Another Girl, Another Ad Campaign

[rhythmaning]

A couple of weeks ago, I heard the best song ever.

Well, one of them.

This one was “Another Girl, Another Planet”, by the very wonderful Only Ones. Nearly thirty years old, it is a stormer of a tune, full of energy.

What was odd was that I heard it on the TV. It was just a bit of the instrumental, high power opening, but unmistakeable. I rarely watch commercial tv – and when I do, it is usually through the medium of video, and I skip all the ads. So this Vodafone campaign may have been around for a while. I was a bit shocked though – one of the songs of my teenage years, a song loved by those that love it but rarely heard by anyone else – being used to sell mobile phones? I can only assume they are either going after the middle aged, mid-life crisised demographic; or that they are hoping it will be picked up by the sweet young things they normally try to sell these things to.

Then yesterday, trying to catch the football (which wasn’t on), I saw another Vodafone ad. This one had the same tune – but it was cover version: because this one had vocals, and the backing track was different, too. Same tune, remade? I haven’t heard any covers of it before (a bit surprising, considering it is the best pop song ever); perhaps they made it just for the ad – maybe the thought of a drug-addled fifty year old making it on the back of their corporate activity scared the suits.

It did seem a bit strange though. Maybe this is the cover the “kids” will recognise?

Comments

[white_hart]

I love that song! I always used to put it on the jukebox in the pub where topicaltim and I first met...

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Not quite the romantic "our tune" one might hope for!

I remember playing the LP a lot when I was trying (and failing) to avoid the advances of a friend's girlfriend...

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard the cover version yet, but it's a song I love too and I was equally shocked to hear it schlepping mobile phones. Hell, this was a song I loved so much that I even gave one of stories its title.

Sometimes I understand Tom Waits approach of never allowing his songs to be used in ads, and sueing the ass off anyone who tries to rip off him or his songs (although I do love the Screaming Jay Hawkins cover of Heartattack and Vine that was used for about two nano-seconds to advertise 501's, before the ad agency got a screamer from Waits' lawyers.

Neil Young did a song, This Notes For You, that got it about right -

Ain't singin' for pepsi
Ain't singin' for coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.

Ain't singin' for miller
Don't sing for bud
I won't sing for politicians
Ain't singin' for spuds
This note's for you.

Pity Dylan wasn't listening...

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I do find it odd, but I like the idea that it might be paying the band's pension! (I think they are all still alive...)

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Punk's not dead! (it's meant to smell like that...)

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Although strictly speaking, the Only Ones weren't punk - they were far too musical. Plus they had long hair.

I have always thought of them as post-punk power pop. [(c)NME 1978]

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Very true, in a Jesuitcal, NME sort of way :-)

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

According to Napster, it's been covered by (amongst others) The Mighty Lemon Drops (I like that version) and also fairly recently by Blink-182, who are down with the kids.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Never say that agin, even in jest.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Say what again?

They're (are? were?) American baby punks, like Green Day crossed with a boy band. Blink-182, that is.

I can join in though when you eventually get to discussing The La's and There She Goes. Which was covered by Robbie Williams. Ewww.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

"Down with the kids" is my bete noire of the moment - I blame David Cameron.

[psychochicken.livejournal.com]

T'is a stupendous track. I only have it on the best compilation album ever released "The Sound of the Suburbs" but it gets regular rotation here at the Proghof.

I don't watch a lot of telly, and most of that's the Beeb or DVDs so I haven't seen the adverts. A cover version would certainly work really nicely for some of the current crop of Indie bands though, even if its quality made it a little conspicuous.

I sometimes see Only Ones' albums in Fopp and wonder, but then I remember what happened when I bought a Martha and the Muffins album on a similar impulse.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Oh, you really should try out the albums - especially if Fopp have them cheap. The first - The Only Ones - is a classic; the second, Even Serpents Shine, is brilliant, but a lot darker and moody. The third (Baby's Got A Gun) is lousy after the first two, and I would ignore it.

There is a great compilation - The Immortal Story - that has most tracks off the first two LPs, and a compilation BBC sessions - Darkness and Light - which is brilliant, but has duplicates of some tracks - it has all their Peel sessions together with concert performances.

They were a great live band - I saw them many times (well, I can think of five!).