{"id":1334,"date":"2008-04-02T00:09:03","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T04:09:03","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-11T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T10:02:10","slug":"battle-royale-original-ad-jingles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-original-ad-jingles\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle Royale: Original Ad Jingles That Coulda Been Hit Singles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wVa0WPVuEOI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<center><ins><\/p>\n<pre>Coulda, Shoulda, Did!<\/pre>\n<p><\/ins><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Far and few between are the <strong>Barry Manilow<\/strong> of the jingle-writing world. You know Barry! Long before he hit the airwaves through bouncy tunes like &#8220;Mandy&#8221; and with the likely aid of old-fashioned record label-sponsored payola, we knew of his songwriting for the likes of the <strong>State Farm<\/strong> as well as his enthusiastic pipes on classic jingles for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IvjlomfV8RM&amp;feature=related\" title=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IvjlomfV8RM&amp;feature=related\" target=\"_blank\">Kentucky Fried Chicken<\/a><\/strong> and <strong>Pepsi<\/strong>. Thanks to the power of paying corporate ad rates, this once-anonymous singer-songwriter captured the nation&#8217;s ear and eventually transcended his shameful status as a corporate pitchman, becoming a universally acclaimed artist and entertainer.<\/p>\n<p>Bet you&#8217;re nowhere near as familiar with the names of songwriters <strong>Roger Cook<\/strong>, <strong>Roger Greenaway<\/strong>, Bill Backer, and Billy Davis. Through a complicated mating of art and commerce, they crafted the melody of one flop pop song Cook and Greenaway had written into <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I'd_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I'd_Like_to_Teach_the_World_to_Sing\" target=\"_blank\">the jingle that taught the world to sing in perfect harmony!<\/a> This <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coca-cola.com\/glp\/d\/index.html\" title=\"http:\/\/www.coca-cola.com\/glp\/d\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Coca-Cola<\/a><\/strong> jingle created such as buzz that The Public <em>had<\/em> to hear more! The lyrics were reworked once more, to remove the product referernces, and The New Seekers scored bigtime with the pop single Cook and Greenaway had initially envisioned. Magical!<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\n<small><ins><a href=\"http:\/\/www.drpepper.com\/media\/retro_gallery\/gallery.html\" title=\"http:\/\/www.drpepper.com\/media\/retro_gallery\/gallery.html\" target=\"_blank\">Advertisement<\/a><\/ins><\/small><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/users\/frankenslade\/dr-pepper.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"289\" \/><\/div>\n<p><!--nextpage--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v8DWf-rSHn0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<center><ins><\/p>\n<pre>Coulda...<\/pre>\n<p><\/ins><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In 1977, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dr_Pepper\" title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dr_Pepper\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Pepper<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;I&#8217;m a Pepper&#8221; jingle would also storm the commercial airwaves, but the tune&#8217;s songwriter is not easily found on a 2-minute Googles search, and as far as I know, no pop band cut a separate version that would make the Top 40. Main Pepper shill <strong>David Naughton<\/strong>, however, did parlay his performance on the classic commercial into a starring role in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanwerewolf.com\/trailer.html\" title=\"http:\/\/www.americanwerewolf.com\/trailer.html\" target=\"_blank\">An American Werewolf in London<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Truth be told, Dr. Pepper was trying for years to craft a hit jingle. Here&#8217;s an early attempt that, unfairly, fell flat.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ixRf3JC5haY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<center><ins><\/p>\n<pre>Overlooked gem of a jingle.<\/pre>\n<p><\/ins><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Other products featured original theme songs that coulda been hit singles.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h7k2uwJmwxo?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<center><ins><\/p>\n<pre>Mmmm, would the song work without the video?<\/pre>\n<p><\/ins><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The race to craft an ad jingle that could crossover to a mainstream hit single was not limited to US jinglewriters. Here&#8217;s a French Pepsi ad that our friend <strong>The Great 48<\/strong> would have slurped up.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SpvQLddrXXw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\n<center><ins><\/p>\n<pre>Ooh la la!<\/pre>\n<p><\/ins><\/center><\/p>\n<p>These <strong>jingles that coulda been hit singles<\/strong> weren&#8217;t limited to national ad campaigns. Here&#8217;s a massively popular regional jingle from the Philadelphia area, circa 1970s. <\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/ideal.mp3\" title=\"\">Ideal Theme Song<\/a><\/strong> (a jingle embedded in the minds of Philadelphia-area natives of a certain age)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure your local tv and radio ads featured songs that are lodged in your consciousness as deeply as any song by The Beatles or Rolling Stones. This was a long setup to today&#8217;s <strong>Battle Royale<\/strong>, but <strong>I challenge anyone to name a more-deserving Jingle That Coulda Been a Hit Single than the &#8220;I&#8217;m a Pepper&#8221; theme!<\/strong> And don&#8217;t stop there! Once that jingle is topped, see if we can&#8217;t find an even more-deserving jingle.<\/p>\n<p>TV theme songs are <strong>NOT<\/strong> allowed in the competition. Only original songs used in ad campaigns, tv or radio. Oh, and all jingles from <em>The Who Sell-Out<\/em> are disqualified.<\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-original-ad-jingles\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-original-ad-jingles\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-original-ad-jingles\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coulda, Shoulda, Did! Far and few between are the Barry Manilow of the jingle-writing world. You know Barry! Long before he hit the airwaves through bouncy tunes like &#8220;Mandy&#8221; and with the likely aid of old-fashioned record label-sponsored payola, we knew of his songwriting for the likes of the State Farm as well as his <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/battle-royale-original-ad-jingles\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}