-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Ross on Radioinsight on Oh Wow songs...interesting article.
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
Yes, "Breathless" by The Corrs is the perfect example of a song that is a big retail hit. "Babylon" by David Gray, "I Do" by Lisa Loeb and "Ordinary Day" by Vanessa Carlton are also high on the Retail Top 40.
Kroger going to the back-of-the rack with "One Step Closer to You" -- good song! Another supermarket favorite from around that same time is "Not Just Another Girl" by Ivan Neville.
I still hear Vanessa Williams' "Colors of the Wind" occasionally while shopping. Been forever since FM has played it. And "Babylon" might just be the "Brown Eyed Girl" of retail background music.
Great mention of "Colors of the Wind" -- mid-90s radio hit with that "Lite FM" vibe that fits nicely into today's retail settings.
I had the 45. My mom collectively called Three Dog Night 'The Bullfrog Guy'.
"You're an Ocean" was a radio hit: #16 on Billboard Adult Top 40 and #29 on Mainstream Top 40 in the year 2000.
The last time I was in a McDonald's it was a refreshing change from the vapid, insipid 2020s teeny pop they usually play; instead, they were playing 2000s adult alternative, like Keane, David Gray, Coldplay, etc.
McDonald's is where I first heard "Babylon" -- when it was current. By 2000, I wasn't listening to any current pop or AC on radio at all, so any exposure I was getting to songs that weren't oldies or country came at restaurants and stores. For a while, it seemed to be playing every time I'd walk into Mickey D's.
Was Breathless ever even a radio hit on any level in the US?Breathless (The Corrs song) - Wikipedia Breathless (The Corrs song) - Wikipedia You can go to the billboard links but maybe a decent peak on AC. Not sure if it ever went recurrent or gold.
In store programmers always seem to have loved "No Myth" by Michael Penn, which was also a secret weapon of a number of programmers in the pre-consolidation days. If I heard that one on a station, it was a good sign.
I definitely did hear "Breathless" on AC and Hot AC stations when it was new. In fact, it inspired me to buy their "In Blue" album on CD.
One song I only ever heard on Muzak was Liam Finn's "Energy Spent" (he's the son of Neil Finn, of Split Enz and Crowded House fame). This YouTube video is full of people commenting that's where they heard it as well:
Do any of our radio professionals have an explanation for the presence on store/restaurant radio of so many songs that FM radio has either buried or placed in once-in-a-blue-moon rotation?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Sure. The music services have a captive audience and do not have to program in a way that attracts and keeps listeners.
The fallacy in your question is presuming background music services = radio.
Here's a link to a website that lists the last 10 songs played on Mood Media's FM-1, which is a channel that's piped into thousands of stores and restaurants from coast to coast. It's really fun and interesting to see what kind of songs get played on FM-1. Cool, lesser-known tracks by Colbie Caillat, Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton are in heavy rotation.
Last edited:
As far as I know, "Breathless" was one of The Corrs' bigger hits. At one time, practically the theme song of Star 101.5 Seattle (Now Hank FM)
I do know they were very popular internationally. The first place I heard their cover of Thin Lizzy frontman's Phil Lynott's solo 1982 hit "Old Town" was on Sunshine Radio 107.75 in Pattaya, Thailand while global radio surfing. It's the only song I personally like from them.
I do know they were very popular internationally. The first place I heard their cover of Thin Lizzy frontman's Phil Lynott's solo 1982 hit "Old Town" was on Sunshine Radio 107.75 in Pattaya, Thailand while global radio surfing. It's the only song I personally like from them.
It seemed like the Mickey D’s in Foster City, CA was always playing Barry Manilow’s “Coney Island” when I’d go there around 8 years ago.
Music in a store is not supposed to make your stop to listen. The opposite of radio. Music in stores is intended to create a mood, as well as to mask background noise of people walking on tile floors, cash registers, people talking, etc. It is generally supposed to be pleasant to the customer base, but not distracting.
In addition to what K.M. and David said:
All in-store music has to do is keep you from running out of there because of the music (and some places fail at that). They don't have to keep you there for x number of minutes so that they get paid by someone else for your being there.
Radio needs to keep the largest number of people tuned for the longest period of time to attract advertisers at the highest spot rate.
The store makes its music from you directly---and totally unrelated to the familiarity of the music it plays.
Radio makes its money from you indirectly---and the formula (cume and time spent listening) that determines its desirability to advertisers and the rate it can charge depends on you not punching a button because you don't know or love the song that's playing.
Three rules my grandfather taught me:
1. Never play cards with a man named "Pops".
2. Never trust a nun with a tattoo.
3. Never buy food from a clown named Ronald.
But didn't that clown's widow (oops! I mean Ray Kroc's widow) leave $75 million to NPR in her will several years ago? It sounds to me like someone connected with that clown had her head on straight.