Everyone has their picks for the best songs of 2008, even if the songs were not released in 2008. For example, the established advertising publication, Ad Age, has released a list of the top ad songs of 2008.

Interestingly, the selection includes a long-forgotten Kinks' song - "Everybody's A Star" - that is now a rock classic thanks to its being featured in a popular Converse ad series by the same name.



Whenever I have a chance to write about The Kinks, I try to do it. For those of you who know ALL of the spectacular music they made - not just "You Really Got Me" and "Lola" and "Come Dancing" - you know just how vastly under appreciated The Kinks were.

The past decade has seen a long review of The Kinks' legacy by the press, fellow rockers and music historians. Pretty much, the conclusion is always the same: The Kinks were one of the most important and influential rock bands ever. Rocker and music mogul Bob Geldof, a long-time Kinks' fan, once said the band's song "Waterloo Sunset", an unquestionable classic, is one of the best pop songs ever written.

The Kinks were my first real personal favorite band partly because not everyone knew who they were like they did The Beatles (even though almost everyone has heard at least one Kinks' song). After buying and listening to something like 30 of their albums, I was hooked, and never got unhooked.

No wonder they were among the first group of rock bands inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While their place in rock history is now well established, it never ceases to amaze how vastly under-rated The Kinks were for so long. And, I am still in awe time and again by the brilliance of so much of their music that most people have never heard. It's like belonging to an exclusive, honored kult. Kool!

MP3: "Wicked Annabella" by The Kinks from The Village Green Preservation Society

Yet I do have a bit of a thorn in my ass by the commercialization of The Kinks' music in recent years. Yet at the same time, I am happy that they are getting the attention because it has opened up their music to an entire new generation that may have only known them for one or two songs.

Unquestionably, a good part of The Kinks resurgence in popularity in recent years has been driven by the commercialization of their music. It really started during the past decade when "Nothing in This World is Gonna Stop Me Worrying About That Girl" from the soundtrack of the movie Rushmore and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" from the blockbuster In The Name Of The Father.

Then, back in 2003-04, the wildly popular HP ad series in which people held up frames that magically caught their images and froze them to the danceable and memorable song "Picture Book" hit the airwaves. You could actually hear people humming it or singing to it at the time. It was a huge hit and drove sales for their now considered classic LP, The Village Green Preservation Society (1968) on which "Picture Book" debuted.

One of the more recent Kinks' songs to be used in a TV commercial was released originally in 1976 on the album Soap Opera, which was widely considered a flop in the music press and at the cash register.

"Waterloo Sunset" - The Kinks. Widely considered one of the best songs ever written.
"Days" - The Kinks. One of the band's best songs ever, but known to only a few.

Other Kinks' songs featured in TV advertising campaigns and in movies include:

IBM - "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"
Cingular - "Strange Effect"
Tide - "All Day and All Night"
The Sopranos - "Living On A Thin Line"
The Parent Trap - "Victoria"
Click (movie) - "Do It Again"
Juno (movie) - "Well Respected Man"

And, "You Really Got Me" everywhere else.

Labels: British Invasion, Kinks Videos, The Kinks