Magic (Pilot song)

"Magic" is a 1974 song by Scottish pop rock band Pilot and was the first hit single for the group. It was written by band members David Paton and Billy Lyall for their debut album, From the Album of the Same Name.

Background
According to Paton, the song is inspired by the sunrise on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh. In a 2012 interview with Hotdisc Television, Paton also stated that at the time, his wife said she had "never seen a daybreak", which also inspired the song.

Pilot

 * David Paton – lead vocals, bass, electric guitar
 * Billy Lyall – keyboards, synthesizer, piano, backing vocals
 * Stuart Tosh – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

 * Ian Bairnson – additional electric guitar (uncredited)

Chart performance
"Magic" charted most successfully in Canada, where it topped the RPM national singles chart on 19 July 1975, and received a gold certification. It climbed as far as number 11 on the UK Singles Chart and reached number 5 during the summer of 1975 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100.

Selena Gomez version
A version by Selena Gomez was released as a single on 21 July 2009. It peaked at No. 61 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, No. 80 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart, No. 5 on the Norwegian Singles Chart and at No. 90 on the UK Singles Chart. It has sold 563,000 copies in the United States. Gomez covered "Magic" for the soundtrack of the Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place; it was marked with an asterisk (*) as "Magic*" due to two other songs on the album having identical names (the other two performed by Meaghan Martin and Honor Society). The song was featured in the television film Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie. The music video premiered on the Disney Channel on 24 July 2009, and was directed by Roman Perez.

Ozempic television advertisement
In 2018, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk began using the song in its ads for Ozempic, an injectable drug originally intended for people with type 2 diabetes, but which became popular for its off-label use as a weight-loss drug. David Paton was asked to return to Abbey Road Studios to record a new version of the song, which from a vocal standpoint is little more than his singing the opening line, replacing the words "It's magic" with "Ozempic" and otherwise adding nonverbal singing.