Wednesday, April 7, 2010

It's crazy where this song is popping up!


Media Moments: TV commercial for McCain Superfries, American Idol, Little Tykes toy guitar
Queen Related: Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Here in Canada, McCain foods is a huge, family-owned pre-packaged food giant. They've been running a TV spot for their McCain Superfries that uses Queen’s versin of CLTCL. I don’t think it really fits the look and feel of the commercial since it’s just a couple of kids grabbing fries and shoving them in their mouths. It’s not a very animated sequence and belies the energy of the song. Yes, I get the love connection between the song and the taste of the fries, but it feels tacked on more than a natural complement to the product.

Recently, Tim Urban did CLTCL on American Idol and made a fool of himself, in my opinion. He was trying to be hip and slide around the stage but the song ended up being a weird mix of Michael BublĂ© and Freddie but not as good as either. Kara D. got it right when she said he was trying to be a star playing to millions of adoring fans but his performance was fraudulent because he hadn’t achieved that kind of status yet.

Finally, our little guy turned two recently and received a Little Tykes guitar from his uncle as a birthday gift. Out of the five pre-programmed instrumentals that come with the toy, one is CLTCL. The interesting thing about these five little song snippets is that the three strings, when pulled to simulate a guitar lead, actually sound like the guitar on the original song. So for the three of Brian’s simulated guitar licks built into the strings, it is remarkably close in tone to the Red Special. And I think CLTCL is the catchiest instrumental on the toy, although The Trogg’s Wild Thing is a close second.

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