Saturday, January 21, 2012

Borrowing money can be this happy.......according to Superman....





You don't see money loaning agencies doing this much of a soft sell these days.

From late 1979, with such a 70s MOR non disco feel to it, comes a series of jingles and spots from the Household Finance Corporation or HFC. Instead of the "if you need cash NOW come here" in your face type style, this is more of a "hey, we're in the neighborhood, and we're here to help, so if you need money come on by" type of approach. That's more my style if I need your services.

The voiceover talent is very interesting here, if you know anything about VO talent. It's Danny Dark!. Yes, that's the name he used in the industry. In addition to doing network TV promos for NBC and voiceover work for Keebler TV commericals in the 70s and 80s, he was also the voice over "Superman" throughout most of the 70s "Superfriends" Saturday morning cartoons that ran on ABC and produced by Hanna Barbera (and at least some of them are now on DVD). His deep baritone with a macho feel certainly fit that role quite well.

It's all the more reason to listen to the Christmas spots on this package. Danny doing a warm and fuzzy type read on "Peace" "Sharing" and "Sounds" really doesn't work in my mind, as he doesn't do warm and fuzzy well. It's just bad casting, but he probably had the contract, so you do what you can.

You can read more about Danny on his page at Wikipedia HERE! OR HERE but if not, enjoy the spot. Some fun 70s nostalgia.




From September 1979, Household Finance Corporation
4th Quarter English
From Tape MCS-32521 (Media Communication Services)
7x60 Various cuts (as below)


# 794-60-1 "Jogging"

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# 794-60-2 "Resolution"


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# 794-60-3 "Music"



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# 794-60-4 "Energy Saver"


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# 794-60-5 "Peace"



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# 794-60-6 "Sharing"


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# 794-60-7 "Sounds"



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3 comments:

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  2. I still like the old HFC jingle that they had for decades -- they just made changes to the arrangement as updates from time to time. I grew up with every version, and it was played on Top-40 stations as well as the adult contemporary stations my parents listened to.
    It's amazing that something so ubiquitous is now so hard to find. Once in a while, I come across part of one on a scoped aircheck, but it's rare to find one intact -- and there were so many arrangements of it throughout the years.

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  3. As the statement for this blog says

    "Yesterday's radio commericals and related jingles are disposable jetsam."

    That is far too often the truth. After a campaign is over, the tapes are erased or reused, or in this day and age, the mp3's deleted (at least for radio spots) a few years back when I first got my DVD recorder, I'd transfer commericals off the PVR of those I liked. A few years later, try to find a lot of them. Unless it's up on you tube, it's gone.

    I'm glad you tube exists, but I'm taking a different take...more of a museum/archival approach.

    That's the focus of this blog. It's nice to see people visiting and understanding that fact.

    Watch for more HFC material in 2013. My RCA turntable also came with a bunch of transcription discs, which included a pile of HFC spots from the late 50s, both with jingles and just announcers. There is a LOT of them, so i'll go through the discs and transfer and clean up a few.

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