Muzak

[Darth_vader]

Yup, if it's the same cut I'm thinking of, it's Jefferson Starship. They run it at least once a day on Foreground 1.

Hear: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NwCnLpELi_M (hint: the sound's kind of tinny. Best not to play it with your treble control set wide open.)

J.C. Penney is a known Muzak user. Some of the stores actually receive a custom programme (probably for the Encompass XD on DVD-ROM disc) of music styles specified by corporate suits at JCP (that process is a whole thread unto itself) instead of the standard FM1, but not all do. For example, the store at Vancouver Mall uses the custom disc, whilst the new store on NE 192nd and Mill Plain uses the FM1, Expressions or one of the classical sat feeds (depends on who the MOD is on a particular day, I suppose); both properties also have one of the obnoxious modern pop/rock programmes blaring at nearly full volume in the young men's and junior's departments (a technique known as "zoning".) Your mention of Peggy Lee going into a Hot AC cut suggests your store must have the custom programme.

If I remember correctly Sears uses Trusonic (one of the bigger independent Muzak-alikes) but don't quote me on it.

1400 posts. Boy, I'm getting old. 600 more to go...

[vchimpanzee]

Your mention of Peggy Lee going into a Hot AC cut suggests your store must have the custom programme.

I said hot AC, but given the arguments on this board, it's probably mainstream. But it's nothing like FM1.

"Tender Is the Night" was playing in a Rose's, which is sort of like KMart used to be. It's amazing how soft that is all these years later.

[Darth_vader]

Yeah. Even still, Peggy Lee at J.C. Penney's suggests they must have the custom CD. Probably the only time I/'ve ever hear/d her on the FM1 feed is around Christmas time (you know, I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride...I like a Sleigh Ride................)

Unless they're playing something like "Upbeat Reflections" which follows a format sort of to that effect, but I really doubt it.

CLARIFICATION: Trusonic were one of the bigger independent Muzak-or DMX-alikes until about the mid-2000s, when it was bought up by none other tham Mood Media.....yes, the same company that also swallowed up Muzak in recent history. Not as much penetration as AEI had in their heyday, but still quite a sizeable market.

[vchimpanzee]

This past weekend I heard a whiny female sing "Kiss on My List". This concerns me since Norah Jones has that style of voice. I heard her do "Don't Know Why" on my favorite pop station, which is not AC, this morning, and still wonder why I heard it on a mainstream AC years ago which sounded like so-called "Lite" stations do now. But that same station I listen to plays something AC-sounding by her. Surely they wouldn't ...

But it turns out someone called The Bird and the Bee has recorded it. So that must have been who it was.

[Darth_vader]

Most likely. Bird & the Bee get quite a bit of play on FM1, Adult Contemporary/Cashmere and probably a couple others. Can't remember the title of the record, but it consisted solely of Hall & Oates covers. Think it was called "Playing the Favourites" or something like that. Came out a few years ago. (They don't sound at ALL like Norah Jones! Not to my tin eardrums, anyways.)

Actually not half-bad, considering some of the stuff I've been hearing lately. Beats having to sit through yet another Adelle or Brett Dannen whine-fest, or another round of Natalie Merchant's "the world would be upside down" thing, fer shur.

Did it have an "electronic pop"-sounding instrumentation backing it? That's almost certain to be Bird & Bee.

[vchimpanzee]

I left out these songs that played in my grocery store on two different weeks.

"All I Need Is a Miracle" and "End of the Innocence".

Sears last week had "Respect" along with Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" and one of Rod Stewart's songs from years ago.

My grocery store played "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "Standing Still" and "An Innocent Man". At least those are the ones I recognized.

[Jay F]

I left out these songs that played in my grocery store on two different weeks.

"All I Need Is a Miracle" and "End of the Innocence".

Sears last week had "Respect" along with Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" and one of Rod Stewart's songs from years ago.

My grocery store played "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", "Standing Still" and "An Innocent Man". At least those are the ones I recognized.

I like Muzak for the "oh wow" factor. None of those songs have it for me, especially the first 4 that you mentioned.

[rnigma]

I read somewhere that in the 70s, Muzak hired a Czech orchestra to record their music as a money saving gesture.  The music was so bad that many businesses dropped their Muzak service.

And I have to agree with several posts: the Muzak has been good of late and they played songs I haven't heard in years.

[vchimpanzee]

I wasn't in my usual store very long due to not having paper bags. I'm waiting to buy a lot of stuff until I find a store with paper bags as I find them useful. Boxes won't do except for the absolutely essential stuff and I refuse plastic when there are alternatives.

Hopefully my store will have its little problem with the paper bag supplier fixed next Saturday.

I only heard one song with any characteristics I could list here.

A female vocalist signing "Eee-eee-eee-eee".

[Darth_vader]

@rnigma--

That was the Brno Radio Orchestra, based in Prague. It is related to the present-day Brno Philharmonic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brno_Philharmonic_Orchestra ) and *might* also be connected with the Brno Radio Pops Orchestra as well, but I'm not entirely certain of that. Muzak used them mostly during the Warner Communications and TelePrompTer eras of the 1970s; during the latter era and into the Westinghouse/Group W period of the 80s they contracted with other international orchestras as well.

Some of it isn't half-bad, actually, at least I don't think so. You can hear many examples of it on Muzak's later LPs from around the mid-70s to the 80s.