This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

Some consider this to be Bowie’s best song. It’s certainly up there, along with “Heroes”, “Space Oddity” and “Rebel Rebel”. “Young Amercians” showcases Bowie’s ability to traverse various genres like no one’s business. On this song, he’s all soul. The melody. The lead vocals. The piano slide. And the supporting cast are no slouches. The backing vocal harmonies feature a young Luther Vandross. Yes, it’s him. And the saxophone flourishes come from David Sanborn.

On the album of the same name, “Young Americans” is the throwback opener that eventually leads to the album closer, “Fame”, which stands in stark contrast with its post-modern, new wave aesthetic. “Young Americans” feels like a song from another era. Hearing it back now, I can’t help but think that they just don’t write songs like this anymore. And it’s a shame.

“A pimp's got a Cadi and a lady got a Chrysler.”