Artists Who Have Done Commercials

When Ray Charles and TV commercial are mentioned, the one where he was driving a car was forever seared into my brain....

 

Here's a few:

Dottie West/Country Sunshine (a huge Coca Cola commercial)
Arthur Prysock/ Here's To Good Friends (Lowenbrau Beer, irony is the beer commercial was more successful than the single or parent LP, own a promo 45)
Brook Benton/ If You've Got The Time, We've Got The Beer
Budweiser's When You Say Bud. Became a Country Hit by Bob Luman

 

Flaming Lips for Hyundai:

 

^ The Kingston Trio (circa 1960)

 

That was the first time I ever heard that song! I must have seen that commercial a zillion times as a kid, probably during sitcoms or sporting events. I had forgotten that it was part of the Michelob campaign.

 

Alice Cooper for beer

 

Pink Floyd for Dole bananas:


Because when I think of Dole bananas, of course I think about death.

 

The series of Fruitopia ads Kate Bush did music for were wonderful. Original pieces of music set to kaleidoscopic animations of fruit, overlaid with ad copy dribble about "mind body spirit" (and presumably high fructose corn syrup). They are all on YouTube and are well worth finding.

 

Gary Numan and Lee Cooper Jeans. The song was released as a single sung by John Du Cann.

 

Devo have either licensed, or in recent years re-recorded a number of tracks for use in adverts. Given the poor deal they signed back in the day they have elected to re-record tracks where possible over the past five or so years so that they control and own all of the performance rights in those recordings thus maximising the revenue they receive.

Whip It has been done to death and use in many commercials both in its original form and modified for various brands such as:

Re-recorded for Western Star Butter, Australia, circa 2008

As Swiff It for Swiffer, mid 2000s

As Zip It for Bonds Baby clothing, Australia 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdXkk22_65E

As Rip It for Rip Chip 2012

Re-recorded with original lyrics for Gateway Computers, early 2000s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJLkvUNQRNs

Re-recorded with modified lyrics for Fujifilm's FDR D-EVO 2009/10.

Dell actually wanted to use Whip It for their ad but Gerry Casale asked if they could use a new song, hence Watch Us Work It came into being and we finally got a new Devo album after the positive response it got.

And then we have:

Beautiful World was re-recorded for Target 2001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivNjRdqdbSw

Uncontrollable Urge was used in an ESPN ad from 2012.

Mind Games was used in a Target Thanksgiving ad in 2010.

Freedom Of Choice was re-recorded for Miller Lite, circa 2004.

Devo themselves appeared in a Coke commercial in 1985

A visual snippet from Whip It was used in this Jeep Heritage commercial, circa 2008.

Of course, Mark Mothersbaugh has done music for hundreds of TV commercials since he began writing and composing music for film/tv/advertisements for nearly 30 years now while Gerry Casale has directed many commercials.

 

New Ringo commercial:

 

Lou Reed on the wild side for Honda scooters:

 

Of course, the subject matter conjures a musical connection with The Velvet Underground and Nico.
L.Reed would have rejected it, of course Warhol would have had a nocturnal emission over the thought of it.

But even with the sometimes bizarre logic of 70's advertising, I'd think a creative marketing rep would have been hard pressed to weave Heroin or Black Angel's Death Song with fresh fruit.

 

The infamous unseen Madonna commercial.

 

Long Ryders & Del Fuegos both appeared in Miller beer commercials

 

The first one I thought of:

 

Guitar legend Dick Dale did tv commercials for Nissan and Skyy blue. The song on the Skyy Blue commercial was a studio recording of the song 'Esperanza,' which Dick re-recorded. It sounds very similar to the early 1990s version on Hightone, but he retains full ownership of the recording.