Posted by Graeme Gigante on May 29, 2025 at 21:55:57:
Hi everyone, and hello Bob. It's the unofficial start of the summer, and in honor of that, I'm looking to request a couple of feel-good tunes that are ideal to hear for the summertime, and any time during the year for that matter. And those songs are "Just One Look" by Doris Troy, and "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo.
Just a little back story of what inspired my requests for these songs for tomorrow night, even though neither of those songs really have anything to do with the summer, the places where these songs were best known from by some however are summer-themed as they had both taken place during the summer time of their own year from a different decade from one another. And that is a commercial where both songs were used. Although I have listened to both songs in other places prior to finding them on those commercials, including on the radio way back when, these commercials are where they however have resurfaced to refresh everyone's memory of them.
Starting with the original Pepsi commercial that initially aired I believe around the time of the Super Bowl back in either 1991 or 92 that starred the actress and model Cindy Crawford where "Just One Look" by Doris Troy was played. Where in that commercial was a hot summer day when she parked her fancy car in front of a gas station store and stepped out of the car to buy a can of Pepsi out of a Pepsi vending machine outside of the store. This caught the attention of a couple of young boys watching her from the opposite side of a wooden fence also right outside of the gas station store. Making it look like as if the boys were checking her out, but rather had their attention focused on the can of Pepsi that Cindy cracked open and was drinking. It's possible the boys may have actually had their attention focused on both Cindy and the can of Pepsi she drank out of at least in my opinion. I'll let you guys make the call on which of the two they may have rather had their attention focused on. This commercial using this song in particular has been given several re-iterations over the last 30 years due to how popular and iconic it became amongst viewers and I guess critics alike amongst it's original televised airing, including being given a sequel, a couple of remakes, and even being spoofed at one point on a late night tv shows, either in a sketch on Saturday Night Live or another similar late night tv show.
Then for the song "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo, that on the other hand was used for a Target commercial that originally aired and took place back in the summer of 2011, where a group of customers engaged in a number of summer activities as if they were at a pool or the beach, when they were really doing all of such inside a Target Store. Including barbecuing with a grill, someone sliding down inflatable slides while other people throw water on them so they glide down it more easily from either a buckets or water pistols, pumping up an inflatable pool with air then filling with water, followed by someone else jumping in it with a kickboard, etc. Just people having a grand old time in the Target store in ways that could never happen in any of their stores in real life, lol.
All in all, these commercials using these classic groovy tunes have suddenly resurfaced in my mind recently and have stayed stuck in my mind for more than a week now which is what inspired me to requests these tunes, alongside the fact that these commercials are summer themed, even though the original early 90s Cindy Crawford Pepsi commercial actually aired during the Super Bowl which was on February and still during the winter from the year it came out.
Anyone interested in seeing the commercials using these songs may do so via the links to them on YouTube if you wanted something to help refresh your memory on them, lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtK-yq-BQDU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpdWz1NJuqQ