A Look At 10 Beatles Songs Used In Commercials

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For many Beatles fans, hearing one of the band’s songs in a commercial can still feel strange. The group’s music became so closely tied to people’s lives that using it to sell sneakers, cars, televisions, or diapers often sparked arguments over where art ended and advertising began. The history is also more complicated than simply blaming the band members, because publishing and master-recording rights were not always under their control. The 10 examples below are presented alphabetically rather than ranked.

# 10 – “All Together Now”

“All Together Now,” recorded by The Beatles in 1967 and later released on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, found an unlikely commercial second life in 2010 when André 3000 recorded a cover for a Nike Basketball advertisement centered on Kobe Bryant’s pursuit of a fifth NBA championship. The simple sing-along quality of Paul McCartney’s song fit the montage of basketball players and the ad’s emphasis on collective achievement, while André 3000’s version gave the track a completely different sound without using The Beatles’ original master recording.

# 9 – “All You Need Is Love”

“All You Need Is Love,” John Lennon’s 1967 anthem first performed by The Beatles on the worldwide Our World television broadcast, has been used in advertising more than once. Procter & Gamble built a 2007 Luvs diaper campaign around the song and the tagline “All You Need Is Luvs,” a use that angered some Beatles fans. In 2021, Katy Perry recorded the song for Gap’s holiday campaign, which gave the commercial use a charitable component: Gap pledged $1 to Baby2Baby for each Spotify stream of Perry’s recording, up to $100,000.

# 8 – “Come Together”

“Come Together,” John Lennon’s opening track from The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road, was re-recorded by Noah Kahan for Hard Rock International’s 2024 “Come Together” campaign launching its Unity by Hard Rock loyalty program. The commercial brought together Kahan, Lionel Messi, John Legend, and Shakira across Hard Rock properties around the world, making the song’s title an obvious fit for a campaign built around connecting the company’s hotels, casinos, cafes, and other venues under one program.

# 7 – “Getting Better”

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered) (CD)

“Getting Better,” from The Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, was used in a 1999 Philips television commercial through a cover recording rather than The Beatles’ original master. The advertising idea could hardly have been more direct: the repeated promise that things were “getting better” was attached to television technology, and the song appears only briefly near the end of the spot. It is a good example of how advertisers could license a Beatles composition without necessarily gaining access to the band’s actual recording.

# 6 – “Golden Slumbers”

“Golden Slumbers,” Paul McCartney’s contribution to the closing medley on Abbey Road, became the soundtrack to the 2017 John Lewis Christmas commercial “Moz the Monster.” British band Elbow recorded the cover for the campaign, which was directed by Michel Gondry and followed a young boy’s friendship with an imaginary monster living under his bed. The song’s lullaby quality and George Martin’s original orchestral conception made it a natural choice for the sentimental holiday film, and Elbow later released its version commercially.

# 5 – “Hello, Goodbye”

“Hello, Goodbye,” Paul McCartney’s 1967 Beatles single, has been especially useful to advertisers because its title can be turned almost instantly into a marketing idea. The Jonas Brothers recorded a version for a 2008 Target commercial, while a different cover performed by Boh Doran and arranged by Yessian Music appeared in Mercari’s 2021 advertising campaign, including a Super Bowl spot about one person saying goodbye to an unwanted item so someone else can say hello to it. Few Beatles titles lend themselves to advertising wordplay quite as easily as this one.

# 4 – “Revolution”

The Beatles: 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) (2CD)

Nike’s 1987 use of The Beatles’ original recording of “Revolution” remains the most famous and controversial example on this list. It was the first time an original Beatles master recording had been used as the theme of a commercial, and Apple Corps filed a $15 million lawsuit against Nike, Wieden+Kennedy, and EMI-Capitol seeking to stop the campaign. Nike maintained that it had licensed the master through EMI-Capitol and the publishing through Michael Jackson, who then owned the relevant Lennon-McCartney publishing rights, while Yoko Ono’s office said she had agreed to the use. Whatever the legal complexities, the sight of “Revolution” selling sneakers infuriated many Beatles fans and became a landmark argument over rock music and advertising.

# 3 – “Something”

George Harrison’s “Something,” released on Abbey Road in 1969 and issued as a double A-side single with “Come Together,” appeared in a Chrysler commercial in 1987. Unlike most of the Lennon-McCartney catalog involved in the Nike controversy, “Something” was a Harrison composition and was not controlled by Michael Jackson’s ATV catalog. Contemporary reports noted Harrison’s unhappiness with Beatles music turning up in advertising, and the Chrysler spot became another example of how quickly the commercial use of the group’s songs was becoming a major issue during the late 1980s.

# 2 – “Taxman”

The Beatles - Revolver: Special Edition Black Colored Exclusive VinylLP

“Taxman,” George Harrison’s biting opening track from The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver, was almost too obvious a choice for H&R Block to resist. The tax-preparation company used a re-recorded version of the song in a 2002 Super Bowl commercial built around changes in the U.S. tax code. The irony was impossible to miss: Harrison had written the song out of anger over Britain’s high tax rates, and decades later it was being used to advertise a company promising to help people navigate their own taxes.

# 1 – “We Can Work It Out”

“We Can Work It Out” was among the earliest Lennon-McCartney compositions licensed for advertising, appearing in a 1985 Hewlett-Packard campaign in Britain. Because the ad predated Nike’s 1987 use of the original Beatles master of “Revolution,” the Hewlett-Packard commercial relied on a re-recorded performance rather than the band’s recording. The title made the advertising connection easy: a song about resolving differences became a message about computers helping people solve problems, showing that the commercial interest in Beatles songs had begun before Michael Jackson purchased ATV Music later in 1985.