Everyone is familiar with jingles from radio commercials and television and radio advertising.
The simple answer to “Why did jingles sound that way?” is that the men who wrote them — and they were men, primarily — came from the Big Band tradition.
People such as Tom Merriman, founder of CRC and partner in TM Productions; Bill Meeks, president of PAMS; Jodie Lyons, arranger/singer at Futuresonic and later PAMS; Euel Box, PAMS writer; Paris Rutherford, Spot Productions writer; and Bob Piper, musical director of PAMS from 1967 to 1973 were just a few of those who influenced that sound. Before they turned to jingles, each of these men was an arranger for big bands.
Virtually all the instrumentalists, singers and arrangers who labored on ID jingles in the 1960s had some sort of big band background. Saxophone/ clarinet player Billy Ainsworth and Tommy Loy (French horn, trumpet and synthesizers) learning sight reading while mastering their instruments in dance bands.
When I spoke with many of the original singers, they told me their influences had been the great vocal groups of the past, including the Four Freshmen, The Modernaires, Mel Torme’s Mel-Tones and the Hi-Los.
If you like jingles and are unfamiliar with these names, I suggest you check them out now that labels are re-issuing older material on CD. Also be on the lookout for Singers Unlimited, a latter-day group in the same tradition. You’ll enjoy them.
OUT OF STEP WITH TIME
Thus, the jingles of the 1960s didn’t necessarily sound like what was popular on the radio at the time.
Oh, there were efforts to be more contemporary. You hear echoes of, for example, the Beach Boys’ guitar work and Herb Alpert’s brass.
In the early ’70s, the blended and overdubbed vocal style of the Carpenters and the brass and percussion of Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears and Chase began to filter into the creative mix.
But even today, jingles are brassier and have fatter vocals than anything else on the air. Rarely will you hear a song on your favorite station that features a five- or seven-voice vocal.
