When Levi’s Jeans Dictated The UK Music Charts: 1986-2001

Seven UK number-ones, thirteen top 10s, seventeen top 20s and nineteen top 40 singles…all thanks to the world’s most famous jeans company…

The usage of popular music in advertising is an idea that has been around for decades. Take either a famous song from the past or an upcoming release from a contemporary singer and include it on the latest TV spot for the product you want to advertise. In many cases, certain songs featured on television adverts have become popular enough that the tracks have found commercial success on mainstream music charts worldwide. Songs that were popular in the past have brought older artists back into the spotlight due to an old hit appearing on a new commercial. On the other end of the scale, new music stars have been created through the inclusion of their work on adverts for major brands.

Daniel Powter’s ‘Bad Day’ would become one of the biggest hits of 2005 and 2006, becoming a top-ten single in eighteen countries and reaching the top spot in four, including the USA. The song finished as the 11th-most popular song of 2005 in the United Kingdom and the biggest tune of 2006 in the US. This success spawned from the song’s inclusion in a French Coca-Cola advert in 2004. The success of this advert led to the track, initially recorded in 2002, being released internationally by Warner Bros. Records, and the rest is history. In 2012, Southwark-born Alex Clare would find his dreams of musical stardom turn into reality after his song ‘Too Close’ was included in an advert for the ninth edition of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. After this worldwide airing, ‘Too Close’ reached the top ten in six countries, including Germany (#1), the UK (#4) and the USA (#6) and the top twenty in another five. The success of ‘Too Close’ would help Clare’s debut album, The Lateness of the Hour, achieve Gold certification in the United Kingdom.

In the 2000s, Apple became known for creating hit records out of the tracks featured on ads for the iPod. Jet’s ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’, The Caesars’ ‘Jerk It Out’, Feist’s ‘1234’ and The Ting Tings’ ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’ would all experience UK top-twenty success and appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 after appearing in ads for Steve Jobs’ products. However, that is a story for another day.

When it comes to crowning the king (or queen) of creating hit singles through the method of advertising, there can be only one: Levi’s Jeans. In the 1980s and 1990s (and even the 2000s), the denim brand teamed up with British advertising agency Bartley, Bogle and Hegarty to find the best singles to soundtrack their ad campaigns. These ads would become pieces of television advertising history, making success stories of the ad’s directors and star actors. However, the music featured in these commercials would become success stories of their own, as shown through appearances on the UK Singles Chart. If a specific Levi’s advert became popular in the UK, the record label behind the original song would release (or re-release) the track with either a Levi’s logo or scenes from the original advert on the single’s cover. The sight of these images would lead the UK public to buy these songs in such quantities that many of them appeared on the UK Top 40. Between 1986 and 2001, in particular, nineteen different songs recorded between the 1950s and the 2000s would feature in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart directly after appearing in an ad for Levi’s jeans. All nineteen of these songs, the original Levi’s adverts and the stories behind both will be discussed in this particular article.

Why was the UK music-buying public routinely going gaga over songs featured in jeans commercials? Well, there was a precedent for it. In 1976, British clothing company Brutus would ask musician David Dundas to provide a jingle for their latest jeans advert. Dundas, who had a background in television themes, would subsequently produce the ditty ‘I Put My Brutus Jeans On’. With Dundas’ jingle in place, this Brutus Jeans advert would become incredibly popular. People couldn’t get enough of that catchy jingle to the extent that major British record label Chrysalis would ask David Dundas to turn his 30-second advertising jingle into a full-length three-minute pop record that could be released to the public.

The full-length song ‘Jeans On’ (with all references to Brutus Jeans removed) would release in July 1976. In an eventual nine-week run in the UK Top 40, ‘Jeans On’ would spend three weeks at #3 and six weeks in the top ten. However, the song’s success would not only be confined to the UK. ‘Jeans On’ would chart in thirteen different countries, reaching the top 20 in all of them. Despite this success, David Dundas would only have one more UK Top 40 hit in 1977. He would soon return to scoring films and TV programmes, including Withnail and I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.

Whether directly or indirectly following the lead of Brutus Jeans and David Dunas, Levi’s would use the same methods just mentioned, becoming one of the more successful brands of the 1980s and 1990s. In today’s article, you will be taken back to the time when Levi’s Jeans dictated the UK music chart.

Part 1: Nostalgia Is The Best Form Of Advertising

Sam Cooke-Wonderful World (#2, March 1986) (originally released 1960)

Sam Cooke’s music career would last a total of eight years before his untimely death at the age of 33 years old in December 1994. However, in that short time, Cooke would rack up twenty-six top forty hits in his native United States and nine in the UK. Many of Sam Cooke’s most famous songs would make their way onto the UK charts, including ‘You Send Me (#29), ‘Only Sixteen’ (#23) and ‘Another Saturday Night’ (#23), with the songs ‘Chain Gang’ (#9), ‘Cupid’ (#7) and ‘Twistin’ The Night Away’ (#6) even charting within the top 10. However, Sam Cooke’s most significant impact on the UK Singles Chart would not come until 22 years after the singer’s passing.

In late 1985, Levi’s would produce the advert ‘Bath’. In the ad, a young man shuts the blinds in his bedroom before performing a series of pull-ups. After drying the sweat off himself, the man puts on his Levi’s jeans. After the camera takes note of the particular details on these jeans, including the label above the back pocket, the man checks his hair in the mirror and looks at a photo of a young woman, presumably his (ex) girlfriend. After opening his bedroom window and probably throwing the picture away, the man fills up his bath, gets in while wearing the jeans and drinks a beer. Why does he do this? Because Levi’s 501 jeans are ‘the original shrink-to-fit jeans’. While all this activity is occurring, a cover version of Sam Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’ (sung by Tony Jackson) plays on a record player in the man’s bedroom.

Sam Cooke originally recorded ‘Wonderful World’ for Keen Records in March 1959. After sitting on the shelf for over a year, Keen would release the single in April 1960 as a way of competing with rival record label RCA Victor, who now had Sam Cooke’s recording services. Upon its release, ‘Wonderful World’ would peak at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, becoming Sam Cooke’s most significant domestic hit since 1957. In the UK, the song wouldn’t fare as well. The track would mark Cooke’s third appearance on the UK Singles Chart, following 1957’s ‘You Send Me’ and 1959’s ‘Only Sixteen’. However, ‘Wonderful World’ would not crack the top 20, peaking at #27 on 27th July 1960. The song would remain in the top 40 for five weeks before dropping out in the second week of August.

Nearly twenty-six years later, following the UK airing of ‘Bath’, Sam Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’ would make a remarkable return to the singles chart. On 22nd March 1986, the song would re-enter the ‘hit parade’ at #30, giving Sam Cooke his first UK top 40 since September 1963’s ‘Frankie and Johnny’ (a song which also peaked at #30). However, instead of dropping out of the charts, following a brief rebirth in popularity due to the ad campaign, ‘Wonderful World’ would continue to sell. The week after its re-debut, ‘Wonderful World’ would rise 25 places up the Top 40, finishing the week ending 29th March as the fifth-most popular song in the United Kingdom, becoming Sam Cooke’s highest-charting single in the UK. The following week, ‘Wonderful World’ would be the second-most popular song in the country. The only thing stopping Sam Cooke from achieving his first-ever UK No.1 single twenty-two years after his death was the song ‘Living Doll’, a charity version performed by original artist Cliff Richard and the cast of the sitcom The Young Ones as part of the UK’s Comic Relief fundraising efforts.

The last time Sam Cooke had a song in the UK Top 40, Cliff Richard had a track at #4 titled ‘It’s All In The Game’. In that particular week (9th October 1963), the UK top 5 featured tunes by The Beatles (‘She Loves You, #1), Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (‘Do You Love Me?’, #2), The Crystals (‘And Then He Kissed Me’, #3) and Trini Lopez (‘If I Had A Hammer’, #5). On 5th April 1986, the UK top five singles would be ‘Living Doll’, ‘Wonderful World’, Samantha Fox’s ‘Touch Me (I Want Your Body) (#3), George Michael’s ‘A Different Corner’ (#4) and the 10th-anniversary re-release of The Real Thing’s ‘You To Me Are Everything’, a No.1 single back in 1976.

‘Wonderful World’ would not manage to dislodge Cliff and the Young Ones from the No.1 spot, dropping down a place to #3 the following week. The song would spend another week in the top 10 before moving down on 26th April. It would spend a further two weeks in the top 20 (#12, #18) and two more in the top 40 before finally leaving the chart on 24th May 1986. In the end, ‘Wonderful World’ had spent nine consecutive weeks inside the UK top 40, with five of those coming inside the top 10. In 1963, the song lasted five weeks on the chart, never moving above #27. Twenty-three years later, inclusion on a minute-long Levi’s Jeans ad would catapult the song into a new level of popularity.

The ad campaign’s success would also help Sam Cooke’s new compilation album Sam Cooke: The Man and His Music spend two weeks at #8 on the UK Albums Chart in June 1986, giving the late singer his first top 10 UK album. Two songs from that compilation, re-releases of ‘Another Saturday Night’ and ‘Twisting The Night Away’, would peak at #75 and #100 later in 1986.

Marvin Gaye-I Heard it Through The Grapevine (#8, April 1986) (originally released 1968)

While Sam Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’ was still riding high on the UK Singles Chart, another deceased singer would make an unexpected comeback to the hit parade thanks to a Levi’s advert. In the week that Cooke’s ‘Wonderful World’ charted at #12 in its sixth week in the charts, Marvin Gaye’s most famous hit ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ would re-enter the chart for the first time since 1968. While it had only been three years since Marvin Gaye’s last appearance in Top 40- #34 with ‘My Love Is Waiting’, released the year before Gaye’s murder in April 1984 at the age of 45- it was still a surprise to see the King of Motown make a return to the charts. After Gaye’s passing, the posthumous 1985 release Dream of a Lifetime had only reached #46 in the Albums Chart, while its lead single ‘Sanctified Lady’ would miss out on the Top 40, peaking at #51. However, an iconic advert would soon bring Marvin Gaye back to prominence.

In late 1985 and early 1986, Levi’s would air the advert ‘Launderette’ on television. Set sometime in the 1950s or 1960s, the ad sees a young man (played by model Nick Kamen) enter a launderette. With ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ (another Tony Jackson cover version) soundtracking the scene, the man, watched by two young boys in backwards baseball caps, sets up a washing machine. The man proceeds to take off his shirt and put it into the machine, attracting the attention of two young women sitting behind him. He then removes his belt and takes off his jeans, putting them into the machine. With all of the women in the launderette watching him, the man, now dressed only in a pair of white boxer shorts, sits down next to an older gentleman and starts reading a magazine. The ad ends by reminding the audience that Levi’s 501 jeans are the original shrink-to-fit jeans, mimicking the slogan of the ‘Bath’ commercial. However, Levi’s wants to tell us that these 501 jeans are now available ‘stonewashed’, making them slightly different to the pair worn by our friend in the previous ad.

Levi’s ‘Launderette’ advert is now seen as one of the greatest of all time. In 2000, ‘Launderette’ would finish sixth in a TV programme aired on Channel 4 ranking The 100 Greatest TV Ads. The ad’s star, model Nick Kamen would see his popularity surge. Already on an upward trajectory after a notable appearance on the cover of magazine The Face in 1984, Kamen would follow up the ‘Laundrette’ ad by successfully turning his hand to music. Later in 1986, he would earn a top-five hit single with ‘Each Time You Break My Heart’, a tune written and produced by Madonna. Nick Kamen would later obtain two more UK Top 40 songs with ‘Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever’ (#16 in 1987) and ‘Tell Me’ (#40 in 1988) before disappearing from the UK airwaves. However, his star would continue to shine in Europe, and he would enjoy significant No.1 success in Italy, Austria and Sweden between 1988 and 1990. To achieve all this, Nick Kamen had to strip down his boxers in a jeans commercial.

However, months before Nick Kamen’s musical success, it was time for Marvin Gaye to have his moment in the spotlight once more. Back in 1969, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ had been a smash hit, spending three weeks as the UK’s No.1 single after knocking Peter Sarstedt off the top spot. The song was Gaye’s first solo hit in the UK, as all four of his previous appearances in the Singles Chart had come in duets with Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. However, Gaye would achieve his solo breakthrough with ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’. The song would spend fifteen consecutive weeks in the Top 40 between February and May 1969, including nine weeks in the Top 10. In the years afterwards, Gaye would have a further ten hit singles in the UK, with songs like ‘Too Busy Thinking About My Baby (#5, 1969), ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ (#9, 1970), ‘Got To Give It Up’ (#7, 1977) and ‘Sexual Healing’ (#4, 1982) all cracking the Top 10. However, nothing would compare to the success of ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’.

Seventeen years after its initial success, Gaye’s former record label Tamla-Motown would capitalise on the popularity of the ‘Launderette’ ad by re-releasing ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, including a Levi’s logo on the record sleeve. The marketing tactic would pay dividends, and Marvin Gaye’s biggest hit would return to the UK Singles Chart on the week ending 26th April 1986. The song would re-enter the chart at #27, while fellow Levi’s song ‘Wonderful World’ was placed at #12. In its second week, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ would move up sixteen places to #11, while ‘Wonderful World’ dropped to #18. This meant that on this particular week, two of the UK’s twenty most popular songs were hits from the 1960s that had experienced a recent surge in popularity thanks to Levi’s jeans. In its third week, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ would peak at #8, giving Marvin Gaye his 8th Top 10 single. After one more week in the Top 10 (at #9), a further one in the Top 20 the following week (#18), and one more in the Top 40 the week after that (#32), ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ would end its eight-week stay in the UK Top 40 in the first week of June 1986.

Later Gaye releases would not replicate the successful re-release of ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’. Posthumous releases ‘The World Is Rated X’ and ‘Lucky Lucky Me’ would peak at #95 and #67 in June 1986 and May 1994, respectively, while a 2013 re-release of ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ (a Gaye duet with Tammi Terrell) would reach #80. However, the year 2000 would bring Marvin Gaye one more Top 40 appearance as a ‘duet’ (Gaye’s vocals from one song added to a different track) with rapper Erick Sermon titled ‘Music’ would peak at #36, giving the King of Motown one more minor hit. However, since Marvin Gaye’s tragic death in 1984, only Levi’s could manage to afford the great man one last run near the top of the UK charts.

Ben E. King-Stand By Me (#1, February 1987)

In 1986, Levis’s jeans adverts had managed to get two songs originally released in 1960 and 1968 to peaks of #2 and #8 in the UK Singles Chart in the spring of 1986. In 1987, the denim company would manage to repeat this feat and more, getting two more songs from the ’60s into the same UK Top 5 in the same week, with one even getting to No.1. Similar to 1986, one tune had barely left an impact on the Top 40 upon its original release, while the other had become one of the more memorable songs of the decade.

In the late 1950s, Ben E. King would first experience UK chart success serving as the lead singer of soul and doo-wop group The Drifters. Between 1959 and 1960, the group would have three UK top 40 hits, including Top 20 hits ‘Dance With Me’ and ‘Save the Last Dance For Me’, the latter of which peaked at #2. A contract dispute would see King leave The Drifters in May 1960 to form a solo career. In this form, he would make three further appearances on the UK hit parade in 1961. However, not one of his three releases, ‘First Taste Of Love’, ‘Stand By Me’ and ‘Amor’, would replicate his Drifters success, all finishing outside the Top 20. After these singles failed to catch on, Ben E. King would fade from the UK music consciousness for twenty-six years.

On 22nd August 1986, the film Stand By Me would release into cinemas in North America. As the film was set in the 1960s, Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ would feature as the film’s theme song and as part of the accompanying soundtrack. King would even record a music video for the song, which featured clips from the film and its young cast. The effect of the song’s appearance in the movie and the music video regularly playing on MTV would see the song return to the Billboard Hot 100, reaching as high as #9 in December 1986, giving King his first domestic hit since 1975.

It has often been said that the release of the film Stand By Me was also the main factor in Ben E. King’s song returning to the UK charts in early 1987. However, that is not necessarily the truth. In early 1987, ‘Stand By Me’ was included in ‘Entrance’, the latest ad for Levi’s 501. Unlike the previous two ads on this list, which utilised covers of their respective hits, this latest Levi’s commercial would use the original master. The ‘Entrance’ advert sees a young gentleman being refused entry into a club for wearing blue jeans as the establishment has a strict ‘No Blue Jeans’ policy. Another young man, having watched this situation unfold, confidently strides up to the bouncer for entry to the nightclub. When the bouncer stops him, the man reveals that he is wearing black jeans. Somewhat disappointed, the bouncer allows him entry. After combing his hair and exchanging looks with a young, impressed blonde woman, the man takes off his jacket and walks into the club. The ad ends with Levi’s announcing that the 501 are now available ‘in black’. Never knew that black jeans weren’t a thing until 1987. You learn something new every day.

Once again, Levi’s had used ‘Stand By Me’ as part of the retro aesthetic of the 501 ad campaign. Similar to ‘Bath’ and ‘Launderette’, ‘Entrance’ is set somewhere in the 1950s or early 1960s. The inclusion of ‘Stand By Me’ conveys the period setting more than anything else. The opening verse to the track could even reference the plot of the advert itself. The ad is set at night (When the night has come/And the land is dark/And the moon, is the only light we’ll see), and the ad’s star is wearing black jeans, something that would stand out in the dark. When the young man approaches the bouncer and shows off his black jeans, he is ‘not afraid’ and does not ‘shed a tear’ when faced with the imposing bouncer. While ad agency Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty may have thought this way back in 1987, it is more likely that the song was used to convey the advert’s moody atmosphere. However, despite these questions, ‘Entrance’ would earn BB&H a British Television Advertising Award later in 1987.

However, the primary recipient of the success of ‘Entrance’ would, of course, be Ben E. King. After his return to the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1986, he would find that ‘Stand By Me’ had also experienced a new lease of life in the UK, but for very different reasons. In the week ending Valentine’s Day 1987, the love song would break back into the UK Singles Chart at #19, giving King his first ever UK Top 20 hit as a solo artist, and his first altogether since The Drifters ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ hit #2 in 1960. However, if that return to the charts wasn’t dramatic or surprising enough, the following week would make for more exciting news. On 21st February 1987, ‘Stand By Me’ would rise up 18 places and knock George Michael and Aretha Franklin’s duet ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) off the top of the UK Singles Chart, giving the 48-year-old King his first-ever UK No.1. The song would remain atop the listings for two more weeks before being replaced by Boy George’s ‘Everything I Own’ on 14th March. Dropping to #2, ‘Stand By Me’ would then spend a further four weeks in the Top 40, including two more in the top 20 (#6, #14) before dropping out on 18th April 1987. After only reaching #27 in 1961, ‘Stand By Me’ would stay in the UK charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1987, including three weeks at No.1.

For those wondering how much of an effect the UK film release of Stand By Me had on the song’s success, I will tell you now. Stand By Me would hit UK cinemas on 13th March 1987. That was the same week that ‘Stand By Me’ was knocked off the number-one spot. Despite the film’s commercial success, the song would continue to slowly fall down the charts. By the time of the movie’s UK release, the British public already had their fill of Ben E. King. Hoping to replicate the success of ‘Stand By Me’, Atlantic would re-release King’s 1960 song ‘Spanish Harlem’. ‘Spanish Harlem’ had reached number 10 on the US Charts back in 1960 but had not made a dent in the UK. In 1987, the song’s re-release wouldn’t get close to the Top 40, peaking at #92 on 25th April 1987. A reissue of ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ in June 1987 would only get as high as #69.

However, one single Levi’s jeans advert had managed to take an unheralded song from 1960, a tune that could only be classed as a minor hit in 1961, and turn it into a UK No.1 in 1987. Levi’s had secured their third UK top 10 single in one year. That would quickly become four.

Percy Sledge-When A Man Loves A Woman (#2, February 1987) (originally released 1966)

In the UK, you would not go far wrong in calling Percy Sledge a one-hit-wonder. Even though the singer would obtain 14 top 40 appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 (including four top-fives) between 1966 and 1969, he could not find the same success on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He would twice make the UK Top 40 Singles Chart. However, only one of these songs is ever discussed, hence the one-hit-wonder tag.

In 1966, Percy Sledge, through Atlantic Records, would release the song ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’. The ballad, about a man declaring his undying love for his female partner despite being mistreated, would become a smash hit on either side of the Atlantic. Becoming a No.1 in the USA, the track would also perform well in the UK. After charting at #35 in its first week in the Top 40, the song would rise up the rankings over a few weeks before eventually peaking at #4 at the end of June 1966. This peak would come in the middle of a six-week run in the Top 10. ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would spend fourteen weeks in the UK Top 40 between May and August 1966, becoming one the biggest songs of the year. However, the same could not be said for the follow-up single ‘Warm And Tender Love’. Although the song would become another hit for Sledge in the USA (#17), the tune would only reach #34 in the UK. After that, Percy Sledge would not have another song on the UK airwaves…until 1987.

In early 1987, ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would become the fourth song to earn the Levi’s 501 treatment. In the advert ‘Parting’, Sledge’s masterpiece underscores a story of a young couple parting ways at a bus station as the man goes off to war. When he leaves, he gives his partner a paper package. When the woman goes home, she unwraps the parcel to find a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans. Replacing her skirt with the jeans, he finds a love letter from her beau in the back pocket and begins to read it as Levi’s tells us that the 501 jeans are ‘occasionally available for women’.

With ‘Parting’ seemingly running in circulation on British TV at the same time as the ‘Entrance’ ad that utilised ‘Stand By Me’, Atlantic Records would re-release ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ at the same time as the Ben E. King song. In fact, both tracks would return to the UK Singles Chart in the same week. While ‘Stand By Me’ would enter at #19, ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would end Valentine’s Day 1987 at #28. However, it would jump up a whopping 23 places to #5 the following week, when ‘Stand By Me’ went to No.1. Therefore, in the same week in the UK charts, two of the five most-prominent songs of the week were songs from the 1960s that had earned renewed popularity thanks to a jeans company. The following week, another bump would ensure that Levi’s jeans were responsible for the UK’s two most popular songs as ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would climb to #2 behind ‘Stand By Me’, giving Percy Sledge his highest-ever UK chart placing. The song would remain at #2 for a second week before dropping to #6. After two more weeks in the top twenty (#9, #19), ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would finally exit the top 40 on 11th April, ending nine weeks on the chart.

After the successful re-release of ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’, no other Percy Sledge track would ever grace the UK Singles Chart. With the song now responsible for both of his UK top ten appearances, ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ would only accentuate Percy’s Sledge status as a one-hit-wonder on this side of the Atlantic. However, the song would help Sledge’s compilation album When A Man Loves A Woman (The Ultimate Collection) reach #36 on the UK Albums Chart, giving the 47-year-old his only chart appearance.

Eddie Cochran- C’mon Everybody (#14, February 1988) (originally released 1958)

After achieving quadruplicate success with songs from the 1960s across 1986 and 1987, Levi’s would next find UK chart success with a track from the ’50s. For their early 1988 advert ‘Cochran’, the company would, of course, use a song by ’50s rock’n’roll star Eddie Cochran. The ad, set on New Years’ Eve 1958, would see Cochran arrive at a house party in New York City. A young woman runs through her wardrobe upstairs, hoping to impress the young singer. In the end, she decides to dress down, wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of Levi’s. When she goes downstairs, some of the other girls give her dirty looks. However, Cochran catches the young woman’s eye and smiles at her upon seeing her. The advert ends by advertising the 501 jeans as a guitar lies over them, implying that Cochran and the young woman slept together. As the ad explains, the young woman is Sharon Seeley, who would become Eddie Cochran’s girlfriend around this time and became his songwriting partner. She would also be in the car accident that killed Cochran, aged 21, on 17th April 1960. However, with the actress portraying Seeley providing narration throughout the ad, ‘Cochran’ is a fun 43-second look into the life of the ’50s rocker and what a smitten young woman would do to get his attention.

For the ‘Cochran’ ad campaign, Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty would use ‘C’mon Everybody’, a song first released in October 1958 that would have been in the US chart at the time of the ad’s setting. Even though the song would reach #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1958, the song would find greater success in the UK early the following year. ‘C’mon Everybody’ would become Cochran’s second top 40 appearance and his first UK top 10 single, peaking at #6 in April 1959 as part of a fourteen-week run on the Singles Chart. Of the 10 top 40 hits Cochran would have before and after his 1960 passing, only his No.1 single ‘Three Steps To Heaven’ (released one month after his death) would perform better than ‘C’mon Everybody’.

In February 1988, having witnessed the success of other songs, Liberty Records would re-release ‘C’mon Everybody’ to tie in with the Levi’s ad campaign. The week after its reissue, ‘C’mon Everybody’ would just miss out on the top 40, hitting #43. However, the song would climb eleven places onto the chart the following week at #32, giving the late Cochran a first appearance on the UK Singles chart since 1968. The week after this, the song would climb another thirteen positions to #19, beginning a three-week run in the UK top 20. During this run, ‘C’mon Everybody’ would peak at #14 on 5th March 1988, the highest an Eddie Cochran track had charted since 1961’s ‘Weekend’. However, unlike the previous songs on this list, ‘C’mon Everybody’ would not break into the top ten, breaking Levi’s 100% record. The song would drop out of the top 20 to #34 on 19th March before leaving the top 40 the following week. A five-week stay for the near-thirty-year-old tune.

Before the re-release of ‘C’mon Everybody in 1988, previous reissues of Eddie Cochran’s work had found minor success. In 1968, a re-release of Cochran’s first top 40 track ‘Summertime Blues’ would chart at #34, almost a decade after the original had peaked at #14 in 1958. However, using ‘C’mon Everybody’ as part of an ad that focused on Eddie Cochran would help the reissue of that song to reach higher heights than previous re-releases. Twenty-eight years after the singer’s passing, Levi’s had shown that there was still an appetite for ’50s rock’n’roll and that Eddie Cochran could still prove popular with young people.

Steve Miller Band-The Joker (#1, September 1990) (originally released 1973)

A couple of near-misses later in 1988 would end Levi’s run on the UK Top 40. With the brand’s run of dominance seemingly ending with Eddie Cochran’s’C’mon Everybody’ in February 1988, the power of the company’s jeans adverts had diminished, not possessing the ability to make every song featuring on these ads into a hit. However, in September 1990, one Levi’s ad would propel the brand not just back into the top 40 but to their second UK No.1 single. Who was the lucky artist who would experience a whole new level of success thanks to the jeans company? The Steve Miller Band.

After finding their feet in the late 1960s, the Steve Miller Band would emerge in their native country in 1973, with ‘The Joker’ topping the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. Two further US number-ones would follow with 1976’s ‘Rock’n Me’ and 1982’s ‘Abracadabra’ in addition to five more appearances in the top 40 between the first and third chart-toppers. In the UK, the Steve Miller Band would not experience this same level of success, Three of the band’s albums (Fly Like An Eagle, Book of Dreams and Abracadabra) would chart #11, #12 and #10 on the UK Albums charts, but just two of the band’s singles would reach the UK Top 40. In November 1976, ‘Rock’n Me’ would peak at #11 and spend four weeks in the top twenty as part of an overall seven-week run on the chart. Six years later, in 1982, ‘Abracadabra’ would spend two weeks at #2 behind first Captain Sensible’s ‘Happy Talk’ then Irene Cara’s ‘Fame’. ‘Abracadabra’ would spend four weeks in the top five, five in the top ten and seven in the top twenty during nine weeks on the chart. However, the Steve Miller Band had never truly caught on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. Levi’s would answer that problem in 1990.

In the summer of 1990, the Levi’s ad ‘Biker’ hit television screens. The ad begins with a biker riding his motorcycle out of a lift into a busy stockbroker office. As the workforce stop what they are doing to look at the leather-jacketed rider, he makes his way around to a redheaded lady who is the only person who has not stopped working. While some of her female colleagues look amorously at the biker, he only looks at her. Stopping his bike at her cubicle, he throws a pair of 501 jeans onto her desk. Spotting a way out, the woman puts the jeans on before the pair ride out of the office. This scene is underscored by ‘The Joker’, arguably the most famous song recorded by the Steve Miller Band. Originally released in 1973, the song had topped the Billboard Hot 100 and made the top 20 in Canada, Australia and the Netherlands. However, ‘The Joker’ had never been a hit in the UK. In 1990, thanks to the ‘Biker’ advert, it would become one.

Despite the song being nearly seventeen years old and having no prior history on the UK Singles Chart, unlike all the previous tunes discussed on this list, ‘The Joker’ would see a British re-release in early August 1990. The song would slowly climb the outskirts of the top 40 before finally charting at #34 in its third week of release on 25th August. One week later, a 20-place jump would move the song up to #14, giving the band their third UK top 20. Another eight-place jump would see the song leap into the top 10 at #6 on 8th September. However, instead of peaking in its sixth week of release, the popularity of ‘The Joker’ would only increase.

On the week ending 15th September, the Steve Miller Band would earn their first UK No.1 single, as ‘The Joker’ would knock Bombalurina’s ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini’ off the summit. By achieving this feat, ‘The Joker’ would set the record for the longest gap between transatlantic chart-toppers, as the song became a UK number-one sixteen years after being the number-one song in the USA. ‘The Joker’ would remain at the top for two weeks before Maria McKee’s ‘Show Me Heaven’ replaced it. It would spend a further two weeks in the top 10 and three more in the top 40 (#12, #29, #40) before leaving the chart on 3rd November 1990 in its thirteenth week of release.

‘The Joker’ would spend a total of ten weeks inside the UK Top 40, longer than any other Steve Miller Band track. The song would also end the year as the UK’s 24th most-popular song of 1990. The Steve Miller Band would never appear on the UK Singles Chart again. However, similar to the examples of Sam Cooke and Percy Sledge, Capitol Records would capitalise on the surprise belated success of ‘The Joker’ by releasing the Steve Miller Band compilation album The Best of 1968–1973. As in those earlier examples, the single would help sell the album as the compilation would reach #34 on the UK Albums Charts, marking the Steve Miller Band’s first appearance on this chart.

The Clash-Should I Stay Or Should I Go (#1, February 1991) (originally released 1982)

By early 1991, Levi’s had now managed to get six songs from three different decades (the ’50s, ’60s, 70’s) inside the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart. With Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ and the Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’, the brand achieved No.1s with songs from the 1960s and 1970s. In February 1991, the jeans company would conquer a fourth successive decade, getting their first 1980s track back onto the UK Singles Chart. For this task, they would turn to The Clash.

The Clash is considered one of the seminal punk rock groups, but the band had also implemented reggae, ska, and new wave elements into their music. Between 1977 and 1984, The Clash would have fourteen songs that hit the UK Top 40. However, despite their popularity, only five of the band’s tunes would reach the top twenty, and none would crack the top ten. Following a disastrous final album (titled Cut The Crap), The Clash would split in 1986. However, in 1991, one of the band’s most commercially successful tracks would be given a new level of interest thanks to (who else?) Levi’s.

The track in question was the punk classic ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’. Initially released in 1982 as part of double A-side with ‘Straight To Hell’, the song would peak at #17 in October of that same year. Only 1979’s ‘London Calling’ and 1980’s ‘Bankrobber’ would perform better than this double A-side. Therefore, the song had enough notoriety for Levi’s to use the track in an ad and potentially sell the music, the product and the advert.

‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would serve as the soundtrack to 1991’s ‘Pool Hall’. The advert sees a young man wearing a pair of Levi’s stride into a pool hall towards a table only to be stopped by a hustler. The hustler, who has been raking in the cash during the night, challenges the man to a game. However, if the young man loses, he must give his Levi’s to the hustler as payment. Unfazed, the man proceeds to dominate the hustler and wins the pool game comfortably, keeping both his jeans and earning some cash. Cheekily, he even asks the hustler to remove his inferior trousers, which the hustler obliges. Embarrassed and with his pants around his ankles, the hustler watches his young opponent walk out of the bar victorious. The advert’s message: Levi’s 501 jeans have been ‘unrivalled since 1853′.

Considering that the ‘Pool Hall’ advert suggested that wearing Levi’s 501 jeans can give you assured confidence and make you as good a pool player as Tom Cruise in The Colour of Money, it was no surprise that this early 1991 ad campaign was successful.

With The Clash’s in-built popularity, their previous success in the charts, their profoundly punk-rock London aesthetic, and of course the ad campaign’s effectiveness, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ was bound to have an impact on the UK charts in 1991. However, the level of impact it eventually had was perhaps unexpected. A 1988 re-release of ‘I Fought The Law’ had charted at #29, showing that there was still an audience for The Clash. The 1991 re-release of ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would only serve to ram that point home.

All of the previous songs on this list either entered the UK charts tentatively before quickly gathering momentum and quickly rising up the rankings or would begin life inside the top 20 and begin their rise from there. For The Clash, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ did not have much work to do. The week after its re-release, the song would enter the UK Singles Chart at #5. Five years after their disbanding, the group finally had that elusive top 10 single. After another week of radio airplay and TV airplay through Top of the Pops and the original advert, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would end the three-week reign of The Simpsons ‘Do The Bartman’ on 9th March 1991. The song would remain at No.1 for two weeks before comedy double act Hale & Pace would replace the punk rockers atop the UK Singles Chart with their Comic Relief single ‘The Stonk’, capping a weird six weeks in the life of the UK’s No.1 single in 1991. After dropping to #2, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would remain in the top 40 for a further three weeks (#9, #13, #24) before dropping out on 20th April. However, in the space of seven weeks, The (defunct) Clash had achieved their first-ever top 10, top 5 and No.1 single as a band, something they never managed during the height of their popularity. The Clash’s success would give Levi’s their third UK number one, with all three occurring featuring songs from three different and consecutive decades.

The success of ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ thanks to the ‘Pool Hall’ ad would not only occur in the UK but across Europe. As well as reaching No.1 in its home country, the song would chart in fifteen other countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland). France would be the only place where the track did not finish inside the top 10. In six of these countries, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would finish among the year’s top 100 most popular songs. In the UK, the song would rank 19th among all the songs released in 1991 in terms of record sales. ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ would even help another Clash re-release, 1982’s ‘Rock The Casbah’, reach No.15 in the UK charts later in April 1991, showing a revival in popularity of the punk rockers. All that was needed for this to happen was a minute-long video of a man playing pool pretty well.

T.Rex-20th Century Boy (#13, August 1991) (originally released 1973)

Later in 1991, iconic 1970s British glam rock band T-Rex would become the latest recipient of what I would now term ‘Levi’s Fever’. Of all the retro artists and bands given the Levi’s treatment, T-Rex was the most successful in the UK Singles Chart during their heyday. Led by charismatic frontman Marc Bolan, the band would become one of the most successful and influential British bands of the 1970s, pioneering the glam rock genre. Between 1968 and 1977, 20 T-Rex tracks would enter the UK Top 40. Sixteen of these would rank inside the top 20, and eleven would rank inside the top 10. During this same period, T-Rex would achieve four UK No.1 singles, as ‘Hot Love’, ‘Get It On’, ‘Telegram Sam’ and ‘Metal Guru’ would all top the charts in 1971 and 1972. However, Levi’s would use 1973’s ’20th Century Boy’ for their 1991 advert ‘Prison Release’. Despite not reaching No.1, ’20th Century Boy’ was still one of T-Rex’s most notable songs, spending three consecutive weeks at #3 during a nine-week stay on the hit parade. Eighteen years after its original release, the song would feature in one of Levi’s most notable ad campaigns.

‘Prison Release’ begins with a young prisoner named ‘James M.’ or ‘M. James’ leaning up against the bars in his prison cell. The prisoner’s mugshot flashes up on a monitor in the guard’s room, announcing his impending release. Making his way out of his cell and into a room where he receives his belongings, the prisoner, dressed only in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, is only given back his camera. With the sadistic guard refusing to return the inmate’s clothes, the newly-freed prisoner makes his way out of the doors of the prison, still only dressed in a shirt and boxers. However, to the guard’s surprise, a convertible pulls up outside the prison, and an attractive woman in a dress gets out. The woman pulls a pair of jeans out of the backseat and throws them towards the prisoner. After putting them on, the prisoner draws his female partner close, and they embrace before the free man throws the camera back to the guard. The man gets into the driving seat with his female companion, and the two drive off into the desert. The message from Levi’s: ‘Originals Stand The Test of Time’.

Now, this particular Levi’s advert would later become notable not just for the usage of T-Rex’s ’20th Century Boy’ but for the young actor who portrayed the main character of the freed prisoner. That actor was none other than a 27-year-old Brad Pitt. When this ad first aired (July 1991), audiences would have recently seen Pitt play a notable supporting role as drifter J.D. in Ridley Scott’s crime movie Thelma and Louise in what was his first appearance in a big Hollywood production. The massive success of Thelma and Louise combined with this particular commercial’s popularity would play a significant role in Pitt’s rise to stardom. The year after both of these situations, he would be cast in one of two lead roles in the Robert Redford-directed A River Runs Through It.

As well as increasing the notoriety of Brad Pitt, ‘Prison Release’ would increase the popularity of T-Rex’s ’20th Century Boy’. The song would re-enter the UK Top 40 on 24th August 1991, ending its first re-release week at #38. This placing alone gave T-Rex their first top 40 single since 1976’s ‘I Like To Boogie’. The following week, ’20th Century Boy’ would rise up thirteen places to #20 before rising up a further five to #15 the following week. In its fourth week on the chart (14th September, the tune would peak at #13, equalling the chart positioning of their last hit single, ‘I Like To Boogie’. Following one week at #13, the song would drop back to #15 before dropping out of the charts altogether three weeks later on 5th October. Not as impressive a result as some of Levi’s recent ad songs, but still a fantastic result nonetheless.

Following the release of ‘I Like To Boogie’ in 1974, T-Rex popularity had started to wane, and they would never again have another hit during Marc Bolan’s lifetime. After Marc Bolan’s tragic death in a car accident on 16th September 1977, aged only 29, attempts were made to reinvigorate the band’s popularity. However, posthumous albums would fail to make the UK Albums Chart, and 1987 re-releases of ‘Children Of The Revolution’ and ‘Get It On’ would only reach #90 and #54 in the extended UK charts. Therefore, the fact that ’20th Century Boy’ would manage to be the song which brought T-Rex back into the spotlight for eight weeks in 1991 speaks volumes to the power of the ‘Prison Release’ advert.

As well as finding new fame in the UK, the re-release of ’20th Century Boy’ would also chart in six other countries. Notably, the song would peak at #5 in Denmark, #8 in Ireland and #9 in New Zealand. In addition, ’20th Century Boy’ would help T-Rex’s greatest hits album The Ultimate Collection reach #4 in the UK Album Charts and go Gold after selling over 400,000 copies. All because Brad Pitt agreed to take part in a jeans ad in a bid to help his burgeoning acting career.

Erma Franklin-Piece Of My Heart (#9, October 1992) (originally released 1967)

After turning their attention to bands from the 1970s, Levi’s would return to their home base of the 1960s for what would become their next UK hit in late 1992. However, unlike any of the songs featured on this list so far, the lucky artist who would experience a new level of success in the United Kingdom was an artist who had not had any previous success in the country. In fact, Erma Franklin, the woman whose song would become the soundtrack to the Levi’s advert ‘Night and Day’, did not have much to her name in terms of significant musical success in either the UK or the USA.

In 1967, a 29-year-old Erma Franklin would record ‘Piece Of My Heart’ for the Shout Records label. Upon its release, the song would reach #62 on the primary Billboard Hot 100. The song would find more success on the R&B charts, going to #10 in America and #5 in the UK. A respectable effort that certainly gained an audience amongst fans of a popular genre, but not a song that would become a mainstream hit. A few months after Erma Franklin released ‘Piece Of My Heart’, Janis Joplin would record a cover version to be released as a single for her band Big Brother and the Holding Company’s second album, Cheap Thrills. Upon this cover version’s release in August 1968, Joplin’s version of ‘Piece of My Heart’ would hit #12 on the Hot 100 and become the version of the song that most people remember.

Following Janis Joplin’s success with the song that she had initially recorded, Erma Franklin would have one more minor hit on the US R&B Chart, with ‘Gotta Find Me a Lover (24 Hours a Day)’ peaking at #40 in 1969. The same year, her second album, Soul Sister, would chart #199 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart. After that, no one heard from Erma Franklin after the 1960s were over, with the singer returning into obscurity. However, in the UK, aside from some R&B fans, no one really knew who she was anyway.

In 1992, a 54-year-old Erma Franklin would find herself the subject of more musical attention than she’d ever received in her original career. All this was due to ‘Piece Of My Heart’ featuring on the Levi’s advert ‘Night and Day’. The advert sees a Cinderella-type young lady escape from a party at midnight while leaving one of her shoes behind. As her partner for the night chases her, a helmeted biker pulls up between them and accidentally drops a pair of jeans. The Cinderella picks up the man’s jeans as the biker drives away. The next day, the woman walks into a crowded cafe with the jeans, looking for the man who would best suit them. As she approaches the bar, a young man with floppy hair turns around and tries the jeans on. The jeans do not fit. After more failed attempts, the woman leaves the bar with the jeans to continue her search. After more non-starters, the woman eventually ends up at a factory, where she spots the motorbike from the previous night. As she notices the bike, a ripped young man carrying two tyres with his work overalls halfway down his body turns around. Knowing he must be the one, the woman throws the jeans over to him. After the jeans fit him perfectly, the young pair embrace to end the advert. Levi’s also underlines this inversion on the Cinderella storyline by claiming that ‘No two pairs [of Levi’s jeans] are the same’ as two twins watch the young couple embrace.

‘Night And Day’ would be helmed by a future Hollywood director. Tarsem Singh, the future director of films like The Cell, Immortals, Mirror, Mirror and Self/less, would make his advert debut after previously directing music videos for En Vogue, Suzanne Vega and R.EM. Tarsem Singh would become one of a few notable directors who would eventually oversee successful Levi’s commercials.

Back to Erma Franklin. Someone who you could essentially write off as a one-hit-wonder following her lack of success after the original release of ‘Piece of My Heart’ in 1967. However, Franklin would have the UK’s 72nd most-popular song of 1992. Despite never appearing on the mainstream UK Singles Chart, Erma Franklin would make her Top 40 debut (in any country) as the re-release of ‘Piece of My Heart’ charted at #36 on 10th October 1992. After a nudge-up to #34 the next week, the song would start to gain serious traction as it moved up 12 places to #21 in its third week. Finally, in its fourth week on the chart ending Halloween 1992, the song would peak at #9, giving the 54-year-old her first-ever mainstream top 10 single on any music chart. The top 10 in this week would also feature songs by Boyz II Men (End Of the Road, #1), Madonna (Erotica, #4), Bon Jovi (Keep The Faith, #5) and Take That (A Million Love Songs, #8). The week before her top-10 debut, Erma Franklin would record a music video for ‘Piece Of My Heart’, as the chart shows around Europe did not have one to show.

Following its peak, ‘Piece Of My Heart’ would drop out of the UK’s top 10 the following week but remain in the top 20 for a further month. After holding steady at #15 for two consecutive weeks, the song would drop nineteen places to #34 before leaving the chart altogether the following week. For an artist who had never appeared on the UK Singles Chart, Erma Franklin had spent nine weeks inside the country’s Top 40.

Along with its UK success, ‘Piece of My Heart’ would also chart inside the Top 40 in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden. The song would peak at #5 in Denmark, #9 in the Netherlands and #10 in Ireland.

Erma Franklin had never had a mainstream top 40 single in her nine-year music career. In 1992, she would get it, despite being out of the music business, with a song that was twenty-five years old.

Part 2: Creating New Stars (Mostly)

Between 1986 and 1992, Levi’s had found a surprising level of chart success in the UK through featuring retro songs on their adverts. As of 1992, songs featured in Levi’s jeans advertising had produced three UK No.1 singles, five top fives, seven top 10s and nine top 20s. However, starting in 1994, the denim brand would slightly change its approach to how it advertised its products. While the company would still utilise the nostalgic branding that had worked so well in the 1980s, more Levi’s ads would have a contemporary flavour featuring music from the present decade. However, most of the music that would feature on adverts for Levi’s products for the rest of the 1990s would come from lesser-known artists who had little or no commercial success. In a sense, Levi’s would be creating their own stars. After spending the previous eight years shaking up the charts with the singers and bands of yesteryear, Levi’s would now dictate the sound of the musical present and, perhaps, future. This new approach would begin in the middle of 1994, with an ad campaign that would utilise both of the brand’s advertising approaches.

Stiltskin-Inside (#1, May 1994)

The particular ad campaign in question was titled ‘Creek’. The ad, set in the 1800s, sees an Amish family travelling across open country with nearby mountains. When the family sits down to a picnic, the family’s two daughters rush off into a forest. The two girls stop close to a nearby creek, where they see a young man swimming. As the musical backing of angelic voices ends and a heavy guitar riff kicks in, the camera zooms in close on the man wetting himself with lake water. The older Amish girl is clearly taken with him as the man slowly washes his wet body. Soon, her younger sister catches her attention, having found the young man’s jeans at the lakeside. As the man starts to rise out of the water and the two girls cover their faces expecting to see the man’s area, the man is shown to be wearing his jeans in the lake. The girls are confused, but it is then revealed that the jeans they picked up belong to an older, heavier, bearded gentleman. They quickly drop those jeans and rush to another tree to catch the younger man walking back towards his horse, still shirtless. The ad ends with Levi’s pronouncing that ‘In 1873, Levi’s Jeans Only Came Shrink-To Fit. Levi’s 501. The Original Jean.’

The 1994 ‘Creek’ ad harks back to the ‘Bath’ commercial from 1986, as both adverts focus on the history of Levi’s 501 jeans. Both ads focus on the ‘shrink-to-fit’ aspect of the jeans, as the men in both adverts use water to achieve this outcome. The 1960s-set ‘Bath’ ad showed a shirtless young man in jeans lowering himself into a bath while Sam Cooke’s 1960 hit ‘Wonderful World’ played on a record player. Meanwhile, ‘Creek’s star goes swimming in his jeans while an anachronistic 1990s rock song plays non-diegetically in this 1800s setting. ‘Creek’ is an example of Levi’s change in approach in the mid-1990s. The company still wants to focus on the historical selling point of the 501 jeans. However, the company now uses a more modern sound to underscore these adverts.

However, the music used on ‘Creek’ is not a song used by any particular artist or band. The choral voices heard in the ad’s beginning belong to the Ambrosian Singers, a London-based choral group. The rest of the musical work was done by Peter Lawlor, a man known for his advertising jingles, who had previously worked with Levi’s on their ‘Oilrig’ campaign earlier in 1994. However, when it came to ‘Creek’, Lawlor wanted more to come of the music he had produced for the advert. In fact, he would even form a band to ensure that this piece of music earned greater recognition. This band would become known as Stiltskin.

First, after a series of auditions, he would hire Scottish singer Ray Wilson to be Stiltskin’s lead singer. Wilson had previously led the pop-rock group Guaranteed Pure, a band who had a brief dalliance on Dick Brothers, the record label owned by former Marillion singer Fish, in the early 1990s. After Wilson, Lawlor would also select James Finnigan, formerly of late-80s sophisti-pop hitmakers Hue and Cry as Stiltskin’s bassist and keyboards, and Ross Macfarlane as the group’s drummer. With Lawlor providing all the other instruments, the band would head into a studio to record Stiltskin’s debut album, The Mind’s Eye. This album would include a version of Peter Lawlor’s Levi’s ad music. With lyrics (also written by Lawlor) now added, the music was repackaged into a four-and-a-half-minute track called ‘Inside’. Now, if anybody liked the music used on Levi’s ‘Creek’ advert, there was a song out there that they could buy to satisfy their needs.

The ‘Creek’ advert would air on British television in the spring of 1994. Stiltskin’s debut single ‘Inside’, featuring backing music from that same advert, would release on 25th April 1994. Despite Stilskin having no presence in the musical sphere before the release of this song, this upstart group would soon find themselves the talk of the town. The week after the song’s release, ‘Inside’ would debut at #5 in the UK Singles Chart on the week ending 7th May 1994, ahead of other new entries from Cypress Hill (#20), Sonic Youth (#24), Grace Jones (#28), Meat Loaf (#29) and The Cranberries (#36). The following week, Stiltskin would end the five-week run of Toni Di Bart’s ‘The Real Thing’ and earn a UK No.1 with their debut single. ‘Inside’ was now the fourth Levi’s advert song to reach the No.1 spot. However, unlike the three songs before it, ‘Inside’ was a brand-new single from a contemporary band. A group formed in January 1994 had only gone and become the biggest band in the UK less than four months later.

‘Inside’ would only remain at No.1 for one week, as ‘Come On You Reds’ by the Manchester United Football Team would take its place, but the song would stick around the top ten for four more weeks. The song would then spend two further weeks in the top 20 and three more in the top 40 (including two weeks at #28) before leaving the Singles Chart on 23rd July 1994. However, Stiltskin were now a ‘made’ band in the UK, and an eleven-week chart run for their debut singles showed that people wanted to hear more from the group.

You would think that, but Stiltskin would, unfortunately, become a one-hit-wonder. Anyone wanting to immediately hear more from Stiltskin would have to wait five months for the band’s second single, ‘Footsteps’. With so much time passed, and without a Levi’s advert to push the single, ‘Footsteps’ would only tread lightly inside the Top 40, peaking at #34 in a single-week run. Stiltskin’s debut album, The Mind’s Eye, would finally release in late October. Despite including a UK No.1 single, the album would only reach #17 on the UK Album Charts. After the album’s aptly-named third single ‘Rest In Peace’ peaked at #92 in April 1995, the original formation of Stiltskin would disband in 1996. Lead singer Ray Wilson would immediately follow up this sorrow by replacing Phil Collins as the lead singer of Genesis.

Outside of the UK, ‘Inside’ would chart in another fourteen countries. Although it would not be a number-one in any of these nations, it would peak inside the top ten of eleven European countries, including Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The song would even have a presence in the USA, as ‘Inside’ would chart at #34 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.

Stiltskin’s ‘Inside’ would end 1994 as the UK’s 23rd most-popular song of the year. The song would also earn the band a silver record, selling over 200,000 copies. For a recently-formed band to achieve that level of success with one tune is some feat, but that was the power of Levi’s advertising in 1994. One advert had managed to take an unknown band, a group that didn’t even exist months earlier, and turn them into chart-topping successes. While the example of Stiltskin will not be repeated on this list, there will be other examples of the brand turning unknown quantities into headline acts.

Freak Power-Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out (#3, March 1995)

For their next hit, Levi’s would find success in one of the 1990s many musical trends. Acid jazz is a musical genre that contains elements of multiple other genres, including disco, funk, soul, hip-hop and jazz. Acid jazz would first break into the UK musical mainstream in 1991 with the Brand New Heavies and would remain popular through 1995 with other acts like Us3, Incognito and, most famously of all, Jamiroquai. However, when Levi’s were looking for a song to suit their new advert ‘Taxi’ in early 1995, they would pick a minor hit from 1993 from an acid jazz act featuring one of the most influential musicians of the decade.

The ‘Taxi’ advert sees a young woman hail a taxi in New York. The driver ignores the calls of an elderly couple to pick up the woman. The driver, unshaven and with a few hairs out of place, looks at the woman as she gets into the taxi and then spends the rest of the ride making eye contact with her in his overhead mirror. As drivers from other cars look across to observe the lady, she applies makeup to her face. Then, to the driver’s surprise, the woman pulls out an electric shaver and starts to shave her chin, showing that the taxi passenger is a trans woman or, to use the 1990s viewpoint, a man in women’s clothing. As this was the 1990s, the reveal of the trans woman shaving her chin is used as a punchline. The driver’s shocked expression as he turns around to see the ‘man’ and the close-up of the passenger’s stumbled chin are the drums signalling a joke, as learning this truth breaks the man’s fascination with this ‘woman’. As the man curses his luck, the taxi stops, and the trans woman leaves the vehicle wearing her Levi’s 501 jeans as the brand proclaims them to be ‘the original jean’.

Levi’s would use Freak Power’s 1993 release ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ for the Taxi’ advert. Freak Power was an acid jazz trio made up of lead vocalist Jesse Graham, trombonist Ashley Slater and bassist Norman Cook. Cook had previously found success playing bass for ’80s indie rock group The Housemartins and for dance and hip-hop group Beats International, who had produced the 1990 UK No.1 ‘Dub Be Good To Me’. He had even found success remixing music under his own name. ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ would serve as Freak Power’s debut single. The song would become a minor success in its country of origin, reaching #29 on the UK Charts in October 1993. However, follow-up singles had only managed positions of #62 and #88 and the band’s debut album Drive-Through Booty had failed to find a significant fanbase. In fact, by the time Levi’s approached the band to use ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ in ‘Taxi’, the members had moved onto other projects. Norman Cook had already found further top 40 success in house music duo Pizzaman. However, the smooth funk bassline, the mellow vocals and the slow disco instrumentation of ‘Tune In Turn On, Cop Out’ worked so well with Levi’s ‘Taxi’ advert that it was clear that Levi’s had another hit on their hands.

After 4th & Broadway Records chose to re-release ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ in March 1995, the song would re-debut at #3 on the UK Singles Chart the day after St Patrick’s Day. The song would out-strip other new songs from Janet Jackson, The Prodigy, The Human League and Green Day in terms of sales to give Freak Power their first-ever top five, top ten and top twenty single. ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ would also give Norman Cook a top-five single with a fourth different musical act following previous successes with The Housemartins, Double Trouble and Beats International. In its second week, ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ would drop down to #4 before dropping to #9 the week afterwards. The song would remain in the UK Top 20 for two more weeks and the top 40 for an extra two before leaving the charts in early May 1995 after a seven-week run. Around the same time, Freak Power’s debut album Drive-Through Booty would climb up the UK Album Charts, peaking at #11 on 15th April 1995.

In its original release in 1993, ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ would only reach the UK Top 40. Thanks to ‘Taxi’, the song’s 1995 re-release would chart inside the Top 40 in France, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand. The song would finish on 1995’s top 100 year-end lists in Germany, Iceland and the UK, where it would end up as the UK’s 64th most-popular song of the year. ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ would even go silver in its home country, with over 200,000 copies sold.

Despite the success of ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’, Norman Cook would continue his work with PIzzaman, achieving three more top 40 singles (two inside the top twenty) between June 1995 and June 1996. However, Freak Power would eventually reunite to produce their second album, More of Everything for Everybody, in June 1996. However, the album would only peak at #100, and the lead single ‘New Direction’ would only reach #60 in the same month. The group would never replicate the success of ‘Tune In, Turn On, Cop Out’ as acid jazz would fall out of fashion as the 1990s progressed. However, the combination of routine hitmakers Levi’s and Norman Cook (later to be known by his DJ name Fatboy Slim) had proven successful. In addition, Levi’s had shown that they could seize on a popular musical genre and profit from it by including one of the genre’s songs in a memorable advert.

Shaggy-Boombastic (#1, September 1995)

When asked to name a song by the Jamaican-American reggae star Shaggy, many respondents would go to his 1995 song ‘Boombastic’. A smash hit across the world, ‘Boombastic’ ended up as one of the more significant songs of 1995. The song would chart inside the top 10 of nineteen different countries, topping the charts in six of them. The song became a platinum-seller in Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the USA, and has also gone Gold in Austria, France, Germany and the UK, selling more than 2.21 million copies in these eight countries combined. However, as you have guessed by now, it took the influence of a Levi’s jeans ad to kick-start that worldwide success.

Compared to Stiltskin and Freak Power, Shaggy was a contemporary artist that had already been a proven success in the UK. In 1993, Shaggy’s debut single ‘Oh Carolina’ (a cover of a 1958 Folkes Brothers song) would spend two weeks at number one, in addition to eight weeks in the top ten, and three months in the top 20, finishing as the 7th biggest-selling single of the year. In addition, the song that Shaggy released before ‘Boombastic’, a reggae cover of the 1970 Mungo Jerry classic ‘In The Summertime’, had peaked at #5 and spent five weeks in the top ten in July and August 1995. However, the keyword in both of those sentences is ‘cover’. While Shaggy had produced two notable hits by making covers of older songs, he was yet to succeed with his original work. Out of the three original singles Shaggy had released by 1995 (‘Nice And Lovely’, ‘Soon To Be Done’, ‘Big Up’), none had charted within the UK Top 40. Shaggy would now hope that original work ‘Boombastic’ would break that negative trend to become his third UK chart hit. Enter Levi’s jeans.

‘Boombastic’ would serve as the non-diegetic soundtrack to Levi’s most light-hearted ad campaign to date. The lyrics of ‘Boombastic’ involve Shaggy trying to attract a potential lover by attempting to charm her with compliments about his own prowess in the romance department. With these lyrics, ‘Boombastic’ would become an ideal advert for ‘Clayman’, Levi’s summer 1995 ad campaign. The ad, stylised in claymation, begins with a blonde lady trapped on top of a burning hotel. A man turns up wearing jeans, shoes, sunglasses and a white shirt. This clay man, facing himself a daredevil, steals a policeman’s motorbike and rides it up the side of a crane. Once the bike is in mid-air, the man jumps off and lands on the hotel roof while his vehicle crashes into the hotel sign. The trapped woman is not impressed with the appearance of her saviour, with the Clayman having destroyed their only way of escape. However, the man proceeds to take off his sunglasses and jeans, leaving himself in his boxer shorts. This act causes the young woman to go weak at the knees and instantly fall for him. The Clayman then uses his jeans to zipline the pair off the hotel. The line leads to the pair crashing into a hotel room where the man and woman proceed to make out in a toilet to end the advert while an older man watches while sitting on the toilet. Levi’s message: The 501 jeans are now double-stitched for ‘Xtra strength’.

Any pair of single-stitched jeans used as a zipline would collapse under the weight of two human bodies, but not Levi’s 501. Compared to Levi’s ’80s ad campaigns, ‘Clayman’ continues the brand’s recent trend of incorporating humour into their ads, as seen at the end of both ‘Creek’ and ‘Taxi’. Previous ads had shown that wearing Levi’s 501 jeans would make men irresistible to women. Those ads were sent out in a more straight-faced manner. ‘Clayman’, meanwhile, almost serves to parody those earlier ads, and the use of ‘Boombastic’ only serves to accentuate the ad’s more comedic plot. As you can see in the video below, ‘Clayman’ became particularly popular on MTV, with a style that apes a later show like Celebrity Deathmatch on a channel that already had a line-up of comedy shows alongside their regular music programming. With the ad receiving regular airplay on the channel, it was clear that ‘Boombastic was set to become a hit amongst younger people.

‘Boombastic’ would initially release on 5th June 1995. However, the song wouldn’t receive significant chart success until the ‘Clayman’ ad started showing on television in the summer and early autumn of that year. With the help of Levi’s and the song’s overall quality, ‘Boombastic’ would debut at #1 on the UK charts on 23rd September 1995, giving Shaggy his second UK No.1 single. The song would end Michael Jackson’s two-week run at the summit with ‘You Are Not Alone’, becoming the 5th song featured in a Levi’s ad to top the UK charts. However, ‘Boombastic’ would become the first of those songs to debut directly at #1. The song’s reign at the top would only last a week before being replaced by Simply Red’s ‘Fairground’ but would remain in the top five until 21st October, eventually spending seven consecutive weeks in the UK Top 10. After dropping out of the top ten on 4th November, ‘Boombastic’ would remain on the Top 40 for three more weeks before dropping out completely on 2nd December 1995 after an impactful 10-week run.

As mentioned earlier, ‘Boombastic’ would become a worldwide chart hit, featuring in the top ten of twenty different countries, including No.1s in Ireland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and El Salvador. However, the most significant chart impact would come in the United States. Even though the song would not top the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, ‘Boombastic’ would actually give Shaggy his first US Top 40 single, with the song peaking at #3. However, the song would spend a week atop the Billboard R&B chart, making further personal history for the Jamaican-American star.

Unlike Stiltskin and Freak Power, Shaggy would continue to be a regular feature on the UK Singles Chart until 2002. After ‘Boombastic’, his next single ‘Why You Treat Me So Bad’ would reach #11 in January 1996, before the double A-side of ‘Something Different’ and ‘The Train Is Coming’ would peak at #21 to round off the Boombastic album. After ‘Oh Carolina’ and ‘Boombastic’, Shaggy would earn two more UK number-one singles with 2001’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ and ‘Angel’. The reggae star currently has a UK chart record of four No.1s, nine top 10s, eleven top 20s and nineteen top 40 singles. However, it is fair to say that his most successful hit single required some assistance from Levi’s claymation characters.

Babylon Zoo-Spaceman (#1, January 1996)

After achieving two top-five singles with Freak Power and Shaggy (two proven hitmakers) in 1995, Levi’s would return to the well that had birthed Stiltskin’s success in 1994. For the brand’s final ad campaign of 1995, the denim company would choose a song from unknown British alternative rock band Babylon Zoo. The band, formed in Wolverhampton in 1992, had recently recorded their debut album, The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes, with Warners Bros. WEA record label. However, a change in management at WEA would see the group sign for major UK label EMI. The decision for Levi’s to use a song from such an unknown band would come from an executive at Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty, the UK agency that represented the jeans company and produced their successful ad campaigns. An employee at BB&H listened to a Manchester-based radio station when he heard the promotional single ‘Spaceman’. ‘Spaceman’ was supposed to be the leading single from Babylon Zoo’s debut album. However, the band’s switch from WEA to EMI had resulted in the former label cancelling the single’s release. Despite the single being unreleased, the existence of the promotional copy was enough for the executive at BB&H to suggest that ‘Spaceman’ should become the soundtrack to Levi’s December 1995 advert ‘Planet’.

‘Planet’, as you’d expect, takes place on the surface of an alien world. Inside a homestead, a father waits for his teenage/adult daughter to come home. While much of the ad shows the lifestyle this humanoid alien family leads and the futuristic technology they use, the advert’s climax focuses on something old-fashioned. Tired of waiting, the father goes outside when a spaceship lands on the planet’s surface. The door opens, and out comes his daughter, dressed in a crop top and Levi’s jeans. Skateboarding kids with long hair watch her transfixed, as does a man watering his lawn. The young woman drops the keys to the spaceship in her father’s hands as she walks off to another part of the planet. As she walks away, Levi’s proclaims that its 501 jeans are the ‘only jeans in the universe cut from 01 denim, while the girl’s father almost catches his neighbour looking at her behind. The message: Levi’s 501 jeans are so good that an alien woman would travel to Earth just to get herself a pair.

While ‘Planet’ uses Babylon Zoo’s ‘Spaceman’ as its soundtrack, the ad music is instrumental, except for the song’s hook. When the spaceship door opens and the young woman exits, the audience hears the refrain of ‘Spaceman’: “Spaceman/I always wanted you to go into space, man”. That is all you really hear of the actual Babylon Zoo song. However, that refrain was enough to catapult the Wolverhampton-based group into immediate stardom. ‘Planet’ would air in the UK and worldwide in December 1995. The ad’s airing would finally see ‘Spaceman’ released as a single on 15th January 1996. Babylon Zoo’s previous label WEA had cancelled the song’s original release. Now, EMI could capitalise on the band’s commercial exposure by releasing the single under their label.

Twelve days after its release, ‘Spaceman’ would become the second song featured in a Levi’s advert to make its UK Singles Chart debut at #1. On 27th January 1996, this previously unknown band would outsell George Michael, knocking ‘Jesus To A Child’ off the top after just one week at the summit and two weeks on the chart with the UK’s fastest-selling debut single of all time. Babylon Zoo had hit the jackpot with their debut single, selling 418,000 copies in one week, and Levi’s could now celebrate creating a sixth UK chart-topper. However, ‘Spaceman’ would become the most successful song featured in this article. Instead of slowly falling away after a single week at the top, ‘Spaceman’ would spend five weeks as UK No.1. Only Fugees ‘Killing Me Softly’ (5 weeks) and the Spice Girls ‘Wannabe’ (7 weeks) would spend longer atop the UK Singles Chart during 1996.

On 2nd March 1996, Babylon Zoo would finally lose their place at No.1, with Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ following the band’s lead by debuting at the top spot. ‘Spaceman’ would drop to #4 this week but would drop a full ten places to #14 the following week. ‘Spaceman’ would continue to dramatically drop down the charts, falling to #22 and then #35 before leaving the UK Top 40 altogether on 30th March 1996, just four weeks after their spell at No.1 had ended. However, with their debut single, Babylon Zoo had spent nine weeks on the UK Singles Chart, with five of those weeks coming at No.1. ‘Spaceman’ had even gone platinum after selling over 600,000 units, becoming the first Levi’s song to earn this achievement in the UK.

Along with the UK, ‘Spaceman’ would also top the charts in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. The single would also become a top-five hit in Australia, Iceland, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Outside of the UK, ‘Spaceman’ currently holds Gold record certification in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden, and a Platinum certification in New Zealand. Combining the sales figures of these eight countries (including the UK), ‘Spaceman’ has sold over 1.77 million records. After this level of success with one single, you would think that Babylon Zoo would be guaranteed hitmakers in the UK and beyond for years to come. However, Babylon Zoo’s success would be short-lived.

The first sign of trouble came from the release of The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes in February 1996. Brought out when ‘Spaceman’ was still top-lining the UK Singles Chart, the album would enter the Album Chart at #6 on 17th February. However, instead of progressing up the chart the following week, the record would drop eight places to #14. After another significant drop to #20, the album would leave the UK Top 40 on 9th March after just three weeks. In April 1996, Babylon Zoo would release the follow-up single to ‘Spaceman’, titled ‘Animal Army’. The song would debut on the Singles Chart at #17, a good result after one week of sales but no patch on the success of ‘Spaceman’. However, like its parent album, ‘Animal Army’ would quickly sink like a stone, dropping to #30 the following week before dropping out of the UK Top 40 after only two weeks. After a six-month gap, Babylon Zoo’s third single, ‘The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes’, the title track of the parent album, would spend a single week on the Top 40 at #32 in October 1996. Babylon Zoo, a band that had topped the UK charts from January to March 1996, could now barely register a mention come October of the same year. What happened?

Outside of the opening hook of ‘Spaceman’, Babylon Zoo had nothing else which the British public actually liked. The band’s album The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes would receive mixed reviews from music critics of the time. UK publications The Guardian, Observer and Q Magazine would single it out for praise. However, other publications would deride the album, with such comments ranging from calling the record an “outmoded melange of distorted guitars, washed-out synthesisers and pseudo sociological sci-fi lyrics” to “”wholly uninspired”. Today, The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes is considered one of the worst albums of its time, with previous cheerleaders The Guardian and Q including the LP on lists detailing some of the worst albums of all time.

In addition, it is clear that the success of ‘Spaceman’ clearly went to the head of the song’s producer, songwriter and Babylon Zoo frontman Jas Mann. In an interview just after the song reached number one, Mann was quoted as saying, “I was expecting this success.”A racing driver knows when he’s got the best car – and I know I’ve done something far superior to most things out there.”I’m a great songwriter, and I could become a musical genius.” When asked ahead of the release of the single ‘The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes’ whether he was worried about whether he and the band could ever match the success of Spaceman, Mann replied, “Oh, definitely not, cause I’ve got a lot of great ideas in my head.” “There’ll be a few more surprises coming out pretty soon.” Babylon Zoo’s second album would not release until 1999. In the meantime, Mann would embarrass himself as a guest on Chris Morris’s satirical comedy show Brass Eye, agreeing that he may have a few more genes than regular people.

After a three-year gap, Babylon Zoo would release their second studio album King Kong Groover in February 1999. The album would fail to chart in the UK, and the record’s lead single, aptly titled ‘All The Money’s Gone’, would miss out on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #46. Babylon Zoo would split the following year and are now generally regarded as a one-hit-wonder, failing to replicate the mammoth success of ‘Spaceman’ through a poor album, inferior follow-up singles and a pretentious frontman. It just shows what a Levi’s advert can do for someone. If an ad executive in Manchester hadn’t heard ‘Spaceman’ while randomly listening to the radio one night, history might not have been made. However, while Babylon Zoo crashed and burned, the denim company could only reap the benefits of another successful ad campaign.

Smoke City-Underwater Love (#4, April 1997)

One year after ‘Spaceman’, Levi’s would return to acid jazz, the genre that produced Freak Power’s ‘Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out’ in early 1995. However, while Freak Power possessed the musical presence of born hitmaker Norman Cook, 1997’s acid jazz offering would come from unknowns Smoke City, a trio which had only formed the previous year. The group, consisting of Brazilian-born vocalist Nina Miranda, guitarist Chris Franck and percussionist Mark Brown, whose musical output combined trip-hop, acid jazz and Brazilian genres such as samba and bossa nova, would become the backing to ‘Mermaids’, Levi’s offering for early 1997.

‘Mermaids’ was the third Levi’s advert directed by Michel Gondry, a famous ad and music video director. ‘Mermaids’ tells the tale of a man at sea during a storm. A heavy wave knocks the man into the sea, where he falls underneath the waves unconscious. Falling onto some undersea pipes, the shirtless man is discovered by three mermaids, who observe the stranger. The mermaids give the man underwater CPR, breathing air into his lungs to wake him up. The man awakes to find the three mermaids caressing his body. However, the three creatures soon spot his Levi’s jeans, which interests them. The trio begins to undo the jeans. However, due to their tight fit, the mermaids are left furiously tugging at the denim without any avail. Finally awake, the man quickly swims away from the trio and returns to his boat as Levi’s again reminds us that the 501 are the original ‘shrink-to-fit’ jeans. All of this underwater jeans love plays out to Smoke Water’s self-explanatory single ‘Underwater Love’.

Despite Smoke City only forming as a band in 1996, the song ‘Underwater Love’ already existed before then. The track’s original version was written and recorded by future band members Nina Miranda and Mark Brown in 1994. ‘Underwater Love’ would initially release as a single in 1995 but would not significantly impact any music chart. However, in 1996, Brown and Miranda, living in Brazil, received word that ‘Underwater Love’ was developing a following, and major record labels wanted to release the record on a bigger stage. After hearing this news, Miranda and Brown would join with Chris Franck to form Smoke City, and the trio would eventually sign with Jive Records, known for working with A Tribe Called Quest and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. After recording their debut album Flying Away and allowing Levi’s to use their song, Smoke City would see ‘Underwater Love’ become a hit in April 1997.

‘Underwater Love’ would enter the UK charts on 12th April 1997, debuting at #4 behind No Doubt’s ‘Don’t Speak’, Supergrass’s ‘Richard III’ and R Kelly’s ‘I Believe I Can Fly’. Smoke City would follow in the footsteps of Stiltskin and Babylon Zoo by having their debut single rank inside the UK Top 40 after featuring in a Levi’s advert. The trio would also replicate those two bands as ‘Underwater Love’ reached the top five in the singles chart even if it did not hit No.1.

However, despite an incredible debut, ‘Underwater Love’ would ultimately spend a total of four weeks on the UK Singles Chart. In its second week, the song would drop from #4 to #13 before dropping five places to #18 one week later. Then, after one final week at #31, ‘Underwater Love’ would disappear from the charts on 10th May 1997.

‘Underwater Love’ would not have the kind of international success experienced by other Levi’s ad numbers, failing to reach the main charts in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. Outside of the UK, the song would chart inside the top 20 in both Ireland (#17) and Norway (#18) and become a minor hit in Austria (#23), Switzerland (#32) and Belgium (#33).

After ‘Underwater Love’ had disappeared from the charts, Smoke City would fail to find another hit in the UK. The group’s next song, ‘Mr. Gorgeous (and Miss Curvaceous)’ would hit number one in Italy but not anywhere else. With the group’s debut album Flying Away failing to fly off the retail shelves, Smoke City would become the latest in a string of one-hit wonders produced by Levi’s advertising.

Lilys-A Nanny In Manhattan (#16, February 1998)

Levi’s would unearth their next band from obscurity in the form of American indie-rock group Lilys in early 1998. However, despite being unknown to much of the UK’s music-buying public, Lilys had almost a decade of experience behind them when they got the call from ad agency Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty. Formed in 1988 out of Washington D.C., Lilys had experimented with their style over the years, moving from shoegazing to dream pop to power pop before finally settling on indie rock. These changes had led to a rotating cast of members aside from lead vocalist Kurt Heasley and a differing sound across their four albums released by different labels during the band’s existence. Despite releasing four studio albums, Lilys was yet to receive that call from a major record label asking to release their music and had remained within the US independent scene. Enter Levi’s.

Levi’s Christmas 1997 ad campaign is a high-energy affair directed by Roman Coppola (son of Francis Ford Coppola). The ad opens in a suburban neighbourhood. A middle-aged man looks up from trimming the plants in his front garden to see a classic car slowly driving up to a set of traffic lights. However, the classic spins its wheels enough to pop a wheelie and accelerates away at top speed once the lights go green. The car begins to joyride, repeatedly driving around a cul-de-sac and pulling in and out of people’s driveways. The camera cuts inside the vehicle to see a group of young people spraying each other with water pistols over the top of the car’s polka-dot seats. The car weaves in and out of traffic and drives through a puddle, splashing a nearby traffic cop. The youngsters press a button which reverses time to ‘unsplash’ the police officer and change the car’s direction. The car passes by an older couple in a classic convertible, and one boy puts on a pair of x-ray specs to literally remove the couple’s clothing, to their surprise. After more time passes, the car drives through a paint shop, re-painting this classic car in white with rainbow detailing on top. After further in-car antics, the vehicle pulls up sharply outside a country club, destroying a flower bed. The young people then exit the car and hop onto the golf course with an oversized golf bag before setting up towels and beach loungers in a sand bunker to end the advert. After an ad symbolising the high-energy japery of The Monkees, Levi’s ends the advert promoting their ‘Original 60’s White Tab Line’ of jeans against brightly-coloured backgrounds, asking the audience to ‘Choose Fun’.

With so much action taking place inside one minute, it would make sense that Levi’s chose a song that clocked out two seconds short of two minutes to serve as the advert’s soundtrack. It would also make sense to pick a track that evokes the sound and images of the 1960s, a significant selling point of this particular Levi’s advert. For that song, Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty would turn to the fourth track on Lilys 1996 album Better Can’t Make Your Life Better, a song titled ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’.

Listening to ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’, you hear a sound akin to that of The Kinks or the Zombies, featuring airy, dream-like lyrics about a young woman set against harder-hitting guitars. The music video for the song evokes this kind of throwback imagery, with the band performing the songs in matching suits, lead vocalist Kurt Heasley sporting a mop-top and several scenes of fast-motion. Therefore, this is why ‘A Nanny in Manhattan’ works as a soundtrack to the Levi’s ad. The high energy of the young people’s antics while they joyride in the classic car is underscored well by the more leisurely pace of the song, similar to scenes found in old episodes of The Monkees. To put it simply, the ad and the music make for a great combination.

After Levi’s White Tab ad first aired in late 1997 and early 1998, the British public would immediately warm to it and its soundtrack ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’. After finding themselves confined to the New York independent scene for so long, Lilys would receive an invitation to perform on Top of the Pops, the UK’s flagship TV music programme, on 16th February 1998. On the night of their performance, ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’ would peak at #16 on the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release. However, unlike most of the other songs spoken about in this article, Lilys’ stay on the Top 40 would be an abrupt one. The week after debuting, ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’ would drop fifteen places to #31 before another twenty-place plummet saw the band leave the charts two weeks after they had arrived.

Despite the Levi’s exposure and the short-lived success of ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’, not much would change in the fortunes of Lilys. In 1999, a major label would finally notice the band, with Warner Music-owned Sire Records obtaining their signature. However, after their fifth album, The 3 Way, another Sixties-inspired record, failed to meet sales expectations, Sire would drop the indie rockers, and Lilys would return to the US independent scene. With no follow-up single to ‘A Nanny In Manhattan’, Lilys would become the latest one-hit wonder act created by Levi’s in the Uk, following in the footsteps of Stiltskin and Smoke City.

Prince Buster-Whine And Grine (#21, April 1998) (originally recorded in 1969)

After spending the mid-1990s finding UK chart success with contemporary artists and musical sounds, Levi’s sixteenth appearance on the Top 40 would come from a return to the formula which had served them so well between 1986 and 1992. In April 1998, the denim brand would manage to get a 59-year-old ska legend onto the Singles Chart with a song dating back to 1969.

In 1969, Jamaican ska singer Cecil Bustamente Campbell, known by his stage name ‘Prince Buster’, would record ‘Whine and Grine’ for his album The Outlaw. By this point in time, Prince Buster was already an influential part of Jamaica’s ska and reggae scene and its increasing popularity across the globe. In 1960, Buster would produce The Folkes’ Brothers song ‘Oh Carolina’, which became famous through Shaggy’s cover in 1993. In 1963, he would record the original version of ‘One Step Beyond’, which would later become a huge hit for UK ska band Madness in 1979. In the late 1960s, Buster’s work would start to earn recognition. His 1964 recording ‘Al Capone’ would spend nine weeks in the UK Top 40 in 1967, peaking at #17. A year later, another Prince Buster song, ‘Ten Commandments’, would reach #88 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a minor hit. However, these successes would not ultimately take Prince Buster’s career to the next level. A shift in popularity from ska to reggae in the 1970s led to Buster retiring from the music industry in 1973. Britain’s second wave of ska would draw more attention to his work in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but Buster would remain out of the spotlight. That is until 1998 when Levi’s pushed him back into it.

In the spring of 1998, Levi’s would use Prince Buster’s 1969 record of ‘Whine And Grine’ for their advert ‘Tremor’. Another big-name director would oversee this commercial, as Doug Liman (the future director of The Bourne Identity and Mr and Mrs Smith) would direct ‘Tremor’ two years after his successful filmmaking debut Swingers. The plot of ‘Tremor’ sees a man wearing jeans walking down a sunny street into a convenience store. One the way, he is confronted by a group of young men, conspicuous in their baggy jeans as the presumed gang lift them up in unison. The man ignores them and enters the shop. Inside, he spots a young woman in a dress. The man gets a milk bottle and takes it up to the counter to pay. However, an earthquake rumbles through the local area as he pays for his purchase. Food is shaken off the shelves, people run and dive for cover or are otherwise thrown to the ground by the earthquake’s force. Outside, the roads crack, and traffic lights fall into the street. However, while everyone else in the vicinity reacts to it, our main man remains unaffected. He pays for his milk and turns around to see the young woman picking herself up off the ground, looking slightly dishevelled. Slightly bewildered by the scenes around him, the man walks out of the shop, where he finds the gang pulling up their baggy jeans from around their ankles. Confused, he walks off down the street as Levi’s establishes that this man is wearing ‘501: the original rigid jeans’.

A humorous but straightforward one minute that gets across its message clearly. The usage of Prince Buster’s ‘Whine and Grine’ also adds to the overall nature of ‘Tremor’, featuring lyrics that mirror the situation playing out on screen. For example, the earthquake hits as the line “Can you shake it up right on time” is sung.

‘Tremor’ would have its first airing during the 1998 Brit Awards on 9th February 1998. ‘Whine And Grine’ would enter the UK charts for the first time on 4th April 1998 after Island Records had chosen to re-release the 29-year-old track. The song would debut at #21, just missing out on the top 20 behind Five’s ‘When The Lights Go Out’, itself in its fourth week of release. However, despite the ‘Tremor’ advert and Prince Buster coming out of musical retirement to perform the song on Top of the Pops, ‘Whine And Grine’ would drop sixteen places to #37 in its second week before falling out of the UK Top 40 after just two weeks. With a chart peak, ‘Whine And Grine’ became the first Levi’s ad song since Biosphere’s ‘Novelty Waves’ in 1995 to miss out on the UK Top 20, and only the seventh out of twenty-two songs featured in Levi’s ads since 1986 to miss out on this achievement.

Despite receiving the usual push afforded by an appearance in a 501 jeans commercial, ‘Whine and Grine’ would end up less successful than Prince Buster’s 1967 hit ‘Al Capone’. It still remains an impressive achievement that Levi’s could take a ska song from 1969 performed by a retired singer and have it re-emerge inside the UK charts in 1998. However, in the context of this article, the relative failure of ‘Whine and Grine’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘A Nanny in Manhattan’ earlier in the year, it seemed like Levi’s influence on the UK Singles Chart was starting to wane.

Mr Oizo-Flat Beat (#1, April 1999)

After declining chart performances for their ad songs over the last few years, Levi’s would make a change in their approach to win back the music-buying public in the UK and Europe in 1999. Three years had passed since Babylon Zoo’s ‘Spaceman’ had topped the UK Singles Chart for five weeks, the most prolonged period between Levi’s No.1 singles. However, one particular advert and one particular puppet would soon change things.

In February 1999, the advert ‘ID’ would air on British television. The ad begins with an old Chevrolet driving along a suburban road. The camera cuts inside the car to show the driver, a young man with a blue shirt and light brown trousers and his passenger, a mostly yellow puppet with a partially white face. A song, Mr Oizo’s ‘Flat Beat’, begins playing on the radio, and the creature starts to tap his fingers and move its body along to the beat. The puppet stops dancing to see a policeman on a motorbike in his side mirror. The passenger inserts a tape into the stereo as the car pulls over. The man flips the photo on his overhead visor, and the puppet even puts a dancing monkey toy on the dashboard. When the police officer inspects the car, the passenger retrieves the pair’s passports and hands them over to the officer. Here we find out the creature is named ‘Flat Eric’ and the man Angel. The policeman asks Angel to step out of the car and open the boot. Angel opens the boot to reveal a selection of neatly pressed shirts and trousers. Seeing nothing untoward, the officer hands back the pair’s identification and the pair drive away to end the commercial. Levi’s then completes the promotion by putting forward their selection of ‘Sta-Prest’ clothing

‘Flat Eric’ will mark the only time on this list that the music featured on a Levi’s advert and the advert itself is directly connected. As well as providing ‘Flat Beat’ for usage in the Levi’s Sta-Prest commercials, Mr Oizo would also direct the adverts. Why would Levi’s allow this? Well, Mr Oizo had been producing short films in his native France and had overseen many of the music videos for his own songs. In addition, Mr Oizo (real name Quentin Dupieux) owned the puppet Flat Eric, the future star of the Levi’s ad. Flat Eric was a product of the world-famous Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the visual effect company created by the Muppets founder in 1979. An earlier version of Eric had featured in the music video for Mr Oizo’s 1998 song ‘M-Seq’, directed by the man himself. The video for ‘M-Seq’ also features a man and a yellow puppet (a dog named Stéphane) driving along while the dog grooves to Mr Oizo’s latest release. This video would earn a cult following around Europe in 1998 and early 1999. After someone at Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty saw the ‘M-Seq’ video, they reached out to Mr Oizo to include his puppet as the star of the next major Levi’s campaign, set to air in February 1999. They would even allow Dupieux to direct the video and supply the soundtrack. This moment would lead to the creation of ‘Flat Eric’ and the accompanying advert.

To tie in with the ‘Flat Eric’ advert, French record label F Communications would release ‘Flat Beat’ to the world on 22nd March 1999. As you would expect, Flat Eric would feature on the cover of the ‘Flat Beat’ single. The track would have an accompanying music video featuring Flat Eric as its star. The video sees Eric working in an office. Wanting to reduce his stress, he puts on ‘Flat Beat’. He returns to his desk, dials the phone and then holds the receiver up to his desk speaker so that the recipient of his call can also hear the techno sounds of ‘Flat Beat’ while he also grooves along to the track. As well as signing some non-descript documents and pretending to smoke a hot dog like a cigar, Eric spends the majority of the 3-minute video spreading the sound of ‘Flat Beat’ to his calling list. A simple and effective music video that sells the song to the consumer and connects ‘Flat Beat’ to its parent advert through its puppet star.

Thanks to Flat Eric, ‘Flat Beat’ would enter the UK Singles Chart at #1 on the week ending 3rd April 1999. The song would stop the single-week run of B*Witched’s ‘Blame It On The Weatherman’ to give Mr Oizo his first-ever UK chart hit and a number-one single to boot. ‘Flat Beat’ would also become the seventh song featured in a Levi’s ad to top the Singles Chart. The track would also be the first time the denim company had success with an instrumental piece. After further strong sales, the song would remain at No.1 for a second week, holding off the challenge of Eminem and his song ‘My Name Is’. However, former Eastenders star Martine McCutcheon would eventually knock Mr Oizo (and Flat Eric) off the top on 17th April with her debut single ‘Perfect Moment’. After losing the top spot, ‘Flat Beat’ would spend a further four weeks inside the UK Top 20 (#2, #8, #17, #19) and a fifth week in the top 40 at #27 before exiting the charts on 22nd May 1999 to end a seven-week run. This seven-week spell was the longest that any Levi’s song had spent inside the UK Top 40 since the nine weeks spent by Babylon Zoo’s ‘Spaceman’ in 1996.

Mr Oizo’s ‘Flat Beat’ would chart in another sixteen countries outside the UK. The track would become a top-ten hit in fifteen of them and top the charts in Austria, Finland, Belgium, Germany and Italy. ‘Flat Beat’ currently holds Gold record certification in Austria, Finland and Sweden and a Platinum certification in Belgium and Germany. ‘Flat Beat’ would also become the second song featured in a Levi’s advert to become a platinum-seller in the UK after Babylon Zoo’s ‘Spaceman’. The tune would also end 1999 as the UK’s 9th most-popular song of the year.

However, not only would the Levi’s advert make ‘Flat Beat’ into a chart hit, but it would also make a cult phenomenon out of the advert’s star Flat Eric. In a Guardian article dated fifteen days before the release of ‘Flat Beat’, journalist Dom Phillips would declare that “Flat Eric, the yellow, finger-tappin’ techno creature from Levi’s Sta-Prest television adverts, is rapidly becoming a cult figure. He’s hit a nerve with viewers – many of whom are inundating the advertising agency that created him with calls demanding T-shirts, posters… anything with Flat Eric on it.”

The Guardian journalist was correct. Robbie Williams would use the original ‘Flat Eric’ television ad as a warm-up act during his 1999 world tour. The puppet himself would appear on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast, grace the cover of gossip magazine Heat, and be interviewed in music and culture magazine The Face. Levi’s website would receive over 800 emails in February 1999 concerning Eric and his friend Angel after the first adverts aired. The yellow puppet would even succeed in his goal of increasing the sales of the brand’s Sta-Prest range to five times the pre-Eric turnover. Boosted by these numbers, Levi’s would start to sell ‘Flat Eric’ merchandise, including bags, t-shirts, hats and a replica of the puppet itself. The circle would then complete with Eric and Angel returning for another series of adverts in the autumn of 1999.

With Flat Eric, Levi’s had simultaneously boosted their sales turnover, created one of the most impactful hits of 1999 and created a cult figure. This was achieved through a simple advert of a yellow puppet grooving along to a techno song.

Death In Vegas-Dirge (#24, June 2000)

After achieving their most significant success yet with ‘Flat Beat’, the Flat Eric phenomenon and the sales of their Sta-Prest range, Levi’s would begin the new millennium with a plan to improve the sales of another one of their products, Engineered Jeans. As they had now successfully done over the previous six years, the denim company would also look for a contemporary act to supply the soundtrack to their latest campaign. The brand would choose the British electronic band Death In Vegas.

After forming in 1994, Death in Vegas had slowly risen in popularity throughout the late 1990s before finally breaking through with the second album, The Contino Sessions. The album, featuring guest vocalists Iggy Pop, Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Jim Reid (of The Jesus and Mary Chain), would peak at #19 on the UK Albums Chart in September 1999. Then in February 2000, Death in Vegas would achieve their first UK Top 40 appearance. The group’s song ‘Aisha’, featuring the vocals of Iggy Pop, would reach as high as #9 during a brief but impactful three-week run on the Singles Chart. However, the album’s second single, ‘Dirge’ featuring Dot Allison (formerly of the Scottish trip-hop group One Dove), would become the song to receive the Levi’s advert exposure.

‘Dirge’ would feature in an ad for Levi’s Twisted jeans that first showed in the spring of 2000. The thirty-second ad begins with a naked couple lying on a sofa as the woman draws a line down one of the man’s legs. The couple then starts putting their clothes back on and kissing and moving through the flat. Once fully clothed, the pair stop kissing as a naturist family walks through the flat door. As this awkward situation plays out, Levi’s cuts away to promote their ‘Engineered Jeans: The Twisted Original’ while the eerie-sounding ‘Dirge’ continues playing.

Despite its inclusion on a Levi’s ad campaign, ‘Dirge’ would not have anywhere near the commercial success of the other songs featured on this list. It wouldn’t even come close to matching the success of the previous Death in Vegas single, although the lack of Iggy Pop on this record would always be a factor. ‘Dirge’ would enter the UK charts at #24 on 6th May 2000. Despite receiving radio and TV airplay, the song would drop out of the Top 40 the following week. This one-week stint would be the shortest time a song featured in a Levi’s advert would spend on the UK Singles Chart. The song’s peak of#24 was also the lowest a Levi’s song had charted out of those featured inside the Top 40. However, by reaching the Top 40, Death in Vegas and ‘Dirge’ also produced a positive statistic for Levi’s. Upon ‘Dirge’ hitting the charts in May 2000, it meant that the jeans company had managed to have a UK Top 40 success in three different, and successive, decades.

Despite its lack of commercial success, ‘Dirge’ would become a popular soundtrack song in films and television over many years. The song would feature in films like Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, 28 Days Later, The Black Dahlia and The Last House On The Left.

After the release of ‘Dirge’, Death in Vegas would have two other songs on the UK Top 40. In 2002, the song ‘Hands Around My Throat’ would spend a single week at #36, while ‘Scorpio Rising’, a collaboration with Liam Gallagher, would peak at #16 on the last chart of the year, giving the group their second and final UK Top 20.

Pepe Deluxé-Before You Leave (#20, May 2001)

After fifteen years of dominance, Levi’s would produce their nineteenth and final UK top 40 single in the spring of 2001. Aside from the cultural phenomenon of Flat Eric and ‘Flat Beat’ in 1999, the brand’s influence on the UK Singles Chart had slowly waned since the mid-1990s. The brand would never achieve another UK No.1. The company would never produce another top-ten hit. However, Levi’s would manage one more song inside the UK Top 20 before falling back in line with the other companies who use popular songs for advertising their products.

Before 2001, Pepe Deluxé was a band popular with music critics, but not with the music-buying public. The Finnish electronic trio, made up of DJ Slow, JA-Jazz and James Spectrum, had received praise for their 1998 EP Three Times A Player and their 1999 debut LP Super Sound, with several magazines awarding both with ‘Album of the Month’ awards. In fact, Super Sound would lead to two significant advertising opportunities for Pepe Deluxé. A higher-up at New York ad agency Fallon Worldwide would ask the group to write a song for an upcoming campaign for Lee Jeans. That’s Lee, not Levi’s. However, after finishing their work with Lee, the more famous American jeans brand would call shortly afterwards. Bartle, Bogle & Hegarty had also listened to Super Sound and now wanted Pepe Deluxé to produce a song for their latest ‘Twisted Jeans’ campaign set to air in 2001. The band would end up producing the song ‘Before You Leave’.

‘Before You Leave’ would underscore a ‘Twisted Jeans’ ad, which took the word ‘twisted’ more literally than before. The ad begins with a car filled with young people flying down the main road at high speed. One of the passengers turns the radio up to full blast as the group pull up at a diner. However, as soon as these youngsters step out of the car, weird things start to happen to them. One girl’s finger starts to move independently, moving in random directions. Then, her foot turns backwards. People’s bodies start to spin around by the waist, as a man tapping his feet to the music outside the diner has his foot turn a full 360 degrees. With their lower bodies now facing backwards, the youngsters start to experiment with their more fluid bodies, including making their heads spin. Some manage to remove their heads entirely from their bodies, as a young man and a woman swap their heads. After collecting a coffee order, the youngsters return to their car and speed away, as Levi’s advertises their ‘Engineered Jeans’ that are ‘Twisted To Fit’. An intriguing advert that was sure to catch people’s attention back in 2001.

For ‘Before You Leave’, Pepe Deluxé would take an original composition by legendary British composer Tony Hatch and re-mix it in their own style. The group would also sample the 1969 Nina Simone song ‘After You’ve Gone’ to provide the main lyrical content for the track.

‘Before You Leave’ would be released to the British public through Brighton-based record label Catskills Records in May 2001. The song would enter the UK charts at #20 on 26th May 2001, giving Pepe Deluxé their first top twenty single. Thanks to Levi’s, Pepe Deluxé would become the seventh act to reach the top 20 on their UK chart debut. ‘Before You Leave’ would also become the seventeenth top-twenty song caused by one of the brand’s ad campaigns.

However, ‘Before You Leave’ would move no higher than #20 on its UK chart journey. The track would drop a massive nineteen places to #39 in its second week, before exiting the charts on 9th June 2001. That two-week run would be the only time Pepe Deluxé ever appeared on the UK charts. ‘Before You Leave’ would also mark the final appearance on the Singles Chart for Levi’s. However, the song would give the denim company the stat of having produced top 40 hits from songs recorded in six consecutive decades from the 1950s to the 2000s. After their final UK chart appearance, Levi’s would continue to utilise popular music in their advertising, but none of the songs featured in their campaigns would end up gracing the UK Top 40. At least not as a result of having featured in a Levi’s advert.

Near-Misses

While most music-related media in the UK only considers the Top 40 when talking about the UK Singles Chart, specific sources also extend the Singles Chart to include the Top 75 tracks of the week. Even the Official Charts Company, the leading company behind compiling the UK’s weekly music charts, features the Top 75 on their website. However, despite these sources extending the UK charts out to 75 places, the Top 40 is still seen as the be-all and end-all destination for any song regarded as a ‘hit’. Any song that peaks below #40 are often given the label ‘did not chart’ as it did not reach this prestige level of popularity.

During their fifteen-year dominance over the UK Singles Chart, many songs were featured in adverts for Levi’s products but did not ultimately reach the UK Top 40. However, these songs still received a bump in popularity due to the Levi’s ad exposure, including many songs and artists who had never previously charted in the UK. The tracks below missed out on the UK Top 40 but peaked inside the Top 75. These songs shall be referred to as ‘near-misses’. Let us take a look at some.

Muddy Waters-Mannish Boy (#51, July 1988) (originally released 1955)

The first Levi’s song to just miss out on the UK Top 40 comes from one of the brand’s more famous ads. The advert ‘Fridge’ is set in a diner next to a dusty road somewhere in the USA. After filling up a car with petrol, an older man in a vest and braces walks into the cafe. Depositing the cash behind the counter, the attractive young female server presents the old man with bacon and eggs. However, before the older man can tuck in, he and the server are distracted by a younger man coming down the stairs. The man is half-dressed in an open shirt and briefs, carrying the rest of his clothing in both hands. The older man immediately feels threatened by this younger fellow. Depositing his clothes on the counter, the young man goes behind the bar while making contact with the server. He then opens the fridge door and pulls out a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans. The man then slowly pulls the chilled jeans up his legs while everyone else in the diner stares at him. As women young and old watch him, the man puts on his shoes and sunglasses and walks out of the restaurant. The female server goes to the door only to see the man riding away on his motorcycle. The ad simply ends with the on-screen text: Levi’s 501: The Original Jeans.

‘Fridge’ was released during the height of Levi’s retro campaigns. After finding success with early-Sixties classics like ‘Wonderful World’ and ‘Stand By Me’, and in the late Fifties with Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’mon Everybody’, Levi’s were now pushing the envelope for how far they could go back in musical history to attain chart success. Even though it is unclear what point in time ‘Fridge’ is set, the music featured undoubtedly gives off that old-school impression. The main guitar from Muddy Waters’ 1955 blues standard ‘Mannish Boy’ kicks in when the young man appears. The song, which repeats the refrain ‘I’m A Man’ frequently throughout its runtime, plays as the man confidently and assertively goes about his business. The tune sets out the masculinity of this young fellow, as the rest of the men in the ad are elderly gentlemen who can only watch as their more youthful counterpart dresses in front of them before getting on his motorbike and riding away. ‘Fridge’ is an advert with a simple message that gets its point across effectively.

Even though Muddy Waters is a music legend, the man never had much commercial success outside of the rhythm-and-blues fanbase. His most significant mainstream success came when his 1969 LP Fathers And Sons charted at #72 on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums Chart. Between 1948 and 1958, Waters would have 16 Top 20 hit singles, but all of these came on the Billboard R&B Chart. A famous chart at the time, but not entirely what you would call mainstream success. Outside of North America, Muddy Waters would have little commercial success during his lifetime.

It was, therefore, a surprise that Muddy Waters almost charted in the UK in the summer of 1988, five years after his death. The memorable but straightforward ‘Fridge’ advert had led to Epic Records re-releasing ‘Mannish Boy’. The song would begin at #71 on 16th July 1988. After climbing to #66 the next week, the song would peak at #51 on 30th July. After this peak, ‘Mannish Boy’ would remain in the Top 75 until 20th August 1988. Even though he didn’t break the UK Top 40, ‘Mannish Boy’ getting to #51 was still a success for what would turn out to be Muddy Waters’ only UK chart appearance (even if it was only in the Top 75). If ‘Mannish Boy’ had managed to chart within the Top 40, it would have been the earliest-recorded song featured in a Levi’s advert to achieve this stat.

Dinah Washington-Mad About The Boy (#41, April 1992) (originally released 1963)

Four years later, another iconic Levi’s advert would lead to another retro song barely missing out on the Uk Singles Chart. In April 1992, Dinah Washington almost ended a 31-year gap between UK Top 40 appearances when her 1962 song ‘Mad About The Boy’ served as the soundtrack to Levi’s ‘Swimmer’ campaign. Washington, who tragically died of a prescription drug overdose at 39 years old in 1963, had her only UK chart appearance when her song ‘September In The Rain’ peaked at #35 in December 1961. Now, she would come close to re-entering the charts almost three decades after her unfortunate passing.

Levi’s ‘Swimmer’ advert follows a theme you’ve now heard a bunch of times in this article. Levi’s uses the symbolism of water to say that the 501 jeans were the original ‘shrink-to-fit’ jeans. As Dinah Washington sings about her infatuation with ‘the boy’, a young man vaults over a hedge into a barbecue in a suburban garden, removes his tight white t-shirt and dives into the swimming pool wearing his pair of 501s. As a middle-aged woman picks up and clutches his shirt, the man swims to the other side, exits the pool and leaves the garden. Entering the next yard, he dives and swims through another pool as a rich man in a white bathrobe waves away security and his wife peers at the ‘boy’ through her lowered sunglasses. Continuing on, the man then dives into a pool full of leaves while it is being cleaned. After jumping into a fourth pool during a social event, the man grabs a young woman in a pink dress and takes her with him. To end the commercial, she strips down to her underwear, and the pair jump off a board into one more swimming pool. As Levi’s explains: the more you wash them, the better they get.

‘Swimmer’ is often brought up among the most notable Levi’s ads. It is, therefore, no surprise that ‘Mad About The Boy’ received a bump in sales and airplay in 1992 thanks to this 64 seconds of advertising. The song would enter the UK Top 75 at #48 on 4th April 1992. One week later, the track would move up to #41, one place away from the UK Top 40. However, sales of ‘Mad About The Boy’ were not strong enough to overhaul Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ‘Too Good To Be True’ at #40, and the song would slip back down to #44 the following week. After dropping to #51, ‘Mad About The Boy’ would leave the UK’s music consciousness.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins-Heartattack and Vine (#43, April 1993)

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins will have a place in music history all over the world thanks to his 1956 song ‘I Put A Spell On You’, a song famous for the number of artists who have covered the track and for Hawkins one-of-a-kind delivery of the original standard. However, Screamin’ Jay’s version of ‘I Put A Spell On You’ never charted in the UK or any primary music market. With that fact, the closest the shock rocker ever came to a spot on the UK Singles Chart was in 1993, when Hawkins’ cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Heartattack and Vine’ appeared in a commercial for the world’s favourite jeans company.

The song underlines ‘Procession’, an ad that begins with a funeral procession of people wearing white shirts and jeans crossing a metal bridge. One of these people, a young bloke carrying a brown leather bag, walks through the streets of a town as local kids observe him from higher up. As he looks around at the local residents performing certain acts, he suddenly spots a young woman sitting inside a windowsill. A pair of men hold up an oversized picture frame to amplify this woman. As the woman begins to undo her top, the man drops a cup of coffee onto the ground. The man rejoins the funeral procession to a field outside the town. The young man digs a hole in this field, takes some worn-out jeans out of the brown leather bag and drops them into the hole. Covering the mound of dirt with a stone and Levi’s logo, the man stands up and conducts the nearby brass band. As Levi’s says: ‘Some things live forever.’

‘Heartattack And Vine’ would release through Columbia Records in March 1993, the first single released by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins since 1973’s ‘Monkberry Moon Delight’. The song would peak in its first week, stopping short of the UK Singles Chart at #42 on 3rd April 1993. Unfortunately, the second-week sales of Van Halen’s ‘Jump (Live) would stop the 63-year-old Hawkins from becoming one of the oldest debutants in UK chart history. The song would drop two places to #45 before leaving the Top 75 after one final week at #61.

However, ‘Heartattack And Vine’ would become the first song featured in a Levi’s advert to result in a European court battle. Not long after the advert’s release, Tom Waits, the original artist behind ‘Heartattack and Vine’, would sue Levi’s in a European court. When Jay Hawkins originally covered ‘Heartattack And Vine’ in 1990, Waits did not own the song. However, Tom Waits did not like his songs endorsing consumer brands. Waits would win his case against Levi’s, and the brand would have to issue an apology to the singer in an edition of Billboard magazine. In this apology, they would state that:

‘Tom Waits is opposed to his music, voice, name or picture being used in commercials. We at Levi Strauss & Co. have long admired Mr Waits’ work and respect his artistic integrity, including his heartfelt views on the use of his music in commercials. From January to June 1993, Levi Strauss Europe authorized broadcasting in 17 countries a commercial for Levi’s 501 jeans called “Procession”. This commercial featured Tom Waits’ song “Heart Attack and Vine” performed by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. We obtained the rights in good faith and were unaware of Mr Waits’ objections to such usage of his composition. We meant no offence to Mr Waits and regret that “Heart Attack and Vine” was used against his wishes and that the commercial caused him embarrassment.’

There you go. A Levi’s jeans advert that resulted in a court case. This situation would lead to Levi’s moving into ‘Starmaker’ mode for the rest of the 1990s, beginning with the creation of Stiltskin.

Biosphere-Novelty Waves (#51, May 1995)

Riding high off the chart success brought by recent discoveries Stiltskin and Freak Power, Levi’s ad agency Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty would next turn to a 33-year-old musician called Biosphere to fuel their following advert ‘Drugstore’ in April 1995. Biosphere (real name Geir Jenssen) was known for producing acclaimed pieces of ambient house music. His two studio albums Microgravity (1992) and Patashnik (1994) had earned rave reviews from music critics, and Levi’s wanted to utilise his talents for their advertising. For a man who chose to name himself after the term used to describe the Earth’s worldwide ecosystem, it is no surprise that the Biosphere track that eventually featured in the ‘Drugstore’ commercial contained the rather odd name of ‘Novelty Waves’.

‘Drugstore’ is filmed entirely in black-and-white. The advert’s opening scenes, filmed from the front of a car, almost look like something from the 1930s. A car pulls up at a general store, and a man gets out. Filmed from the man’s perspective, we see him walk up to the counter and ask for something as a mother looks at him. The shop’s clerk returns with a tin of ‘latex condoms’, and the man puts them into his inner jeans pocket (also known as the ‘watch pocket’). As he exchanges a look with the mother and her child, the man returns to his car. Driving to his girlfriend’s house, he knocks at the door only to meet her father, the general store clerk. Despite his protests, his daughter goes out with the boy to try out those condoms. As the advert ends on the father’s worried face, Levi’s tells us that the ‘watch pocket was created in 1873’, but has been ‘abused ever since’.

Lending a low ambient beat to the awkward scenario of buying condoms in public, an issue young people certainly had in 1995, ‘Novelty Waves’ would earn itself a single release in April 1995. The song would peak at #51 in its first week. The track would drop eight places to #59 in its second and leave the UK airwaves and Top 75 as quickly as it had arrived.

Clinic-The Second Line (#56, November 2000)

Levi’s final near-miss on the UK Singles Chart would come at the end of its period of dominance. By the end of 2000, the brand had followed up the mega-hit of Mr Oizo’s ‘Flat Beat’ with the #24 charting of Death In Vegas ‘Dirge’. ‘Dirge’ was only the second time a Levi’s Top 40 song peaked outside the Top 20, but the second time in three years after Prince Buster’s ‘Whine And Grine’ in 1998 (#21).

With these recent relative failures (‘Flat Beat’ aside), Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty would return to the indie rock formula that had served the brand well a few years earlier. For this, the ad agency would choose a band from Liverpool that had just earned critical acclaim for their debut album Internal Wrangler. The band was called Clinic, and the four-piece had spent the previous year coming close to the UK Top 40 on a couple of occasions despite being signed to an independent record label. Thinking that some Levi’s advert magic could help get the band over the line, BB&H would choose the band’s first single, ‘The Second Line’, for usage in the Autumn 2000 Twisted Jeans advert ‘Sign’.

‘Sign’ begins with a young man with floppy hair, a denim jacket, white shirt, denim jeans and suede shoes entering an underground train. He immediately spots a young woman across from him and catches her eye. He takes in her jeans before looking down at his own. The young woman watches him do all of this. The woman lifts up her long-sleeved shirt and lowers her jeans to show off her belly button. The man responds by unbuttoning his jeans, and a bald man sees this happening. The train passes through a tunnel, the audience sees the woman’s eyes dilate, taking it all in as she smiles at the man. The ad ends with Levi’s reminding us about the ‘twisted-to-fit’ nature of their Engineered Jeans. Twisted, indeed.

Upon its initial release in 1999, Clinic’s ‘The Second Line’ would peak at #112 on the UK ‘hit parade. One year later, after the release of Internal Wrangler and serving as the track playing beneath the twisted advert above, the song’s re-release would do twice as well. The song would become the band’s highest-charting single, reaching #56 on 4th November 2000. However, the song would not then advance towards the top 40. Instead, it would drop 38 places to #94 the following week. Despite the Levi’s push, Clinic was still too far away from achieving mainstream success. However, ‘The Second Line’ would reach #10 on the UK Independent Singles Chart, becoming the band’s fourth appearance on that list.

Following their flirtation with Levi’s jeans, Clinic would continue to threaten the main UK Singles Chart without ever actually reaching the Top 40. However, the band would continue to pop up on the UK Indie Chart, peaking with back-to-back #6 entries in 2007. The failure to turn Clinic into superstars would continue Levi’s decline in influence over the UK charts until the brand’s final hit the very next year.

Other Notable Songs

Finally, here is a trio of songs that earned a bump in popularity thanks to their appearances in Levi’s commercials, but not enough to peak within the UK Top 40 or Top 75.

B.B. King-Ain’t Nobody Home (#88, August 1989) (originally released 1971)

Before 1989, the closest that B.B. King had come to UK chart success was a #60 placing on the Albums Chart for his 1979 LP Take It Home. By 1989, King was already a legendary figure in American music. Beginning his record career in 1949, King had recorded 32 studio albums, with 15 charting on the Billboard Hot 200. Like Muddy Waters, King was a pioneer in the rhythm and blues genre and the sound which led to rock ‘n’ roll and beyond. As well as being a mainstay on the US R&B listings, 34 of B.B. King’s singles had found their way onto the mainstream Billboard Hot 100. Six songs would rank inside the top 40 between 1964 and 1974, with ‘The Thrill Is Gone’ peaking at #15 in 1970. However, like his contemporary Muddy Waters, B.B. King did not have much of a commercial audience in the UK. Until U2 came along.

In April 1989, a 64-year-old B.B. King duetted with Bono on the U2 song ‘When Love Comes To Town’. Recorded in Memphis’s iconic Sun Studios as part of the band’s Rattle And Hum album, the song would peak at #6 on the UK Singles Chart on 22nd April 1989 as part of an eight-week run on the hit parade. After a 40-year career, B.B. King had found success on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, outside of concerts and touring. ‘When Love Comes To Town’ would also peak at #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking B.B. King’s first appearance since 1974. Sensing a potential revival in popularity for the blues singer, Levi’s would include one of King’s lesser-known singles as part of an advert titled ‘Pawnbroker’.

In ‘Pawnbroker’, a young couple runs out of petrol when driving along a city road. The man parks the car and walks into a nearby pawnbroker to earn some money for fuel. After the pawnbroker inspects a watch and shakes his head, the man takes a pair of sunglasses out of his back pocket. The pawnbroker refuses to take them. Disappointed, the young man set off to leave. However, the broker stops him and asks for his jeans. Accepting the offer, the man returns to his partner with the petrol money and a new pair of white trousers. After the young couple shares a giggle, the broker puts the jeans on display in the shop. As Levi’s explains, ‘originals have always been sought after’. Therefore, if you find yourself running low on money and petrol, offer to sell your Levi’s 501 jeans to a pawn shop. It might work, or you might get a weird look from the person behind the counter.

Another advert released during the height of Levi’s retro-themed campaigning, ‘Pawnbroker’, also came at a good time for B.B. King. Following the considerable success of ‘When Love Comes To Town’ in the UK, Levi’s decided to release the song featured on the advert, ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’. ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’ had never been released as a single. However, the song originally featured on King’s 1971 album B.B. King in London, an LP recorded in the famous Olympic Studios. ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’ would release in the UK in July 1989. However, despite having recently featured on UK airwaves thanks to U2 and the single featuring the Levi’s branding, B.B King’s solo effort would only reach #88 on the UK charts for the week ending 5th August 1989. The song would then disappear before spending two weeks at #95 later in August 1989.

After’ When Love Comes To Town, B.B. King would never have another UK Top 40 single. In 1992, a collaboration with Gary Moore on the song ‘Since I Met You Baby’ would climb as high as #59 but not clamber any higher. However, King would experience more success on the album front. Late ’90s releases Deuces Wild (1997) and Blues On The Bayou (1998) would achieve sensible sales at #86 and #93. However, his 1999 compilation His Definitive Greatest Hits would peak at #24 in 1999. Then, B.B. King would achieve his first UK top-twenty album as his collaborative effort with Eric Clapton titled Riding With The King would peak at #15 in 2001.

Bad Company-Can’t Get Enough (#88, April 1990) (originally released 1974)

After failing to turn B.B. King’s one hit into a career revival, Levi’s would come unstuck again two years later. In 1990, the brand’s adverts would retain the retro soundtrack, but the sound would now come from the 1970s. However, before the denim company successfully catapulted The Steve Miller Band to UK No.1 in September 1990, they would first have to fail months earlier with a song released in the same year as ‘The Joker’.

Bad Company was a rock supergroup that found critical and commercial success in the 1970s and early 1980s. In their native Britain, the band achieved four top 10 albums between 1974 and 1979, including three Gold records. The band also made three appearances on the UK Singles Chart, with two of those songs peaking inside the Top 20. Of these singles, the most successful was 1974’s ‘Can’t Get Enough’, which would peak at #15 during a six-week run in the summer of 1974. ‘Can’t Get Enough’ was also Bad Company’s most significant success in the US, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1990, Levi’s would include the song as a selling point of their newest ad, ‘Beach’.

‘Beach’ begins with a man at the beach, removing his jeans to reveal his swimming trunks underneath. He tells his pet dog to guard his jeans and ward off intruders. After barking at one man, the dog spots an attractive young woman in yellow swimwear and a baseball cap. Upon seeing her, the dog gets ‘excited’. Petting the dog, the woman takes the man’s jeans and puts them on. The dog allows her to do this, putting up no objection. However, as the woman tries to walk away, the dog grabs a leg and stops the lady in her tracks. The owner returns from surfing as the woman tries to fight off the loyal mutt. Seeing the commotion, he calms down his canine, and he and the young woman share a look and a smile. Then, the two and the dog walk down the beach together to end the advert, as the woman continues to wear the man’s jeans. As Levi’s reminds us, ‘originals have always been sought after’ if that message wasn’t clear throughout the entirety of the commercial.

With ‘Beach’ becoming particularly notable in the UK, record label Island would re-release ‘Can’t Get Enough’ in April 1990. If the song reached the Top 40, it would mark Bad Company’s first appearance on the UK Singles Chart since 1990. However, any bump in popularity the song received thanks to its Levi’s appearance was small as the song spent one week inside the UK’s Top 100 Singles, peaking at #88 on 14th April 1990. In fact, 2002’s releases of ‘Spacehopper’ (#56) and ‘Rush Hour’ (#59) would perform better, and neither of those tracks had the backing of a popular jeans advert to boost their potential sales figures. However, it would only take Levi’s the right song, the right advert and the right band to achieve UK chart success with a 1970s group in 1990.

Johnny Harris-Stepping Stones (#94, November 1997)

The final tune set for discussion on this list is mainly due to its featured ad. The track is not performed or sung by a famous singer or band. It is an instrumental piece but does not have Flat Eric to make the tune a worldwide phenomenon. However, this track works well with scenes of people performing kung fu.

In late 1997, Levi’s would air ‘Kung Fu’. The ad and accompanying soundtrack mimic a kung fu movie from the 1970s. It begins with a man with black hair, a white vest and jeans running down a street before stopping suddenly. A pair of black sedans force the man to cut into a nearby restaurant, where he beats up a local gang. After leaving the eatery, a group of men clad in black meet the man. He beats them up single-handedly with killing anyone. He uses a fire-escape ladder to meet another set of enemies in an alleyway. After dispatching these men, he spots a nearby launderette. However, before he can make it there, a bald man with black robes stops him and dares to fight. The kung fu artist sends the man in black careening through the glass plate door of the laundrette. Stepping over the damage, the man approaches a young woman standing by one of the machines. She hands him a pair of Levi’s, and he quickly changes them for his own, passing the other jeans to her. With a new set of jeans on, the man returns to fighting more enemies. The message from Levi’s: Levi’s 501 Jeans are best washed inside out.

The ‘Kung Fu’ soundtrack was composed by experienced British composer, conductor and producer Johnny Harris. Harris had been in the music business since 1964, conducting and producing for Nancy Sinatra, Paul Anka, Petula Clark, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Lulu and Engelbert Humperdinck. His work was also heard in British films like Man In The Wilderness and Bloomfield and American TV series Wonder Woman and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He had also released plenty of his own work beginning in 1970. When approached by Levi’s to create an original piece of music for ‘Kung Fu’, he would produce the track ‘Footsteps’, a song inspired by the ‘slap-bass’ rock music of the 1970s and the martial arts movies of the time. While Levi’s included plenty of popular music in their adverts during the 1990s, they also used composers like Peter Lawlor and Alex Lasarenko to produce instrumental work for their other less-popular adverts. While Lawlor would create Stiltskin to help sell his work in 1994, Johnny Harris would not need to perform the same action to gain attention for ‘Footsteps’ in 1997.

‘Kung Fu’ would become another famous ad in the Levi’s stable. The 60-second spot became popular enough that British record label EMI released a single version of ‘Footsteps’ (complete with two other track mixes) on CD in October 1997. The tune would achieve some minor notice, peaking at #94 on the UK’s extended Top 100 Singles Chart on 1st November 1997. Even though the song would venture any higher than that, it was a success for a man whose previous singles releases were themes he’d recorded for television shows.

Conclusion

More UK No.1 singles than Beyoncé, the Bee Gees and David Bowie. More UK top ten tunes than Frank Sinatra, Lionel Richie, Bryan Adams and Adele. There were seven number-ones, thirteen top tens, seventeen top twenties, and nineteen appearances inside the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart across fifteen years. Those statistics spell out Levi’s impact on the UK charts between 1986 and 2001. Levi’s achievements are even more remarkable when you consider that they managed to make a hit single out of songs recorded in every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s. Nineteen different pieces, with a further seven from across this period managing to litter the minor placings found outside the Top 40. Let’s not forget that most of these songs also found success across the European continent and even in Commonwealth countries like Australia and New Zealand.

During the 1990s, Levi’s would capitalise on their European chart success by releasing a series of compilation albums. Like a regular musical performer, they compiled a list of their most successful songs into a greatest hits album. Between 1991 and 1993, each European country seemed to receive their own Levi’s compilation album. EVA Records would release The Original: Songs From Levi’s Commercials in Sweden. Magnum Records would unveil The Hitsound Of Levi’s 501 into record stores in the Netherlands. Germany would have The Levi’s 501 Hits-Originals Stand The Test of Time, and the UK would receive the simply-titled Originals. These albums would contain 10 of the most notable songs featured in Levi’s commercials: T-Rex’s ’20th Century Boy’, Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’, Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’, The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’, Muddy Waters’ ‘Mannish Boy’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, Eddie Cochran’s ‘C’mon Everybody’, B.B. King’s ‘Ain’t Nobody Home’, Bad Company’s ‘Can’t Get Enough’ and Percy Sledge’s ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’, along with a few added extras.

Levi’s compilation albums wear their purpose for existence directly on their sleeve. The front of The Hitsound Of Levi’s 501 advertises ‘The Original Songs Featured In The 501 Commercials’. The front cover even lists the songs on the album. However, instead of featuring pictures of the artists and bands who sang these songs, it shows still images from the ads these songs were initially featured in, implying, ‘you only know about and bought these songs because of the adverts’. Finally, the very top of the front sleeve features the line ‘Tune In-The Only, The Original-501-Music Collection’. The UK album Originals doesn’t even need to tell its audience the basis for the compilation album; the front cover just features a title, a pair of jeans and a list of tracks.

However, suppose you thought it odd that several albums were released across Europe in the early 1990s dedicated just to Levi’s 501 jeans. In that case, you should know that the brand did the same thing for their ‘Twisted’ jeans brand, releasing Levi’s Compilation – Twisted Music To Fit in 2001. The album is a selection of the songs used by Levi’s during their second phase of success between 1995 and 2001, including Mr Oizo, Prince Buster, Shaggy, Smoke City and Babylon Zoo.

However, what these two sets of compilation albums tell us is that during their 15-year domination of the Uk Singles Chart, Levi’s had two distinct periods of success caused by two different ways of advertising their products. Between 1986 and 1993, the main focus of Levi’s advertising was nostalgia. The adverts were set in the 1950s and 1960s and even earlier. These commercials showed the history and the longevity of the Levi’s brand, often mentioning the year 1853, the year in which the company was founded. The choice of music even pushed this angle further, showing how the brand was popular during the respective heydays of Eddie Cochran, Sam Cooke, the Steve Miller Band, T-Rex and The Clash. Using nostalgia in advertising can make the consumer buy into a specific product by connecting with positive memories from the past. The 1980s saw styles and music from the 1950s and 1960s become popular again, with Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys both experiencing comebacks during the decade. Therefore, by fitting Levi’s jeans into this ‘what is old is new again’ mentality, the brand strangely hit upon the cultural zeitgeist of the time.

After having success with their ‘nostalgia-tising’, Levi’s then pivoted away from yesterday’s music into ‘today’s music’ (the 1990s and 2000s). Instead of relying on the past, Levi’s started to discover and create the sound of the present. When Peter Lawlor began Stiltskin to sell the original music he made for a Levi’s advert and turn it into an actual record, this second phase of UK chart success was born. Though you can rightfully argue that the denim company only succeeded in creating many one-hit wonders with weird names like Babylon Zoo, Smoke City and Freak Power, you cannot say that these methods were unsuccessful. In their second phase of success, Levi’s moved away from older genres like punk and soul and seized up contemporary genres like acid jazz, house, techno and indie rock. This focus on the present was also represented in the adverts. While some remained retro, most were set in the neon Nineties featuring the youth and styles of that present decade. As shown by the success of Mr Oizo’s ‘Flat Beat’ and the subsequent ‘Flat Eric phenomenon in 1999, this second phase of advertising proved profitable. In fact, most of Levi’s UK Top 40 hits came from this second phase, including four number-one singles. However, the fifteen-year achievement of Levi’s UK chart success would not be possible with both advertising periods.

To be responsible for seven number-ones, thirteen top-tens, seventeen top-twenty, and nineteen top-forty singles across fifteen years, take some ear for music and an eye for what can best sell a pair of jeans in the span of a single one-minute TV advert. Therefore, to end this odyssey, I will leave you with a quote from an AllMusic review of the second Levi’s compilation album in 2001: “Twisted Music To Fit goes to prove one thing: that the marketing department at Levi’s has fantastic music taste. Good music really does sell blue jeans, and this is excellent evidence that the suits at Levi’s have a strong grasp of what good music really is.” Whether you believe that or not, the evidence listed above shows some truth to that opinion.