I had a weird experience lately with piped-in music.
You know, where the store has music playing overhead, not from a radio but from some external source? Traditionally this means music chosen by headquarters but lately, and especially in local smaller businesses, this may mean the store owner plugging in a phone to access his or her online playlist.

Anyway, the weird thing. Several weeks ago, I was at a national department store, and I overheard the song “Hollywood” by Michael Buble.
“Don’t go higher, for desi-yi-yi-yi-yer! Put it in your head, baby Hollywood is dead, you can find it in yourself!”
Okay, so that was nothing weird by itself, just a random song.
Same store, a few weeks later, and I hear “Listen to the Music” by the Doobie Brothers.
“Don’t you feel it growing, day by day! People gettin’ ready for the news! Some are happy, some are sad! Oh, we gotta let the music play!”
Again, not weird by itself.

And then, on my first day at work, it got weird… in an “I have a weird sense of humor” kind of way.
First I heard “That’s the Way It Is” by Celine Dion.
“When you want it the most, there’s no easy way out….”
It wasn’t until about the middle of the song that I realized what I was hearing…. or that I’d been singing along the whole time and doing a pretty good job of remembering the lyrics.
And this was followed immediately by “Mandy” by Barry Manilow.
“Well you came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away, oh Mandy!”

What do all these songs have in common? Well, the versions playing–what I can only assume are the original versions; I have no idea how many times any of these have been covered or remade–absolutely nothing.
But for me, I knew every last one of these songs to some extent or other because they’re all songs that one John Barrowman covered on his album You Raise Me Up. I swear, that day at work I actually started listening to see if This is the Moment or even You Raise Me Up would start playing. No such luck, but it might’ve been funny if it had happened.
Maybe I should start a playlist of the originals of everything John’s covered. 😉