Plenty of old school rock songs have been played to death by commercials to the point where you forget they were even original artist recordings. This Top 9 List is devoted to the Indie and Alternative Rock songs that have been ruined or marred in one way or another by television advertising.

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Number Nine: Punkrocker by the Teddybears by Cadillac

This one ranks not too highly because it didn’t get overplayed quite as much or over such a long period of time as some others on the list. But when this commercial made it to the small screen, the track was just reaching popularity, meaning this spot came out right at that magical sweet spot in the life of a popular music track to taint its listenability.

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Number Eight: Whip It by Devo by the Swiffer WetJet

All right technically this is New Wave, but it’s at least Alternative Rock adjacent. I had to put this on the list for how thoroughly the song is brought back to life and raped before you can scramble to change the channel.

The song was way past done to death when this commercial aired, but somehow it managed to breathe life back into it, and make it catchy, but this time with co-opted lyrics. Is there anything worse than having ‘You must whip it’ stuck in your head? Yes. Having ‘You need Swiffer’ stuck in your head is far far worse.

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Number Seven: Beep Beep by 13 Stories by Ford

Once upon a time there was a popular up and coming band out of Atlanta Georgia called 13 Stories. Actually they are still around, but more than a few people are sick to death of their song ‘Beep Beep’, thanks to this commercial. Since it was regional not everyone was privy to this spot, but the droves of complaints in this comment thread should give you an idea for how often it was being played.

It was literally being played non-stop, 24-7 on every station in the south east.

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Number Six: Wraith Pinned to the Mist by Of Montreal by Outback Steakhouse

The biggest tragedy of a commercial using a song by a great lesser-known is it can be the first time you hear the song. Such was the case for me, and this commercial’s take on Wraith Pinned to the Mist by Of Montreal. The music video for this track shows a lot of originality and creativity, which loom in the shadow of Outback’s ever-present television campaign’s plea: ‘let’s go Outback tonight’.

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Number Five: Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes by Wendy’s

Wendy’s gave us the one-two punch with this campaign. First they siphoned a sacred Violent Femmes song into the advertising machine. And second: they kept playing it. Over and over. And over and over and over.

The bitter, waxy fondant on this cake is the Miss Bossy Face narrator, telling the audience what they do and do not do. You do go to Wendy’s. You do get a baked potato. You do NOT make a mess in Wendy’s bathroom. The entire spirit and fun of the song is drained out by the end of the thirty seconds, and reprocessed into delicious Wendy’s-brand Frosty mix.

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Number Four: Such Great Heights by Iron and Wine by M and M’s

This spot didn’t really get played to death, but ripping the heart out of such a sweetly done cover to hawk M and M’s meets every criterion of the term ‘blasphemy’.

And M and M’s aren’t even romantic candies! Maybe there could be some relief from the psychic pain if it was for a very sappy Hershey’s commercial. Instead little cartoon candies are viciously plucked from the air and eaten while this sacred little ditty plays in the background.

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Number Three: Pictures of You by the Cure by HP

There’s a special anguish in seeing a commercial that takes the words of a song with a deeper theme literally, and transposing this literal idea on top of their product. In this case the ‘pictures of you’ are actual pictures. You can just see the board room full of guys high fiving each other for having the brilliant idea to use this song to sell photo printing technology.

The production of these spots were actually pretty innovative, but it didn’t make up for the relentless hammering from behind the frequent airings of this spot gave to the Cure. It’s still impossible for me to hear even a snipit of this song and not think of this campaign.

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Number Two: All Around the World by Oasis by AT and T

Oasis certainly got overplayed in its heyday, so trashing one of their tracks isn’t exactly a desecration of a holy artifact. But since this song became the anthem for the newly reformed ‘old’ AT and T, the playing of this song has been relentless. Every other commercial break there’s a spot for the phone company, and then there’s ‘All Around the World’ played again.

Even on old Cingular spots where the song is jammed in at the end for only a second, it’s completely grating. I noticed the effect it had on me when the song came on XM radio and a jolt of anger instinctively went through my body. I don’t hate the song because of its association with the commercial. I now simply hate the song itself, through some kind of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ style brainwashing effect. The song itself is now a psychological weapon that strikes into the hearts of people.

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Number One: Galvanize by the Chemical Brothers by Budweiser Select

This commercial / song combination ranks at number one for a variety of reasons.

- It’s a good song, and the commercial flat-out ruined it.

- This campaign came out while the song was still popular, causing fatigue of popularity before the song’s time.

- The song wasn’t limited to one commercial, it was part of a campaign, and the campaign got a lot of airtime.

- The identity of the product buyer mismatches enough with fans of the band to make the fans angry that their music is co-opted.

If you have some honorable mentions please post them in the comments.

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