Gold on the Ceiling

Album: El Camino (2011)
Charted: 57 94
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Singer and guitarist Dan Auerbach told American Songwriter magazine that he roped in three "local girls" to sing the gospel harmonies on this track about the illusionary nature of material success.
  • The song was used as the musical backdrop for the 2012 NCAA March Madness tournament during its transmission by the TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV networks.
  • Directed by Harmony Korine, the mastermind behind the cult movies Gummo and Kids, and shot on raggedy VHS tape, the song's music video turns the Black Keys duo into babies, strapped to giant versions of themselves.
  • The Black Keys went to legal war against the advertising agency representing Pizza Hut for ripping off this song in a TV commercial for the American restaurant chain's Cheesy Bites Pizza. The lawsuit is part of a trend, which finds artists crying foul over advertisers using tracks that sound very similar to their music.
  • The band titled the album El Camino, which is a car of the 1970s, but there's a Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan on the cover. They explained to Interview Magazine that they were basically trying to make the stupidest record cover of all time. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France

Comments: 3

  • Delin The Felon from San Diego, CaThat Fuzz though...
  • Mark from Toledo, OhThe cover art for the single of this song is an entrance of Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio, where the band is from.
  • Tom from Milton Keynes, United KingdomSong used Feb/March 2012 in the Cobra Indian lager ad on UK TV- set on a train going through India (presumably) and the association of the gold topped bottles and the gold lager are fairly obvious
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Todd Rundgren

Todd RundgrenSongwriter Interviews

Todd Rundgren explains why he avoids "Hello It's Me," and what it was like producing Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album.

90s Metal

90s MetalFact or Fiction

Test your metal - Priest, Maiden, and Beavis and Butt-head show up in this one.

"Stairway To Heaven" Lawsuit: A Timeline

"Stairway To Heaven" Lawsuit: A TimelineSong Writing

Untangling the events that led to the "Stairway To Heaven" lawsuit.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Steven Tyler of AerosmithSongwriter Interviews

Tyler talks about his true love: songwriting. How he identifies the beauty in a melody and turns sorrow into art.

Second Wind Songs

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.

Glen Ballard

Glen BallardSongwriter Interviews

Glen Ballard talks about co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album, and his work with Dave Matthews, Aerosmith and Annie Lennox.