A Cunning Plan!
And French adverts are much more interesting! Even the Aldi one 
1 Like
Oh my goodness, totally agree, AND they play it in kids TV so about 6 months ago I had my small constantly singing it, which then made it become an earworm for me too 
I think folks at advertising agencies are having a chuckle at their client’s expense recently.
First, it was OMD’s “Enola Gay” being used in a food advert by Gusto and now KFC are using Disturbed’s “Down With The Sickness” to advertise their new Tower Zinger malarkey.
Sorry !
No probs…didnt realise there are people who don’t like it.
True for any music. That was the point made by the ‘aversion therapy’ sequence in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ where Malcolm McDowell’s charcter is subjected to his favourite music, Beethoven’s 9th Symph, to the point of mental breakdown.
My ex was driven to distraction by the constant repetition of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ - about once every 5 tracks - when Jazz FM broadcast their test transmission before going ‘live’ in London. She always had the radio on in her studio while painting. We reckoned that it was a sort of ‘tribute’ - "Tall and slender. Young and lovely… " to Princess Diana who had recently died.
I talked her into trying R3 but she said the music distracted her, tho’ she ‘discovered’ the voice of Pavarotti. Classic FM’s habit of ‘cherry picking’ from classical works included ‘Nesan Dorma’ ad naus, made worse by the tune being used for a TV icecream ad.
The Four Seasons was ruined for years for me by being used as the soundtrack of the TV series ‘Casanova’.
Macari’s musical instrument shop on Charing Cross Rd/now Denmark St has a sign up, as many guitar shops do, 'No trying guitars with ‘Stairway to Heaven/Smoke on the Water’.
As for ‘Concerto de Aranjuez’, try the arrangement by Gil Evans for Miles Davis. In my opinion it expresses Spain - heat and dust and ‘duende’ better than the original.
Just don’t overdo it.
3 Likes
There are some songs that are just a perfect combination of tune, arrangement and voice. This is one of them - takes me straight back to my time in Brazil. I saw them perform live - glorious
3 Likes
I have the Gilberto/Getz album: Stan Getz - ‘The Lovely Tone.’ And Astrid Gilberto albums. ‘G from I’ was one of the vast repertoire of my jazz piano pal, for whom I played drums. I preferred ‘Desefinado’
I have the room service menu of the Cesar Park Hotel, overlooking Ipanema beach, where I stayed for a couple of days at the end of a shoot down the road at Parati.
The price for a bottle of Gordon’ Gin was BZR15.650,00 and a bottle of French Moet & Chandon [M & C produces a Brazilian version] BZR14.500,00.
3 Likes
I love this - especially in it’s native Portuguese. I have an ambition to learn to play Bossa Nova on my classical guitar.
I have some Stan Getz on lps. Love his playing.
3 Likes
You’re absolutely right!
I’ve had the Sketches of Spain LP for about fifty years, and the CD for only a bit less - the latter only gets played about once a year, but it always evokes those endlessly arid, Sergio Leone landscapes of southern Spain.
This year we decided not to go that far south again - it’s become too long a drive and flying with a dog is seldom an option on budget airlines.
I’m Brazilian and can’t stand any Bossa Nova - wrote this and ran 
Are you sure you weren’t expelled from Brazil for poor musical taste? How about Samba?
2 Likes
Ahahahaha I love Led Zeppelin…
I do love samba, MPB, and many other Brazilian styles. Just the Bossa Nova might have played too much in my ears.
I have a nice story to share. A few years ago I took the IELTS. For the interview, I’d be given a topic which I’d have to develop during 2 minutes. I prepared to discuss politics, religion and History. The interviewer asked me to talk about eccentric fashion styles. I stuttered for a few seconds and just said honestly I couldn’t care less about fashion, so it would be a very painfully boring speech. Then he smiled, relaxed and said, ‘Ok, then let me know what makes you proud of being Brazilian’.
The first thing that came to my mind was our music, and I talked about Bossa Nova for 7 - seven - minutes, five more than the 2 “allowed”. The nice gentleman gave me the highest score 
3 Likes
National anthems (although I do like the French one). Rarely updated, often outmoded and guaranteed to add tedium to any occasion. At least they’re getting a little less prevalent.
1 Like
That and the Italian one, both genuinely uplifting unlike the British dirge.
I think the Olympics has lowered my resistance to all of them to be honest!
Sweet Caroline surely!
And Sketches of Spain, great music.
The “British dirge” is not a national anthem. It’s a hymn to a 21st century anachronism. A national anthem should extol the vitues and glories of the nation and it’s people, not the descendants of tyrants.
2 Likes