Yesterday's radio commercials and related jingles are disposable flotsam and jetsam. Often rescued from the dumpster and tape eraser, here's where they live to celebrate another day, and give us a peek into the pop culture of the past. All material has been sourced from tapes or vinyl discs (records) used on the air at radio stations or dubs of said tapes, transferred for pristine quality when possible.
It's been 55 years this year that Coca Cola rolled out their still rather memorable "I'd like to teach the world to sing" campaign shot on a hillside in Italy. It's still really relevant given the state of the world in 2026 and how wide spread the soft drink still is globally.
I did a look at the campaign in an exhibit in 2015 when the TV series Mad Men used it in their series finale. It seems coke put out a promotional 45 some 55 years ago in Canada with the 60 second original version in additional to a couple longer covers from Canadian artists the Laurie Bower Singers and Dr. Music. You can find the details on the original blog page HERE
This page though will focus on what Pepsi was doing in two "ET's" or Electrical Transcriptions delivered for that year to radio in Canada. Technically they're just usually louder then normal LPs to help keep down surface noise over multiple plays on AM radio. Back then, a lot of national commericals were still coming in on vinyl, the 1970s had a transition from transcription to reel to reel tape before the end of the decade. After the cam[paign wass older , it made for a fun collectible and in the way of soft drinks, a delightful time capsule of an era focused on the soft drink. It certainly was a cultural staple for most of the 20th century and continues to be in the 21st century, albeit to a lesser degree with health drink options also on store shelves. Let's throw back to the early 1970s now though.
Pepsi covered the genre's of commerical music with this disc and likely got played over many radio stations for that year. Play and download below.
We have 3 instrumental music beds for Diet Pepsi from 1971. To me, all 3 are the same, and it wasn't uncommon to put the same audio multiple times on a ET, likely because of one cut got a bad scratch, you can play another cut to solve the problem of getting a new disc, but I dubbed all 3 anyway. It's delightful early 70s background music you'd expect to hear behind a commerical of the era.
We lost another Canadian comedy pioneer recently in Catherine O'Hara. Going back to the 70s, even before SCTV, she was doing kid shows like "Coming Up Rosie" for the CBC along with other SCTV stars like John Candy and SNL Pioneer Dan Ackroyd. Her big break into the American scene was "Home Alone" in 1990 and more recently the Canadian produced Schitt's Creek that saw amazing success in the US. But it's after Home Alone's success we find this exhibit that is largely off the radar for Catherine O'Hara showing up in....yet...it REALLY sounds like her.
The late Alan Thicke, a well known Canadian in Hollywood as I am sure you know by now, for a variety of things from writing games show music cues, to his own failed syndicated talk show which he sang the theme for, finally hit paydirt with the TV Series "Growing Pains" as the latest version of the all American "have all the answers" TV dad in the 80s. In 1991 his star was still riding high near the end of the series run so it seems the Woolco Department Store chain decided to sponsor a campaign for "Saturday Sales" to air in the latter part of the year. The chain itself would suffer it's demise less then 5 years later being bought out my Walmart as the mega US chain's entry into Canada. Canadians of a certain age still have a fondness for Woolco and it's 1.44 Days they used to have.
Alan is the pitchman for this series of 60 secs spots, but the fun here is that some of the other voice talent is a bit surprising. It seems Catherine O'Hara is here playing "Fran" (maybe as a favor to Alan?) along with character actors Edie Mcclurg playing "Rose" and David Huddleston as "Fred". I confess this is what my ears tell me as I am familiar with the actors voice over years of watching TV and knowing when they pop up in TV series. Edie played Lucille Tarlek in WKRP In Cincinatti one of my favorite TV sitcoms, so I could be wrong as no one is credited other then Alan Thicke. I'll stick with the thought that I am right as they have distinct voices I am familiar with, but who knows for sure.
Regardless, it's a fun campaign from 35 years ago, and hope you enjoy a listen.
