Soundtrack of Your Life: 2 for TJ's

 Once again, shopping at Trader Joe's and the soundtrack churned. The first song was an obvious favorite of the workers stocking the shelves, as they sang or clicked along from every corner of the store. The second song, from a decade earlier, segued surprisingly smoothly. Hats off to the algorithm. 

1.

Date: May 28, 2022, 8:40 a.m.

Place: Trader Joe's, Uptown, Albuquerque

Song/Artist: "She Drives Me Crazy," Fine Young Cannibals

Irony Matrix: 2.4

Comment: What a delightful way to shop. This earworm was bouncy out of the gate, and it still sounds fresh and fun. There are the clicks and pops and then the memorable guitar riff. Once the falsetto vocals kick in, we'll see who is bold enough to sing along. Or will they wait until the more reachable chorus? Just imagine bopping down the aisles looking for organic blueberry jam. At one point I imagined a crane shot from the ceiling showing customers with shopping carts jerking along in synchronicity. C'mon willowy tattooed chick with the wispy powder-blue hair, let's dance.

2. 

Date: May 28, 2022, 8:43 a.m.

Place: Trader Joe's, Uptown, Albuquerque

Song/Artist: "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet," Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Irony Matrix: 1.7

Comment: Some of my first cassette tapes from the Columbia Record Club in the early '70s were BTO releases. This is the big hit from the 1974 album "Not Fragile" from the beefy Canadians who wrote meaty songs. It was their sole No. 1 record. (And the title was said to be an answer to the wimpy "Fragile" by Yes.) You could say there was "nothing" going on in late 1974 on the Billboard charts. Three of four consecutive number ones were this song, Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothing" and Billy Preston's "Nothing From Nothing." (Three of four Beatles also had No. 1 songs in 1974, which was also the year of "Seasons in the Sun" and "The Streak." Those were simpler times.) On this day, the unusually jangly guitars from the Bachmans were a perfect echo of Andy Cox's staccato bursts in "She Drives Me Crazy." I will always fall for early BTO.