Here's Why The Song In The Allstate Moon Commercial Sounds So Familiar

Allstate's latest commercial is lighting up the airwaves. The clip, which is less than 30 seconds long, sees a pair of astronauts stylishly cruising across the moon in a decked-out buggy before leaping off a cliff, into the sky, and hanging around thanks to the zero-gravity situation up in space. A disclaimer then appears that reads, "Do Not Attempt." Naturally, they land softly back down on the moon's surface after just a few moments of flying through the air. 

The ad ostensibly has nothing to do with car insurance, but it's going down as a treat with viewers regardless. This is thanks, in large part, to the calming song playing over the footage, which suggests everything will indeed be all right in the end (even if you jump off a cliff?). If it sounds familiar, well, that makes sense because the track in question is super famous. You might not recognize the title or even the singer but, suffice it to say, it's one you know even if you do not realize it. 

The dreamy Allstate commercial is sound-tracked by Smokey Robinson's classic 1979 hit "Cruisin'," which has been covered many times over, most recently by Luke McMaster in 2020. It was also memorably performed by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow in the movie Duets. The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard charts and was named the sixth best slow jam of all time by Essence magazine, who noted, "Every woman wants to be whisked away to some far away land with her man for the ultimate seclusion and seduction. So cruisin' away with Smokey Robinson was a dream come true." In a Rolling Stone interview, Robinson admitted he did not anticipate its success but, "When it happened, then I sensed that it had come. I had been resurged." 

Speaking to Soul Tracks, the prolific singer-songwriter acknowledged that "Cruisin'" was a particularly difficult track to crack, explaining, "Many, if not most, of my hits have been written based on music by Marv Tauplin and played on his guitar. He would give me a tape that I would listen to over and over until I got an idea for a song that went with that music." However, "When he gave me this particular tape of music... I wrote two or three other songs to that music but they didn't work. Nothing fit this music. This song came in bits and pieces." 

"Cruisin'" ultimately took five years to write, but it was clearly worth it as, aside from restarting Robinson's career, judging by the new Allstate commercial, it's still a total banger.