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.
As I get ready to post some christmas jingles next month...here's a spot from 20 years ago that is really one of my all time favorites. I remember playing this on the air and thinking WTF? No really! It's has a very "muppet labs" feel along with using a very old radio art that is lost today, Theatre of the Mind. A very memorable spot that I believe won an award in canada, but I cannot verify it. No actual jingle here, but hey, it's still fun to listen to.
Enjoy!
From 1990, Wisk Laundry detergent
Produced by HYP & N/JWT
From Tape SI90-2555-1 (Sounds Interchange, Toronto)
Dave Stuckey dropped me a line last month saying he found the page looking for more info on Lang Worth Jingles. He says:
"Have you heard the Hucksters sales record? I found it somewhere here on the net - I think! -- and it's really great... I would love to hear unexpurgated versions!"
Thanks to Dave, I have downloaded it and posted it here for other people to get a grasp at the hucksters and airlifts that this company that seems virtually forgotten online seemed to have put out.
Time permitting, I will be posting some Christmas material, both jingles and beds from the Lang Worth Hucksters and Airlifts series in the very near future. While I don't have a many discs of this series, I enjoy sharing what I do have.
Until then...enjoy the demo. Thanks to my wife for creating the graphic from one of the rather plain record covers VERY quickly.
Lang Worth Radio Hucksters and Airlifts Demo Disc
Date Unknown
Your probably saying WTF on the title? Actually I thought that was a rather creative tease to make your read the rest, but don't worry I will now reveal.
Patrick Macnee has had an extraordinary career in stage film and television for over 60 years. One of the first times I saw him (at didn't know it at the time) was a bit part playing a young Jacob Marley in my favorite version of "The Christmas Carol" starring Alastair Sim in 1951. He would be more well known as "Steed" in "The Avengers" and "New Avengers" in the 1960s and 70s and many other guest star roles in film and TV.
Seems though, like many well known actors, he's taken to be spokesman or pitchman for a few bucks in between acting assignments. Unlike Orson Welles and the famous outtake where Orson walks out of the voiceover session because he's frustrated with the direction, Patrick does well, and it actually makes it to air.
Here is a 1988 radio spot, part of a TV campaign also (though you tube could not confirm my memories from the 80s) which Patrick plays a restauranteur who cannot compete with "Swiss Chalet" and their prices for 1/4 chicken dinners. It's very "unfair"(let's suspend reality for this spot, and no competing "restauranteur" would be foolish enough to whine about the competitions prices on THEIR commericals) a interesting direction to make the price point stand out.
Enjoy this no doubt rare spot that i'm sure isn't on Patrick Magnee's resume.
In Canada....People's is a well known chain of Jewelers, you could call them the Zales of Canada....literally, Zales bought them out years ago.
Before they did however, they produced some unique 80's Canadian sounding jingles (which makes sense, as hell, it was 1987!)
What do I mean by "80's Canadian"? some of the music in the late 80s in Canada seemed to have some kind of saxophone solo pop up somewhere in the song...not every song mind you, and not necessarily just songs, as we can attest here, but after awhile, as everything mushes together in my mind after listening to what seems to be a lot of songs and jingles in the 80s and what's left over that you remember from growing up as a teenager in that time? The saxophone stays with you.
This is one of the better produced jingles i've heard in the late 80s.
Peoples Jewellers "Diamonds" Full Sing :60 (1987)
(details on tape box pic above)
With halloween coming up, I thought I'd dig my favorite Halloween spot out from 1974. This was a national radio spot on a syndicated show called "The Superrock Special" hosted by Don Imus, likely an episode of a long forgotten radio series the radio legend did in his days at NBC. It's not a bad show, but the commericals are probably the most interesting thing on the reel of tape these days.
Personally, this spot still scares the hell out of me. Voiced by what it seems to be actor Percy Rodriguez (who also did the "jaws" trailers a year later) his haunting delivery alone sets the mood that only gets more dark and intense by the screams of Mercedes Mccambridge.
The funny thing is, I finally saw the movie 10 years ago and didn't think it was really scary at all, almost a comedy given some of the lines the devil in Regan gets to say. The radio spot though....is all too frightening....shame the movie wasn't for me.
From 1974, Warner Bros. Pictures
The Exorcist
:60 sec
First off my apologies of not updating the jetsam more frequently. It's been a busy month, and I also do my weekly radio show/podcast and work on audio for my internet radio stream. I occasionally watch classic TV shows on DVD, take care of my 9 budgies and clean the house, hang out with the wife...well, you get the idea. It's been busy.
One of the issues with the jetsam is that posting a tape or a vinyl disc with a lot of cuts eats up time, often hours. You transfer the cuts, cut them up, name them, mp3 them, post them, create the links, write the details, and so on. In an effort to cut down on some of this time to make the posts more frequent, I shall put multiple cuts of one tape or disc side in one mp3 file and let you cut them up as you see fit. If you don't have a audio editor, may I suggest AUDACITY a great freeware program which will do the job nicely.
But on with The BIG Sound...
I couldn't find much about Richard H Ullman (the jingle producer) on google, in fact I couldn't find anything that really gives the history of the company, but the way I know it, They produced jingles for radio, both customized ones for radio stations (they produced a package called "Wonderful Cities" in the early 1960s that was used by many stations around the world) and obviously, as posted here, some generic off the rack stuff which can be customized for a local client
I confess, I find this stuff so campy it's fun and would love to hear it on the air today, if for no other reason but to spice up the rather homogenized sound of commerical radio. This stuff would stick out like a sore thumb, in a very good way.
Looking back at this Jingle for a chain of Canadian Bakeries which to my knowledge is not long out of business, it really can lean towards the naughty if your mind is occasionally in the gutter like me.
From The Early 1960s?, Open End Commerical Jingles
Produced by Richard H Ullman Inc, New York City, NY Disc # JOE-5-R
11 Cuts of Various Lengths
01-Real Estate
02-Grocery Store
03-Finance Company
04-Bank
05-Supermarket
06-Dairy
07-Savings and Loan
08-Shop Downtown General
09-Shop Downtown-Xmas
10-Movers
11-Shopping Center
Two well known food brands with no real relation to each other, except showing up in this post on the Jetsam. I'm sure I wouldn't recommend each both at the same time, but i'm guessing eating worse things at the same time has happened over the years, so by all means if you have a hankering to do so, go for it. Just don't tell me about it, OK?
We start with Nabisco's Cream Of Wheat, a breakfast cereal around for decades, actually more like centuries, as it's creation dates back to 1893 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It's the next best thing to oatmeal on those cold days where you want something warm to stick to your insides, or maybe you prefer it to oatmeal? Either way, we fast forward to January 1965 with these spots produced for a particular type of day voiced by a well known actor of the time, Mason Adams.
Mason's voice did quite a few of Madison Avenues TV and Radio commerical offerings through the 60's and 70s. He would also do on camera roles as a character actor, the most famous likely was managing editor Charles Hume on the TV series "Lou Grant" His wiki entry is HERE
These spots hold up very well for being over 45 years old. That's sometimes the power of good basic copywriting and a strong delivery by the VO actor
From 1965, National Biscuit Co (Nabisco) Cream Of Wheat
Produced by Ted Bates & Co, NY, NY
:55 second Radio Announcements
This reel of tape was mixed amongst another pile of reels, so I slapped it on the machine, and next thing I know, I find a 1970s sounding Mcdonalds spot. Well, I think it's safe to say it's 1970s, probably early 1970s, with the "You Deserve A Break Today" jingle singing out the spot. I can't confirm the VO voice, but it really sounds like Canadian Keith Hampshire, who we've mentioned on the Jetsam before, and had a couple records out around this time. he sings and does voice overs for TV and radio...busy guy! Apologies that the quality isn't the greatest, but given I stumbled on this spot that should have been long ago erased, I think we can overlook that a bit, doncha think?
