OK, I see lists like this all the time here, and I have every expectation that, after starting one of my own, it will completely flop. I’m going to try anyway.
I’m 23, and unlike all of my friends, I don’t mind the TV show “Friends.” I mean, I’m not in love with it (and never was), but I don’t hate it like a lot of people I know. But then the season finale came along a few years ago, and it may have been the most over-hyped thing I had ever witnessed. NBC truly seemed to want to convince us that the earth would be thrown out of its orbit once the gang went off the air.
At the same time that Friends ended, I was in a Pearl Jam music phase. For about a year I listened to all Pearl Jam, all the time. I mention this because Friends, in their promotions for the finale, used PJ’s “Yellow Ledbetter” on the commercials. It may have been on the show, too, but I don’t remember.
That killed “Yellow Ledbetter” for me, and just about ended my brief obsession with Pearl Jam. I was never a huge Ledbetter fan to begin with, but, after seeing all those cheesey commercials featuring the song, I can’t hear it at all (to this day) without cringing.
So what songs for you, when used in commercials or TV or movies or whatever, made you grow to hate the original song?
Stuck in the Middle with You. While the song isn’t ruined per se, I’ll never be able to listen to it again without thinking of a cop’s ear getting cut off.
Amazing Grace, which seems to have been used in every television show known to man (at least those with funerals and/or other sad moments), plus quite a few movies and an odd commercial to boot. Hearing it at random recitals when growing up didn’t help either. It’s a really great song, but I can’t stand it anymore. It’s not music anymore- it’s practically a jingle.
Pachelbel’s Canon in D is a piece that’s so vastly overplayed, making a ton of Best Of classical collections, making appearances in a shit-ton of weddings (and movies/TV with weddings), getting played at recitals (yes I did, too), getting covered by everyone from string quartets to heavy metal bands, and even having its chord progression ripped off by a million and one pop bands. It used to be one of my favorite pieces of all time, but now I get that cheesy vibe whenever I hear it. There are some versions that I can still find beautiful, but I have lost that transcendental feeling I used to get at my favorite recording of it.
The Wedding March and Pomp & Circumstance were always crappy, so their being in everything doesn’t matter much to me.
Can I second this? I love Sly. Hope he’s getting huge royalties.
“Who Are You” by the Who thanks to CSI.
“Come Together” by the Beatles…was it Microsoft? This one especially annoys me.
Also…“Just What I Needed” by the Cars. I cringe every time I hear the first few notes thanks to Circuit City. I wasn’t a huge fan of this song but I liked it okay enough to have it on my iPod.
Enya’s “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” was ruined forever by use in commercials for cruise ships. I still love the “Watermark” album, but have to skip that song now, since it still feels too much like an advertising jingle.
“O, Fortuna” from Camina Burana. This has been overused in every TV show that thinks it needs an over-the-top dramatic scary bit. I used to love it, but I can’t stand it anymore.
**Singing In The Rain **would never be the same for me after I saw **A Clockwork Orange **in which the antihero kicks a man to death while singing the song, delivering a kick to the head everytime he sings “rain.”
I’ve read that some other song was originally supposed to be used in that scene but McDowell asked Kubrick to switch it to “Singing In The Rain” because he said he knew all the words to that.
Never Gonna Give You Up. Although Rick Astley is flattered by and is a good sport about his humorously resergent fame (as his appearance in this year’s Macy’s parade showed), there are some parts of the Internet where I have seen the song simply referred to as “Rickroll.”
Are you sure this is correct? A brief bit of the music to “Yellow Ledbetter” appeared in the final episode of Friends, but I don’t think it was used in the commercials. I was living overseas at the time and wouldn’t have seen the commercials anyway (I’ve seen the actual episode in reruns), but I’m a huge PJ fan and don’t remember hearing anything about the song being in a commercial. It would have been noteworthy as I am pretty sure Pearl Jam’s music has never been in any other commercials, and the Friends episode was in fact the first time any of their songs had been licensed for use on a TV show (cite).
You made me curious enough about this that I’ve done a little online research, and I can’t find any reference to “Yellow Ledbetter” appearing in a Friends commercial. The promos for the Friends finale available on YouTube don’t feature “Yellow Ledbetter” either (short promo and long promo). This seemingly exhaustive list of music used in Friends episodes and promos mentions “Yellow Ledbetter” only as having been used in the final episode, not any of the ads.
Could it have been the episode and not the ads that ruined the song for you?
It certainly could have been, and I’m trusting your word on it since you seem to have the research. It’s just seems strange to me that I saw that episode only once–I haven’t seen the reruns or anything–and their use of that song left such a mark on me. I would have sworn it was the commercials, but, regardless, I still can’t listen to the song anymore.
Hm, I’ve read that Kubrick told McDowell to sing, and the only song McDowell kind of knew, was “Singing in the Rain”, so he sung it, and Kubrick liked it.
