Canadian Commercial Jingles Memory Lane

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Canadian Commercial Jingles Memory Lane

Postby radiofan » Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:14 am

A ton of memories from Dale Patterson's Rock Radio Scrapbook website

ANOTHER MP3 SOUND SPECTACULAR!!!

One of the most popular montages Doug Thompson has produced for Rock Radio Scrapbook has been his Canadian Radio Commercial Montage. Hear it now in all its MP3 glory.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/dt-canadiancommercials.mp3

0:00 - Dominion Stores
00:56 - Diet Pepsi
1:23 - Resdan Shampoo
1:50 - Swiss Chalet
2:07 - Rothmans Cigarettes
2:53 - Ontario
3:53 - Toronto Dominion Bank
4:32 - Country Style Donuts
5:30 - Carling Black Label Beer
6:25 - Kentucky Fried Chicken (Ronnie & the Daytonas)
7:16 - Coca-Cola (The Guess Who)
8:45 - Household Finance
9:00 - Old Vienna Beer
9:28 - Sunoco
9:57 - Peter Styvesant
10:51 - Fresher
11:10 - Anti-drug PSA
11:37 - Mac's Milk
12:36 - Carlsberg Beer
13:00 - du Maurier Cigarettes
13:25 - Molson Export Ale
14:20 - Pepsi (Joanie Sommers)
15:17 - Sheriff Flavour Buds (Ken Nordine)
16:16 - Harvey's Restaurants
16:45 - Wildroot Formula 3 (David Clayton-Thomas & the Shays)
17:41 - Pledge
18:08 - Leon's Furniture
18:19 - Canadian Pacific Airlines
18:24 - Coca-Cola (Mel Blanc Productions)
19:18 - A&W
19:48 - Pop Shoppe

Doug Thompson's very nice description for this montage:

And the memories…keep on comin’. The commercial is the lifeblood of private radio. Some commercial jingles stay in your head for a lifetime.

It’s true. I can sing commercial jingles verbatim that I heard over 40 years ago and I’ll bet you can too (if you’re that old, that is.)
This montage, which runs ever so slightly over 20 minutes, contains 31 commercials and jingles, all of which aired in Canada during the 1960’s and 1970’s. It starts with the classic Dominion Stores jingle, possibly the second most famous melody right after the Hockey Night In Canada theme. Legendary announcer Joel Aldred was the longtime pitchman for Rothman’s cigarettes (2:07). Henry Ramer, one of Canada’s great character actors and a top voice over talent, can be heard in the Ontario commercial at 2:53.

The CHUMingbirds (Garry Ferrier, Bob McAdorey, John Spragge and Mike Darow) were all CHUM Toronto announcers (although Ferrier worked mainly in the copy department and only did fill-in air shifts. He also wrote this jingle.) Garry had a hit in 1964 with Ringo Deer and in ’65, was back on the charts as Race Marbles, Like A Dribbling Fram. The 4 CHUM staffers had a singing group on the side, performing at the CNE and at various functions in Toronto. They also did jingles occasionally and Country Style Donuts at 4:32 was one example.

There are celebrities galore in this montage. Ronnie & The Daytona’s singing for Colonel Sanders at 6:25 is followed by 90 seconds of The Guess Who ‘Shakin’ All Over’ for Coke. Then at 16:45, there’s David Clayton-Thomas and The Shays singing their hearts out for Wildroot Formula 3.

The anti-drug jingle heard at 11:10 (‘Do You Know What You’re Doing?’) became so popular that it was released as a 45rpm full length version. The singer/songwriter is Terry Bush (who, along with Doug Riley as The Butterfingers) created another commercial-to-hit record with Baby Ruth in 1965.

That’s Robert Goulet, who was raised in Edmonton, singing the du Maurier jingle at 13:00 and anyone who grew up in the 60’s will recognize Joanie Sommers voice on the Pepsi jingle. Joanie was born in Buffalo, New York before moving to Venice, California with her family at the age of 14. I’ll bet you’ve NEVER heard a Pepsi jingle like this – a 60-second commercial about Toronto. This one’s from the early 1960’s.

The singer of the Pledge jingle at 17:41 is Bill Misener, who was once a member of The Paupers and later produced Keith Hampshire’s hits, Daytime Night-Time, First Cut Is The Deepest (both 1973) and Big Time Operator (1974).

Not all great Canadian ads were created in Canada. The Sheriff Flavour Buds campaign (15:17) was created for Toronto ad agency Vickers & Benson by Chicago’s Ken Nordine, who’s most famous for his ‘Word Jazz’ LPS and radio programs. The Coke spot at 18:33 was created for Coca-Cola Canada by Mel Blanc Productions Hollywood. Blanc was the voice of Warner Bros. cartoon characters Bugs Bunny, Sylvester The Cat, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn, Daffy Duck and many others and in the 60’s, formed an advertising production company. You can hear Mel himself singing ‘Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola’ in a deep raspy voice close to the end of this spot just before Petula Clark sings the ‘real’ Coke jingle. The male actor, by the way, is Jesse White, who was the original Maytag repair man on TV for years and worked regularly with Stan Freberg.

So, hit the play button (below) and see how many of these commercials and jingles YOU remember. If you’re too young to have heard them originally, welcome to the golden age of radio commercials.

Website: www.rockradioscrapbook.ca
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Re: Canadian Commercial Jingles Memory Lane

Postby drmusic » Wed Jan 13, 2016 6:29 pm

The same Terry Bush who sang the "Littlest Hobo" theme song (1979 version)?
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