Ozempic Ads Boost Pilot Song Royalties for Paton

The 1974 pop-rock track Magic by the band Pilot experienced an unexpected financial resurgence after the pharmaceutical brand Nova licensed the song for its televised Ozempic commercials. The unexpected broadcast rotation of the feel-good single substantially increased royalty earnings for original co-writer David Paton decades after the song first debuted on the charts.

The 1974 Release and Initial Chart Success

Pilot first formed a few years prior to releasing their debut album, From the Album of the Same Name, which featured Magic in 1974. The track was penned by 24-year-old David Paton and 21-year-old Billy Lyall, serving as the band’s breakthrough hit on international music charts. Paton has stated that the inspiration for the track came partly from his wife, who remarked that she had never been awake to see the daybreak.

Upon its initial release, the single climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 11 on the UK charts. It achieved its strongest commercial standing in Canada, where it topped the charts while also making some waves in Europe. According to Paton in an interview with HotDiscTV, poor management prevented the band from doing any promotion in the U.S. during that era.

The Early 2000s Disney Channel Cover

Decades after its initial chart run, Magic gained a new wave of traction in the early 2000s when singer Selena Gomez recorded a reimagined pop-rock cover. Disney Channel utilized Gomez’s version as a promotional single for the television series Wizards of Waverly Place. The cover subsequently landed at No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the music charts in both the UK and Canada, later appearing in Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie.

The Ozempic Commercial Licensing and Re-Recording

The song’s second major modern resurgence arrived when pharmaceutical brand Nova incorporated the track into commercial advertisements for Ozempic, an injectable drug used to treat Type 1 diabetes that gained popularity for its weight-loss effects. The heavy television rotation brought an immediate financial return to the song’s original writer. I knew that Ozempic were using ‘Magic’ because the publishing was coming in, and my earnings were suddenly going up, Paton said, according to Guitar Player. Friends were phoning me and saying, ‘David, do you know your song’s being played every 20 minutes here in the states on TV?’

The renewed commercial visibility prompted a request for Paton to return to Abbey Road Studios. He re-recorded the track with lyric tweaks for the pharmaceutical brand’s advertising spots.

Meeting Brian Wilson in Glasgow

The unexpected television exposure ultimately led Paton to a personal encounter with one of his musical idols, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. Probyn Gregory, a guitarist in Wilson’s band, informed Paton that Wilson loved the song and sang it regularly during their car journeys. The Pilot frontman subsequently met Wilson in Glasgow, where the two musicians posed for a photograph commemorating the interaction.