Danish dance-pop group Aqua's 1997 song about this Mattel character ruffled some feathers at the toy giant, due to lyrics such as: “make me walk, make me talk, do whatever you please, I can act like a star, I can beg on my knees."

It's hard to argue with Rolling Stone for putting "Barbie Girl" on its list of the 20 most annoying songs of all time. But there's more to the Eurodisco group's legacy. Aqua and its record label held their ground in an aggressive copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Mattel, who claimed that the lyrics "associate sexual and other unsavory themes with Mattel's Barbie products." The band prevailed, with the U.S. Court of Appeals agreeing that their tongue-in-cheek parody was protected speech under the First Amendment (in an opinion that included the unusually flippant comment, "The parties are advised to chill.")

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