I was working in a store once years ago, suffering the infernal tootling of the piped in elevator music, when I suddenly recognized Kenny G's vile "Songbird" ooze out of the speakers above me. The odd thing was that it wasn't the original recording, the elevator music people (a sinister and mysterious group if there ever was one) had redone it. The original was already elevator music. I can imagine someone in charge at the place where elevator music is programmed saying, "This Kenny G track's way too hard edged and aggressive; we gotta tone it down."

Years earlier at another job I heard an elevator music version of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth", a song about the riot on Sunset Strip. I swear I'm not making this up. It sort of reminds me of hearing Mel Brooks say he heard his, "Springtime for Hitler" in an elevator once. The world of elevator music is a strange and complex one.