O Superman - Covers, Remixes and Quotes

Covers, Remixes and Quotes

• In 1988 the song became popular in Italy, as it was chosen as soundtrack for the first government campaign for preventing the HIV-AIDS epidemic.
• The 1991 Army of Lovers song "Obsession" is in part inspired by "O Superman."
• In 1996 the song was used in a road safety advert in New Zealand. The advert showed a seriously injured man in a hospital bed proceeded by the message "The faster you go the bigger the mess."
• The song was covered by David Bowie during his 1997 tour for the album Earthling.
• The Canadian hip hop group Brassmunk sampled "O Superman" in their 2002 single "O Supaman".
• In 2003, Staalplaat released a remix album of "O Superman", limited to 500 copies.
• In 2005, the German electronica group Booka Shade along with the group M.A.N.D.Y. (both from the Get Physical label) created a mix of Anderson's piece, entitled "Oh Superman" (note spelling), in two versions.
• The 2008 biographic documentary film Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress, and the Tangerine about the artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois contains the last part of the song (from the line So hold me Mom) in several places, in correspondence to Bourgeois' theme of depicting a mother figure using spider sculptures.
• In October 2008, M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade featuring Laurie Anderson released two 12" singles with a version of "O Superman" on the German Get Physical label. The vinyl singles, also made available as digital downloads, featured remixes by Matt John, Reboot, Audiofly, Felix Da Housecat and Robag Wruhme.
• In March 2009, M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade sample of "O Superman" was featured as a mix on Om Records complication "OM: Miami 2009" (Mixed and Complied by DJ Fluid).
• The track "Which Way To Kyffin" from Welsh musician James Dean Bradfield's 2006 album The Great Western features a sample from the start of "O Superman."
• In 2008, the song was used in the Yves Saint Laurent Spring-Summer 2009 Men's Collection video.
• The count-off to the song "Cement Mixer" by Clinic is sampled from this song's introduction.
• The "Ha" sound was used by Cut Chemist in the track "Spat", on the album The Audience's Listening.
• In 2011, Valerie Donzelli used this song in her movie La guerre est déclarée.
• In 2012, UK duo The Big Pink used a sample from "O Superman" in their song "Hit The Ground (Superman)."
• In 2012, HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones and tablets used this song in a television advertisement in the United States. The same advert also screened in New Zealand for HTC smartphone sold by Telecom, New Zealand
• The video game World of Goo features a character named MOM who is likely a reference to this song. MOM is a massive supercomputer that controls almost every aspect of life on the planet featured in the game, who seems personable and warm but really is manipulating the world through cold commercialism and later has a hand in an apocalyptic event. This parallels several themes in the song. Finally, one of the songs of the game's soundtrack is entitled "Are you coming home, love MOM", which directly mirrors one of the lines early in the song.
• In 2012, trans-atlantic experimental rock orchestra The Flowers of Hell released a cover of "O Superman" retitled as "O Superheroin". The reworking celebrates the marriage of Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed by merging the song with lyrics and motifs from The Velvet Underground's "Heroin".