History Main / RepurposedPopSong

* The Six Flags commercials featuring "Mr. Six" used an instrumental version of "We Like to Party" by the Vengaboys.

* There were some UsefulNotes/McDonalds commercials in the early 1990s where the Advertising/McDonaldland characters sang a version of "Do You Believe in Magic" by Music/TheLovinSpoonful.

** It's now being used for a Kia car commercial. Mötley Crüe even appears!

* Music/FrankMills' EasyListening hit "Music Box Dancer" has been used in many a ice cream truck ever since it hit the ''Billboard'' charts in the late 1970s.

** Pepsi was big about rock/pop star endorsements in TheEighties; other songs they used via their original performers and rewritten lyrics included "[[Music/DavidBowie "Modern Love,]]" [[Music/MichaelJackson "Billie Jean", and "Bad"]]. Another was set to the tune of Glenn Frey's "[[Series/MiamiVice You Belong to the City]]".

** Music/TheRollingStones' "Start Me Up" for UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows 95. Note the BrokenAesop variant here; the next line to the song, not appearing in the commercial itself, is "You make a grown man cry." Another line not used is "I can't compete", which [[IsntItIronic some snarkier types have found quite amusing]] in light of Microsoft's apparent monopolistic ambitions, coupled with notorious quality control problems (especially in the area of security).

** "Kiss Kiss" by the Vengaboys is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBf2Or6xII0 another common soundchip]] in unlicensed toys. Some toys feature a variant with altered lyrics about dancing at night.

* Music/AlanPrice's "Poor People" from ''Film/OLuckyMan'' was reworked as "News People in Touch with People" by San Diego-based jingle company Tuesday Productions.

* The [=DiVinyls=]' "I Touch Myself", an IntercourseWithYou song, was repurposed as a song to raise up breast cancer awareness following lead singer Chrissy Amphlett's death in 2013, with various artists such as Olivia Newton-John covering it.

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdXiiDAfSPc Starbucks ad]] uses a reworded version of [[Film/RockyIII The Eye of the Tiger]], complete with the band Music/{{Survivor}} performing in the commercial.

* Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" song was used and changed for 118 118. The line ''Who ya gonna call?'' commonly known to end "Ghostbusters", was edited to finish ''118''. Also in the full length version of the original advert, a verse, the chorus and the bridge were all edited, fitting in with that it was advertising a directory.

* "Anticipation" by Carly Simon, used by Heinz to advertise the thickness and richness of its line of ketchups in TheSeventies. Played straight, the idea was that, due to its thickness, it poured slowly and was worth the wait.
** ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' spoofed this ad in the ParodyCommercial for Swill Mineral Water. Because this water is from the then-horribly-polluted Lake Erie, it ''also'' comes thick and "rich" out of the bottle as the Simon song plays!
** Another Carly Simon example: in the late 1970s-until at least the mid-late 1980s[[note]]And brought back for a little while in the early 1990s for their newscast promos.[[/note]], local El Paso, TX Creator/{{CBS}} affiliate KDBC-TV used "Nobody Does it Better" (from the Franchise/JamesBond movie ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'') in some of the station's promos.[[note]]It's earliest known use was at the beginning of the station's newscasts. This stopped by the early-mid 1980s or so.[[/note]]

* "Rub It In" by Billy "Crash" Craddock. A cover version with product-specific lyrics was used by S.C. Johnson & Son for commercials advertising Glade Air Freshners in the 2000s and early 2010s, more than 30 years after Craddock had made the song popular.

* Kanes Furniture used Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet", turning the chorus into, "You ain't seen nothin yet, KANES KANES!!!"

*** Used as the advertising jingle for The Good Guys ("come in and see the / good good good / guuuuuys!") The Good Guys apparently proved, if you stick with the same product (or in this case, store) specific lyrics for long enough, it will eventually work.
** "Wouldn't it Be Nice"

*** A cover version of 'Wouldn't it Be Nice' was used for the Volkswagen 'Think Blue' ad campaign.

** The commercials for the Microsoft Surface uses Sara Bareilles' "Brave" -- a song about standing up for yourself -- because of the line "I just wanna see you".

** In the 1980s, they used "Mack the Knife" with product-specific lyrics as "Mac Tonite" to promote longer operating hours. To drive the point home, the commercials featured a character also called "Mac Tonite", a lounge singer with a moon for a head.

*** One of Glenn's Pepsi commecials had him with Don Johnson along for the ride. The full version is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HByh60JAlc here]]

* A non-commercial version of the BrokenAesop effect can be found in the "Kidz Bop" [=CDs=]. These take songs that are popular on the radio and re-record them with children doing the lyrics; presumably because some [[ExecutiveMeddling studio executive]] feared that ''Avril Lavigne'' may have been too hard-edged for children on her own. However, the actual ''content'' of said lyrics is almost entirely unchanged, resulting in songs about sex, drugs, suicide, and misogyny (among other things) being marketed toward kids. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20051030145853/http://www.teevee.net/archive/2004/10/04/index.html Chris Rywalt has pointed this out.]]

* For years, Chevrolet used Music/BobSeger's "Like A Rock" for its line of trucks. It later switched to ridiculously {{Eagleland}}-ish commercials with John Mellencamp's "Our Country" (despite Mellencamp's criticism of Seger for "selling out"). And, after years of it seeming a natural fit, Chevy has picked up "American Pie" -- or part of the chorus, at least -- for its car ads. Something about that Chevy at the levee...

* "Lust for Life" by [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] is a rather harsh, cynical song about drug abuse and selling one's soul to the music industry. So naturally, it's been used as a jingle by everything from cruise lines to banks. Do the advertisers even ''listen'' to these songs before using them? Website/TheOnion mocked this with [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38780 an article]] where the same song is used in a bank commercial "featur[ing] images of gleaming skyscrapers [and] money changing hands", though the spot is "notably absent [of] any footage of a shirtless, bleeding Music/IggyPop in skintight leopard-print pants, repeatedly bashing himself in the face with a microphone onstage at the legendary New York punk venue CBGB's."

* Bruce Springsteen: The Reagan campaign wanted to use Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.", despite it having a line that says "Sent me off to [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar a foreign land]] / To go and kill the yellow man". There's an interview with the Boss where he basically says "I don't think the Republicans are actually listening to my music, especially not the ''Nebraska'' album." Hell, 90% of all the songs written by Mellencamp/Springsteen are all about how the Republicans are screwing over the working man. Yet their songs are the ones most likely to be heard at a blue collar/conservative event.

** Marshmallow Alpha Bits [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_QOVbIy5ng used a product-specific version as their jingle in 2000]], complete with letter-related puns (example: "You can wear your [=PJs=], you can dance to [=CDs=]")

* The infamous 1988 Nike ads using Music/TheBeatles' "Revolution" got such a big backlash that it's more or less the reason you only hear cover versions of their tunes used for this purpose, unless it's advertising something Beatles-related.

* [[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J2UVVxe04pI This]] Ethel Merman "Vel" commercial

* Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival's "Fortunate Son" being used to sell Wrangler jeans. They only used the first two lyrics (about waving the flag, being red white and blue), ignoring the rest of the song, which is about how politicians got their children out of Vietnam. Intentional in this case; Saul Zaentz (died 2014), who at the time owned most of [=CCR's=] catalogue (he sold the company that owns the music in 2004), and whose company still owns Creator/JRRTolkien's movie rights, and was engaged in a feud with CCR singer John Fogerty for some years (he [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fogerty_v._Fantasy once -- unsuccessfully -- sued Fogerty]] for plagiarizing ''himself'', in that his solo songs sounded too much like Creedence tunes), sold the song to Wrangler to anger Fogerty. Wrangler eventually relented and discontinued their use of the song.

** Another Meat Loaf single, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" was used humorously for a Dr Pepper commercial in which a man does increasingly unmanly things to please his girlfriend as the lyrics play. She tries to take a drink of his Dr Pepper just as the chorus begins. And he leaves her.

* In a weird example, Venezuelan folk singer and composer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simón_Díaz Simón Díaz]] (the old man who composed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caballo_Viejo Caballo Viejo]]) is openly opposed to the use of his famous songs (not even in covers) in commercials. Instead, he offers to compose and sing songs specially suited for the campaign or the product. Not your typical jingle, I can assure you.

** Bizarrely, it was also sung by children's TV character ''WesternAnimation/BobTheBuilder'', obviously with different lyrics.

** A later use of a Waits song (in a Levi's ad) was made even more painful because the sound alike hired was Screamin' Jay Hawkins, one of Waits's biggest influences.

* Crystal Light single-serving packets used a rather poor remake of "Shake Your Booty", which instead sung "Shake Your Bottle".
** And a Pillsbury commercial which changed the lyrics to "Bake Your Cookies".

* Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Goin Down" was featured on an ad for ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', an ad for the Creator/TimAllen family film ''Film/{{Zoom|AcademyForSuperheroes}}'', and ''nearly'' showed up on Kidz Bop...until Fall Out Boy and their management intervened due to the song's sexual themes. Songs (with no subtle sexual themes this time around) from "Save Rock and Roll" like "The Phoenix" and "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'Em Up)" have been used in many trailers for action packed shows, movies, and sports promos.

** It had previously been repurposed with the same altered lyrics by either Kmart or Target for store-brand children's summer clothing and poolwear. At least they had the "decency" to hack it to bits in order to remove any references to drugs or relationships.

* Velveeta, advertising specifically their "shells and cheese" recipe repurposed The Four Tops' "It's the Same Old Song" into "It's Not the Same Old Side" and even had them appear in the commercial. Their jingles often repurpose other well known tunes.

* The [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama]] campaign used "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOm-uIPzqpI&feature=related The Rising]]" from Music/BruceSpringsteen's [[Music/TheRising album of the same name]] as a victory/rally commencement song. It's a rather depressing song about a [[http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/TheRising.html firefighter]] climbing the doomed Twin Towers, and just happens to have a an upbeat chorus contrasting increasingly dire verses. Oddly enough, Springsteen endorsed Obama and played the song live a few times for his events.

*** The [=McCain=] campaign also attempted to use John Mellencamp's "This Is Our Country" without getting permission and without realizing that not only are the lyrics of the song extremely bitter and sarcastic, but that Mellencamp is a Democrat.

* Disney caused a controversy by using Music/ThirdEyeBlind's "Semi-Charmed Life" in a trailer for ''WesternAnimation/TheTiggerMovie'', despite not actually using the lyrics about drugs and sex.

* One car company chose to advertise its work with the New Radicals' ''You Get What You Give'', which is predominantly about refusing to surrender (and also states a willingness to kick celebrities' asses...really). How this is related to cars, [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Vecna]] only knows. Let's not forget the line "Every night we crash a Mercedes Benz"....

* In 1971, Melanie Safka wrote the song "Look What They Done to My Song, Ma", about this very trope and how much it sucks to write a song that mean something to you, and then, having someone taking that song and turning it into something completely unrelated. So, obviously, in the 1980s the Quaker Oats Company used a version of that song in their commercials for Instant Oatmeal, with the revised lyrics "Look what they've done to my oatmeal".

** KFC used an lyrically-altered version of the song to advertise Kentucky Nuggets in Malaysia back in the 80s.
* The 1967 Pete Rodriguez song "I Like It Like That" saw a new life in 1996 when Burger King used a cover version of said song (retitled as "I Like It") by the one-off Latin music supergroup The Blackout All-Stars,[[labelnote:*]]said cover had been used as the theme music to the 1994 film ''I Like It Like That''[[/labelnote]] playing off the company's longtime slogan, "Have it your way".

* Music/SirMixALot did a jaw-dropping remake of "[[StuffyOldSongsAboutTheButtocks Baby Got Back]]"-- with a ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' (!!) theme-- for Burger King in early 2009. The long version of the commercial is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5X4TSbGreA here.]] This was used to promote kids meals with toys inspired by the show, and a lot of parents complained, although it only appeared on late night TV.

** One use was especially ironic; it was for a limited-edition Burger King sandwich -- some kind of "cheddar/mushroom melt" thing -- but the band got really upset when they heard that, because one of the band members was vegan.

* Not only is this phenomenon not limited to America, but even video game music isn't safe from this trope, as proven by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZxSgpfJBmg this commercial (one of four variants)]] which uses the ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' theme of all things to advertise for Samyang Ramen. [[http://blog.livedoor.jp/htmk73/archives/552569.html Here's proof that Taito licensed the song]]. At least the song never had lyrics to begin with.

* Inverted with the use of the song "Move This" in a Revlon commercial. The song first appeared in the commercial, than later became a popular hit for the band Technotronic.
** Another inversion is "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" which appeared in the famous "hilltop" commercial for Coca-Cola. It became so popular that a second version was recorded (minus the Coke references), and released as a popular single.

* In the UK, Canada and maybe some other countries, a version of Eddy Grant's "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" with new lyrics is used to advertise the yoghurt drink Yop. The original song was a protest against apartheid.

** "Sunday Morning" sounds pretty, and its lyrics are the least defiantly-offensive on the [=LP=] ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico''. But on an [=LP=] notorious for topics including: heroin addiction, masochism, brutal street life, obsession resembling ''Film/{{Persona 1966}}'', domestic violence, death and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking fashion victims]] [''pause for breath''], a cynical song could easily appear benign, in contrast.

* A yoghurt commercial in the UK featured the song 'I Got Life' from the musical ''Theatre/{{Hair}}''. Unfortunately the song is about a hippie explaining to his square parents just how much more awesome, cool and alive his drug-addled self is than they are. Someone seemed to notice this, and the adverts now come with an awkward re-written cover describing the myriad flavours available.

* Inverted with [=McDonald's=] "I'm Lovin' It", which was originally derived from the German-language "Ich Liebe Es." ad campaign. Music/JustinTimberlake was commissioned to perform the jingle in a six-million dollar deal he has since [[OldShame regretted]]. Music/TheNeptunes later developed this further into a song which Timberlake included in the album ''Live from London'' and as a promotional single.
* "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" used ''Turn The Beat Around'' in a song and dance, but changed the lyrics to be about...margarine.

* In 2010, Macy's controversially used the song [[Theatre/{{Rent}} "Seasons of Love"]] (a song about measuring one's last moments) to sell jewellery. The use of only straight couples (the musical itself had a CastFullOfGay) didn't help matters, either.

* Marks & Spencer had a disturbing Christmas commercial with a children's choir singing "Falling In Love Again" from the film ''The Blue Angel''. Most people don't realize the full implications of the song. The original song is "what ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' was parodying with "I'm Tired" - a song sung from the perspective of a jaded seductress about how so many men destroy themselves out of desire for her. (Come to think of it, that sort of song is appropriate for a corporation...)

* The Halifax Bank, a British financial institution with a reputation for [[PutAFaceOnTheCompany auditioning its own staff to star in big song-and-dance musical adverts]] (which are generally as naff and dreadful as they sound) exploited Vanilla Ice's ''Ice, Ice Baby'' to shift a savings product known as an ''ISA'' (see what they did there?) Halifax adverts merit a trope all of their own....

** The song is also used in a 2014 Cheverolet Cruze clean diesel car commercial: The ad starts with a man coming into a gas station where they greet him by name as the song plays. Then another man comes in and the song stops. He's got a clean diesel car so he rarely has to buy gas; nobody there knows ''his'' name.

* In 2011 Honda thought the best way to sell their Honda Civic Si to the young female demographic was with the fun exploits of a masked, super-heroesque girl flying around town in her Si to the tune of MC Chris's “Hoodie Ninja.” Which is about wrapping a sweatshirt around your face and, among other things, peeping on a girl from your homeroom as she undresses in her bedroom. Yeah, that fit the demographic perfectly...
* Music/TedNugent's "Stranglehold" is now selling VW Jettas. Strange, considering Ted is well-known to be from Detroit/Michigan. Also, there's the lyrics, which one wouldn't normally consider family-friendly.

* Happens InUniverse in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''. John Redcorn gets hired to perform at a company picnic, but the rest of his hard rock band [[FunWithAcronyms Big Mountain Fudgecake]] refuses to come along. When he's told to adapt, Redcorn takes a song about suicide and rewrites it to be about hygene: "Wake up in the morning, wanna...wash myself, scrub my wrists, clean my brains out..." He's a big hit with kids and ends up becoming "the Native American Raffi".

** A version of the above song had previously been used for "Pocket Rockers" a music-playing toy made by Fisher-Price.[[note]]It consisted of a music playing device and cartridges which resemble tiny 8-track cassettes that played various pop songs by famous musical acts of the day. In their original forms. By the artists themselves; and yes, this is the same Fisher-Price that's better known for their preschool toys...[[/note]]

* Speaking of Mr. Loaf, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSAa9FgTBSg here]] he is with his "signature dish", which he finds goes better with A1 steak sauce. In this altered version, his lyric is "And I would do anything for love and I always do this" (with "this" being accompanied with him pouring the A1 on the meatloaf).

* NBC has used the intro of Music/DeepPurple's "Knocking at Your Back Door" to promote their show ''Shark Hunters''...the problem is that, even though that intro sounds like a ''Jaws'' parody, it's ''also'' a song about anal sex.
* Toyota used the song "Bargain" by Music/TheWho - emphasising the lines "I call that a bargain / the best I ever had." It's actually a song about how love is better than material possessions.

* The odly-named Citroën C4 Cactus car was advertised using [[Music/JeffersonStarship Jefferson Airplane]]'s ''White Rabbit''. A song which extols the virtues of changing your state of perception by doing lots and lots of lovely LSD. Now let's drive a car in this state. Yeah, right. If you don't crash it or provoke a road accident because of all those dope-smoking caterpillars, self-animating chess pieces, red queens with axes, white rabbits, et c, popping up out of holes in the verge, here comes Mr Policeman who discovers you to be intoxicated on Substances. Your trip now becomes a very bad one to the cells of the local nick. Yeah, right.

To be on the edge of breaking down when no-one's there to save you.\\

* During the 1970s, the then called Plymouth Arrow (now called Mitsubishi Lancer A70), used the Harry Nilsson song "Me and My Arrow" from ''WesternAnimation/ThePoint''.

** It was used in a radio commercial for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tysons_Corner_Center Tysons Corner Center]], a mall in Northern Virginia. This version listed names of the stores in the mall.

* As of January 2015, a campaign on Youngstown State University's [=YikYak=] calling for the firing of a professor who allegedly sexually harassed students has begun to use the lyrics to the chorus of "Youth of the Nation" by Music/{{POD}} as a sort of rallying cry, which is very fitting. That is, unless you listen to the rest of the song and realize it's actually a sad reflective song about teenagers who make poor decisions - including one who [[UnfortunateImplications commits a school shooting]].

* An especially bizarre example from North America happened in 2009, when the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sqh6pcPkDY "Hands"]] from 1970s-era ''Series/SesameStreet'' was used to advertise faucets (!). Granted, it fit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RuXU_1vg8 the context it was used in]], but still...

* The late Southern California car dealer Cal Worthington had a very well known jingle (with varying lyrics) set to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know it".

* The song "New Soul" by Yael Naïm was used by Apple to promote their Macbook Air laptop. The commercial was so popular it propelled her song to being her only hit in the U.S.

* The UK frozen fish company Young's not only rewrote Music/{{Slade}}'s "Far, Far Away" to be about fish'n'chips, they [[https://ok.ru/video/5331617180 got Noddy Holder to perform it]].

* The song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Music/BobbyMcFerrin'' has been used in commercials for [=CareSource=] heath insurance.

* Many unlicensed toys made in China tend to use obscure pop songs as soundchips:

Not one, not two but three things in it! Chocolate, a biscuit and a toffee taste, too!

* Most people in the UK probably think Music/PerezPrado's "Guaglione" and Music/{{Leftfield}}'s "Phat Planet" are just songs Guinness use to sell stuff.

* In [[http://www.qwantz.com/archive/001214.html this strip]] from ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'', T-rex opines on product-specific lyrics.

* [=McDonald's=] "I'm Lovin' It" jingle? That's taken from a Music/JustinTimberlake song. Really.

* In 2010, Macy's controversially used the song [[Theatre/{{Rent}} "Seasons of Love"]] (a song about measuring one's last moments) to sell jewelry. The use of only straight couples (the musical itself had a CastFullOfGay) didn't help matters, either.

** Pepsi used "Brown Sugar" at some point in the 90's as well. In this case, it was sung by a CGI ant (or was it a fly?)

* In the 1970's, Miss Clairol Hair Color made things very tricky for all productions of the show SOUTH PACIFIC, and they got to the point when Nellie sings "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair" -- because everyone in the audience was thinking, "wait, isn't it 'wash that GRAY right out of my hair'?"

* A commercial for Little Friskies cat food modified the 1920's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJzygoRYqj0 Ain't We Got Fun]]

* An especially bizarre example from North America happened in 2009, when the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sqh6pcPkDY "Hands"]] from 1970's-era ''Series/SesameStreet'' was used to advertise faucets (!). Granted, it fit [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RuXU_1vg8 the context it was used in]], but still...

* The piano riff from Nina Simone's "Sinnerman" in commercials for HTC smartphones (they used the 90's remix).

** British shoe company Clarks used [[Music/{{Flood}} "Birdhouse In Your Soul"]] by the same group as a StealthPun. [[DontExplainTheJoke The ad in question featured giant kids running around a city]].

* In 1984, Music/EltonJohn released the single "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" and simultaneously licensed it in a product-specific form to hawk Sasson Jeans by way of the {{Mondegreen}} "Sasson (Says So Much)". Worse yet, the video for the song and the commercial were all but identical except for length and that one line.

** Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" was used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB4V860YojE the 2005 Coke Lime commercials]] with the chorus {{mondegreen}}ed to, "You put the lime in the Coke, you nut..."

* The defunct UK supermarket William Low had an ad that reworked "Down and Out" from ''Film/BugsyMalone'' to be about how they kept their prices down.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl_tdjKKUi8 "My World" by Sophie]] seems to be used in a good number of unlicensed toys.

* The defunct UK supermarket William Lowe had an ad that reworked "Down and Out" from ''Film/BugsyMalone'' to be about how they kept their prices down.

* The UK sunflower spread Vitalite had a series of ads with the sun and sunflowers singing about it to the tune of Music/DesmondDekker's "Israelites".

But don't ask me, I only wrote the song!

* In 1999 Walmart used songs from old TV series with altered lyrics in their Rollback campaign, including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-KgGRC_efQ Rawhide]] (Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep those prices rollin', Rollback) and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70MdKcIfwow Secret Agent Man]] (He's the Rollback Man).

* Cover version. The agency didn't buy (or couldn't afford) the rights to the actual recording, so instead they acquired the right to use the song itself and did their own version. Sometimes it's made as close to the original as possible; sometimes it's wildly different.

Contrast with TopTenJingle. Compare TheCoverChangesTheMeaning, RewrittenPopVersion, IsntItIronic and RealSongThemeTune.

Contrast with TopTenJingle. Compare TheCoverChangesTheMeaning, RewrittenPopVersion, IsntItIronic.

* Music/{{Blondie}}'s "One Way Or Another" has been used so many times, for the same illustrative purpose, that now (unless you were introduced to it via ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'', ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' or Music/OneDirection) it's almost impossible to hear the song without thinking about somebody trying to open a stubborn bottle lid, crawling around the floor looking for a missing contact lens, trying to get some Doritos out of a vending machine, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers or the]] ComedicSociopathy of ''Series/CutthroatKitchen''.

* There was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtM11Gb_7Bs an advert]] for Hellmann's Dijonnaise in 1993 that was accompanied by a jingle sung to the tune of Gene Chandler's hit "Duke of Earl".

* Janis Joplin's a cappella song ''Mercedes Benz'' was used in a car commercial to flog... er... Mercedes-Benz. The advertising company responsible did not stop to think about the appropriateness of using a song by a poster girl for Southern Comfort, who if given a Mercedes-Benz to drive would have been so habitually wasted she'd have crashed it. They also did not stop to think that Joplin-savvy listeners watching the advert might have also reflected on the (not-used) third verse, which implores the Lord to buy Janis a night on the town, with all that implies for consequent drunken driving...

** Though he ''did'' allow Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling head Tony Khan to use his "Ol' 55" in the promotion's memorial video for the recently [[AuthorExistenceFailure departed]] [[Wrestling/LukeHarper Mr. Brodie Lee]], with AEW buying rights to the song so that the video would never have to be re-edited. Then again, that particular use isn't exactly commercial.

* The 1967 Pete Rodriguez song "I Like It Like That" saw a new life in the 1990s. In 1996, Burger King used a cover version of said song (retitled as "I Like It") by the one-off Latin music supergroup The Blackout All-Stars,[[labelnote:*]]which had been used as the theme music to the 1994 film ''I Like It Like That''[[/labelnote]] playing off the company's longtime slogan, "Have it your way".
* Speaking of Burger King, a 2000 commercial featured the Music/BackstreetBoys singing a rehashed version of their hit "I Want It That Way" (which ended with Burger King's "Have it your way" slogan)