AD NAUSEUM: Like a sound you hear that lingers in your ear…

Using catchy tunes to sell stuff is by no means a recent phenomenon (obvs). Basically as soon as there was such a thing as the advertising industry, music was used as a means to infiltrate people’s psyches. And now that advertising is as ubiquitous as ever, it’s even harder to escape getting s#*t stuck in your head constantly (don’t tell me it didn’t take you 3 months to get Feist out of your head). So, since you can’t escape it, you might as well embrace it!! AD NAUSEUM will be a regular feature on ¢ollective co. dedicated to catchy tunes from commercials (cause no matter what you do, it’s gonna grab a hold on you)…

The above Dockers commercial features the Marlena Shaw classic “California Soul". I think that the romanticized portrayal of San Francisco in the ad actually does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the song. Except, of course, the complete lack of ANY person of color (which is a curious omission considering that the name of the damn song is California SOUL). Anyway, the song was written by the well-known husband and wife team, Ashford & Simpson (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “You’re All I Need To Get By”). It was originally released by the Fifth Dimension and covered by Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell but, in my opinion, the Marlena Shaw version is unmatched. In addition to having the strongest vocal interpretation, it also has that ridiculous string intro I can never get enough of.

MP(FREE)'s:
Marlena Shaw - California Soul
The Fifth Dimension - California Soul
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - California Soul

Lastly… baile-funky 3rd world culture-expropriator and hipster-tastemaker, Diplo (who has remixed everything from the Bartman to that “I like turtles” kid... seriously), made a simple yet effective remix for the forthcoming Verve Remixed, Vol. 4 compilation which is set to drop at the end of the month (May 27). If the previous Verve Remixed compilations are any indication, it’ll be fire.. so cop it.

MP3: Marlena Shaw - California Soul (Diplo, Mad Decent Remix)