What's The Beatles' Song In The Amazon Sledding Commercial Joy Ride?

For the 2023 holiday season, Amazon premiered a commercial titled "Joy Ride." The ad opens with a trio of elderly women flanked by Christmas decorations wistfully watching kids sledding down a snowy hill. Unbeknownst to her companions, one of the women orders a few ergonomic seat cushions from Amazon to her home. She surprises her friends with the package the next day, and the three of them use the cushions to comfortably sled down the hill themselves, recalling memories of their girlhood as they do so. Underscoring this saccharine spot is an appropriately sappy piano tune.

Beatles fans will recognize that this is an instrumental performance of the song "In My Life." The tempo of the version in the Amazon ad, notably, varies and is a little bit slower than the studio recording with which most who know the song are likely familiar, imbuing its melody with a somewhat distinct character.

While the performance in Amazon's commercial removes its lyrics, they're fittingly about nostalgia. "There are places I'll remember / All my life, though some have changed," its first verse begins. Beyond just its tune, this particular Beatles song is appropriate for a story of three women reconnecting with an experience of childhood joy decades after the fact.

"In My Life" isn't close to the Beatles' biggest hit numbers-wise. It doesn't even rank, for instance, among their 50 best-performing singles on the Billboard charts. To some connoisseurs, however, the song is nevertheless considered one of the best the Fab Four ever recorded.

Perhaps its most notable professional accolade is the number-one spot on Mojo Magazine's list of the 100 greatest songs of all time. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone ranked "In My Life" fifth on a list of the 100 best Beatles songs. A poll on the Indieheads subreddit rated the song similarly, earning the third-most votes behind only "A Day in the Life" and "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Just like an insanely expensive piece of Beatles memorabilia on "Pawn Stars," licensing a Beatles song is pricey. So, beyond the song's theme and positive critical reception, Amazon's use of "In My Life" in its 2023 holiday ad is also sort of a flex. Of course, Amazon is no stranger to licensing popular music, employing a Queen song in its mustache commercial directed by Olivia Wilde. In "Joy Ride," the company likely wants viewers who recognize the tune to associate the Beatles' reputation as the greatest rock band of all time with the Amazon brand, perhaps justifying its cost compared to an exponentially cheaper recording that might communicate a similar feeling.