Happy to hear that after 15 years, Elastica‘s “Connection” has recently been the target of some tube-centric love.

The track played under Valentine’s Day nominees Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner, up for “Best Kiss” at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards a few weeks ago. Lautner lost out to his Twilight co-stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who took home the golden popcorn tub (together, it seems).

“Connection” is also currently scoring a pair of new Chase commercials touting the benefits of the company’s Blueprint credit-card features. While the connection to someone’s bank account is being made, I’m not sure who’s getting paid for the usage.

See, back in 1995 when Elastica hit big with “Connection” — all 2:20 minutes of it checked into #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart for three straight weeks –– the art-punk band Wire sued for plagiarism, noting the song ripped off the riff from their “Three Girl Rhumba.” It wasn’t the only charge of song theft leveled against the nascent British band; besides at least one more Wire-inspired sonic twin, The Stranglers also noted similarities shared by their song “No More Heroes” and Elastica’s next single, “Waking Up.” (Purchasing a used copy of Elastica’s self-titled release that summer, this was all helpfully pointed out to me by the store clerk, who pulled out Wire’s Pink Flag from the racks and handed me headphones.)

Elastica settled these disputes out of court (cheating us out of hearing what their defense of such egregious stealing might have been). Still, “Connection” is more than a borrowed riff from “Three Girl Rhumba.” There’s a great melody, for one, but Justine Frischmann’s stiff upper-lipped vocals are the real reason the song remains kick-ass.

That performance carries through to the video, with Frischmann looking like she’s auditioning to take Joanne Catherall‘s place in The Human League, with her disaffected demeanor and an asymetrical haircut:

Purchase Elastica – “Connection” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.