Songs That Have Been Ruined (or forever been associated) by Other Media

[burntbrat]

So I was talking to my husband about this the other night. There have been a few songs that once they've been showcased in a movie or TV show I can't help but think of that movie or TV show whenever I hear the song again. Let's list them!

First and most obviously is "In Your Eyes" in the movie Say Anything. I can't hear that song without seeing Lloyd Dobler with the boombox above his head.

More recently is Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" in the Sopranos.

And very weirdly, whenever I hear "Swept Away" (or is it "Hard for me to say I'm sorry?" I'm not sure about the title) by Chicago I always think of a Growing Pains episode where they're on vacation and Kirk Cameron is in love with some girl and they play that song in the sunset.

[bbnbama]

First one to come to mind is Bohemian Rhapsody in Wayne's World! Don't think its necessarily ruined but I do associate that movie with that song now!

[hepcat]

KFC completely ruined "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I didn't even like the song that much but if I heard it once every six months it was pleasant. When it's several times a night, it makes me want to stab Colonel Sanders in the eye with a spork.

[roseskid]

Not that Viva Las Vegas was ever on my Top 10 Favorite Songs list, but those sexually dysfunctional, yet creepily merry men who rejoice in using Viagra have forever burned that song in my memory as nothing more than an advertising jingle. I'm sure I've got hundreds more but that's all I can come up with at the moment, but I'll be back because I know I've ranted about this very subject before.

[Mantenna]

It always kind of kills me a little when I hear a song I really like used in some big, super-commercialist advertisement. One that immediately comes to mind is when HP used "Pictures of You" by the Cure a few years ago. I just had to go put on my makeup and pout in my room, you know?

those sexually dysfunctional, yet creepily merry men who rejoice in using Viagra have forever burned that song in my memory as nothing more than an advertising jingle

Oh, that's just poetry. The whole situation portrayed by that ad really cracked me up. "Yeah, guys! We've got ED, but we've got drugs and we're a band! Acoustic guitar solo!"

[MRD]

Many years ago Windex used "I can see Clearly Now the Rain is gone" and I heard it yesterday on the radio and thought: Windex.

Cadillac using Led Zepplin
KFC and Sweet Home Alabama

CSI and the Who

[speedbump]

UPS using "Such Great Heights" by Postal Service.

[Rattus]

There are three that stand out for me. Lust for Life, one of my favourite songs, will now be forever associated with sunny, Caribbean cruises whereas I used to get a dark, mean streets vibe from it.

Don't You (Forget About Me), of course, will always conjure up the Breakfast Club. I just googled it to get the name right, though, and discovered that the song was actually written for the movie, so maybe it doesn't apply.

And Come Sail Way, a song I had always hated, I have developed a fondness for because of the pure geek joy on the faces of the students dancing to it at the end of the first episode of Freaks & Geeks (best show ever). Whenever I hear it now, I just feel all geeky and happy and full of the dancing spirit.

[LG.]

The Rolling Stones "Time Is On My Side" hasn't been the same for me since I watched Fallen with Denzel Washington. It was such a creepy movie, I'm now pretty much creeped out whenever I hear that song. I liked the movie, but *shudder* Of all the Stones songs, you'd think Sympathy for the Devil or Under My Thumb would invoke much more creepy thoughts with me, but now it's this one.

[mrs. tino]

Whenever I hear "Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan, I always think of the movie Zodiac... and get creeped out in the process. We were listening to it in the Classic Rock class and that movie was all I could think of.