A few years ago, America was shaken by the shocking revelation that mass-retailer Walmart was selling altered versions of popular recordings without revealing that fact to the purchaser.
Sometimes the cover was changed, sometimes alternate lyrics were used (or the original lyrics were bleeped) and sometimes entire songs were simply deleted.
Diamondville officials figured it wouldn’t really affect our work, since Neil Diamond albums mostly have no lyrics about Walmart’s gun sales to psychos and generally contain little sex and violence, leaning more toward sax and violins.
But after hearing a Walmart version of the “In My Lifetime” set we can understand the concern a little better. Not only was “Cherry, Cherry” retitled “Orange, Orange,” some other lyrics were affected too. Here is “September Morn” as heard by Walmart customers:
