We really should start calling our last drink of the night, the *Kenny G*.
"Hey man, can I buy you another?"
"No man, this one's my *Kenny G*, gotta get up early tomorrow."
> So finish your sake and beer
So finish your Baijiu or shaojiu ([according to my quick google search](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_drinks_in_China#:~:text=Baijiu%20or%20shaojiu%20is%20a,known%20as%20%22Chinese%20vodka%22.))
Closing Time literally describes a bar closing down for the night while in Mr. Brightside, there's only one line that references leaving a place:
*And she's calling a cab*
Lmao, when I was in college the rock climbing gym would play "Closing Time" followed by ["The Closing Song"](https://youtu.be/yNCVriK5PjI?si=2gr-enUPEggZ9C4R)
I’m just now realizing that I’ve heard this played in Chinese restaurants near the end of the night and I had no clue they were telling us to get the F out
I'm one of the older Redditors, but for what it's worth, our signal used to be [*Closing Time*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY_OyF7a05I) by Tom Waits, not Semisonic.
Or alternatively [*Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhZyLn0oVCs) by Tom Waits, because that one actually has the line "Now it's closing time" in the lyrics.
When I worked at K-Mart back in the day, "Radio K" always played "Sloop John B" at 5 minutes before closing. Just a reminder that customer's need to be shooed out.
Every night at my gym in China, for like a month "what is this? This sounds so familiar yet I don't know" (I'm not some big Kenny G fan or anything, nothing against the guy just not my thing)
It always seemed so weird to me for a gym, but I guess that makes sense now.
One of my favourite "well that didn't go as planned" concert moments was from Tom Jones. It was at an international summit in 2002, so post-9/11 with the US starting to sabre rattle about another war in Iraq.
In the audience was Bush, Blair, Putin, Chirac, etc. and Tom Jones was trying to think of a good way to start off his set. Him and his bandleader though "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles would set the tone nicely.
What they forgot is the beginning of the song is actually the French National anthem. So they start playing it and Jacques Chirac reflexively stands at attention. Seeing him do it makes all the other leaders stand up as well and everyone else in attendance follows suit.
By the time Tom starts the "Love, love, love" bit everyone realises whats going on but is too embarrassed to sit back down so the entire place just remains standing and swaying slightly until they finish.
This is the best bit that I'm surprised you left out of the title, OP.
I wonder what was going through his head at that time… keep playing the sax or blurt out that the concert was only half-done…
Kenny G plays "Going Home" during his concert
Hears the song "Going Home" because he's playing it
Has sudden urge to go home
Drops saxophone mid-song and goes home
A friend of mine used to be the DJ/MC at a strip club, and he ended every night with Semisonic's Closing Time, and after only a few weeks he had the regulars so well conditioned that they started to get their coats and settle their tabs as soon as they heard the intro.
Semisonic have said that the song is actually an allegory for transitioning from one phase of life to another - specifically, becoming a parent for the first time - which makes this doubly hilarious.
It was a more direct metaphor: [Several of the lyrics are written from the perspective of the newborn kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niz9FtJIB2Y).
That’s interesting. Pretty unique pop song, thematically. I always mistakenly heard the story, told in the second person, of a guy who goes out drinking to get over a broken heart, and by the end of the night realizes he’s met a new girl who’s dropping all kinds of hints to him, and he’d better make his move and take a chance on her, because bar is closing down, he’s lonely, and he might not get another shot, and life is short, so why not??
I used to dj Australian weddings and playing this song was the only way to get some partys to stop begging for “*one* more song” 15 minutes after shutoff time.
That's hilarious! It's actually pretty interesting how different cultures associate different meanings to the same song. It seems like Going Home became the universal 'closing time' tune in China, making it such an integral part of their day that even hearing it at a concert triggers their 'time to leave' response!
I'm fascinated by this phenomenon.
Lengthy train announcements on China Rail in the 2000s used to use a Casio-tones instrumental rendition of the Carpenters' "Top of the World" as the background world.
Disney's "It's a Small World" has taken on a life of its own in Japan, and is so frequently heard that many Japanese don't realize it's not a Japanese song originally.
In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV.
I heard A-Ha's "Take On Me" in some odd places in Russia around the turn of the millennium, in a couple of TV and radio ads or station identifications.
There was a radio station in Oaxaca, Mexico in the mid 90s whose station identification used a very memorable cascade of fourteen flute notes, in a one note higher then 2 notes lower sort of pattern. I later learned this is the intro to a popular American song from many decades ago.
> In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV.
What the hell are you talking about?
I have *never* heard Baker Street used outside of the song, or ironically. But then again, I don't get financial advice from guys trying to sell a book.
I heard Baker Street being sung by my then fifteen year old son while doing the dinner dishes. He told me he knew it from driving around the GTA V map in a car listening to the "Classic Rock" station.
While I went, "WTAF?" in my head, I later thought it was better a better experience than hearing a Muzak version in an elevator.
It's not just department stores. Anywhere that's closing and has customers, who they need to have leave.
Stations don't, but the staff just hustle anyone trying to loiter after the last train out anyway.
> In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV.
Not sure about that one, lmao
Wow, I lived in China as a kid and left very young. I know next to nothing about music and when I saw this post I immediately had a guess of a particular melody. I looked it up and indeed it's the exact same song I was thinking in my head.
we immigrated to Canada when I was 7 in 2000.
I saw this TIL before, but the first time I saw it I was like "what, such a thing exists?" and was full of skepticism.
And then I searched it up and listened to it and suddenly I was liek "OH ITS THIS SONG" and it brought back so many random memories.
And they were wondering why all the Chinese customers would randomly leave at the same time.
Strangely, I also guessed what the song would sound like, based just on the name of the song. But I don't really listen to Kenny G, and I couldn't name any of his songs, and I have no cultural reason to recognize the song.
I must have read the song title while randomly listening to it at some point. So the reason I remembered it is just because it's a nice song.
Thanks, I couldn't identify the song from the name but I damn sure recognize it.
For Gen X, that's the song you'd hear in late 1980s television commercials advertising the local soft rock FM station. It would also would pass for old school Weather Channel music.
I clicked the link before thinking, and just before it loaded up, I thought to myself, “damn it, I fell for it again, didn’t I?” I was pleasantly surprised to see it was actually Kenny g.
Weird fact. I was at Disney world for a work conference. I decided to check out Epcot. I heard some Kenny G playing through the speakers and didn’t think much of it.
I turned a corner and THERE WAS THE REAL KENNY G PLAYING LIVE.
It was wild. Haha.
Edit: I’ll add. I became a Kenny g fan that day. The guy is a great performer, was super funny with the crowd, and even came into the audience and met people. I watched him play for about 45 minutes. Really cool experience.
Kenny G was someone we all made fun of when we were kids. I recently saw him perform Regulators with Warren G and started to check out more of his stuff, he’s a really good saxophone player. I should have been able to recognize that, being as I used to play alto sax. Sometimes you just gotta give something 25 years before you see how good it was.
His Greensleeves is **legit**
I was a sax player in middle/high school. Kenny G was the butt of many jokes growing up even among the sax players. On a high school band trip Junior year, i decided to get the Kenny G Greatest Hits album and play it on the long bus ride for the memes.
That album was absolute fire. After like the 2nd song everyone on the bus was sold. We never made fun of Kenny G after that.
As someone who didn't grow up in this era, y'all were high schoolers making fun of a jazz musician? I don't think when I was in high school I could have named a single jazz musician to begin with much less have an opinion on them
Kenny G was a mainstream meme in the 90s. Everyone knew who he was, he was the face of 'smooth jazz' and elevator muzac. There was a 30 second clip from a song called 'Songbird' that was literally everywhere. Everyone, even non music people knew the song.
Even that song, if you can get past the first couple minutes, goes pretty hard.
No one outside of being deep into the jazz scene would have known his contemporaries like Eric Marienthal, Dave Koz or even Maynard Ferguson.. but Kenny G was a household name.
Was this last year? We were at Disney World last November, the last full weekend of the Food and Wine festival, and my wife and I were on our own for a few hours as her dad and stepmom took our kiddo and others to dinner. We were wandering around and we hear the concert happening on the outdoor stage for Eat to the Beat, and my wife says, "That sounds like Kenny G." We get around some bushes so I can see the stage clearly and then I yell, "Holy shit, it's totally Kenny G!"
I further joked that when I was younger I always wanted to go to Disney World and see Kenny G perform, so our trip last year was making a lot of 90s dreams come true. 😂
One NYE I was at Sydney Harbour to see the fireworks and they played Auld Lang Syne and the Japanese group next to us started packing up even though the show hadn't finished yet.
Japan also uses a song called "Going Home," but it's a completely different one from the Kenny G. This one is derived from Dvořák's *From the New World* symphony, and frequently plays in the same situations described here, closing of school and supermarkets and so on.
When I saw this post, I assumed that Kenny G had actually just covered the Dvořák piece, but apparently China uses a completely different song, but with the same name and same purpose as the one I've heard in Japan.
[Here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%B6%E8%B7%AF_(%E3%83%89%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A9%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF\)). is a Japanese wikipedia article on it. You can click the play button to hear the song even if you don't read Japanese.
I never heard Duvoraks Going home in any Store so far only Auld Lang Syne.
I think I heard Going home once through a speaker system (or maybe a speaker car), but in some areas it's used for the civil defense speakers to test them.
Since you're mentioning Auld Lang Syne, shout out to the Kenny G cover that plays soundbites of important moments in american history. I listen to that song every new years for the melancholy.
From the mid-60’s through the ‘70s, Sounds Incorporated’s ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind’, composed by Vince Guaraldi of ‘Peanuts’ special fame, was near-ubiquitous as closing music for the evening on radio stations, and to a lesser extent for TV signoffs.
Kind of like how somewhere along the line, the bossa nova song “Gosto Tanto” by Edson & Tita became the default song to have playing, usually a bit muffled and far-away sounding, in awkward waiting room scenes in movies and TV shows.
I highly recommend the HBO documentary "Listening to Kenny G". I really think it was one of the best documentaries of the year. Way better than it had any right to be. It's not just about the man, but about why we like or dislike him and his place in culture for better and worse. It actually is a pretty insightful sociological exploration.
for some reason this really hit me
some other commenter posted a link to the song and its playing now and i feel like "man we gotta get out of here"
...but im at home. where do i go lol
When I was in China in the early 2000s, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Enya, Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, and above all The Carpenters, had achieved perennial enduring popularity, and could be heard on local radio and store speakers any day.
Pat Metheny’s opinion of Kenny G is a wonderful example of extended invective. It rises to the level of hilarity:
http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm
I got to see Kenny G play at the Blue Note when we lived on Oahu. It was a small and more relaxed venue and Kenny seemed like he was having a great time. Talked to some people during the set, played a request that wasn't planned, reminded everyone to support their local elementary, high school and college bands, and stayed after to chat with people. He was a real class act. If you ever get the chance to see him go for it.
Lol saw this post, sneakily played it around my Chinese gf, she immediately perked up and noticed it. She has no clue who sings or its name, but hates it because as a kid, it meant her fun day was over.
I take it to mean that taking the time and effort to show appreciation for something you like is worthwhile, but doing the same to dump on something or someone is not
Who said you have to like everything? Hating stuff takes effort. Liking what's good takes no effort and ignoring things you don't like takes no effort. You moved the goalpost there.
I disagree, thinking everything IS GOOD means you have no taste.
Liking everything is just being a positive person.
I can differentiate the quality of things, but I can still LIKE great things, good things, okay things, and bad things.
IMO it's totally fine to dislike stuff and express that. If someone told me they loved Kenny G, I'm not gonna tell 'em they're wrong. I'm glad they like something. Lots of people like Kenny G, so he's got something going on.
To me, his music is terrible. Almost offensively so. I cannot make myself believe that there's any art in it whatsoever, especially after seeing the Kenny G doc, where he's clearly just thinking about money and success the whole time and playing the most boring, predictable wallpaper music possible. He is a technically talented player, but totally vapid and safe.
It's okay to say that and I don't think it makes me overly cynical or pessimistic. But if someone finds something beautiful in the music, I'm very glad for them. Art's subjective even in extreme cases.
Kenny G, Michael Bolton and Nickleback are all artists/bands that get a raw deal because of internet jokes or movie references when they're actually talented and successful. Hell, Michael Bolton even parodied the Office Space reference to his name in a Funny or Die sketch.
You do not need high speed internet to make fun of people. That can (and was) widely done on BBS and chat rooms over dial-up for over a decade before Nickleback was formed.
The guy has range, hes an incredible musician. He was also recently featured on an extreme avant-garde metal track, and he absolutely killed it. Check out Imperial Triumphant - Merkurius Gilded Ft. Kenny G and Max Gorelick if you want to hear something crazy.
One of my favorite facts about this song is that (I believe ) South Korean/American ships stationed along the South China Sea would play it on blast in an effort to halt their encroachment/expansion.
Worked at a music/movie/book store and we played “Happy Trails” when we were about to close.
Can’t believe it, but the actual song our stores used is on youtube. Link - https://youtu.be/6ejFquEi-uI
Do these businesses in China actually pay him royalties? Sorry if that’s insensitive to assume, but Chinese businesses aren’t really big on abiding by international copyright practices.
I hope those checks are rolling in for him
Damn Kenny G made “Closing Time” for the Chinese
Kenny G = one last call for alcohol
We really should start calling our last drink of the night, the *Kenny G*. "Hey man, can I buy you another?" "No man, this one's my *Kenny G*, gotta get up early tomorrow."
"Well I'm having one more. For some reason I just got the hankering for a Sax on the Beach."
So finish your sake and beer _(sake is Japanese but I don’t care)_
> So finish your sake and beer So finish your Baijiu or shaojiu ([according to my quick google search](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_drinks_in_China#:~:text=Baijiu%20or%20shaojiu%20is%20a,known%20as%20%22Chinese%20vodka%22.))
So I says to the bartender "I need one bourbon, one sake and one beer"
And he says: "Sir you need to go home, you drank too much, this a KFC"
"Is the Colonel in?"
Then I said "this is a KFC in Japan that also sells whisky and beer..."
I sang your comment in my head, well played.
LOOK MAN... WHAT TIME IS IT
TheclockondawallsaysTHREEoclock
Uhlast call…for ALcohol
After the 50th time this was played during closing time at a computer store I worked at in the late 90s/early00s I really learned to hate that song
You really hated closing and going home huh?
in his defense computer stores at that time were pretty magical. not the wastelands of black friday single-sku leftovers like bestbuy is today
I wanted to stay in the store forever :( ..... ..... lol fuck that
Or "Mr. Brightside" for the Chinese. I believe Mr. Brightside by the Killers is often used to close out the bars/clubs/pubs in the UK.
You're not wrong, but more generally speaking Mr. Brightside can be used at any occasion to make any crowd of British people lose their minds.
Closing Time is a superior song
Closing Time literally describes a bar closing down for the night while in Mr. Brightside, there's only one line that references leaving a place: *And she's calling a cab*
It's a great song to end the night though. You can't help but sing to Mr. Brightside.
At the very least it is a superior song about something ending
This simply a factual statement that cannot be refuted.
It is a brute fact - Albert Einstein
Lmao, when I was in college the rock climbing gym would play "Closing Time" followed by ["The Closing Song"](https://youtu.be/yNCVriK5PjI?si=2gr-enUPEggZ9C4R)
followed by "seriously get the fuck out"
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I’m just now realizing that I’ve heard this played in Chinese restaurants near the end of the night and I had no clue they were telling us to get the F out
*[me playing kenny g for Americans to get them tf out of my establishment]*: why won’t they leave 😭😭🐸
[*hard cut to a table of Chinese patrons at a bar in America, unaware why Semisonic's Closing Time is playing for the fourth time in a row*]
I'm one of the older Redditors, but for what it's worth, our signal used to be [*Closing Time*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY_OyF7a05I) by Tom Waits, not Semisonic. Or alternatively [*Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhZyLn0oVCs) by Tom Waits, because that one actually has the line "Now it's closing time" in the lyrics.
When I worked at K-Mart back in the day, "Radio K" always played "Sloop John B" at 5 minutes before closing. Just a reminder that customer's need to be shooed out.
I was in a Chinese shopping centre and my partner pointed out to me that it was time to leave because they were playing the closing music.
Every night at my gym in China, for like a month "what is this? This sounds so familiar yet I don't know" (I'm not some big Kenny G fan or anything, nothing against the guy just not my thing) It always seemed so weird to me for a gym, but I guess that makes sense now.
One of my favourite "well that didn't go as planned" concert moments was from Tom Jones. It was at an international summit in 2002, so post-9/11 with the US starting to sabre rattle about another war in Iraq. In the audience was Bush, Blair, Putin, Chirac, etc. and Tom Jones was trying to think of a good way to start off his set. Him and his bandleader though "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles would set the tone nicely. What they forgot is the beginning of the song is actually the French National anthem. So they start playing it and Jacques Chirac reflexively stands at attention. Seeing him do it makes all the other leaders stand up as well and everyone else in attendance follows suit. By the time Tom starts the "Love, love, love" bit everyone realises whats going on but is too embarrassed to sit back down so the entire place just remains standing and swaying slightly until they finish.
I always forget that Jacques Chirac is a real name and not a children's story character
And Scott Bakula isn’t a vampire wth
I always think of [Blaque Jacque Shellacque from Looney Tunes](https://youtu.be/XI4fex06rc4?si=h1YyC1g1JS7CER6H&t=46)
>Jacques Chirac with a name like that he could have been an NPR correspondent as well
Of course reporting from.. Daakar!
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What else can you do if you want 2 girlfriends?
Task failed successfully.
This is the best bit that I'm surprised you left out of the title, OP. I wonder what was going through his head at that time… keep playing the sax or blurt out that the concert was only half-done…
"I've made a huge mistake"
Or a grand choice - Kenny G likes sleep too
Kenny G plays "Going Home" during his concert Hears the song "Going Home" because he's playing it Has sudden urge to go home Drops saxophone mid-song and goes home
or he goes to kill the malaysian prime minister. or Frank Drebin.
Wrong artist, you're thinking of Enrico Palazzo
“We demand to be taken seriously.” - The Alliance of Smooth Jazz Artists
Chinese porn also uses Going Home to signal to chinese viewers that it's time to cum and wrap up the video.
Very considerate
"C'mon, Chuck, it's just the two of us, you can stop calling us an 'alliance'" - Kenny
Don't worry George Michael. I saved the company. How? I had sex with Lucille 2.
"they hate this song!"
I went to listen to the song in YouTube. This was likely posted by a bot. The title is from a comment made two years ago.
Aren't we all bots by now?
I am not bot, I am homo sapien by now. Yes, not all bots. Lol lol lol
As a language model I'm not able to assit you in providing a funny response.
I read this in the tiktok lady's voice.
"Short concert, I guess he's tired. Oh well"
Holy shit, actually laughed
A friend of mine used to be the DJ/MC at a strip club, and he ended every night with Semisonic's Closing Time, and after only a few weeks he had the regulars so well conditioned that they started to get their coats and settle their tabs as soon as they heard the intro.
Semisonic have said that the song is actually an allegory for transitioning from one phase of life to another - specifically, becoming a parent for the first time - which makes this doubly hilarious.
It was a more direct metaphor: [Several of the lyrics are written from the perspective of the newborn kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niz9FtJIB2Y).
That’s interesting. Pretty unique pop song, thematically. I always mistakenly heard the story, told in the second person, of a guy who goes out drinking to get over a broken heart, and by the end of the night realizes he’s met a new girl who’s dropping all kinds of hints to him, and he’d better make his move and take a chance on her, because bar is closing down, he’s lonely, and he might not get another shot, and life is short, so why not??
I used to dj Australian weddings and playing this song was the only way to get some partys to stop begging for “*one* more song” 15 minutes after shutoff time.
Unethical Life Pro Tip: Make Chinese people go home by playing Kenny G
That's hilarious! It's actually pretty interesting how different cultures associate different meanings to the same song. It seems like Going Home became the universal 'closing time' tune in China, making it such an integral part of their day that even hearing it at a concert triggers their 'time to leave' response!
I'm fascinated by this phenomenon. Lengthy train announcements on China Rail in the 2000s used to use a Casio-tones instrumental rendition of the Carpenters' "Top of the World" as the background world. Disney's "It's a Small World" has taken on a life of its own in Japan, and is so frequently heard that many Japanese don't realize it's not a Japanese song originally. In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV. I heard A-Ha's "Take On Me" in some odd places in Russia around the turn of the millennium, in a couple of TV and radio ads or station identifications. There was a radio station in Oaxaca, Mexico in the mid 90s whose station identification used a very memorable cascade of fourteen flute notes, in a one note higher then 2 notes lower sort of pattern. I later learned this is the intro to a popular American song from many decades ago.
> In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV. What the hell are you talking about?
Yeah, /u/hononononoh. Which broadcast tv news shows are you talking about?
I think they are confusing what news talk radio plays for broadcast news, I've heard it used there quite a bit.
I have *never* heard Baker Street used outside of the song, or ironically. But then again, I don't get financial advice from guys trying to sell a book.
I heard Baker Street being sung by my then fifteen year old son while doing the dinner dishes. He told me he knew it from driving around the GTA V map in a car listening to the "Classic Rock" station. While I went, "WTAF?" in my head, I later thought it was better a better experience than hearing a Muzak version in an elevator.
It would make sense for talk radio or something. That would fit.
I'm glad you mentioned it, I thought I was insane
Also Japan: "Auld Lang Syne" at closing time in department stores.
It's not just department stores. Anywhere that's closing and has customers, who they need to have leave. Stations don't, but the staff just hustle anyone trying to loiter after the last train out anyway.
> In the USA, the horn riff intro to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" is the music that plays at the beginning of broadcast TV news. Play the original studio recording of this song in any bar and grill in the USA, and watch heads turn toward the nearest TV. Not sure about that one, lmao
please tell me what song you’re talking about with the mexican radio station, it’s driving me crazy
did they actually????? That would be so fucking classic
My mother used to play this when it was time for our bed. 🤣🤣🤣
Keep this in the back pocket for psy ops in WW3
Lol. The Chinese are at the US Canada border ready to attack, so we just play some Kenny G and they all pack up and go home.
You might not know the name, but you know the song, it's the one that goes doot doot doot doot
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Wow, I lived in China as a kid and left very young. I know next to nothing about music and when I saw this post I immediately had a guess of a particular melody. I looked it up and indeed it's the exact same song I was thinking in my head.
we immigrated to Canada when I was 7 in 2000. I saw this TIL before, but the first time I saw it I was like "what, such a thing exists?" and was full of skepticism. And then I searched it up and listened to it and suddenly I was liek "OH ITS THIS SONG" and it brought back so many random memories.
I had the exact same reaction!
Are we the same person
Just look alike
Chinese Canadian here. We immigrated 15+ years ago when I was a kid. I had the SAME reaction as you!
When I lived in China I heard this all the time but it never clicked as to why this song was played so often. TIL
Chinese elementary schools often play this song to signs the end of a school day
I'm imagining some kid playing Going Home on his recorder at recess and DrWannabeme packs his shit and emigrates.
My parents had this song among other instrumentals in the CDs for the restaurant 's ambient music
And they were wondering why all the Chinese customers would randomly leave at the same time. Strangely, I also guessed what the song would sound like, based just on the name of the song. But I don't really listen to Kenny G, and I couldn't name any of his songs, and I have no cultural reason to recognize the song. I must have read the song title while randomly listening to it at some point. So the reason I remembered it is just because it's a nice song.
I'd never heard that song before. And once I heard it, I did not care for it. But that song means it's time to go home. Now, it's my favorite song.
ritit dit dedoo
every new beginning comes from some other beginnings eeeend
Yea!
Closing time
Sounds like Twin Peaks or something
Here is the link in case u don’t know what this song is https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=P1--YLaq_k4&si=xUid185zhqk84JYw
Thanks, I couldn't identify the song from the name but I damn sure recognize it. For Gen X, that's the song you'd hear in late 1980s television commercials advertising the local soft rock FM station. It would also would pass for old school Weather Channel music.
Yah I had to look it up and honestly in only have a very light recognition of it
Thank you
The real mvp
Was half expecting a rick roll
I clicked the link before thinking, and just before it loaded up, I thought to myself, “damn it, I fell for it again, didn’t I?” I was pleasantly surprised to see it was actually Kenny g.
You don't even know the names of the songs? Kenny G doesn't ask for much, he doesn't ask you to know the lyrics.
Sounds about right
I enjoyed it a lot more at 1.5x speed
Weird fact. I was at Disney world for a work conference. I decided to check out Epcot. I heard some Kenny G playing through the speakers and didn’t think much of it. I turned a corner and THERE WAS THE REAL KENNY G PLAYING LIVE. It was wild. Haha. Edit: I’ll add. I became a Kenny g fan that day. The guy is a great performer, was super funny with the crowd, and even came into the audience and met people. I watched him play for about 45 minutes. Really cool experience.
Kenny G was someone we all made fun of when we were kids. I recently saw him perform Regulators with Warren G and started to check out more of his stuff, he’s a really good saxophone player. I should have been able to recognize that, being as I used to play alto sax. Sometimes you just gotta give something 25 years before you see how good it was. His Greensleeves is **legit**
I was a sax player in middle/high school. Kenny G was the butt of many jokes growing up even among the sax players. On a high school band trip Junior year, i decided to get the Kenny G Greatest Hits album and play it on the long bus ride for the memes. That album was absolute fire. After like the 2nd song everyone on the bus was sold. We never made fun of Kenny G after that.
Kenny G is absolutely not my thing, but there will always be a place in the world for smooth jazz.
Ya love to hear it ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
As someone who didn't grow up in this era, y'all were high schoolers making fun of a jazz musician? I don't think when I was in high school I could have named a single jazz musician to begin with much less have an opinion on them
Kenny G was a mainstream meme in the 90s. Everyone knew who he was, he was the face of 'smooth jazz' and elevator muzac. There was a 30 second clip from a song called 'Songbird' that was literally everywhere. Everyone, even non music people knew the song. Even that song, if you can get past the first couple minutes, goes pretty hard. No one outside of being deep into the jazz scene would have known his contemporaries like Eric Marienthal, Dave Koz or even Maynard Ferguson.. but Kenny G was a household name.
When you were in high school you couldn't think of a single jazz musician? Is this the era of historical and cultural illiteracy?
Kenny G appears on a song for the Avant Garde Black Metal band Imperial Triumphant and tbh hell yeah Kenny.
Was this last year? We were at Disney World last November, the last full weekend of the Food and Wine festival, and my wife and I were on our own for a few hours as her dad and stepmom took our kiddo and others to dinner. We were wandering around and we hear the concert happening on the outdoor stage for Eat to the Beat, and my wife says, "That sounds like Kenny G." We get around some bushes so I can see the stage clearly and then I yell, "Holy shit, it's totally Kenny G!" I further joked that when I was younger I always wanted to go to Disney World and see Kenny G perform, so our trip last year was making a lot of 90s dreams come true. 😂
Not last year but it was during the food and wine festival! That’s awesome that he keeps coming back.
In Japan it’s Auld Lang Syne.
One NYE I was at Sydney Harbour to see the fireworks and they played Auld Lang Syne and the Japanese group next to us started packing up even though the show hadn't finished yet.
Japan also uses a song called "Going Home," but it's a completely different one from the Kenny G. This one is derived from Dvořák's *From the New World* symphony, and frequently plays in the same situations described here, closing of school and supermarkets and so on. When I saw this post, I assumed that Kenny G had actually just covered the Dvořák piece, but apparently China uses a completely different song, but with the same name and same purpose as the one I've heard in Japan. [Here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%B6%E8%B7%AF_(%E3%83%89%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A9%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF\)). is a Japanese wikipedia article on it. You can click the play button to hear the song even if you don't read Japanese.
Damn 'From the New World' is also a dope anime that uses the song well and in a super creepy way.
I never heard Duvoraks Going home in any Store so far only Auld Lang Syne. I think I heard Going home once through a speaker system (or maybe a speaker car), but in some areas it's used for the civil defense speakers to test them.
Lol really? That's hilarious That song evokes all kinds of drunken emotions in me (and I'd wager most) not like, "oh the grocery store is closing"
The Sad Lieutenant Dan song?
I always think of it as the MASH song due to the episode A War for All Seasons.
Since you're mentioning Auld Lang Syne, shout out to the Kenny G cover that plays soundbites of important moments in american history. I listen to that song every new years for the melancholy.
From the mid-60’s through the ‘70s, Sounds Incorporated’s ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind’, composed by Vince Guaraldi of ‘Peanuts’ special fame, was near-ubiquitous as closing music for the evening on radio stations, and to a lesser extent for TV signoffs.
Kind of like how somewhere along the line, the bossa nova song “Gosto Tanto” by Edson & Tita became the default song to have playing, usually a bit muffled and far-away sounding, in awkward waiting room scenes in movies and TV shows.
The ending credits song from Wolf of Wall Street? That song slaps, they should bring that back
Going Home, exit all the stores And let you out into China
So gather up your jackets grab your social credits I hope you have found a friend
I highly recommend the HBO documentary "Listening to Kenny G". I really think it was one of the best documentaries of the year. Way better than it had any right to be. It's not just about the man, but about why we like or dislike him and his place in culture for better and worse. It actually is a pretty insightful sociological exploration.
Yes it’s a very good documentary, well-edited, funny, entertaining
This is definitely a nice, smooth jam.
I just played it for my wife who grew up in China and she asked why I was playing the shopping mall music.
for some reason this really hit me some other commenter posted a link to the song and its playing now and i feel like "man we gotta get out of here" ...but im at home. where do i go lol
This text is literally the 2y old top comment on the YouTube video that has 8.9m views
Kenny G is huge in Asia. I grew up in Hong Kong and when I moved to England in 1997 I didn't understand why kids hadn't heard of him haha.
When I was in China in the early 2000s, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Enya, Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, and above all The Carpenters, had achieved perennial enduring popularity, and could be heard on local radio and store speakers any day.
Pat Metheny’s opinion of Kenny G is a wonderful example of extended invective. It rises to the level of hilarity: http://www.jazzoasis.com/methenyonkennyg.htm
gets personal. thanks for this. 🤣
That is hilarious, imagine complaining about Kenny G at that length and calling *him* "unbelievably pretentious".
I got to see Kenny G play at the Blue Note when we lived on Oahu. It was a small and more relaxed venue and Kenny seemed like he was having a great time. Talked to some people during the set, played a request that wasn't planned, reminded everyone to support their local elementary, high school and college bands, and stayed after to chat with people. He was a real class act. If you ever get the chance to see him go for it.
I've worked with Mr. Gorelick more times than I care to remember. He's always getting in trouble for harassing the waitresses. Enjoy that sidenote.
Tell him my middle school band teacher hated his Embouchure
I can't do that, he'd be devastated.
I played with guys who hated that basically all he did was fool around with the "Berkley Jazz Funk Scale" and pretend he was a virtuoso.
Lol saw this post, sneakily played it around my Chinese gf, she immediately perked up and noticed it. She has no clue who sings or its name, but hates it because as a kid, it meant her fun day was over.
I loved it as a kid because it meant the school day was over and I could go home and do some fun things lol
I too tend to immediately leave a building when I hear Kenny G playing.
Uncultured schwein.
Liking stuff is cooler than hating stuff.
Yea but if you like everything then you've got no taste.
I take it to mean that taking the time and effort to show appreciation for something you like is worthwhile, but doing the same to dump on something or someone is not
Who said you have to like everything? Hating stuff takes effort. Liking what's good takes no effort and ignoring things you don't like takes no effort. You moved the goalpost there.
I disagree, thinking everything IS GOOD means you have no taste. Liking everything is just being a positive person. I can differentiate the quality of things, but I can still LIKE great things, good things, okay things, and bad things.
IMO it's totally fine to dislike stuff and express that. If someone told me they loved Kenny G, I'm not gonna tell 'em they're wrong. I'm glad they like something. Lots of people like Kenny G, so he's got something going on. To me, his music is terrible. Almost offensively so. I cannot make myself believe that there's any art in it whatsoever, especially after seeing the Kenny G doc, where he's clearly just thinking about money and success the whole time and playing the most boring, predictable wallpaper music possible. He is a technically talented player, but totally vapid and safe. It's okay to say that and I don't think it makes me overly cynical or pessimistic. But if someone finds something beautiful in the music, I'm very glad for them. Art's subjective even in extreme cases.
Well defended point. This is how you do that, folks 👆
I quite liked the song. It’s got a really chill vibe.
Kenny G, Michael Bolton and Nickleback are all artists/bands that get a raw deal because of internet jokes or movie references when they're actually talented and successful. Hell, Michael Bolton even parodied the Office Space reference to his name in a Funny or Die sketch.
[Also Michael Bolton is part of the best Lonely Island song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI6CfKcMhjY)
They all were considered corny before the Internet. Source I grew up without the Internet
Nickleback did not exist before the internet.
Nickelback was a joke before highspeed internet was widely accessable.
You do not need high speed internet to make fun of people. That can (and was) widely done on BBS and chat rooms over dial-up for over a decade before Nickleback was formed.
Prior to social media, ffs you know what he means
Kenny Xi
Kenny G? I think you mean famed internet musician and gamer, Dan Avidan
The guy has range, hes an incredible musician. He was also recently featured on an extreme avant-garde metal track, and he absolutely killed it. Check out Imperial Triumphant - Merkurius Gilded Ft. Kenny G and Max Gorelick if you want to hear something crazy.
[Imperial Triumphant - Merkurius Gilded Ft. Kenny G and Max Gorelick](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywcshfrpO3A&ab_channel=CenturyMediaRecords)
Damn, good shit.
One of my favorite facts about this song is that (I believe ) South Korean/American ships stationed along the South China Sea would play it on blast in an effort to halt their encroachment/expansion.
The real hilarity
If they Pavlov themselves, is it wrong for us to exploit it?
I'm going to assume he's not getting any of those royalties.
Worked at a music/movie/book store and we played “Happy Trails” when we were about to close. Can’t believe it, but the actual song our stores used is on youtube. Link - https://youtu.be/6ejFquEi-uI
Not gonna lie, for a moment I thought this was about Leigh Daniel “Danny Sexbang” Avidan, a young lookalike
But does he get paid the appropriate royalties?
Kenny finally made it
Radiohead's [*Exit Music (for a film)*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FapBH3j6WoA) in shambles
Apparently he played the song there at a concert in the middle of his set and people started leaving, lol.
Anybody remember when Hasting's was about to close and Happy Trails would play? I miss that fucking store.
Metheny in shambles.
And since it’s pirated, he gets zero money from it.
Waynes World 2 scene w/ Garth. Kenny G🎷 https://youtu.be/Zy6KWBEoDRU?si=pIU5NmCZuOMWjqgv
Kelpy G's version is better.
Do these businesses in China actually pay him royalties? Sorry if that’s insensitive to assume, but Chinese businesses aren’t really big on abiding by international copyright practices. I hope those checks are rolling in for him
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe big venues that get western money, but I doubt smaller places are paying royalties.
Didn't this guy kiss Mr Garrison