The Song Is Over?

Pondering last week’s posting on boomer music used in TV commercials got Mister Boomer to thinking a bit more on the subject. Besides, it was always a trait of boomers to grab on to a tangent and take it beyond its logical conclusion. To paraphrase Procul Harem, Mister B has decided to “write it down, it might be sung, nothing’s better left undone.”

In that spirit, then, here are a couple of dozen songs from the Boomer Era (in no particular order) paired with brand products that Mister B thinks could be fun, or at least ironic, if used in a TV commercial:

TIE: White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane –OR– Easy to Be Hard by Three Dog Night — Viagara


“Feed your head,” indeed!

Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive — Metamucil

Love the One You’re With by Stephen Stills — Cialis

Stuck In the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel — Kraft Miracle Whip

You Really Got Me by the Kinks — Tide Stain Release

Till There Was You by the Beatles — Beltone hearing aid

Shop Around by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — Progressive Insurance

Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean — Cadillac Escalade

Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys — Duracell batteries

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell — I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter

You Keep Me Hangin’ On by Vanilla Fudge — 3M Scotch Tape

I Get Around by the Beach Boys — Hoveround senior mobility vehicle

You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore — Rent-A-Center

Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley — Black Flag Roach Motel

Fortunate Son by Credence Clearwater Revival — U.S. Army

The Race Is On by Jack Jones — Taco Bell

Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground — Your Daily Newspaper Sunday subscription

Crystal Blue Persuasion by Tommy James and The Shondells — Vanish toilet bowl cleaner

If I Had a Hammer by Peter, Paul and Mary — Stanley tools

Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harem — Coppertone tanning lotion

Angel of the Morning by Merrilee Rush — Oil of Olay

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Bobby Vee — ADT home security service

Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin — Pillsbury crescent rolls

We Shall Overcome by Joan Baez — Glade air freshener

Of course, the real irony is that in a time when songs by The Who are being used to front a series of TV shows, several of these songs have already made their commercial debut with other real products.

What do you think, boomers? Do you have an interesting pairing to add to the list?

Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma

TV commercial makers know a good song when they hear one. It has come to Mister Boomer’s attention that recently there has been a virtual plethora of TV commercials that use songs from the boomer era. One of the latest to cross Mister B’s path is the song Brand New Key. Sung by Melanie in 1972, it now backs a Hewlett Packard commercial.

Melanie was one of those artists who had been around forever, playing with some of the greats of the time. In fact, she happened to be on the bill at Woodstock, yet comparably few people knew much about her until her first U.S. hit, Candles in the Rain, in 1971. A year later, Brand New Key was released. Some radio stations refused to play it because they perceived the lyrics to be a double entendre for sexual innuendo. It became a hit anyway, possibly — who knows? — because of it. (For Mister B, the song was pretty high on his dislike list, preferring her ironic Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma. Besides, he is still trying to figure out the lyrics to Louie Louie.)

Many of us gave a mighty boomer “right on” to artists like Bruce Springsteen for refusing to have his songs used in commercials. The whole 60s anti-establishment thing seemed the direct opposite of this type of commercialization. The words that often came to mind by boomers when referring to artists who allowed their songs to be licensed were, “sell out” and “sacrilegious.”

Now that decades have passed, it’s no longer a handful of songs that are being pressed into the service of commerce. Songs by Bobby Darin, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop (did Carnaval actually listen to the lyrics to that song?), The Shirelles, The Yardbirds, Johnny Nash, The Kinks, Herman’s Hermits, The Ronettes, The Turtles, The Fifth Dimension, The Isley Brothers, The Partridge Family, The Association, The Spencer Davis Group (that one really hurt Mister B!), Barry White, Led Zeppelin, Donovan, Al Green and The Beatles, to name a few, have made their way onto our TV screens to sell everything from cars to cruises, mops to allergy medicines, and everything in between.


Double whammy: The Easy Rider himself and Gimme Some Lovin. Oh, the horror!

In case you haven’t played your scratchy Spencer Davis Group 45 in a while, here’s a version in a rare, priceless video:

In some marketing-universe way, it probably makes sense. After all, the boomer generation is the largest demographic the marketing world has ever seen. Still, many of these commercials aren’t aimed at boomers. It appears they are aiming at the two generations after the boomers — today’s homemakers and parents. What can we make of that?

In days of yore, people would play the Victrola in their homes, when they could afford the contraptions, at designated times and special occasions. For our parents’ generation, they most often heard new songs on the radio and in clubs. Boomers kept the radio tradition, but with the advent of rock ‘n roll, bought records to play at home in astonishing numbers. Once boomers started families of their own, their music went along with them. Many a child now in their twenties or thirties grew up listening to the great music that we boomers put forth, and thus will recognize the tunes on TV.

Mister Boomer has a friend whose son discovered Jethro Tull and King Crimson in his teenage years. Another swears her daughter’s favorite bands are The Beatles and The Mamas and the Papas. Many a child of boomer parents loads sixties music onto their phones and iPods, not because they have to, but rather because they like them.

So what are we to make of boomer music used in TV commercials? In an era when a new song used in a commercial can often mark it as an upcoming hit, the use of oldies — OUR oldies — obviously isn’t going away any time soon. Maybe we should look on the bright side. With the songs only a quick download away, the music of our era is alive and kicking, and some of those musicians even get to benefit from the uptick in interest.

Mister B will try and lighten up, too. He is now reminded that he has to go online to buy a few songs that didn’t make it to his vinyl record collection.

What do you think of boomer songs used in TV commercials?