Jingles Page

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"Commercial Jingles of the Early '60s"

Liner Notes by David Pruiksma

Track 1- In this Introductory Statement we meet the spokesman for the studio where the selections offered in this compilation were produced many decades ago. With great authority and sparkling clarity, he introduces us to the process by which these, "Masterpieces in Miniature", were recorded on tape. Listen as he comments on the quality and attention to detail permeating all the selections to follow. It's a few seconds of track laying for our aural adventure and then, away we go!

Track 2 - Things take off with a BANG in "Look At Plymouth, Now!" for Plymouth Motors. This rousing 30 second symposium, done in a sophisticated, swinging, Duke Ellington Big Band style, features remarkable musical and vocal arrangements including upper-crust, Vanderbilt style spoken solos, climaxing in an uppity, "Dahling, where have you been?"

Track 3 - There's a stirring, All-American quality in this selection I call, "It's In Cards at Montgomery Wards." In fact, this little piece suggests a vaguely patriotic theme that reminds one of some of the songs in Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man." With it's nostalgic, Jim Handy Fife & Drum March beat and it's clever illusions to prognostication through the cards, (albeit Credit Cards) you'll discover that there's clearly no reason to sweat your credit standing any longer because, "Montgomery Wards is the friendliest in town." Of course, they're also out of business. Didn't they see THAT in the cards?

Track 4 - As we move along down the tracks, we find ourselves stationed at the ad for Oriental Laundry & Cleaners. This number features bright, crisp vocals and a nice, jazzy score with a distinctly Asian flair achieved through the inscrutable use of gongs and a light, familiar, "Chopsticks" style. However, this particular ad seems to lack the sharp, concise quality of the other Jingles in this collection. Instead, the lyrics to this little piece actually come off as though they were written just minutes before the recording session in a hap hazard fashion of "One from Column A, One from Column B" and so on. Phrases like "They're The Good Ones" and "Oriental, with a Capital O" are just stir fried into a rambling mix that wanders along like a drunken Rickshaw driver through the bustling streets of Shanghai.

Track 5 - "The Harrison Paint Company Serenade" harkens back to the romance of the wartime forties, with its nostalgic presentation in a Swing Band style clearly meant to capture the hearts and imaginations of middle age WW II veterans in the post war boom. At once dreamy and sentimental, the studio singers and musicians do their best to replicate, at least in feeling, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade while regaling the listener with the virtues and accomplishments of "Schrieveport's Color Specialists", The Harrison Paint Company.

Track 6 - Following in stark contrast to track 5 is a spot with a groovy, Bikini Shakin', Beach Partyesque style featuring a naive, early Rock and Roll beat that I've aptly named "The Fair Deal Watusi." Forever mired in the great Hullabaloo-Era of the mid 1960s, you'll find yourself shaking your tail like a regular on "Shindig" while thrilling to the all girl group which poses the burning question, "Can we get credit?" like a page from the High School Confidential.

Track 7 - "The General American Insurance March" is presented as one of those great, college football fight songs, (with a little John Phillips Sousa thrown in for good measure). This one is sure to get you up on your feet with your backfield in motion. And, while you're up there, how about a great big cheer for your General American Insurance salesman! He's the man who hunkers down to sell you a great life insurance policy, providing the security that your family has the coverage it needs, in the event you "fumble" and don't "go long."

Track 8 Third floor: Straight Jackets, Butterfly Nets, Basket Weaving and Padded Playrooms. In this spot we follow a manic shopper through the aisles of the now defunct Shaimberg Department Store as she proclaims to the world that, "Shaimberg Loves Me" and then ticks off, in an effusive manner, a laundry list of reasons why that chaste love is requited by her. And, at the end of this whirlwind romance we, the listener, can't help but be left with the overwhelming feeling that this slaphappy housewife needs to get out more! But then again, maybe she's not so far off. I mean, when was the last time YOU felt like "Queen Bee?"

Track 9 "For A Ford, Say Rave," is reminiscent of the era of great jazz vocal groups like The Hi-Los. In this spot, an excitable bunch of vivacious songbirds brings you just that spirit of "Hi" Energy tempered with "Lo" Information in this driving jingle for a small regional Ford dealership. With clever rhyming lyrics like "Trucks with Ferocity, Service with Velocity, Trades with Generosity" in the classic style of the Sherman Brothers, don't be surprised if you discover Rave to be one of your Faves!

Track 10 This track has the distinction of being the only Country & Western entry in the whole dern lot. "Treelor's Country Boy Drive-In" is an AD that "cain't" be beat! This Good ol' Boy themed spot bespeaks the simple country pleasures of Treelor's Roadside Drive-In and a time long gone. A place where the weary traveler & local yokel could come together to rub greasy elbows whilst gnawing on Hick'ry Flavored Burgers, Barbecued Ribs, "Henny Penny" Chicken and Cherry Pie in what this ad describes as a real "country boy treat". And what a treat this Jingle is, the likes of which would surely make anyone want to set a spell, pick up a banjo or "Squeal like a Pig!"

Track 11-From the first sweeping strains of this pleasant little ditty you'll find yourself longing for the days of the kind of service offered by The Denver Dry Goods Company. This clean, breezy and efficient choral and orchestra arrangement extols a level of service and personal attention that no longer exists and, for all we know, may never have. But at the Denver Dry Goods Company, circa 1964, its Service, Selection and Dependability that helps folks shop with confidence and that's good enough for me. There is just one thing, though. What's a "Dry Good" anyway?

Track 12 Now it's time to lace up those Leiderhosen and join in the Octoberfest for Tivoli Beer. This romp through the Rheinland features the sounds of robust, ribald reverie at every turn. And, who knows, after a couple of steins full perhaps you vill agree dat "The Tivoli Jubilee" delivers Ompah with Oomph!

Track 13 - "I Love Food Fair Milk" may be one of the most disturbingly delightful cuts in this package. The delight comes through the presence of a top-notch studio vocalist as "Mom" who warbles her lines beautifully, even performing a lovely bridge with a melody strikingly similar to parts of "Over the Rainbow." However, it is the cloying, Shirley Temple style treatment of another actress as the little girl that brings this Jingle to a saccharine halt. With gushing words like "Delish" and grammatical errors such as "Everybody Do", the audience is treated to a fairly unconvincing 5-year-old. Now, the "Adults as Children" genre can be a charming and powerful thing, but, when handled as it is in this spot, the entire effect becomes totally spoiled, curdling the sponsor's message, churning the listener's stomach and, ultimately, leaving us all scratching our heads in the sour dairy air!

Track 14 This little spot for Skyland Fruit Drinks spins the tale of "Skyland Mountain." Sung in the folksy style and melody of "My Darling Clementine" with a dash of "On Top Of Old Smoky" mixed in to sweeten the pot, the singers in this piece present a paradise of sorts, painting an aural picture of a perfect place to raise fruits.

Track 15-Just like dining with Fred (Astaire) and Ginger (Rogers), "The Top of the Town" offers a chic, dapper, socialite atmosphere that invites us to join in the romance of long ago. To look up at the stars and look down on everyone else. This isn't just eating, this is "Cocktails & Dinner" with the after 9 set, amid swirling chiffon and starched cummerbunds. You'll never come down from Top of the Town as you "get high" on sophistication in the 1960s acceptable way.

Track 16 - You'll find yourself right in the passenger seat when "Something Wonderful Happens" and a gentle love ballad for Plymouth Motors takes an abrupt left turn, ending up somewhere in Marlborough Country. Track 17 If Jack Kerouac had written ad copy, "It Hasta Be Shasta" would surely have been his baby. This cool, beat generation ad brings our Jingles CD to a real finger snapping fever pitch. With ultra hip, coffee house music and pseudo avant-garde poetry reading, including rhymes like Shasta and Hasta, Shine and Climb, Good as can Be and Low Calorie; this suburban hipster is a poet and he don't even know it. Forget about meter and timing, this latter day Maynard G. Krebs stuffs so many syllables into a line that one fears he'll get his iambic stuck in his pentameter before the spot is through. And yet, this spot still manages to come out hip, cool and informative, too.

Track 18 This wondrous ad showcases the swingin' Big, Big Band sound of the early 1960s backing famous, (or is it infamous) torch singer Anita Bryant as she graciously invites us, in song, to "See America With A. C." Of course, the idea for this campaign is blatantly patterned after Dinah Shore's legendary theme, "See the USA in Your Chevrolet". But this very upbeat, high energy number owes much of it's drive not to the patriotic "See America" rhetoric, but to the jazzy arrangement, unmistakably provided by none other than Hoyt Curtin, the man behind most of the Hanna Barbera cartoon scores of the '50s and '60s. Listen, if you can, to the music backing Ms. Bryant as she belts out her theme in an attempt to glamorize the use of spark plugs and you may recognize Hoyt's trademark style. From blaring trumpets and bongos to vibes and xylophones, Mr. Curtin adds texture to his arrangements using the entire orchestra as one big percussive instrument. He punctuates his performance with a strong rhythmic presence, not unlike Barney using the rib cage of a mastodon as Fred croons "As the Saint's Come Marchin' In" circa 1960, (A. D. of course).

Track 19 This is a piece that I have dubbed "The Legend of Diamond Bar", an epic musical commercial featuring the vocal talents of Thurl Ravenscroft, (famed voice of Tony The Tiger, among others). Here, in the trademark Talk/Sing style reminiscent of Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" or Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Shotgun Boogie", Mr. Ravenscroft spins the tale of the founding of the Southern California City of Diamond Bar. Evoking images of a time when the tract homes and mini malls of the early '60s sprung up like the mining towns of the Great Gold Rush.

Track 20 - One of the more redundant pieces in this mix, "Go With Sunlight Bread" is an ad in which a mind-numbing, easy listening music track meanders around in the background while a group of "sappy serenaders" endlessly repeat the words "Go With Sunlight Bread" until you wish they would.

Track 21 - In a companion piece to track 20, we return to the now nauseatingly familiar "Go With Sunlight" theme, only this time the spot has a decidedly more upbeat, Pop, Rock 'n Roll feel, (like Herman's Hermits only yeastier). I found this Jingle so sixties that I dubbed it, "Go-Go With Sunlight Buns." And, in a smart move by the producers of the piece, more clever lyrics were added this time. Catchy phrases such as, "Sunlight, Sunlight, Sunlight Buns, for Mamas and for Papas and for Daughters and Sons," brighten up the whole spot and make this Sunlight spot infinitely more enjoyable than the former.

Track 22 - The "Partners with Security First National Bank" ad opens to a grand swelling theme and dramatic narration reminiscent of the opening of one of those fluttery 16mm educational films we saw as kids in school. Hollywood productions like "Nature's Half Acre", "Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom" or "Hemo the Magnificent" were presented in the guise of entertainment, lulling audiences into a Technicolor stupor of knowledge before they were even aware there was content to be had and long before the term "Edutainment" was ever uttered. Of course, there's nothing like a peppy tune to get folks to sit up and take notice. So, after the brief opening narration, which vividly describes the California Lifestyle of the early 1960s, it's off we go on a snappy, Doo-Wop tour of the Southern California geography with its promise of affluence and prosperity. Traveling hand in hand, as partners, with Security First National Bank.

Track 23 - Listen closely to this bogus intellectual introducing "The (Tut-Tut) Tuttle Cottage Cheese Theme", ethereally realized on an archaic electronic musical instrument known as the Therimin. This strange sounding apparatus was used effectively in "Forbidden Planet", "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and even "The Jetsons". But, in this entry, its use does little more than add extra cheese to the cottage with every note.

Track 24 Here another artificial intellectual indicates, over a tuba solo of "The Tuttles Cottage Cheese Theme", that if one eats plenty of Tuttles Cottage Cheese one may be able to contribute to the culturally elite musical community. Personally, I think this statement may be pushing things a bit and I seriously doubt the connection between dairy products and a person's prowess in the music world. That is, of course, unless one happens to be lactose intolerant. Then, who knows what may come to pass?

Track 25 - No other jingle in this collection "moves" me like "Special Delivery with Global". And, with it's snappy, cartoony feel, the snazzy, jazzy arrangement could only have been penned, as in Track 18, by famed animation composer Hoyt Curtin. Here, superb vocals are perfectly supported by Hoyt's trademark sound with ample use of strings, vibes and that percussive beat. The score is exactly in the style of The Flintstones, The Jetsons and Top Cat. Fast moving and metropolitan, you can almost hear the traffic in the orchestral bridges, middle and end. Yes, in the end, this cut really delivers everything you would expect from a collection of this era. And it does so perfectly, succinctly and by Special Delivery!

Track 26 - It's hard to imagine in these days "Extreme" sports, that there ever could have been a commotion made over "Skate Season". Yet, "The Super Skates Twist" offers excitement, thrills and (hopefully NO) spills in a fun, peppy and upbeat little jaunt from around 1963. This spot is a truly an aural roller coaster of musical Loop-de-Loops and Al Hirt style trumpet riffs that go "Up the Hill" and "Down the Hill" on the ball bearing wheels of Super Duper Super Skates. Just clip 'em on and away you go! But, before you do, you might want to check with your General American Insurance Man, (Track 7) to see if your policy is paid up to date.

Track 27 - Picture Bobby Van hopping through the streets of Home Town, USA in MGM's "Small Town Girl" and you will start to get the feel of the final spot in this collection, "The Town I Live In" for Rossmore Leisure World. With it's sweeping arrangement and cocky, confident vocal, you'll be visualizing dramatic helicopter shots spiraling above this singer and the town he idealizes, much like Julie Andrews as Maria in the Alps of Vienna.

Track 28 - The final track of this collection does what it can to sum up the work of the entire compilation through the words of our friend the narrator, whom we met earlier in Track 1. Here, in his "Closing Commentary", he reiterates what listeners have undoubtedly already discovered while on their Sonic Safari through the mid-century. That discovery being the care, quality and professionalism lavished on each and every one of these fabulous, long forgotten tracks, from the more polished to the most ridiculous of the bunch. Today, like a time capsule on tenuous Mylar, these singing commercials not only entertain us but also serve to shape a better understanding of the era in which they were produced. An era, perhaps, less sophisticated than where we currently stand, both technologically and socially, but one so loaded with style, optimism and exuberance that it can be neither ignored nor forgotten. In fact, I believe it is these very qualities that make classic advertising jingles endure long beyond the life of their products or services. And it is in dedication to that spirit, from a time long ago, that I present to you this collection of 60-second musicals to enjoy, right here, right now and for all time.

David Pruiksma