Product Placement #19: C&A

When I was a kid, I hated being dragged into C&A. I wasn't interested in clothes (still aren't, to be honest), and they didn't even have a toy section. Boring! I'm not sure I ever shopped there as a grown up either, not because I've ever been fashionable, but just because Top Man or Next seemed like more obvious places to go if I absolutely had to buy new clothes that weren't just band T-shirts. I guess I missed my chance as C&A closed all its British stores by 2001, although it's still going strong in other parts of the world.

C&A was named after Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, two Dutch brothers who started selling middle-aged clothing in the city of Sneek way back in 1841. Little could they suspect that many years later, their names would be immortalised in pop lyrics. How many songs make reference to C&A will remain a mystery, as both lyrical search engines and discogs refuse to filter by two initials and an ampersand... but here's a jolly little jingle written by Roger Greenaway (the songwriter responsible for "You've Got Your Troubles" and "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony)" (which actually sound remarkably similar when you listen to them back to back) and Lord David Dundas. So now we know where he got his jeans from!

Before we get to the song most of you will be expecting, here's Belle & Sebastian with another perfect slice of kitchen sink drama, glumly reflective of the times when most of the country bought their clothes from C&A...

Monday morning, wake up knowing

That you've got to go to school

Tell your mum what to expect

She says it's right out of the blue

Do you want to work at C&A's

'Cause that's what they expect?

Move to Lingerie, and take a feel

Off Joe the store-man

Belle & Sebastian - Expectations

As I say, there may well be other songs that name-drop C&A... but my usual sources failed me. Fortunately, we have this, a timely reminder from The Specials that the man in the street (or the Man at C&A) is powerless to stop politicians destroying the world if they so wish...

I'm the man in grey

I'm just the man at C & A

And I don't have a say

In the war games that they play