Beggin’ (Pilooski Re-Edit) – Frankie Valli

Adidas has impressed with their marketing campaigns many times. Currently their Originals campaign is being run with super high frequency. They have brought together some massive stars from music and sports and filmed what looks to be one of the coolest house parties that ever was, with everyone wearing their crispest adidas clothes and sneaks.

Boogie Studios were involved in the creation of this ad campaign and have several different remixes of the track posted on the Boogie Studios blog. Some of them are pretty neat! The original was recorded by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in1967.

Pilooski is the DJ who put together the version that made the cut. His version is fresh, and thumpin’ and passionate. It gets me moving every time I hear it. Pilooski is currently globe trotting the world with gigs spattered all over the map. Check out Pilooski’s mySpace page for more details.

El Vuelo – Hughes De Courson

Air Canada is currently running a particularly moving commercial with people all over the world painting airplanes in the air with their fingers. What makes the song moving is, of course, the music. This track was difficult to track down. The  lyrics of song are in a language I don’t know. The tittle El Vuelo is Spanish for The Flight, which is rather fitting for the commercial. The lyrics though, are definitely not in Spanish (I’m learning Spanish, slowly). One fellow over at YouTube is quite adamant that the language is Quechua. Quechua is a native language of Peru; the language of the Incas, to be more precise, the people who build Machu Picchu. I heard some Quechua while I was in Peru last year, and it is quite possible that the lyrics of this tune are in Quechua, but I can’t confirm this for sure.

Another detail that made this track difficult to track down is that its a cover. The song was originally written by Hughes De Courson, a classical composer. This is not his the original version, which was recorded by Fernando Lima on his 2007 album Pasion.  The version from the Air Canada commercial can be found on an album called Almost Pop: El Vuelo, of which I can only find on iTunes.

Enjoy!

Steve Jobs, or at least the well paid marketing people on Jobs’ payroll, have done an excellent job at exposing unique, quality music to the masses. The fame that comes to the artists behind these cultural phenomena, is likely both a blessing and a curse. It’s inevitable that someone will start to throw around the “Sellout” label, and the artists lose the street cred earned by being broke and unsigned. The symbiotic relationship between the artists and Apple works to sell the music, the store to buy the music (iTunes), and the hardware to play the music (iPod). That’s some mighty impressive vertical integration.

1 2 3 4 – Feist

The Reminder (2007)

The Canadian singer-songwriter has released 4 solo albums since 1999 while also performing as a member of the Broken Social Scene since 2000. Feist found moderate success with her hard work, but when Apple selected her song 1 2 3 4 for one of their iPod commercials her popularity soared, springboarding her the point that Sesame Street asked her to remake her song for the purpose of teaching kids how fun it is to count to 4.

Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings

We Started Nothing (2008)

Often the very well paid marketing wonders at Apple beat me to the punch, but with The Ting Tings I can enjoy the satisfaction in knowing that I found them first. I had been enjoying their catchy pop genius for several months when I heard the rumours that they would be the next iPod poster children. Apple choose to use Shut Up and Let Me Go one of the lesser songs by The Ting Tings. I prefer their tunes That’s Not My Name and Great DJ, and strongly suggest you check them you if you like this track.

New Soul – Yael Naïm

Yael Naïm (March 2008)

The Israeli-French singer-songwriter was completely unknown to me before I first saw the commercial for the MacBook Air. Apparently Steve Jobs picked this track himself causing Yael Naïm’s career to skyrocket, making her the first Israeli to get a single in the US Top 10.

“New Soul” is about self-reflection. She says she was inspired to write it after a conversation with a friend about reincarnation. “I thought I was an old soul, and that I knew life, but then starting the real life I figured I am completely new,” Naim says. “I mean, everything was a mess and I did a lot of mistakes. So it was just looking back and say, ‘Okay, let’s start again, it’s okay.’”
- Interview with the NPR March 21st, 2008

The wise young soul is currently touring extensively through Europe.

Mi Swing Es Tropical – Quantic & Nickodemus

Ritmo Tropical (2004)

Nickodemus, an experienced young DJ from New York City, joined forces with Quantic, to create this upbeat Latin tune that is perfect for dancing! These two have both been busy since the upbeat commercial brought their sound into the mainstream. Quantic just released a new album, Death of the Revolution and Nickodenmus released Endangered Species Remixed, featuring a remix of every tune off the album Mi Swing Es Tropical was originally released on, Endangered Species. The pair toured together in Columbia, Mexico and the US earlier this year.

I should also make note of the fact that the song, Flathead, featured in my previous post by The Fratellis was also highlighted in one of the colorful, people dancing about iPod commercials.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

Capoeira

I couldn’t resist posting this song, even though it doesn’t quite fit with the others being that it has no association with Apple whatsoever. it has been a favourite of mine since I tracked if down after hearing it on one of the early Mazda Zoom Zoom commercials in the late 90s. A remake of the traditional Capoeira song Zum, Zum, Zum Capoeira Mata Um that was featured on the Only The Strong soundtrack, the 1993 film about Capoeira. I’m sure you have all heard parts of this song on the commercials with that cute kid whispering Zoom Zoom, who isn’t really a kid any more. The song is fun and uplifting. By the way… I tried Capoeira once, the pros of the Brazilian dance/fighting style make it look easy, but really, it’s quite hard.