I Hate Bill Drake!

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Bill Goode, Travel Advisor Extraordinaire

 

One thing I pick up on when traveling is music. Every trip to New York, I pay homage (and a lotta cash) to the Virgin Megastore, listen to bands, radio, just enjoy wherever I go. On the last cruise, I had a bucketful of island music, courtesy of all of the little shops that love to pass out ripped copies of island favorites to promote themselves.

I love music. That is, until I hit Hyderabad...

Growing up, at least one beautiful music station existed in every market. In Miami, it was WLYF. OKC, KKNG. West Palm, WEAT. Atlanta, WPCH. You heard at least one of these stations in the early or mid 1970s, you get the idea...

Most of them played music and followed a format put together by Bill Drake and the warped elevator-muzak minds at Drake-Chenault. They are the ones that put the ooze in snooze!

The place I am staying at has a CD player attached to their house music system. How do I know this?

When I first checked in, I did not think anything of it. Who does at 1am after a 20+ hour trip? It was a beautiful music version of Strangers in the Night, slow piano, strings for the music, snooze city. I did not think anything of it.

At breakfast the next morning, I was feeling a bit tired. Could it be because the song was played during breakfast?

This morning, it was baaaaaaaaack..... Did it ever leave?

24/7, at this hotel, this three minute song plays, plays again, plays again, plays again... even elevator music is marginally more entertaining than this!

The same snooze-me-please version of this song never stops playing, even for Lent!

Had Bill Drake not come up with the ez-listening format, the music, and the places to play it, I doubt this song would be repeating itelf to death. They may have an Indian song, Tony Bennett, David Allan Coe, anything other than this insipid song churning in the CD player again, again, again...

That is why I hate Bill Drake. This damn song is his fault!!!

 

(This is written tounge-in-cheek. I spent years working in radio and this is a fun stab at his format!)