A discussion at Ask Metafilter encouraged Mefites to contribute examples of songs that everyone recognizes when they hear them, but can't name. Some of them are opera songs covered in a classic Neatorama article from years ago. Others became popular by being used for advertising, movie soundtracks, and cartoons.
Many of these connections were established in the years of Spike Jones and Looney Tunes, when entertainers could make a joke out of setting up expectations with a clichéd bit of classical music, then subverting them with silly characters. Others were one-hit wonders that landed in commercials or became famous hip-hop samples. Now it’s hard to hear certain tunes without thinking of Bugs Bunny singing along, or some Ford truck rolling through hills, or the summer of ’93. So load up the playlist and get ready to remember every piece of pop culture ever.
There are 160 such songs in a Spotify playlist at Lifehacker. If you don't have a Spotify account, you'll only hear a snippet of each tune, but you can look them up at YouTube if you want to hear the entire song. -via Metafilter