Product Placement #18: Orange Crush

I'm not sure if Orange Crush has ever been sold in the UK, though I do have a vague memory of it from my childhood. These days you're more likely to find Fanta or Tango in your local shop, but Orange Crush is still big business in other parts of the world, and if there's a top tune attached, it's worthy of a mention here.

First though, let's have some Nicole Dollanganger, and a song she wrote to her ex-boyfriend in prison...

You're so cool, you're so cool

I'll bet when you were born

All the Orange Crush and Ne-Hi soda

Bottles in the world fizzed over

Nicole Dollanganger - You're So Cool

Remember the 90s? Remember Stone Temple Pilots? I presume Mick & Keef's lawyers do...

Sell your soul and sign an autograph

Big bang baby, it's a crash, crash, crash

I wanna cry, but I gotta laugh

Orange Crush mama is a laugh, laugh, laugh

Stone Temple Pilots - Big Bang Baby

For my own sanity, I'm trying to cut down on the number of songs I include in this feature, but here are a couple of titular mentions...

The Adolescents - Orange Crush 

Who Boy - Orange Crush Redux

Almost there! But first, the great John Prine is a worthy runner-up...

Sally used to play with her hula hoops

Now she tells her problems to therapy groups

Grandpa's on the front lawn staring at a rake

Wondering if his marriage was a terrible mistake

I'm sitting on the front steps drinking Orange Crush

Wondering if it's possible for me to still blush

Uh huh, oh yeah

John Prine - The Sins Of Memphisto

No prizes for guessing the winner today, Martin! 

Orange Crush was the first single from R.E.M.'s 1988 album Green, leading to their debut TOTP appearance in the UK. In the US it was only released as a promotional single, although it did top the airplay charts for 8 weeks, beating The Irish Band. If I didn't love the song already, the last bit would be enough.

Orange Crush is about a young man forced to go to Vietnam and his worries over exposure to Agent Orange. Michael Stipe sings "I've got my spine" in the chorus as Spina Bifida was one of the side effects of exposure to the gas, and often affected soldiers' chances of having healthy children.