The recent premiere of a television spot for the Lexus NX with the musical background of Donna Summer’s mythical ‘I feel love’ gives us the opportunity to remember in this gallery the ‘Top 40’ of music hits that illustrated car advertisements, many of them in the Olympus of vehicle advertising.
All styles, all styles, mythical groups such as the Rolling Stones -the Beatles have always been very careful when lending their music for commercial activities-, Queen or Coldplay, and proper names such as Frank Sinatra or David Bowie, all of them They have on occasion lent their art and their work to the campaign of a car that, by the way, will not have paid little for this ‘collaboration’.
Audi A4 Avant & The Foundations
youtube video
‘BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP’. We start with a ‘One Hit Group’, the Foundations, a short-lived British band, active between 1968 and 1971, and their greatest success, a very happy and partying song that illustrates one of the best advertisements in automotive history, through late 90’s, where a kid’s dream of buying a Harley… ends the moment he sees an Audi A4 Avant. The well-known song was used in the closing and outtakes of the Farrelly brothers’ great comedy ‘There’s Something About Mary’ (1998), with Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller.
youtube video
Audi A4 Avant & Frank and Nancy Sinatra
youtube video
‘SOMETHING STUPID’. And we continue with the same brand and the same model. And with a quality musical background, the number one in the US that Frank Sinatra sang as a duet with his daughter Nancy in 1967. And that Robbie Williams, together with Nicole Kidman, also led to ‘number one’ in the British charts in 2001.
youtube video
youtube video
Audi R8 V10 Plus & David Bowie
youtube video
‘STARMAN’. On American television, the prime time of the year to air commercials is undoubtedly the Superbowl halftime, the final of the American Football League at the end of January. In 2016, Audi gave it its all and surprised the world with a wonderful commercial in which a former NASA astronaut relives the best moment of his life, when he traveled to space, when he gets into an R8. And the music could not be other than the mythical ‘Starman’, by David Bowie, a song inserted at the last minute in his 1972 album ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’, and which was his definitive ‘ trip to the musical galaxy’ of the 70s, and one of his most remembered songs.
youtube video
BMW iX & Coldplay
youtube video
‘HIGH POWER’. Despite the fact that it is a group that is highly reviled in many forums, there is no doubt that Coldplay is one of the most important bands of recent years. And the single from his latest album, ‘Music of the Spheres’ (2021) is undoubtedly perfect for the launch of BMW’s new generation of electric cars.
youtube video
Citroen & Supertramp
youtube video
‘TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME’. Big words. The British group Supertramp, founded in 1969, is the maximum expression of so-called ‘progressive rock’, and was one of the dominators of the music scene of the 70s and early 80s with wonderful albums such as ‘Crime of the century’, ‘Crisis? What crisis?’, ‘Even in the quietest moments’ and, above all, with ‘Breakfast in America’. We can say that its leaders, Rick Davis and Roger Hodgson, bridging the gap, were the ‘Lennon and McCartney’ of the 70s. ‘Take the long way home’, the fourth single from ‘Breakfast’, was that ‘long way’ with which Citroën illustrated its history when it turned one century old.
youtube video
Citroen C3 & Gene Kelly
youtube video
‘SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN’. Another piece of classic in a car advertisement. In 2004, the Citroën C3 was one of the spearheads of the French firm, and what better way than to show the happiness of its driver than to open the sunroof of the utility to continue ‘singing in the rain’. If we say that ‘Singin’ in the rain’ is composed by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Introduced by Doris Eaton Travis in 1929… we say little. But if we refer to her as the inspiration for one of the most famous Hollywood movies, directed in 1952 by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, things change. And what about the exact moment when Kelly -who by the way had a fever of 39 at the time of filming the scene- performs the song, at that iconic moment when, under the heaviest rain, she climbs on a lamppost to leave well clear how happy he feels with his newly released relationship with Debbie Reynolds (Princess Leia’s mother, Carrie Fisher).
youtube video
Dacia Duster & Queen
youtube video
‘ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST’. In the Dacia advertisement, ‘Another one drives the duster’ is sung, in an inventive play on words with one of the songs, another one, more well-known by Queen, a very recurring group in car advertising, as we will see later. The powerful and repetitive bass melody, from the beginning of the song, makes it easy to understand that the composer was John Deacon, the bassist of Queen. ‘Another one bites the dust’, included in the album ‘The Game’ (1980) marked a twist, one more, to the band’s career, with a strong rock charge, and to this day it continues to be the best-selling single by Freddie Mercury’s Boys, with more than seven million copies.
youtube video
Fiat Seicento & Slade & Quiet Riot
youtube video
‘CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE’. The promotion for Fiat’s failed Seicento was illustrated with one of those songs that we hear very frequently, that we love… but most of the time we don’t know what group or singer they are from. And even more so in this case, because this catchy song, widely chanted on English football pitches, had ‘two lives’: the first, in 1973, at the hands of its creators, the British glam rock band Slade, who led it to number one on the UK charts. But the success of ‘Cum on feel the noize’ (Slade used to write the names of his songs with deliberate misspellings) did not reach the United States… until ten years later, thanks to the version made in 1983 by the American band of heavy metal Quiet Riot.
youtube video
youtube video
Ford Cougar & Steppenwolf
youtube video
‘BORN TO BE WILD’. One of the best car ads ever produced, and this writer’s favorite. The creative on duty had the brilliant idea of bringing together Dennis Hopper from ‘Easy rider’ (1969), on his Harley Davidson ‘Billy Bike’, with Dennis Hopper from 1999 at the launch of the Ford Cougar. The first digital cinematographic techniques make us enjoy the before and after of one of the most influential ‘road-movies’ in the history of cinema. ‘Born to be wild’, released in 1968 by the Canadian band Steppenwolf, has gone down in music history as one of the precursors of heavy metal, and in automotive history as the unofficial anthem of any self-respecting biker. .
youtube video
Fiat Grande Punto & Marilyn Manson & Eurythmics
youtube video
‘SWEET DREAMS (ARE MADE OF THIS)’. Another already deceased model, the Fiat Grande Punto, harangued potential buyers that their possession would fulfill a “sweet dream.” The problem? That for the promotion they chose the song with which Eurythmics (the Englishman Dave Stewart and the Scottish Annie Lennox) became internationally known in 1983. But the version they chose is that of the musician? American Marilyn Manson in 1995, of which we all know that ‘sweet’ has little.
youtube video
youtube video
Ford Fiesta & The Cardigans
youtube video
‘MY FAVORITE GAME’. The eternal Ford Fiesta was promoted in the 90s with the best-known song by the Swedish group The Cardigans, a single from their 1999 album, with a title also very wheeled, ‘Gran Turismo’.
youtube video
Galloper & Georgie Dann
youtube video
‘THE BARBECUE’. Pure delight of pure shabby that it is, both the song and the ad. Galloper, the ‘Mitsubishi Montero de Hacendado’, did not shy away from promoting his product, and for this he devised a fun spot that ended with the owner of a Galloper, dressed for communion and with George Dann next to him. And the song, ‘La barbecue’ (1994), one of the biggest hits of the French singer adopted in Spain, and recently deceased. Maximum expression of the ‘song of the summer’, it can be said that ‘La barbacoa’ was the last great success of Georgie Dann, who made the most of that catchy music, as danceable as it was empty.
youtube video
Hyundai Tucson & José Mercé and Pablo Alborán & Triana
youtube video
‘YOUR COLDNESS’. Hyundai is one of the brands that have been doing things best in the last 15 years, both internationally and nationally. Its range of models is becoming more popular and complete, and the Tucson is today its spearhead. And to promote the compact SUV of the Korean firm in 2017, a version was chosen, interpreted by José Mercé and Pablo Alborán, of the greatest success of the greatest exponent of Andalusian rock, Triana (1974-1983). ‘Your coldness’ (1980) was his only number one, included on the album ‘Un encuentro’. The last two albums of the Sevillian trio, ‘Un mal sueño’ (1981) and ‘Llegó el día’ (1983) seem like a tragic prophecy, since the death of the group came with the death of its leader, Jesús de la Rosa, in a traffic accident in 1983.
youtube video
youtube video
Jaguar X-Type & Chris Isaac
youtube video
‘WICKED GAME’. The Jaguar X-Type, which arrived at the turn of the century and which lasted a decade on the market, chose the greatest success of American singer-songwriter Chris Isaak, who in ‘Perverse Game’ tells us about the discomfort that falling in love with someone produces and not being reciprocated. Perhaps it is not the most appropriate message for an advertising campaign.
youtube video
Lexus NX & Donna Summer
youtube video
Facebook Comments
Disqus