Billboard continues its coverage of the 50th anniversary of its flagship singles chart, the Hot 100, with a look at songs on its recently compiled all-time Hot 100 that have engaged in lyrical brand-dropping. Not surprising, there are a few hip-hop songs in the rundown (“Gold Digger,” “Low,” “Yeah!”), but a couple of older radio staples are also in there: the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” which name-checks The New York Times; Chic’s “Le Freak,” which mentions the New York nightclub the Savoy (confidential to Billboard–pretty sure the lyric is about stomping, not stopping, at the nightclub); and Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” which incorporates the Saratoga race track and the Lear jet into its lyrics. [Billboard]
“Billboard” Looks Back On Pop’s Proud Tradition Of Doling Out Free Advertising
September 15th, 2008 // 6 Comments
idolator
the Saratoga race track
Hahah, how did I miss that all this time. (Lived in Saratoga from 1982 to 1985. Good track, that.)
Did they forget about Simon’s “Anticipation”, which is about waiting for Heinz ketchup to come out of the bottle, and anticipating that good, Heinz ketchupy taste???
Did BDP’s “Bo Bo Bo” ever chart? Because it had some very memorable Snapple product placement if I recall…
[www.lyrics007.com]!%20Bo!%20Bo!%20Lyrics.html
Is there any mention about how many of these songs either a) didn’t get aired in the UK or b) were changed for UK radio because BBC frowned (maybe still frowns?) upon brand-checking? I know Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” was re-recorded to change the line “American Express will do nicely thank you” to “A few pounds sterling will do nicely thank you”.
“Now that I got me some Seagram’s gin/
everybody got their cup/
but they ain’t chipped in/”
Come on, Snoop, that’s not even good gin.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: Yeah, you think he would’ve at least pick up a taste for Tanqueray after spending all that time with Dre.