring mini-earworms.

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                                              #23
                                              I’ve had .38 Special’s “Second Chance” stuck in my head for days because it was in the supermarket’s 80’s mix.

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                                                #24
                                                Does anyone else find that the music played in yer budget supermarkets - by which I mean the 99p Store and its ilk - is pretty much as unrecognisable as most of the brands on the shelves?

                                                Just me then. Best get cracking with that sub-McIntyre routine.

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                                                  #25
                                                  No, it's not just you. It seems to be either generic pop that they have to pay little or no royalties for, or cheap soundalike stuff akin to the old Top Of The Pops albums (for North American OTFers, Pickwick's oeuvre would be an equivalent).

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