← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
I’d Like to Teach the World to Buy Edition Part 1
00:59:42
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- [00:03]
Jack Wraps Advertiser
If you need three new reasons to love Jack Wraps at Jack in the Box even more, here they are. Chicken Fajita, Chicken Caesar and delicious starting at $3. Coincidentally, those are the same three reasons you should come to Jack in the Box right now at Jack. Every bite's a big deal.
- [00:22]
Chris Melanfi
Hey there Hit Parade listeners. What you're about to hear is part one of this episode. Part two will arrive in your podcast feed at the end the month. Would you like to hear this episode all at once the day it drops? Sign up for Slate Plus. It supports not only this show, but all of Slate's acclaimed journalism and podcasts. Just go to slate.com hit parade+ you'll get to hear every Hit Parade episode in full the day it arrives. Plus Hit Parade the Bridge our bonus episodes with guest interviews, deeper dives on our episode topics, and pop chart trivia. Once again to join, that's slate.com hipparadeplus thanks and now please enjoy part one of this hip Parade episode.
- [01:19]
Song Lyrics Performer
I'd like to build the world a home and furnish it with love Grow apple trees and honey bees and snow.
- [01:30]
Chris Melanfi
White turtle dove welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One? Series on today's show 53 years ago, the week before Christmas 1971, two versions of the same song were racing each other up the Hot 100 pop chart. A version of the song by the British Australian group the New Seekers was at number 17, and just four spots below it, at number 21, was a version by a group that called itself the Hillside Singers.
- [02:19]
Song Lyrics Performer
I like to teach the world what single one Imperfect harmony, Perfect harmony, A.
- [02:28]
Chris Melanfi
Song of peace that echoes what made this perky, sunshiny song such a hot commodity that Americans were buying competing versions. The clue was in the name of the Hillside Singers. They were named after a television commercial called Hilltop that advertised Coca Cola and in 1971 had taken pop culture by storm.
- [03:04]
Song Lyrics Performer
And keep it company. And the real I teach the world.
- [03:12]
Chris Melanfi
That's right, the advertisement, not the group, came first. I'd like to Teach the World to Sing was specifically written for that Coke commercial. The melody had been around, but the lyrics were penned to sell carbonated caffeine. The commercial was a hit, and it made the song a chart hit in its own right. And that wasn't even the first time that had happened.
- [03:44]
Song Lyrics Performer
We only begun before the rising sun.
- [03:51]
Chris Melanfi
We fly over the decades, numerous songs have been made into hits through advertising, whether they were turned from ad jingles into legitimate hits.
- [04:05]
Song Lyrics Performer
I pull my blue jeans on, I pull my blue jeans on it's the weekend.
- [04:15]
Chris Melanfi
Or hits that might have gone nowhere on the charts without an ad placement.
- [04:25]
Commercial Voice Actor
I really want to make you mine.
- [04:29]
Chris Melanfi
The fact is, a catchy melody is a catchy melody. And if it can be used to sell products.
- [04:42]
Commercial Voice Actor
One taste will tell you why. The night belongs to Michelob.
- [04:48]
Chris Melanfi
It can also be used to sell the artist's latest album on the radio. The dance between the advertising industry and the Hit parade has produced so many strange stories. There were pop hits that scaled the charts before anybody knew they were advertising ad campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic that became as beloved as the hits they were rebooting. Darling, you got to let me know.
- [05:42]
Song Lyrics Performer
Should I stay or should I go? If you say that you are.
- [05:48]
Chris Melanfi
And ads that turned formerly obscure artists into beloved pop deities. Today on Hit Parade, we will tell some stories about the intersection of Madison Avenue and the penthouse of the Hot 100. Don't feel too embarrassed if you enjoy these earworms that were trying to sell you cars, shoes, soda, beer or gum. As a legendary but fictional ad man.
- [06:32]
Song Lyrics Performer
Once said, advertising is based on one thing.
- [06:37]
Commercial Voice Actor
Happiness.
- [06:39]
Chris Melanfi
And the pop charts, they're about happiness, too. These stories are all a little crazy, but maybe none of them is crazier than the chart topping mid-70s fictional recording artist who was invented by an ad campaign. He spawned not only a number one hit, but a Christmas music empire.
- [07:05]
C.W. McCall Character
Yes, seriously, this here's a rubber duck and I'm about to put the hammer down.
- [07:21]
Chris Melanfi
And that's where your hit parade marches today, the week ending January 10, 1976. The end of the 1975 holiday season when C.W. mcCall topped the Hot 100 with his trucker and CB radio anthem, Convoy. How did this smash grow out of a commercial for literally sliced bread? And how did it eventually lead to multi platinum holiday music that sounded like this? You can't make this up, folks. The story of Convoy is the story of advertising and the charts. How kitsch and commerce collide to produce ditties that infiltrate our lives. So put on your warmest Christmas sweater, butter up some old home bread, pour yourself a Coke and a smile, and join us as we deck the halls with hits so jolly they got you to buy, buy, buy. Oh, and by the way, we've got some ads of our own right now, so stick around.
- [09:00]
Progressive Insurance Advertiser
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- [10:43]
Song Lyrics Performer
Wake up in the morning There's a snap around the place Wake up in the morning there's a crackle in your.
- [10:49]
Chris Melanfi
Face hey, have you heard this groovy 1964 recording by England's newest hit makers, the Rolling Stones. This is a commercial for Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal, recorded by the rock and roll combo that was just starting to compete with the Beatles on the.
- [11:13]
Song Lyrics Performer
That says It's Rice. Hear them Talking, Chris Rice Krispies.
- [11:19]
Chris Melanfi
Aired only in the UK in 64, this serial ad featured an original jingle called Jukebox, written by the band's own Brian Jones and sung by Mick Jagger. The Stones always did align themselves with the hard sell. Decades later, in 1981, they would raise eyebrows for signing the first major tour sponsorship with Jovan Musk perfume. So you might say the Stones sold out early. But in the world of mass culture, what does it mean to sell out? My Slate colleague Willa Paskin explored this question in a superb episode of her always excellent podcast Decoder Ring, in which she dissected the very idea of selling out.
- [12:24]
Willa Paskin
Okay So I want to look at the history of the idea of selling out. And it's a really big idea, tangled up with a lot of other really big ideas like authentic authenticity, purity, integrity, race, gender, and the entire history of art and Commerce. In the second half of the 20th century, selling out becomes particularly contentious. Signing to a major label, licensing your music, corporate sponsorships, God forbid, doing a commercial will all give rise to accusations of selling out.
- [12:59]
Chris Melanfi
Seriously, I highly recommend the whole episode in which Willa explores everything from the collision of data, daytime talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and literary author Jonathan Franzen to the Gen X movie Reality Bytes. For our purposes in this Hit Parade episode, however, I remind you that this show is about art and commerce in the first place. Ours is a show about the charts. And the charts are full of singles that are themselves, in essence, advertisements for the album the act wants you to buy, for the tour they want you to attend, for the very idea that a band is cool. The music business is, after all, a business. And sometimes the line between music publicity, which has been around from the beginning, and more craven synergy with Madison Avenue gets pretty blurry. I bring up the Stones because they are regarded as rock and roll icons, their legend untainted by their many dalliances with hard commerce. But lots of pop stars who were on the come up got their early breaks from the ad biz. Luther Vandross, whom we discussed just last month in our Aretha Franklin episode, paid his bills before his big break by singing numerous jingles for brands ranging from Coca Cola to Kentucky Fried Chicken to Juicy Fruit Gum.
- [14:56]
Song Lyrics Performer
There's nothing like a roller coaster ride. There's nothing like a view from a mile in the sky and there's nothing like the flavor of Juicy Fruit gum.
- [15:07]
Chris Melanfi
Pick a pack of Juicy Fruit gum so sweet tasting, fascinating so juicy good. There's nothing else like it. Or Pop legend Barry Manilow. He was not just a jingle singer. He wrote multiple jingles, and I'll bet you know several of them because they're earworms. This one, for example, is his handiwork.
- [15:29]
Song Lyrics Performer
I am stuck on Band Aid brag Has Band Aids stuck on me I.
- [15:34]
Chris Melanfi
Am stuck on Band Aid cause Band.
- [15:37]
Song Lyrics Performer
Aid stuck on me cause they hold on tight in the bathtub and they clinging to me.
- [15:43]
Chris Melanfi
Manilow not only doesn't shy away from his years of advertising work in concert, he plays medleys of his jingles for the likes of Stridex, KFC and State Farm.
- [16:00]
Song Lyrics Performer
Whenever you're driving and wherever you're bound Like a good neighbor State Farm Is there?
- [16:16]
Chris Melanfi
Sure. These State Farm and Band Aid jingles are catchy. In a parallel universe, they're hits, singable by millions thanks to years of TV exposure. But they're not full length standalone hit songs. That's a special category. Songs that were conceived as advertisements but then became hits for real. What happens when jingles become hits? Or when an advertisement plucks a legitimate song from obscurity and makes it a smash? To trace that history, we need to go back to the middle of the 20th century and the pre history of modern population. Because this cross pollination between advertising and the charts is about as old as the recording industry itself. As far back as Tin Pan Alley, the border between hit songwriting and jingle writing was pretty thin and porous.
- [17:38]
C.W. McCall Character
What have they got in Omaha that they also got in California?
- [17:44]
Commercial Voice Actor
Bake up Butternut coffee.
- [17:50]
Chris Melanfi
This butternut coffee commercial was written and recorded by Stan Freeberg, a comedy renaissance man who maintained parallel careers as a recording artist and advertising pitch man. He is widely credited for bringing humor and satire to advertising, and he won numerous Clio awards from his ad industry peers. But Stan Freeberg's career as a recording artist came first.
- [18:29]
Commercial Voice Actor
The legend you are about to hear is true. Only the needle should be changed to protect the record.
- [18:36]
Chris Melanfi
Freeberg was not a normal pop star. His singles were of the novelty variety, sometimes spoken word, sometimes melodic, virtually always farcical. But he was an actual hitmaker. Like his 1953 number one smash comedy record St. George and the Dragonet, a parody of dragnet radio drama. Or his silly musical deconstructions of genres like doo wop on Shaboom, a top 20 hit in 1954.
- [19:14]
Song Lyrics Performer
Here we go, man. Real monotonous now.
- [19:27]
Chris Melanfi
Freeberg was one of of the earliest recording artists who normalized a pop career coexisting alongside an advertising career. He brought his absurdist wit to both. But in a way, his ads were more serious than his songs. His slogan for contadina tomato paste became indelible.
- [19:52]
Song Lyrics Performer
Who puts eight gray tomatoes in that little bitty can? You know who you know you know who.
- [20:09]
Commercial Voice Actor
In case you don't, it's contadina tomato paste.
- [20:12]
Chris Melanfi
By the 1960s, other enterprising recording acts tried converting jingles into pop singles. It was a good decade for hit instrumentals, and a melody that was already already familiar to the public from TV ads could go a long way on the charts. In 1965, for example, jazz band leader Dave Pell thought that the melody of this Alka Seltzer commercial was catchy enough that he could turn it into a.
- [20:58]
Commercial Voice Actor
No matter what shape your stomach's in, when it gets out of shape. Take Alka Seltzer. Alka Seltzer relieves the flutters.
- [21:09]
Chris Melanfi
So Pell hired a few members of the celebrated rock and pop session musician team known as the Wrecking Crew. He renamed them the T Bones and they recorded a more polished version of the Alka Sel Seltzer melody, titling the single no matter what shape your stomach's in after the Alka Seltzer adds tagline, the T Bone's one hit went all the way to number three in early 1966. Later that year, Bob Crew, who for years had written and produced hits for the Four Seasons, latched onto the melody in this Diet Pepsi ad. It was titled Music to Watch Girls by and the ad was about as dated to the 60s as that sounds.
- [22:19]
Commercial Voice Actor
The kind of girl girl watchers watch. The kind of girl who keeps her figure, keeps her cool with the help of ice cold Diet Pepsi cola. One bottle, one calorie and that honest of Pepsi taste.
- [22:35]
Chris Melanfi
Fortunately, those creepy Diet Pepsi taglines did not make it into Bob Cruz instrumental remake of this Diddy, which he recorded as the Bob Crew Generation. His Music to Watch Girls by reached number 15 in early 1967, Crew's first ever top 40 hit under his own name. A couple of months later, this Benson and Hedges ad, which was promoting a new extra long cigarette. Seriously, this was a thing you boasted about in the 60s, had its own catchy melody.
- [23:27]
Commercial Voice Actor
Oh, the disadvantages of the new Benson and Hedges 1/ hundreds. They're a lot longer than King size and that takes some getting used to.
- [23:43]
Chris Melanfi
Producer arranger Phil Bodnar's studio group, which he called the Brass Ring, tried rebooting the cigarette ad and the Disadvantages of youf reached number 36 in March of 67. But arguably the golden age of the advertisement turned hit song was the 1970s. The decade kicked off with one of the finest examples of the form We've.
- [24:26]
Song Lyrics Performer
Only Just Begun to live.
- [24:34]
Chris Melanfi
It all began when this ad for Crocker Citizens bank began airing in California. A San Francisco based advertising agency had commissioned a jingle to help Crocker appeal to young people. And the one minute commercial was rather poignant footage of a young couple getting married and just starting their lives together. Accompanied by a tune called We've Only Just Begun.
- [25:05]
Song Lyrics Performer
Yes, we've just Begun.
- [25:17]
Chris Melanfi
The jingle was sung by the man who co wrote it, journeyman songwriter Paul Williams. The ad caught the ear of Richard Carpenter, one half of the brother sister duo the Carpenters, who were assigned to the same label as Paul Williams. So Carpenter asked Williams if the song had more verses beyond what was in the ad. As it turned out, Williams and his songwriting partner had penned a bridge and a third verse for a version of the song recorded by one Freddie Aller. The Freddie Allen version was not a hit, but Richard Carpenter was convinced not only that the song was a hit, but that his sister Karen Carpenter's vocals could bring it to life. So the Carpenters did their version, and Richard's instincts were right. In November of 1970, on the radio show American Top 40, Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [26:41]
Casey Kasem
The Bob Crew generation took the Pepsi commercial music entitled Music to Watch Girls by up to number 15 in the charts back in 66. And in 1965, the T bones had a hit with the Alka Seltzer music entitled no Matter what Shape, and it got all the way up to number three. Well, now, in 1970, the Crocker citizens bank gives us the song that's number two on the national charts, the highest position that a tune first used in a commercial has ever reached. Karen Carpenter sings it and Brother Richard is close by.
- [27:15]
Song Lyrics Performer
We've Only Just Begun to Live, White Lace and promise.
- [27:26]
Chris Melanfi
Number two was as high as the carpenter's version got on the Hot 100. It got stuck behind the Jackson 5's I'll be there. But the record was an instant soft rock classic that transcended its commercial origins. Paul Williams credits the song with breaking his career, and to this day, Richard Carpenter regards We've Only Just Begun as the Carpenter's signature hit. So does Rolling Stone magazine, by the way. Their critics ranked We've only just begun 414th among their 500 greatest songs of all time. It was an auspicious start to the decade of the advertising crossover hit, and the 70s had, well, only just begun. The most iconic jingle turned hit appeared the very next year, in 1971. It's iconic more for the commercial than for the song, but the song is pretty immortal too. We'll get to the story of that ad after these other messages. After a night with drinks, it's tough to bounce back the next day. But with ZBiotics, there's a surefire way to wake up feeling fresh after a night of drinking ZBiotics. Pre alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it when you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration. That's to blame for your rough next day. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make Zbiotics your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Also, Zbiotics is continuing to invent Probiotics that will help help with everyday challenges of modern living. Go to zbiotics.com parade to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Parade at checkout. Zebiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember Remember to head to zbiotics.com parade and use the code parade at checkout for 15% off. This episode is brought to you by Defender for those who embrace the impossible, the Defender 110 is ready for the adventure. This vehicle has been reimagined with modern design for a new generation of explorers. With a striking exterior that boasts compelling proportions and precise detailing, the Defender 110 masterfully combines style with capability. The Defender is built with adorable, lightweight monocoque architecture to provide extra strength for your next great adventure, and its tough, rigid body design is exudes confidence, so when you're behind the wheel, you will too. Engineered to meet challenges head on and tested to the extreme, the Defender empowers you to explore with confidence and embrace the impossible whether you're off road or on, ready for a wide range of adventures. The Defender family also features the two door Defender 90, the Defender 110 and the Defender 130, which seats up to eight. A vehicle made to go further, the Defender 110. Learn more at land roverusa.com defender this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy. Just drop in some details about yourself and see if you're eligible to save money when you bundle your home and auto policies. The process only takes minutes and it could mean hundreds more in your pocket. Visit progressive.com after this episode to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliate. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. One day in 1971, some executives at the famed ad agency McCann Erickson who worked on the Coca Cola account were stuck at an airport in Ireland due to some fog and they observed as a group of formerly irate passengers who were also stuck waiting for the plane to take off. All cheered up when they shared a few sodas. One of the executives said he'd like to buy the world a Coke. When his colleague said, if I could do something for everybody in the world, it would not be to buy them a Coke. I'd buy everyone a home first and share with them in peace and love. The ad team had a brainstorm that they could combine both ideas and turn them into a jingle. The result of this brainstorm would be the ad that is now storied in the annals of advertising history, Hilltops. It was both a radio ad and, much more famously, a TV commercial. In the TV version, a rainbow coalition of people from around the world sing together on a sunny hillside in Italy while holding bottles of Coca Cola. Just how legendary is this commercial in the world of advertising? So much so that in the final moments of the series finale of TV's Mad Men, showrunner Matthew Weiner fictionalized the story of Hilltop, imagining that deceptive ad man Don Draper dreamed it up while meditating at a retreat.
- [34:49]
Song Lyrics Performer
I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love Grow apple trees and honeybees and snow white turtle doves.
- [35:04]
Chris Melanfi
As for the song in the commercial, I'd like to Teach the world to Sing Parentheses in perfect harmony, it grew out of a melody that songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway first wrote for singer Susan Shirley. Shirley's early version was called True Love and Apple Pieces. The songwriters hired by McCann Erickson kept that melody, but swapped in new lyrics about buying the world a home and filling it with love. And of course, buying the world a Coke. For the radio jingle the songwriters recorded with pop group the New Seekers, who were on a bit of a roll. In 1971, the Quintet of British and Australian singers, a successor band to 60s hitmakers the Seekers, had just scored a number 14 hit in 1970 with a cover of look what they Done to My Song Ma look what they done.
- [36:27]
Song Lyrics Performer
To my brain look what they've done.
- [36:33]
Chris Melanfi
The new Seekers recorded the original radio jingle with the lyrics about Coca Cola. By the time the TV commercial hit the airwaves, I'd like to Teach the World to Sing had become a full blown cultural phenomenon, with radio listeners calling their local stations to request the commercial. It fit right in at the peak of inspirational hippie pop. You may recall from past episodes of Hit parade that in 1971 the Jesus Christ Superstar theatrical album was very popular. Anyway, give Given the Coke ads popularity, the team behind the song decided by the summer of 71 to release it as a single with product References removed from the lyrics. At the time, though, the New Seekers were unavailable to go back into the studio. So McCann Erickson quickly assembled a studio group, which they called the Hillside Singers. In a shameless bid to evoke the beloved TV commercial Hillside Hilltop, their twangy version of the single was actually released first. Meanwhile, the New Seekers, who were touring America toward the end of 71, found time to get into a studio and record their own version. Soon, both the Hillside Singers and the New Seekers were competing head to head on the charts, since the New Seekers naturally sounded more like the commercial. After all, they'd recorded the original version. Theirs proved to be the bigger hit. By January 1972, I'd like to Teach the World to Sing by the New Seekers peaked on the Hot 100 at number seven. The same week the Hillside Singer's version reached its peak of number 13. If the two singles hadn't split the market, the song could well have been a top five or even a number one hit. All thanks to a TV commercial. By the way, in the uk, the New Seekers version of I'd like to Teach the World to Sing actually was a number one hit, and it must have made quite an impression on future Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. Decades later, he let's say borrowed its melody for the verse of the Oasis hit Shaker Maker. After the success of the Coca Cola jingle turned New Seekers hit, it was now more common for hit songs to invoke consumer products and vice versa. In 1973, Paul Simon titled a hit song Kodachrome after the color film development system used by photography company Kodak, Kodachrome reached number two on the Hot 100 in the summer of 73. Paul Simon was legally compelled by Kodak to include fine print on his records, indicating that Kodachrome was a registered trademark of the company. What was funny was a couple of years later crooner Paul Anka turned an actual jingle for Kodak into a top 10 hit. Times of your Life, which Anka recorded specifically for Kodak in 75, was popular enough that Anka remade it as a full length single. That version reached number seven on the Hot 100 in early 76.
- [41:45]
Song Lyrics Performer
The seasons are passing one by one so gather moments while you may Collect the dreams you dream today.
- [41:58]
Chris Melanfi
Around the same time, a British singer, songwriter and jingle writer named David Dundas took a full length version of his jingle jeans on to number 17 on the Hot 100. Many Americans were not even familiar with the British brand Brutus jeans that the tune was promoting.
- [42:25]
Song Lyrics Performer
I pull my blue jeans on I pull My blue jeans on.
- [42:31]
Chris Melanfi
But without question, the oddest 70s pop hit created via advertising was the aforementioned single by C.W. mcCall, an artist who wasn't even real. Technically, the number one hit that resulted from this artifice wasn't an ad in itself. But without advertising, the whole thing never would have happened in the first place. It all started with this 1973 ad for a Midwestern brand called Old Home Bread.
- [43:10]
C.W. McCall Character
Well, trucking Old Home I was working the blizzard she is colder than the Minnesota well diggers Gizzardized up to Madrid and 18 inches of slush Heavy white stuff I had a jackknife and rig that drove like a sled Had a busted chain and a load of bread for the old Home Filler up and keep on a trucking cafe the ad.
- [43:28]
Chris Melanfi
Was the handiwork of Bill Freeze, creative director for an Omaha ad agency. He built the Old Home campaign around a character he named C. C.W. mcCall, a trucker who loved bread. The CW stood for country and Western. Freeze even voiced the character himself in a kind of speak, sing, country rap style. And a jingle writer named Chip Davis did the music.
- [44:07]
C.W. McCall Character
Cafe. Yeah, Old Home is good bread.
- [44:12]
Chris Melanfi
The Old Home ad was so popular across the Midwest, Freeze and Davis decided they should release the jingle as a single. It just so happened that Chip Davis had a relatively easy way to do this. In 1974, Davis founded American Gramophone, an Omaha based indie label that he launched mostly to release his own instrumental music. A synthesizer classical fusion project that he called Mannheim's Steamroller. Remember that name? Mannheim Steamroller will be an interesting footnote later. Anyway, in the summer of 74, Chip Davis put out the debut single by Bill Freeze's character, C.W. mcCall. A full length version of the Old Home Bread jingle called Old Home Filler up and Keep a Truckin Cafe.
- [45:23]
C.W. McCall Character
Then I went inside she says, what'll it be? It says A cup of your best and the number three she come back with an order to go and a quarter hot sea and a bone for Sloan I said, much obliged Old Sloan give a bark I left her a buck and he left his heart at the old home Feller up and keep.
- [45:38]
Chris Melanfi
On a trucking cafe the single on Davis's American gramophone label sold 30,000 copies in just a few weeks and peaked on the Hot 100 at number 54. Impressive for a Midwestern regional hit. The major label, MGM Records took notice and signed C.W. mcCall to provide national distribution. That's when Freeze and Davis teamed up to write a new single for the McCall character called Convoy.
- [46:15]
C.W. McCall Character
By the time we Got into Tulsa town. We had 85 trucks and all. But there's a roadblock up on the clover leaf. And them bears is wall to wall. Yeah, them smoke is as thick as bugs on a bumper. They even had a bear in the air. I says calling all trucks, this here is the duck. We about to go a hunting bear.
- [46:32]
Chris Melanfi
They were jumping onto a FAD, the mid-70s citizens band, or CB radio FAD that had spread from long haul truckers to regular hobbyists. CB enthusiasts saw themselves as freedom fighters out on the open road fighting tolls, way stations and the 55 mile an hour speed limit. And they communicated on their radios with CB slang, avoiding bears and Smokies, AKA state troopers, putting the hammer down to pick up speed. And they coined nicknames for themselves, like Rubber Duck in the song CW As Rubber Duck is leading a convoy of trucks. Though the song wasn't actually advertising anything, the chorus, the only part sung melodically by a radio style troupe, sounded a lot like ad jingle music.
- [47:35]
Song Lyrics Performer
Cause we got a great big convoy Walking through the night yeah, we got a great big convoy Ain't she a beautiful sight? Come on and join our convoy.
- [47:46]
Chris Melanfi
You might say that in the tradition of Stan Freeberg, Convoy was a novelty record that used advertising technique to capture the zeitgeist. And it was a smash on both the pop and country trophy charts just before Christmas 1975. Probably benefiting from Americans who'd just gotten their first CB radios for the holiday, Convoy reached number one on Billboard's Hot country singles chart and settled in for a six week run on top. Which was kind of funny because Chip Davis declared that he didn't even like country music. Then, just after the holiday season in early January 1976, Convoy reached number one on the Hot 100 too.
- [48:38]
C.W. McCall Character
I says, Pig Pen, this here's a rubber dug. We just ain't going to pay no toll so we crashed the gate doing 98 as is let them truckers roll 10 4.
- [48:54]
Chris Melanfi
Convoy was a phenomenon. It spawned a movie two years later starring Kris Christopherson and Ali McGraw and directed by Sam Peckinpah. The Convoy movie grossed nearly $50 million at the box office. But the most interesting footnote of the C.W. mcCall trendlet was how it helped launch the musical career of Chip Davis, who ultimately became better known for his other project, Mannheim Steamroller. The pop classical project Davis released on his American gramophone label alongside C.W. mcCall started issuing Christmas music in the 80s, and that music proved more popular than any of Davis's other seasonal releases. For generations of middle Americans. Mannheim Steamroller is now the Sound of Christmas. Their holiday albums are all platinum or multi platinum. Talk about successful marketing. And it all grew out of an ad campaign for sliced bread. By the 80s, the connection between advertising and popular music had been supercharged. Brands like Pepsi were now paying pop stars like Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, David Bowie, Tina Turner and Madonna millions to adapt their hits into TV jingles. Michael Jackson was also part of the biggest musical album advertising controversy of the decade. The sale of the Beatles song Revolution to Nike for a 1987 sneaker commercial. Jackson then owned the Beatles publishing and he approved the sale of the song for use in the ad for half a million dollars. Reportedly, John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, also approved the sale, which the media at the time pilloried as the ultimate sellout of baby boomer musical iconography. Perhaps the strangest 80s appropriation of 60s pop was a series of animated ads for the Raisin Growers association that featured a group of anthropomorphic claymation raisins singing a cover of the Motown classic I Heard it through the Grapevine. The ads were so weirdly popular, the California Raisins recorded a series of albums of R B covers, went platinum in 1988, and even took their cover of the Marvin Gaye hit Into the Hot 100.
- [52:25]
Song Lyrics Performer
I heard.
- [52:33]
Commercial Voice Actor
California Raisins from.
- [52:34]
Chris Melanfi
But all of these were high profile uses of pre existing pop hits repurposed as advertising. Actual jingles that turned into hit songs were more rare by the 80s, given the debates raging over baby boomer sellout and rock and roll authenticity. In 1987, Sting sneaked a jingle onto the charts by penning it for a Japanese commercial for Kirin beer. The Kirin ad only aired in Japan, making it at the time essentially invisible to Western listeners. When Sting re recorded that jingle We'll Be Together for his acclaimed album Nothing like the sun, the Funky Diddy became a hit, peaking on the Hot 100 at number seven in December of 87. Higher profile was a series of ads for Michelobier that did air in America and involved new recordings by Rock and Roll hall of Famers. The campaign kicked off with a sleek ad featuring guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton, who re recorded his 1970 solo hit after Midnight.
- [54:15]
Song Lyrics Performer
Give an exhibition, Find out what it's all about.
- [54:32]
Chris Melanfi
The night belongs to Michelo, though rockheads at the time groused about the very 80s reboot and the spectacle of Clapton appearing in a beer commercial. The re recorded After Midnight was a rock radio hit, reaching number four on Billboard's album rock chart in early 88. Then within a few months, Michelob dropped an ad featuring a totally new song by former Traffic frontman, now solo superstar Steve Winwood.
- [55:20]
Commercial Voice Actor
One taste will tell you why the night belongs to Michelob.
- [55:25]
Chris Melanfi
Don't you know what the Night Can Do? Sounded so much like a beer commercial that the media didn't believe Winwood when he claimed the song was written before the Michelob deal was struck. Nevertheless, Wynwood's beer ad helped his song scale the charts too. In the fall of 88, the full length what the Night can do reached number one at album rock and number six on the Hot 100 to date. Through the 60s, 70s and 80s, most jingles turned hits were either one off singles that were hard to follow up, from the T Bones to CW McCall, or they were by established rock legends who probably would have kept having hits anyway. As the ad industry entered the 90s and approached the 21st century, the still unanswered question was whether advertising could not only make a hit, but redefine an artist's career. Soon enough, this hypothesis would be tested too. When we come back, Levi's reboots legends in the uk, Volkswagen goes for a drive with Nick Drake, and Apple gets into the earbud business, reinventing several careers along the way. A new generation of pop acts will be not so much selling selling out as buying in Non Slate plus listeners will hear the rest of this episode in two weeks. For now, I hope you've been enjoying this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfi. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Derek John is executive producer of Narrative Podcasts, and we had help from Joel Moss. Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. A quick Slate Podcasts Programming note Next week I'll be making an appearance on Slate's daily news program what Next? Talking about Shabuzzi's record setting number one run on the Hot 100 with a bar song. Tipsy, it recently tied the record set by Lil Nas X's Old Town Road. Tune into what Next for my chat with Mary Harris, scheduled for Tuesday, December 17, and subscribe to what Next. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade. Back your way we'll see you for part two in a couple of weeks. Until then, happy holidays and keep on marching on the one I'm Chris Melanfi.