andrew@inmet.UUCP (04/22/84)
#R:fortune:-305300:inmet:14100016:000:1418 inmet!andrew Apr 21 14:00:00 1984 > How about songs that give unsolicited praise to products (e.g. > Beach Boys "Little Honda", and Paul Simon's "Kodachrome"). Does > anyone: > a) Know of any others, > b) Know why the companies don't buy the songs to use in their > advertising? Sure... how about "Little GTO" (Ronnie and the Daytonas) "Western Union" (Five Americans) "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" (George Hamilton IV) "Popsicle" (Jan and Dean) "Hey Little Cobra" (Rip Chords) "Jolly Green Giant" (Kingsmen) "Little Red Corvette" (Prince) "Trans-Am" (Sammy Hagar - I saw a picture of him with his T.A. once - the license plate read "IEATZ28") and also the line in Moby Grape's "Hey Grandma": "Robitussin makes you feel so fine Robitussin and elderberry wine" Many companies resent it when their name, or the name of one of their products, is used without permission. When the Kingsmen did their "Jolly Green Giant" (a parody of the Olympics' "Big Boy Pete"), one division of the Green Giant Corp. tried to sue their asses off while another division gave them 20-foot Green Giants to put on stage! Frank Gallup's "The Ballad of Irving" originally contained a reference to Mogen David wine; it was deleted on the later pressings. The Kinks' "Lola" originally referred to "Coca-Cola"; the U.S. release changed that to "Cherry Cola". Andrew W. Rogers, Intermetrics ...{harpo|ihnp4|ima|esquire}!inmet!andrew