I'm rather surprised that no one's created a board for this yet, or if they have and I missed it elsewhere then I'm sorry for repeating it here. Anyway, just about ever since the advent of television original and different versions of favorite (and some not so) songs you hear on the radio and can buy on records have been used in tv and radio commercials. I remember I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing when it was used for Coke in the early 70's, except I think it was originally written as the jingle first.

Anyway, other songs used as jingles are:
The Archies' Sugar, Sugar in a current ad
Muleskinner Blues for Levis jeans (again, early 70's)
Genesis' (or just Phil Collins'?) Tonight, Tonight- Miller Beer
Steve Winwood's Don't You Know What the Night Can Do- also Miller Beer
Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride for a beer commercial (Miller's again?) and it featured the hottest babe ever to grace TV screens everywhere, a perfectly built buxom blackhaired beauty in an extremely itsy bitsy yellow two-piece bikini who rises up in slow motion from lying down on the beach. Where, or where is she now? (Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild has also been used in numerous tv ads, like a current one for a local annual fair in a nearby county.)
Mitch Rider's Devil with a Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly for a car commercial
T-Rex's Twentieth Century Boy last year for the Mitsubishi Montero, with that really cute Liv Tyler lookalike whose sexy mouth is shown in closeup (I don't know the names of the other songs used in the other Mitsubishi ads with more current groups)
Buddy Holly's had at least one of his songs used in an ad recently but I forget exactly which one. Rave On, perhaps.

MarkN:
Easy, boy, get a towel. Although I have to admit I wouldn't mind seeing that ad based on your description...I take it you like the "bikini babe" just a bit? (Didn't you mention her in the commercials board over in the Kitchen Sink, or someplace?)
I remember a beer ad (Miller?) where a bunch of people are waiting in sweltering heat at a train station... a pretty brunette woman in a summer dress notices a handsome guy in jeans and a t-shirt open a bottle of whatever beer, starting a snowfall. As the woman tries to get a closer look a the man, the train arrives between them; after it passes, the man is gone. The opening to Jethro Tull's Locomotive Breath was playing throughout the ad.
A Led Zep tune appears in the new Cadillac ad, but I only saw the ad once, and don't remember which tune.
Back in the (late?) 1970's, I think (maybe it was early 1980's), C&H Pure Cane Sugar ads used a song whose name I can't recall, but it was sung in the John Wayne film Donovan's Reef many years earlier by a group of islanders. The ad of course modified the lyrics to include the brand name of the sugar.

Hey...who can forget the Great Microsoft/Rolling Stones Start Me Up kerfuffle?
Also, here in Canada if not the States, the concurrent Great Bank of Montreal/Bob Dylan Times, They Are a-Changin' kerfuffle. (Whooo-boy, were those pretentious commercials, too...even by BMo standards.)

Loved that Levis commercial a few years ago - I believe it was directed by Spike Jonze - the one where the accident victim's monitors suddenly start beeping to the beat of Tainted Love and soon everyone's singing along. Sick, but inspired.

And I have a suspicion I would be enjoying Mitsubishi's use of the Barenaked Ladies' music more if they'd pick a different song. I mean, even I'm tired of One Week by now.

Don't forget Clarinex(tm) using music from The Who's "Tommy". (I think it's "We're not gonna take it")

Microsoft used a Stones tune? I forgot about that.

Don't forget the kerfuffle over Nike using the Beatles' Revolution awhile back, either. Also, Wally World is currently using their own cover of Working In A Coal Mine in their ads, bragging about rolling back prices.

kerriem: Hey...who can forget the Great Microsoft/Rolling Stones Start Me Up kerfuffle?

Yeah, the funniest thing about that song was that, when used on the TV adverts, the advert mysteriously stopped short of the lyric "You make a grown man cry..."

MarkN, if any company defined the use of songs to advertise their products, it would have to be Levi's. In fact, most of the songs used in the adverts were released as singles and hit the top of the charts in the UK:
"Should I Stay Or Should I Go" - The Clash
"Inside" - Stiltskin (their one and only hit!)
"The Joker" - Steve Miller Band
"Spaceman" - Babylon Zoo (they weren't completely one-hit wonders...)
"Underwater Love" - Smoke City (OK, this one didn't do as well in the charts, but the advert was pretty good... )
...and many more!

And let's not forget the many songs from Moby's album "Play" that were used in commercials (among other things).

Speaking of Nike ads, anyone see the World Cup sdvert featuring a private mini-knock out football tournament with the world's best players (with Eric "First goal wins" Cantona as the host with the loud evening suit), playing along to the strains of a remixed version of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation"? I think it's the first time one of his songs has been remixed in such a way, and I think the song's great.

Sorry, that should have been "the world's best players... and Paul Scholes."

How about the two car/truck commercials I'm tired of - bored with ... the truck ads showing one churning through the mud and Bob Seger's Like a Rock thrumming the background ... OR the more recent ones with Blood, Sweat and Tears' tune Vehicle pounding away.

2 corrections

"Muleskinner Blues" by The Fendermen was a hit in 1960. It was originally written in 1931 by Jimmie Rodgers.
"Vehicle" was by Ides of March

"I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" was originally written for the commercial. The single was by The Hillside Singers. So called because the commercial was filmed on a hillside. In Italy if I remember right.

Another hit that was a jingle first, "We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters.

I've already mentioned elsewhere that Sting's "Fields of Gold" was covered by some generic female singer (unless someone can give me the correct name) and used in an advert for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. It's a beautiful advert, check it out sometime. [I'm only doing this because Cynical Chick is upset at what I did on a previous board.... ]

Then, of course, there's Barry Manilow's VSM, (Very Special Medley) but it doesn't really count, because it's a medley of the commercial jingles he wrote, including "I'm a Pepper...", and "You Deserve a Break Today"

A Led Zep tune appears in the new Cadillac ad, but I only saw the ad once, and don't remember which tune.

It's several of their new ads, and it's "Rock and Roll" (Big-time Zep fan, here).

Yeah, the funniest thing about that song was that, when used on the TV adverts, the advert mysteriously stopped short of the lyric "You make a grown man cry..."

Would anyone else care to make any of the hundreds of snide little remarks running through my mind at the moment?

And Mitsubishi using the Commotion's song, whose name I just forgot..it's a mix of techno and hip-hop...
Mitsubishi (I'm pretty sure) (or Ford) using that Daft Punk song. (techno)

I'd forgotten Manilow did some of the most well-known jingles.

I think George Thurogood's Bad To The Bone has been used in an ad or two, IIRC. I know it's been used in several movies, too, although T2's the only one that comes to mind at the moment.

Peter Gabriel's duet with Kate Bush, Don't Give Up was used in an ad several years ago for a runaway hotline. I guess it was seen nationally. It was in black and white and showed a teen or preteen girl huddled on a stoop, not unlike that seen in a brownstone. At the time I didn't know it was his till I got his greatest hits album, Shaking The Tree 16 Golden Greats.

Last night at work we didn't get out till about 12:30am and one of my coworkers was singing a few songs, one of which was Orleans' Still The One, which ABC used in the late 70's or early '80's when they were the number one network at that time.

The Sundays did a cover of The Rolling Stones "Wild Horses" a few years ago, and a few years after that the cover appeared in a beer ad with horses running through snow, IIRC.

Old Navy's using California Sun in their new ads. Honda's using Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild in a new Civic ad.

OK, I can't believe nobody used the classic example...

Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine to push raisins!!!!!

D'oh! <slaps forehead in disbelief at self-stupidity> I used to love those! Good catch!

How about the two car/truck commercials I'm tired of - bored with ... the truck ads showing one churning through the mud and Bob Seger's Like a Rock thrumming the background...

You and me both, Derf (and I'm a Seger fan).

As I understand it, the problem - for viewers if not the company - is that Seger more or less donated that song free of charge to DaimlerChrysler as a patriotic guesture to boost flagging domestic auto sales. So, y'know...no royalties = an admeister's dream.

Does anyone know if soneone's goign to release the remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation" as a single? It's kinda catchy, and the original has suddenly had a lot of airplay recently. (I actually downloaded the full three-minute ad from N*k*'s website... not because I'm promoting that company, but because Terry Gilliam made that film!) [btw, Luis Figo should be a little more happy now that his team, Real Madrid CF, won the European Cup tonight. At Hampden Park, Glasgow!]

Speaking of football... sorry, "sarkur" , Blondie's "Atomic" is being bizarrely used on C*c*-C*l*'s World Cup series of ads now.

There's an ad (what it's for escapes me at the moment) that's using ABBA's Dancing Queen, and I'm not sure if it's their version or a very close cover of it.

Um... I thought that I'd posted this a while ago, but it looks like the Board had other plans. Anyway, the Who song in the Clarinex ads tenichally isn't "We're Not Gonna Take It", but "Overture". That's a pretty sly move actually, as they get to use the melodies from four or five songs from Tommy but only have to pay for one.

Moving along, The Singular/Spider Man ad uses Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes' "Journey To The Centure Of Your Mind"; and, while the companies' names escape me, I recall certain car comercials using Jimi Hendrix's "Fire", Grand Funk's "We're An American Band", and The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" (a title I'm rather partial to)

What song does that new General Electric commerical use? The one that features the line "We're goinround the world and la la la..."

This muffler and tune-up place in Canada, called Speedy, is using a really crumby cover of Queen's "Somebody to Love", nowadays.

You know, if you guys don't know the answer to my question, telling me you don't know would be INCREDIBLY LESS IRRITATING than just waiting and waiting and waiting!

Uh, gee, Brian, do you want to flood this board with "I don't knows"? Or maybe, you could just assume that if nobody answers, we either don't know or can't be bothered to answer!

I don't know. (Actually, I've not heard /seen it.)

Due to the Atlantic Ocean I have no clue but could it be ATC's "Around the World"? From reading the few words it sounds possible, but without knowing the actual commercial...

Ditto Craig's answer.

Slackers.

*agrees with Electron*

Yeah, the radio used to play that d*mn thing ALL THE TIME. And, of course, it was a REALLY crappy song. Drove me up the wall. "It goes around the world and la la lalala...all around the world.."
was all. There was maybe two verses.

Sorry.

Still don't know it.


(And darned grateful I don't! Yikes, sounds awful!)

That wouldn't be one of those "company morale-booster jingles" I've heard so much about in the recent press? The ones that are so toe-curlingly awful?

Nope, still no idea.

Yep - just checked it on the Net (where would my love life be without it?) - it is indeed ATC's "Around the World (La La La La La)" [with a title like that it should be on this Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest]. If you really, really must, it's on ATC's album "Planet Pop". According to amazon.com that is. Honest.

A very interesting cover version of "Around..." can be enjoyed here. And please don't mention the Grand Prix...

Yep - just checked it on the Net (where would my love life be without it?)

Seriously, Sven? Mine, too! How I met my fiancee...

I'm only doing this because Cynical Chick is upset at what I did on a previous board....

*wails* AHHH! Sven, NOOO!!!!!!

Honestly, now, Sven, haven't noticed I'm Queen Sarcasm?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know who did the hippy/Alice in Wonderland tune in that Gap ad with the two peole sitting by a pool? (I mean the one with lyrics. Oddly enough, there's another version of the same comercial with a different tune)

Two Carly Simon songs were used as jingles: Anticipation for Heinz catsup (ketchup?), and Haven't Got Time For The Pain, for some headache medication, but I forget which.

Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" for a car company (either Mitsubishi or Buick.)

What about Aerosmith's "Just Push Play" for Dodge commercials? (Although, now that I think about it, that may just be in Canada... can someone confirm this?)

Heard it here in the States, too.

Here in New Zealand the ad execs for the Bank of New Zealand have borrowed "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve for use in their adverts. Amusing, since they've rather craftily avoided using the song's lyrics ("Try to make ends meet, You're a slave to the money then you die")....

Interesting. I've just started a new topic on brand names and products that appear in songs and I'm reminded of the song "You Get What You Give" by the New Radicals. It was used in New Zealand to advertise Mitsubishi's product line (complete with montage of people miming away to the lyrics while driving happily in their Mitsu's). Interestingly, the edit used in the advert conveniently omits the line "Every night we smash their Mercedes-Benz"...

In the late 60's or early 70's, there was a "Pizza Rolls" commercial where there was an orchestra playing "The William Tell Overture" and a choir singing, "Pizza Pizza Pizza Rolls..." then at the end, Clayton Moore (as the Lone Ranger) argues with the conductor for "Stealing his song". Then Jay Silverheels (Tonto) comes in and asks, "Want a Pizza Roll, Kemosabe?" A truly funny commercial indeed!

THEY JUST DON'T MAKE COMMERCIALS LIKE THIS ANYMORE!

I can remember when CDs first came out...there was a commercial on TV showing a CD player (can't remember the name brand) anyway, the song that was playing was "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel. In the background was a man & woman ballroom dancing...as it turns out, the man & woman were MANNEQUINS. (The reason why they did that is to show how "true to life" CD quality was)

GM is using Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" for the overnight test drive. It's actually a good fit...

Well let me sleep on it, baby, baby,
Let me sleep on it...
Let me sleep on it,
I'll give you my answer in the morning

Oh, and the concert film for that song ROCKS! They used to play it (on film!) along with Tim Curry's "Paradise Garage" and "I Do the Rock" as a lead-in to Rocky Horror. This was from late 1980 to early 1982.

I seem to recall some beer ad using "There's No Other Way" by Blur, but I can't remember which one...

Budweiser used to use KC and the Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" (remember the ants?)

They're using Queen's "I'm in Love with My Car" for Jaguar commercials these days. On the one hand, it's surprising that it took them almost thirty years to use it for a car commercial. On the other hand, it's an interesting choice for a cople of reasons: it's a pretty obscure song (at least to the general public three decades after the fact) despite being on the same album as "Bohemian Rhapsody"; and it's not recognizable to the casual listener as a Queen song, because Freddy Mercury doesn't sing on the track (Roger Taylor--the drummer--does).

It may be obscure and not quite recognizable as a Queen song, but it is pretty catchy. That may be what Jaguar was looking for in the tune, along with the lyrics (part of them anyway).

np - Liz Phair - Liz Phair

"Music is a world within itself and a language we all understand."

And let's not forget that Brian May's "Driven by You" was originally written for Ford. Guess Queen's in love with their car-related dough.

In the late 60's or early 70's, there was a "Pizza Rolls" commercial...
I loved that commercial, and it brought back memories. The product was called "Jeno's Pizza Rolls" (are they still made?) and it spoofed a Lark cigarette commercial, where someone went around with a sign that read "Show Us Your Lark Pack" (in the subject commercial, someone went around with a "Show Us Your Pizza Roll Pack" sign.)
Aerosmith's classic "Dream On" is now being used to hawk Buicks. Let's see now - Led Zep for Cadillac, and Aerosmith for Buick. Are they saying that us baby boomers are getting older, since the market for Cadillacs and Buicks are (or at least were) older people?

Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac...

Speaking of Cadillac I'm sure we're all by now very aware of them using Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll as its jingle for the past year or two.

These days people are discovering new music -- and rediscovering old music -- in many ways other than radio. For example, Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" recently shot up to #2 on Billboard's Rock chart because it was featured in a TikTok video that went viral. And Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" went up to #9 on the Rock chart a few months ago when it was featured in a YouTube reaction video.

For a while, Chrysler was using Eminence Front in its ads.

Correction. It was GMC, not Chrysler.