Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E13 - Famous Jingles, Part Two

Episode Date: March 29, 2018

This week, it’s part two of our Jingles episode. Jingles had a great run until the late ‘80s, then songs overtook them. But a few big jingles have beaten the trend in recent years – one in particular has even made one company billions of dollars… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are.

So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 7, 2018. You're so king in it Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon You're not you when you're hungry You're a good hands with all. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. 1967 was a critical year in rock history.

It was in June of that year the Beatles released the groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper LP. It was a concept album, and it had a big influence on other bands. Near the end of 67, The Who released its first concept album, titled The Who Sells Out. The title was a play on the fact Who concerts were beginning to sell out and the fact the band had been doing commercial jingles on the side for extra cash. Because the BBC didn't play much rock music in the mid-60s, The Who had been heavily influenced by music they heard

on pirate radio stations. So they decided to create an album that sounded like a commercial radio station. So in between the songs, The Who created radio station stings like this. Wonderful Radio London. Whoopee! They also inserted fake commercials.

They did ads for Heinz Beans, an acne cream called Medac, and the Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension bodybuilding course. The Charles Atlas course with dynamic tension can turn you into a beast of a man. Pete Townsend even wrote a song called Orderono about the then famous underarm deodorant. That song would create controversy when Who manager Chris Stamp

actually asked Orderono for endorsement money. The Who Sells Out is considered a classic album, and many consider it The Who's greatest record. Some even called it prophetic, saying The Who saw into the future as branding would eventually make its mark on the music business. Branding has always had a firm foot in the world of music. So many commercials contain music tracks because music has a special way of adding emotion to products. And jingles in particular have a magical way of adding emotion to products.

And jingles, in particular, have a magical way of firmly embedding a product name or a phone number into your mind for years. Some successful jingles were written by famous musicians. And it may surprise you to discover how many were sung by famous artists. It's not the what, it's the who. You're under the influence. As we noted last week, jingles have a long history, dating back to that fateful experiment by General Mills

to see if a singing commercial could save the Wheaties brand back in 1926. Jingles had a great run until the late 1980s, when bands started licensing their own big hits to advertisers. From that point on, songs overtook jingles. But a few big jingles have beaten the trend in recent years, and we'll tell the story today of one that has made a company billions of dollars.

But before we get there, let's look at some classic jingles. Remember this one? You've always thought this was an interesting signpost in jingles. It was created in 1956 by advertising agency Footcone and Belding, the agency, as some of our listeners may remember, that the famous Albert Lasker originally ran in Chicago. You'll wonder where the yellow went is a landmark campaign because it was one of the first commercials aimed at the teenaged audience,

a target market that was just landing on the radar screens of Madison Avenue after the Second World War. The tune was the pinnacle of jingle writing, instantly catchy and memorable. Surprisingly, the jingle lyrics had been discarded by the ad agency and thrown away, but the agency was desperate for an idea to try and unseat main competitor Colgate. So, someone reached into the wastepaper basket and pulled the lyrics back out. No one had any faith in the idea until creative director Don Williams put the words to music. When the ad agency first played the new jingle for their Pepsodent client, the marketing manager asked them how soon they could have it on the air

before the jingle had even finished playing. The jingle became so popular that a full-length song was recorded later that year by a band called the Jumpin' Jacks. Now date your doll for a bowl of red When you make the scene, don't lose your head Yank the yellow and mix it in Then spear a spoon and dig your chin You'll wonder why you haven't tried

Mustard in your chili pie Once the jingle hit the airwaves and the song hit the billboard charts, Pepsodent sales doubled. One of my favorite jingles growing up was for Sugar Crisp Cereal. The brand has a mascot called Sugar Bear, which had been developed in the late 1940s. The long-running TV campaign featured Sugar Bear singing a very laid-back jingle, and usually featured the Sugar Bear and his nemesis Granny Goodwitch's house and grab me a bowl full. Hi, Granny. Hold the phone. Your sugar's on the way.

It's sugar there after my sugar crisp again. Granny Goodwitch was voiced by Ruth Buzzy of Laugh-In-Fame, by the way, and the sugar bear has been voiced by actor Jerry Matthews for over 40 years. The jingle itself was based on an old spiritual song called Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, written in the mid-1800s. I had always assumed Jerry Matthews was doing a loose imitation of Bing Crosby in those commercials. Then I read an interesting story that said Matthews was actually a loose imitation of Bing Crosby in those commercials. Then I read an interesting story that said Matthews was actually impersonating Dean Martin.

But when the commercials first aired, Sugarcrisp was sued by Bing Crosby, who thought they were imitating him. So, I asked Jerry Matthews if it was true. He said Bing Crosby was always the inspiration for Sugar Bear.

And no, the Bingster never did sue. There was another music track written in the mid-90s that I loved. It was in a television commercial for HP Sauce. The commercial was written by my friend Bill Sauce. The commercial was written by my friend Bill Martin. The jingle was written by Tim Tickner, an amazing music composer I mentioned in part one of this Jingles episode.

The commercial featured a cow singing another laid-back tune. Tim sang the hilarious vocal himself. Can you imagine how much I love you? I know the only one for me could ever be you.

My arms won't free you and my heart won't try. Thank you, you're beautiful. The slogan? HP Sauce makes beef sing. Another Tim Tickner jingle has been running for over 25 years. It tackles the toughest task of all. It sings the phone number.

The advertiser is Pizza Nova, which has been in business since 1963 and now has over 130 locations in Canada. The jingle was sung by Alfie Zappacosta, who had many hit records of his own, including a song on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which sold 20 million copies. Of course, one of the most famous jingles in Canadian advertising was the pizza pizza jingle. In the pizza delivery business, the key is to make your phone number memorable. You don't have to really sell pizzas in your commercials, just your phone number. And it helps if you have a rhyming one.

Pizza Pizza was one of the first pizza chains to use one centralized phone number. From that jingle, an empire was built. For decades, bands refused to work for the advertising industry. But that wasn't always the case. As a matter of fact, many bands and popular singers actually sang jingles in the 50s and 60s. Here are some of the more odd pairings. Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, he of the toupee, once sang a jingle for Halo Shampoo. Halo, everybody, halo. Halo is the shampoo that glorifies your hair.

So halo, everybody, halo. For softer, lively curls, and bright, a sparkling hair. And here's Sinatra singing not for Pontiac, but for a Skokie, Illinois Pontiac car dealership. Now, why would Sinatra sing a jingle for a local car dealership? Let's just say the car dealer had connections. Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm he had a car, the swingin'est car I know. It was a new Pontiac with a dual wide track.

What a kick to drive, it's like ballin' the jack. Peter Epstein, Pontiac, he sold the car to Mac. Did you know the Rolling Stones once sang a serial jingle? It seems the anti-establishment band needed a little establishment cash when they were starting out. Brian Jones wrote the jingle along with advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. It only aired in Great Britain, and it was for Rice Krispies. Listen to the crackle of that rice. Get up in the morning to the pop that says it's rice. Hear them talking crisp, rice krispies. In the 60s, a lot of top bands sang jingles.

Here's the moody blues for Coca-Cola. I'll take you for a ride in my pleasure machine. Into my world of sun and wind. Lift you up to heights you've never seen Wild and joyful fortune Apparently the band Cream loved a beer called Falstaff and even offered to sing a jingle for the beer in 1967. Falstaff's slogan? The Thirst Slaker.

Here's a good one. Iron Butterfly reminding you that Ban Roll-On Antiperspirant won't wear off as the day wears on. Ban won't wear off as the day wears on. Ban won't wear off as the day wears on. And here's a little psychedelia for White Levi's jeans, courtesy of Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane. Right now, with your White Levi's White Levi's come in black

Flashing Bravo Blue, I love you If you think that was strange, how about a Frank Zappa jingle for anything? In this case, here's one done in 1967 for Remington Electric Razor Only the Remington Gives you the comfort ride Remington Electric Razor Remington Electric Razor Remington Electric Razor Remington Electric Razor Recognize this singer in that Zappa jingle?

Believe it or not, it was Linda Ronstadt. And as I mentioned earlier, The Who made a little money on the side, also in 1967, which seems to be the year for band singing jingles, when they sang this aggressive jingle for Coca-Cola. One of the most successful jingle writers of the 1970s was none other than Barry Manilow. As a matter of fact, a few of his jingles

are still airing on television all these years later. For example, Mr. Copacabana wrote this. I am stuck on band-aid, cause band-aid's stuck on me. I am stuck on band-aid, cause band-aid's stuck on me. Cause they really stick to your fingers and they stick on band-aid's knees. Manilow also wrote this long-running jingle that we still hear in prime time most nights. Manilow actually plays a medley of his commercial jingles in his live shows, which he introduces as VSM, or his Very Strange Medley.

And while Barry Manilow didn't write this next jingle you hear in his VSM, he did the arrangement for the most popular version of, arguably, the most famous McDonald's jingle of all time. Yeah, you deserve a break today at McDonald's has done many successful jingles over the years, there was one jingle in particular that saved their bacon back in 2002. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list.

Last week, we told the story about a McDonald's Big Mac jingle and how successful it was back in 1974. Now, jump ahead to 2002. McDonald's is in trouble. The company posted the first quarterly loss in its history, losing $344 million. It had to withdraw from three countries and close nearly 200 underperforming restaurants. Other fast food companies were cropping up and eating into their market share. So, McDonald's held a competition between 14 international advertising agencies to come up with a game-changing campaign.

The winning agency was Haya & Partner, a DDB subsidiary based in the suburb of Munich, Germany. Compared to the other heavy-hitting ad agencies in the competition, the German shop was microscopic. But its idea would become the very first global campaign in McDonald's then 63-year history. Their concept was Ich liebens, which loosely translates to I'm loving it.

Next, the agency needed to turn their idea into a jingle. During an early session with a German music production company, they got the inspiration for the famous when the president of the ad agency overheard a backup singer warming up in the studio.

This gave them the idea to collaborate with the fresh out-of-insync Justin Timberlake to create the jingle. Then, they made an interesting decision.

They had an entire three and a half minute song created for Timberlake called I'm Lovin' I'm loving it. Don't you love it too? They decided to release the song prior to the campaign and didn't mention McDonald's at all. The marketing executive behind the collaboration called the decision reverse engineering. First, they released the slogan into pop culture.

Then they would release the campaign in jingle, allowing the public to connect the song to McDonald's on their own. I'm Lovin' It, the song, charted across Europe and was released as a digital download in the States. Then McDonald's released its I'm Lovin' It campaign in 2003, with five commercials, each aimed at different target audiences and translated into 11 languages. The first version was released in Germany,

in honor of the German agency that came up with the idea. Then, the rest of the world followed. I'm lovin' it, is this the place to eat? Since I don't cook, I'll just rock to the beat. followed. The TV campaign featured both vocals and appearances from Timberlake, I love taps from my girl. McDonald's. I'm loving it. The TV campaign featured both vocals and appearances from Timberlake and the rap duo The Clips. That year, McDonald's spent a lot of money launching the new jingle. But it was worth it.

U.S. sales shot up by $680 million and worldwide sales increased over $1.8 billion that year alone. An extraordinary rebound. Today, I'm Lovin' It is the longest-running McDonald's jingle in its 77-year history. Clearly, they love it. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative, They love it. genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals.

Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton.

Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. I want to tell you one last funny story about working on a jingle. For over 35 years, this was one of the most familiar jingles in North America. Now, technically, I don't consider that a jingle. It's more like a three-second mnemonic, in my opinion.

Like the Pentium Ping. Or the Roger Sonic logo. But let's call it a jingle for now. It was written by a composer named Doug Katsaris, who has worked with artists like Elton John, Shania Twain, and Rod Stewart. That three-second piece of music has become quite famous, and it contained that subtle double entendre by Menon

B-Y and by Menon B-U-Y. While you may think writing a three second jingle can't possibly be difficult, Doug says he wrote twelve versions before hitting on that one. When it was recorded, he had six fellow

jingle writers sing it in different keys, then put them all together to create the effect we've heard all these years. By the way, there originally was a six-second song that preceded the By Menon bit. That's why the word by is held so long. It was the bridge between the six-second song and the three-second ending. But the decision was made to drop the first six seconds. Years later, when buy men and transcended advertising and entered pop culture, television shows started to license it.

Seinfeld did a funny bit with it. Jon Stewart used it in his show. And Family Guy did this with it. Hey Lois, you see that barn out there? You know who it was built by? By Mennonites. Every time somebody uses the melody, they have to pay a licensing fee to the composer. When originally written, Katsaras worked at a jingle house with several other writers, and as I mentioned, he had them all sing on the jingle. After many years had passed

and licensing fees started to roll in an ownership issue arose. One of the other writers claimed authorship. But as Doug Katsaris told me recently he was able to prove he was the real writer because only he knew that a six-second song had originally been written that led in to By Menon. By the way, here's my funny By Menon story.

Our company was once asked to update the Menon jingle for Canada. Now, imagine trying to update a three-second jingle while maintaining the established melody. I mean, where do you go with it? One morning after we got that assignment, I remember passing the office of our music director. He was just standing there motionless, with his guitar on, staring into space. I asked him what he was working on.

He said the new By Menon jingle. About four hours later, I passed his office again, and he was still standing in the exact same position, staring into space with his guitar on. He hadn't moved an inch. Why? He was creatively

paralyzed. By Menon. You've got to hand it to jingle writers. They take 10 pounds of potatoes and miraculously stuff them into a musical 5-pound bag and still make it sound memorable and sticky. While many shrug off jingles as incidental pieces of fluff, it's remarkable how powerful jingles can be.

Pepsinant doubled its sales with a jingle. Entire pizza delivery empires have been built on catchy jingles. Coke and Pepsi are just sugared water. But when the ingredient of musical emotion was added, they became iconic brands. McDonald's learned that lesson in the 60s, when it used jingles to persuade millions of people to sing their menu. So it only made sense that when McDonald's was facing the first loss in its corporate history, it turned to its favorite marketing tool. I'm Lovin' It not only reversed its fortunes, it became the first worldwide jingle in McDonald's history, earning McDonald's not millions of dollars, but billions.

And that little three-note Buy Men and Jingle by composer Doug Katsaras bought him a nice house in the country. Music is emotion, and jingles can make a product memorable and sticky. It all proves one thing. Hitting the right notes can be money in the bank when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Zip, zip. Zip, zip.

Zip, zip. Under the Influence was recorded in the TerraStream. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian LeFever. Co-writer, Sydney O'Reilly. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Terry O'Influence for show updates and bonus material. See you next week.

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