What Is The Song In The Facebook Groups 'DeafHoops' Commercial?
Facebook's stylish new commercial for its Groups feature is cinched together by a catchy soundtrack — and it's not the first ad to make use of great music. Sound-savvy advertisers have been utilizing songs for decades, with iconic ad campaigns sometimes turning little-known numbers into smash hits. The audience of some ads is so huge that they've even secured exclusive new tracks from some of the world's biggest artists for their scores.
Showcasing the powerful potential of digital connectivity, this ad centers around real-life Facebook group DeafHoops — an online deaf basketball community with 3.6k members worldwide. As Adweek reports, the commercial is part of Facebook's ongoing "More Together" campaign, focusing on the way Facebook Groups can connect, unite, and empower its diverse users through their shared interests.
As they're shooting hoops, the ballers' energy is matched by a seriously dynamic song. But what is the earworm from the ad?
You might not recognize this version of It's Oh So Quiet
Aptly soundtracking the deaf basketballers' action, the song in the Facebook Groups ad is "It's Oh So Quiet." If it sounds familiar, the version that comes to mind is most likely Björk's. Pop's favourite Scandi pixie dream girl re-popularized the track in 1995, peaking at #9 in the U.S. Billboard charts and hitting #4 in the U.K. However, the Yankee twang of this rendition betrays a very different vocalist.
Commercials often give a home to cover versions of big hits and deep cuts alike. From the recent PlayStation commercial to the famous John Lewis Christmas ads, many among them have been soundtracked by modern takes on tunes from the past. But if you're thinking the track's bombastic brass sounds a little too authentically old-school for a modern spin, you'd be right.
As iSpot.tv notes, this version is the original "It's Oh So Quiet," first released in 1951 by Betty Hutton. A sleeper hit, the song was originally a B-side to "Murder, He Says" — another dramatic number originally written for the 1943 musical "Happy Go Lucky," in which Hutton starred. Thanks in no small part to Bjork's '95 smash, "It's Oh So Quiet" has enjoyed a much longer life in the pop culture consciousness. Who'd have thought a tune from the age before color TV would go on to soundtrack a social media giant at the cutting edge of big tech 70 years later?