# Songs forever ruined through association **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200 "2010-06-06T21:41:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/1 "2010-06-06T21:41:13Z")
…through no fault of their own (although perhaps due to the fault of their creators/owners of rights). One of the great things about music, is that it’s like a scent - it can instantly conjure up memories and sensations unique to you. But there’s a flip side, where that association has coloured the song so much that you can’t shake it. For me, the Lou Reed song Perfect Day - a…perfectly good song, probably about smack knowing Lou, has forever been associated in my mind with the BBC Children in Need effort, a valiant enterprise no doubt, but it’s now shelved away with ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and ‘Feed The World’. Advertisements deliberately pick up on this, much to my annoyance. I can’t listen to The Fratellis without thinking of iPods. For Apple, this has been a rousing success for their product, but for me robs the songs of any other meaning I would otherwise have found…not that I can blame the artists for ‘selling out’ without being a hypocrite, as if some company wanted to give me silly money for using one of my songs I’d be asking where to sign. That said, people like The Rolling Stones should know better - they have enough money after all. I’ve fortunately largely missed their previous songs in ads, no doubt ‘Start Me Up’ would have lost quite something if I’d first have heard it in association with Windows. But whenever I go to the cinema there’s always a damn ad for Sony Bravia (I had to look this up, so not a success like the iPod), where the lovely piano piece ‘She’s Like a Rainbow’ is played while plastercine bunnies jump about. Now I can’t listen to it without picturing those damn claymation vermin. I can’t listen to Dylan’s Knocking on Heaven’s Door either, as it takes me straigh back to a very crappy time in my life I’d rather forget. So, what songs have been forever fudged for you? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/2 "2010-06-06T21:53:17Z")
“Stuck in the middle with you.” I’ve never even seen Reservoir Dogs, but just knowing about that scene is enough to ruin it for me. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/3 "2010-06-06T21:54:49Z")
**Queen** ’s **Bohemian Rhapsody** , every time I hear it I either visualize the [Wayne’s World version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KitU3hWDTc8&feature=related) or the [Muppets version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&feature=PlayList&p=C9E4DEEA577A3A79&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/4 "2010-06-07T01:26:39Z")
“Like a Rock” ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/5 "2010-06-07T02:04:15Z")
“The City of New Orleans” by Arlo Gutherie. Somehow it found its way into a laxative commercial a few years back! ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/6 "2010-06-07T02:08:12Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > “Stuck in the middle with you.” I’ve never even seen Reservoir Dogs, but just knowing about that scene is enough to ruin it for me. Really? i love it for that reason. I’ll even do the little shuffle he does, if my friends are around. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/7 "2010-06-07T02:10:02Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > “Stuck in the middle with you.” I’ve never even seen Reservoir Dogs, but just knowing about that scene is enough to ruin it for me. This is almost always one of the first songs mentioned in this kind of thread. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/8 "2010-06-07T03:37:28Z")
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s _Simple Man_ always make want a beer. Oh wait a minute, thats a good thing. I can remember the drinking games done to AC/DC’s _Have a Drink on Me_. Now that really is a bad memory. Although it is one of their many songs that gets turned up loudly when it comes on the radio. the Lawrence Welk theme song gives me horrible memories. Gawd, I hated that show, which Mom and Dad loved ---
**Author:** ![Camus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ba8739/32.png) [@Camus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/9 "2010-06-07T04:51:08Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > For me, the Lou Reed song Perfect Day - a…perfectly good song, probably about smack knowing Lou, has forever been associated in my mind with the BBC Children in Need effort, a valiant enterprise no doubt, but it’s now shelved away with ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and ‘Feed The World’. I always associate it, or at least the cover version, with the trailer for the movie [“The Signal.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdjYJPgCHD0&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/10 "2010-06-07T04:54:21Z")
American Airlines ruined Gershwin’s \*An American in Paris \*for me. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/11 "2010-06-07T05:05:27Z")
American Pie: Weird Al’s version is far superior. Never gonna give you up: perfectly fine song now means you got deceived. Pretty much all Michael Jackson songs: because of Michael Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/12 "2010-06-07T06:24:26Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > American Airlines ruined Gershwin’s \*An American in Paris \*for me. United Airlines did the same for Rhapsody in Blue The William Tell Overture is less associated with William Tell than it is the Lone Ranger. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/13 "2010-06-07T06:40:56Z")
_Helter Skelter_ and _Piggies_ from the album THE BEATLES set the bar pretty high for “ruined through association”. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/14 "2010-06-07T07:02:05Z")
I can’t hear Night Rangers’s _Sister Christian_ without thinking of that crazy tense scene in Boogie Nights with the firecrackers going off randomly while the drug dealer (played by Alfred Molina) is waving a pistol around. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/15 "2010-06-07T08:09:51Z")
_Deutchland Uber Alles_ - or at least the first verse - pretty much got the shaft after WW2. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/16 "2010-06-07T09:23:09Z")
I can’t hear Bach’s _Air on a G String_ without thinking of a cigar called Hamlet. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/17 "2010-06-07T10:24:41Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > American Pie: Weird Al’s version is far superior.. I have to agree with this, every time I hear AP my mind switched the lyrics to: Soon I’m going to be a Jedi… ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/18 "2010-06-07T11:56:33Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > “The City of New Orleans” by Arlo Gutherie. Somehow it found its way into a laxative commercial a few years back! Shouldn’t _that_ commercial have used “Like a Rock”? ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/19 "2010-06-07T15:59:53Z")
“Bargain” by _The Who_. Everytime I hear it, I keep picturing myself driving a Nissan Pathfinder up a windy mountain road at 100mph. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut7316](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@Peanut7316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut7316)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200/20 "2010-06-07T17:06:23Z")
_Singin’ In the Rain_. Thank you _A Clockwork Orange_ and Mr. Kubrick [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-forever-ruined-through-association/542200.md?page=2)