There is something almost magical about hearing a song you forgot existed and suddenly finding yourself obsessed with it all over again. You’re watching a commercial for sneakers, a phone, or even cranberry juice, and out of nowhere, a track from decades ago pulls you right back in. It grabs you by the chest and refuses to let go.
Advertising has quietly become one of the most powerful forces in music revival. Not Spotify algorithms, not radio DJs. Ads. The right song in the right ad can resurrect a career, relaunch a catalog, and introduce an entirely new generation to music they were never supposed to discover. Let’s dive in.
1. Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams” (Ocean Spray / TikTok, 2020)
This is the one that broke the internet. In September 2020, a man named Nathan Apodaca posted a 15-second TikTok clip of himself longboarding to work, sipping Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice, and lip-syncing to a 1977 Fleetwood Mac song. What happened next was genuinely unbelievable.
Sales for Fleetwood Mac’s song jumped 374% and average daily uses of “Dreams” on TikTok also jumped 1,380% after the video went viral. The song hadn’t charted since the year it was released. Then suddenly, it was everywhere again.
In more evidence that the TikTok bump is very real, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time in four decades, landing at No. 21 on the chart dated October 17th, marking its first appearance on the chart since August 20th, 1977.
Streams of the band’s overall discography doubled as well, an unprecedented boost that snapped the entire catalog industry to attention. TikTok later turned the viral moment into a full television ad campaign, debuting a new commercial called “Good Vibes” that centered on Apodaca’s post, featuring the creator and celebrities, including Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, paying tribute to the viral clip.
2. Ben E. King – “Stand By Me” (Levi’s, 1987)
Here’s the thing: “Stand By Me” was already a classic by the late 1980s. But it took a pair of jeans to make the whole world remember it at the same time. Levi’s licensed the track for one of their iconic 501 commercials, and the results were extraordinary.
Benjamin Earl Nelson, aka Ben E. King, is the genius performer and co-composer of the hit “Stand By Me.” The song reached #4 in the US in 1961 but wouldn’t impact the UK charts until Levi’s used it in the 1987 “Entrance” ad.
Combined with the top ten re-release of the song in the US a year prior for the Stand By Me movie soundtrack and the exposure in the Levi’s ad, it would reach the #1 spot in the UK and the top ten in five other European countries. Interestingly, the #2 spot in the UK at that time was taken by another Levi’s-featured song, proving that Levi’s influence on the music charts was truly magnificent.
Honestly, that is one of the most remarkable advertising power moves in music history. Levi’s Jeans adverts resulted in three UK number one singles by this method: Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” in 1987, Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” in 1990, and The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” in 1991.
3. Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Levi’s, 1985)
Levi’s strikes again. The brand has an almost uncanny track record of pairing the right song with the right visual, and its 1985 laundromat commercial is considered one of the most effective pieces of advertising ever made. The image of a young man stripping down to wash his 501s while Marvin Gaye plays? Unforgettable.
Marvin Gaye’s soulful hit became synonymous with Levi’s after its iconic laundromat ad in 1985, perfectly reflecting the brand’s rugged yet cool identity and reviving the song’s popularity. The original had been a Motown classic from 1968, but a generation of young British viewers in the mid-1980s was hearing it for the very first time.
Looking back, we can truly see the impact of the advertising partnership between brand and song during the ’80s. Not only did classic tunes help to sell a product, but sometimes they even resurrected the music to the charts once again. A perfect example is the Levi’s 501 ads in the ’80s that used popular ’60s music.
4. Nick Drake – “Pink Moon” (Volkswagen, 1999)
Nick Drake died in 1974, almost entirely unknown to the mainstream world. He left behind just three albums, and his music barely registered commercially during his lifetime. Then Volkswagen came along with a Cabriolet commercial called “Milky Way,” and everything changed.
Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” gained a new audience through Volkswagen’s “Milky Way” ad, its serene tone complementing the peaceful visuals, making it a standout campaign of the late ’90s. The ad showed a group of young friends quietly ditching a party to drive through a moonlit night, and it felt like poetry.
The commercial introduced Drake to an audience of millions who had never heard of him. Used correctly, a classic song in a TV commercial can be just as effective as a celebrity endorsement, where the “star” is the song. In this case, the song became the entire emotional soul of the ad. Sales of Drake’s back catalog surged significantly following the broadcast. It remains one of the most quietly powerful advertising moments in music history.
5. The Hollies – “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” (Miller Lite, 1988)
This one is an almost perfect case study in how advertising can bring a song back from complete dormancy. “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” was originally released in 1969. Good song. People liked it. Then nothing for nearly two decades.
The Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” topped the UK Singles Chart in 1988, almost 20 years after its original release, after being featured prominently in an advert for Miller Lite beer. Think about that for a second. Nearly 20 years of silence. Then a beer commercial hits, and suddenly the song is number one again.
It is a stark reminder of how powerful the right pairing can be. Older music, called “catalog tracks” in the music business, not only had a large spike in streams and Shazams when used in ads, but those spikes were also far higher than the corresponding spikes in ads that featured new music. The Hollies were living proof of that fact, almost two decades before the data existed to confirm it.
6. Phil Collins – “In the Air Tonight” (Cadbury, 2007)
Let’s be real: the drum fill in “In the Air Tonight” is probably the most famous five seconds in rock history. Everyone knows it. Everyone imitates it. So when Cadbury built an entire Dairy Milk commercial around a gorilla playing that exact fill, they had the world in the palm of their hand.
The drum fill from this song is so iconic that you knew as soon as you heard it that it was gonna be used in a big ad someday. In Cadbury’s campaign promoting its Dairy Milk chocolate bar, a close-up of a gorilla reveals it is behind a drum kit, banging out Phil Collins’ famous drum sound. The ad also helped re-ignite interest in the original 1981 hit single over 25 years after its original release, re-entering the charts in the UK and New Zealand.
The commercial was completely surreal, genuinely funny, and incredibly effective. It won awards, started conversations, and pushed a quarter-century-old song back into cultural relevance overnight. Sometimes advertising creativity and music legacy simply collide at exactly the right moment.
7. Trio – “Da Da Da” (Volkswagen, 1997)
Not every revival story involves a massive rock anthem. Sometimes, it is a quirky, minimalist German synth-pop track from 1982 that almost nobody remembered. Then Volkswagen used it in a US commercial for the Golf, and suddenly everyone was humming it at their desks without really knowing why.
If you’ve heard Trio’s “Da Da Da” or a cover of it at any time later than the early 1980s, you almost certainly have Volkswagen to thank for that, even if you don’t remember the 1997 ad that revived the song. The ad showed two guys driving around, picking up junk and throwing it away, set to the song’s almost comically repetitive beat.
It was deadpan, weirdly charming, and completely unexpected. The commercial became one of Volkswagen’s most recognizable campaigns of the 1990s. When chosen well, advertising music has a huge impact on consumers, who end up associating it strongly with the brand, service, or product it promotes. Sometimes we even forget that some of these songs weren’t originally made for ads at all.
8. The Clash – “Should I Stay or Should I Go” (Levi’s, 1991)
By 1991, The Clash had been broken up for years. They were critically adored but mostly off mainstream radar. Then Levi’s, who had already sent “Stand By Me” and “The Joker” to number one in the UK, licensed their track for another iconic 501 denim ad. The result was immediate.
“Should I Stay or Should I Go” was one of three UK number one singles achieved by Levi’s jeans adverts through this revival method. The song shot straight to the top of the charts, introducing the band to a generation who would go on to make them one of the most influential acts in punk rock history.
It is hard to say for sure whether The Clash would have reached the same level of cultural legacy without that commercial boost. But the timing was remarkable. Looking back, we can truly see the impact of the advertising partnership between brand and song in the ’80s and early ’90s. Not only did classic tunes help to sell a product, but they sometimes even resurrected the music to the charts once again.
9. Simon & Garfunkel – “The Sound of Silence” (AT&T, 2024)
Some songs feel genuinely timeless, and Simon & Garfunkel’s haunting 1966 chart-topper is exactly that. But it still needed a nudge to feel relevant to a new generation of listeners. And that nudge came from, of all places, a Super Bowl season commercial.
Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” their number one hit for eight weeks in 1966, was featured in an AT&T commercial touting their hearing-impaired technology, apparently used in the NFL’s helmet communications system, noted during the 2024 NFL playoff season.
Pairing a song about silence and disconnection with technology for the hearing impaired was a genuinely clever creative choice. Music trends over the last decade have one thing in common: a tendency toward nostalgia and an undeniably retro bent, both in the music currently being created and through older songs that have been given new life decades later. The AT&T placement was a fine example of that trend playing out in real time during one of television’s biggest advertising moments.
10. Iggy Pop – “Lust for Life” (Carnival Cruises / Various Ads)
Here is a song with genuinely one of the most interesting second-act stories in advertising history. “Lust for Life” was a raw, propulsive track recorded by Iggy Pop with David Bowie in 1977. It was not exactly a mainstream hit. It had a certain edge that made it feel unlikely for anything wholesome.
The song gained renewed popularity in the 1990s after being prominently featured in the film “Trainspotting,” which helped introduce it to a new generation. Its energetic beat and catchy chorus have since made it a staple in pop culture, appearing in various films and commercials. This resurgence cemented “Lust for Life” as one of Iggy Pop’s most recognizable songs.
The ultimate irony came when Carnival Cruise Lines licensed the song for their vacation ads. A track that had originally soundtracked a film about heroin addiction in Edinburgh was now selling tropical getaways. Older music had a large spike in streams and Shazams when used in ads, and those spikes were also far higher than the corresponding spikes in ads that featured new music, which goes a long way toward explaining why brands keep reaching back into the archives again and again.
The Bigger Picture: Why Ads Keep Bringing Old Songs Back to Life
It is no coincidence that so many of these stories keep repeating. Brands are not licensing classic songs by accident. There is a deliberate, data-driven logic at work. During a mass market event like the Super Bowl, where you’re paying $12 million a minute to reach the widest audience of any TV ad opportunity of the year, you want to include music that has the same potential for mass-market reach and appeal.
Besides TikTok and seasonality, other factors such as a musician’s death or the use of a song in a popular film or television show have also renewed attention to hits of the past. Advertising is simply the most reliable, repeatable version of that phenomenon. It happens on a schedule, with a budget, and with clear commercial intent.
The streaming era has made the math even more compelling. When fans no longer had to spend money to reconnect with an older song they were reminded of thanks to a movie or TV sync, and could instead help its chart numbers by playing it over and over again, that change in consumption made the revival effect more powerful than ever. In the end, music never truly dies. Sometimes it just needs someone to remind us it was there all along. What song do you think deserves its comeback moment next? Drop your pick in the comments below.
