The Space Disco Cover in This Cat-Filled German Commercial is Actually Pretty Significant

When in a creative slump, just add cats. That's what large German supermarket chain Netto Marken-Discount did for its latest television commercial—and it worked: in just two days, the YouTube video of the advert has already racked up over two million views. The 75-second clip features felines shopping in a grocery store, pushing their carts, getting freaked out by cucumbers in the produce section, fighting over the last bottled drink on the shelf, and singing (or rather, meowing) along to whatever's playing in the background. (Cats, they're just like us!)

What makes this commercial so properly bizarre (and European) is its soundtrack, which, as it turns out, is also pretty significant in electronic music history if you care to delve deep enough. Handy use of song-identifying app Shazam indicates that it's a (rather meow-heavy) cover of "Magic Fly" by Space, a French electronic band whose 1977 debut album Magic Fly pioneered the space disco sub-genre with its (back then) futuristic synth sounds. The space disco movement has since been carried on in various forms by artists such as Lindstrøm, Prins Thomas, and Todd Terje, according to Pitchfork's 2006 guide. The track itself hit #2 on the UK Singles chart upon its release, and over two decades later, Felix Da Housecat covered it for his 2001 album Kittenz and Thee Glitz.

Watch the commercial and the "Magic Fly" video below.