Thursday, September 23, 2010

I MAY KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT ROCK & ROLL, BUT…

We regularly piss and moan here on Doc40 about how some of our favorite tunes of yesteryear are used in TV commercials, but this particular moan is a little different. A matter of minutes ago, my TV ran a commercial for Humana – the health insurance giant – that used a version of the Teddy Bears “To Know Him Is To Love Him” as background music. One third of the Teddy Bears and the composer of the tune was, of course, a very teen Phil Spector (above left), and thus, instead of absorbing the advertisers message, I could only wonder what ad agency genius chose to license this distracting theme by a convicted killer? (And also who gets the money?)

Click here for the TBs
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3 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

I'm sure Spector still gets the money. (Even if he can't use much of it.) It's not as if the tune was the result of criminal activity, or an autobio he wrote after the murder.

And I was horrified to hear a listenable (The Wolf himself?) version of "Smokestack Lightning" as background for a boner-pill advert.

1:39 AM
Chad Eagleton said...

I second the horror at "Smokestack Lightning". I screamed at the television.

3:20 AM
Ed Ward said...

Suppose Humana knew the inspiration for the song was Phil's dad's gravestone?

4:12 AM

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