{"id":54555,"date":"2025-12-29T15:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/29\/michael-jackson-david-bowie-more\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T15:01:10","slug":"michael-jackson-david-bowie-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/29\/michael-jackson-david-bowie-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson, David Bowie, More"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Remember when David Bowie and Tina Turner came together to sell Pepsi, or when Genesis and Eric Clapton helped turn an ordinary evening into a “Michelob Night?”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\tNeil Young was angry when he sat down to write the lyrics to 1988\u2019s \u201cThis Note\u2019s for You.\u201d Throughout the decade, he\u2019d seen everyone from Eric Clapton and Michael Jackson to David Bowie and Tina Turner appear in commercials. In many cases, they even re-wrote lyrics to some of their most famous songs to shill soft drinks or beer. And he\u2019d had enough. \u201cAin\u2019t singing for Pepsi,\u201d Young wrote. \u201cAin\u2019t singing for Coke\/I don\u2019t sing for nobody\/Makes me look like a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe song became his biggest hit in years, and it eventually won him Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards. But it enraged some of his peers. \u201cI just don\u2019t think Neil Young should be setting himself up as rock\u2019s conscience,\u201d said Glenn Frey, who appeared alongside Don Johnson in a 1985 Pepsi ad. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s worse, making 17 albums that sound like demos, putting them out as finished product, and taking people\u2019s money for that or me taking $1 million from Pepsi. Right, Neil? Who\u2019s ripping off who? You haven\u2019t made a decent record since Harvest<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tClearly, Young hit a nerve. And to be fair to Frey, his music with the Eagles will live forever, while his Pepsi commercial is little more than an extremely dim memory to most people. That\u2019s the case for most pop star commercials from the Eighties. But thanks to the magic of YouTube, we\u2019ve gone back and resurrected some of the classics. Be warned, some of these are really, really weird. (But not as weird as Willie Nelson hawking Canada Goose<\/a> today.)<\/p>\n