Monday, August 25, 2014

The Most Original Blog Post Ever



I worked up a thirst today. Man, I got all ambitious and did an 8 1/2 mile run/walk at a park today...and boy is my Jazzy scooter tired!

I sure could use a drink right now. Maybe you could too. So if you can, you're really going to enjoy this post. In fact, if you've got a long memory, you might remember me telling you how the album I'm about to feature almost got away from me in a 4 for $1 sale.

Dr Pepper also knows a little bit about being ambitious. Its sales were on a rocket ride in the '70s. There was plenty of cause for celebration in Dallas because of it. And the celebration came in the form of a completely new ad campaign based on a jingle written by Randy Newman. Yep, he and the Dr Pepper guys went all out. They even gave away an album to a select cadre responsible for the sales boom. And what an album. It's basically a soundtrack of the entire campaign with the audio of TV commercials similar to this one:


Besides Newman, there were a few other heavy hitters behind the scenes that you, the sophisticated music lover, might recognize. Commercial singer/songwriter extraordinare Jake Holmes wrote and composed a few versions of the song. Dick Behrke, aka King Richard of King Richard's Fluegel Knights, composed others and did the arrangements.

So what about these other versions? Well, the first few after the Overture are, like I said, the audio for the TV commercials in the campaign. Then, some famous musicians take a crack (swig?) at putting their own touches on the song. And an uncredited Barry Manilow, who didn't wrote the songs, does the "standard" version to wrap up the extravaganza.


Here's the entire album in all its single-sided glory.

1. Overture


2. Executive Lunch


3. Prom 1950


4. Meals On Wheels


5. Librarian


6. Texas 1930


7. Doc Watson


8. Muddy Waters


9. Eubie Blake


10.Anita O'Day


11. Grandpa Jones


12. Standard (Barry Manilow)

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