Jingles

The other day I was in my office talking to a colleague and we happened upon the subject of Barry Manilow.  It could have been because one of his songs randomly played on my Pandora account or that I am a big fan, either way, the subject of old time jingles came out. The connection with Barry Manilow and old jingles you may not know, but as a fan, I know he wrote many of the hugely popular jingles from the 70’s and 80’s that are burned in the memory of many of us still today. Maybe it was just my yearning to want to talk about them, but I mentioned that Barry Manilow started out as a jingle writer and then proceeded to play a medley of his on YouTube titled, “A Very Strange Medley”. As we listened, I chucked at how he didn’t know any of them yet I knew all the words. This led into a discussion about how jingles are a ‘thing of the past’. Though we are inundated with commercials everywhere, I can’t remember too many jingles. I’m talking about the ones that used to anchor commercials like Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds, or Coca-Cola. If they exist today, they certainly are not like the ones from decades past. Jingles used to be the big thing that we used to sing along with and when I was a kid, everyone knew them.  We would find ourselves walking to class humming or whistling the jingle. Now, jingles have given way to social media and the influencers. The attention span of most of us is not long enough to even get a jingle started, much less, complete a chorus. That itself is a narrative for our current state. Maybe, just maybe, we should all slow down a bit and have a ‘Coke and a smile’. As a society, I’m not going too far out on a limb to say I think it may just do us some good. Have a wonderful weekend and stay dry with all the rain. Go BEARS!…RiseUP! (cue A Very Strange Medley - Barry Manilow).

Until next time...