The All-American Sound

What better way to extol the virtues of radio...than with radio? The National Association Of Broadcasters (NAB) uses a few different campaigns each year to do that. At least they used to. Some of the campaigns were downright catchy: singers, celebrities and even the brilliant Stan Freberg created great reminders to "take a portable radio along" or to enjoy "the sound of year-round pleasure."

Unfortunately, the specifics of this campaign are lost to history: no singer or production credits here. And frankly, this campaign's not as catchy as many others. Also, an all-American theme in the winter?

Radio commercial and PSA records get a little repetitive at times. For one thing, this one is the same on both sides so if a track on one side gets damaged, it could be dubbed to tape from the other side. For another, these records contain variations on a theme: a minute-long cut, a :30, a :10, a :60 with a "donut" (there's a hole in the middle that the station fills with its own copy). I'll pare this down to the essentials: the full :60 and the :30 with the girl soloist. And I hope you'll enjoy them.

The full :60


The :30 with the female singer:

Go Fourth!

Well, holy crap. It's the Fourth Of July. Flags and fireworks, patriotism and parades...and of course, what would any parade be without a marching band? I used to have a few marching band albums. It was always amazing to hear what songs they could adapt into band arrangements. Those albums are gone, but a select few songs from them remain. And an even more select fewer have come to grace the blog today.  See how many you recognize. And be safe this weekend!

You don't hear (or see) much of this TV show anymore...unless you've got the DVDs:


Here's another forgotten TV classic. Why they did a band rendition of this, I have NO clue:


Here's a late-'70s TV medley!


If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now. It's just the high school marching band playing Led Zep:


Lay your ears on this one:


What I like about this...it really gets me to dance!:


And who's leading the band? It's-a me, Mario!