Yesterday I heard Adele’s “Someone Like You” while flipping through the radio dial. I decided to stick around and was astonished to find out it was a Spanish language radio. I’m still trying to figure out why a Spanish language station would play a song in English by a British woman that sounded nothing like any other song they played. Anybody else either now or in the past suprised by a single song a radio station played?
I recall when a top-40 radio station in El Paso underwent a format change. As part of their research campaign (I presume) they would pick the most unbelievable far out selections to see what got the best response. I almost drove into the back of a semi when they followed up a Stones song with Gregorian Chant.
Back in the 80s, a local radio station started an “I Don’t Like Mondays” promotion, using the song of that name by the Boomtown Rats.
Then they listened to the lyrics (it’s about a school shooting). The promotion never made it to the first Monday.
A local radio station plays “I Don’t Like Mondays” every Monday at 9:30. It’s roughly 20 years older than every other song they play.
I don’t know if this counts as radio, but I was in the supermarket once when the piped-in music played Rick James’ “Super Freak.” That just seemed wrong on so many levels.
I was in France on a business trip and on the radio of the rental car, I heard: “blah-blah-escargot-foiegras-french that I don’t understand… Zhjennifer Lopez avec Zhjenny from ze Block!”
It was weird…
I lived in Japan in 2003-2004, and one of the girls who worked in the kitchen at the local MOS Burger (upscale fast food place) apparently really liked Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” I used to hear it all the time when I went to get lunch there.
Japan has (or at least had) really horrifically bad Muzak. It used to be a bit of a challenge figuring out what Western pop tune I was hearing in the grocery store. The weirdest selection was “Harper Valley PTA”, which I suddenly recognized while standing at the sushi case. I’m not sure how I even knew this song, it was released more than a decade before I was born and I’ve never been a country fan.
When I was visiting Bern, Switzerland the clock radio in my room was tuned to an oldies station that played mostly English-language songs, but the selection was different from what I’d usually hear on similar stations in the US. I often recognized the artist, but not the song – I guess some singles that were never big in the US were hits in Europe. This seemed stranger to me than if the music had been totally unfamiliar; it was sort of like listening to radio from a parallel dimension. Anyway, this was the first and only time I’d ever heard Manfred Mann’s “My Name is Jack” until I looked it up on YouTube just now. It got stuck in my head for a good part of the day.
The local college radio station plays a little bit of everything rock during the week days, so there are quite a few surprises, even though they usually stick to adult alternative and new blues/alt-country/whatever new music the DJ happens to like. But one time they seemed to be on a singer-songwriter kick for a good five songs only to break out with Come On Eileen.
Most Muzak is no longer “easy listening”, but occasionally you still get a station that plays soft rock. More than once in the past 20 years I have had the pleasure of being in an establishment that had the Muzak tuned to the soft rock feed when San Tropez by Pink Floyd came on.
Now, that song is appropriate for soft rock Muzak (for those who haven’t heard it it’s basically a light lounge swinger with just a hint of smooth yacht rock.) But it very well could also have been an inside joke from the musical programmer who wanted to get in a normally much harder-sounding artist onto the Muzak.
I once heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on a local classic rock station. It was ONLY once, so I assume they’re not too comfortable just yet with calling Nirvana “classic”. If I ever hear “Head Like a Hole” on that station, though, I am going to lose it.
Pat Boone’s Speedy Gonzalez on an alternative metal station in Mexico, back when they’d have had to get a tape and find a player at least.
It’s varsity sweater Pat Boone and vaguely racist. No explanation like protest or irony; it just popped up.
Some years back on Thanksgiving day, the local classic rock station would run a charity promotion which was make a donation and we’ll play whatever song you want –provided of course it wasn’t in over-the-top contravention to FCC regulation.
You had people who wanted to hear dippy Ray Stevens parodies they knew as kids, you had others who would request songs that would otherwise never be heard in the classic rock rotation. (Think MC Hammer followed by the Carpenters.)
Anyway it was quite the hoot and I’ll always remember the female DJ introing the next song by saying, “Now here’s a line I never thought I’d say on public radio. Ladies and gentlemen, ‘Sit on My Face.’ ” Which was followed by the rousing Monty Python’s Sit on My Face (And Tell Me That You Love Me) which had to be pushing the envelope.
I heard a song by Garou on a bus in Zakopane, Poland. I don’t know which song it was and I don’t think I’d even heard it before, but the singer was definitely recognizable. I think he is actually quite popular in Eastern Europe, but most of you probably have no idea who he is.
I listen to this radio station which makes a point of digging a little deeper than average. Sometimes I bust out laughing at their juxtapositions.
The best song I’ve heard from them recently is “It Must Be Him” by Vicki Carr, which is pretty amusing on its own, but downright hilarious if you’ve read Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs.
When I was a kid, the local country station had a request show on Sunday mornings, and just about every week they would play “Teddy Bears’ Picnic”. I’m not sure how that was supposed to qualify as C&W. In retrospect, maybe it was the same person requesting it every week.
Likewise, they would often play “Baby Sittin’ Boogie”, but apparently that song actually reached #28 on the Billboard country charts (not to mention #27 on the R&B charts)!
The classic rock station here plays that all the time. What sticks out for me is when they play “Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald” on a classic rock station. 
The main classic rock station near me plays lots of early to mid 90’s grunge and alternative…none of the “softer” stuff, but plenty of Nirvana, Bush, some earlier Pearl Jam, etc…
I assume it’s to attract/keep “younger” viewers (younger being relative in this case…late 20’s to early 40’s.)