I keep coming across this well-known song when I’m waiting on hold on the phone. I think it may have been used as the theme song on a '90s TV show, but I can’t remember which one.
Which is it then?
That, my friend, is Bruce Hornsby’s, “The Way It Is,” probably a snide commentary directed at anyone pissed at being on hold.
Nice! I was headed that direction.
That’s the one.
While I was aware there’s a vocal version, I’m more familiar with it in instrumental form as on hold music, such as:
Wikipedia says it was used as the theme tune for a BBC medical TV show, which maybe what I was thinking of.
“Your call is important to us”.
The first thing that popped into my mind is Greendale’s new school song.
City Hosptial
Yep, that’s the one.
It would’ve worked well as a theme song for a TV show like L.A. Law or ER, but the song’s probably too well-known in its own right. It has that vibe, though.
“Ah, but don’t you believe them.”
Stand in line, marking time,
Waiting for operator’s line,
'Cause they can’t take the call.
Well, they put you on hold in '64
Asked you to wait just a little more