Drink up, baby boomers
04/05/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"On the whole, this collection is a lot of fun and often fascinating--particularly if, like me, you're a card-carrying member of the "baby boom" generation. It's pretty much an aural trip down memory lane. Beginning with a 17-and-a-half-minute track that offers snippets of radio programs, ads, announcer banter, station I.D.'s, and news and weather updates from the 1930s through 1963, CD1 then moves into the year 1964.It's at this point that baby boomers can dive right into the nostalgia vortex of their cerebral cortex, as there's a promo for joining the fan clubs of the Beatles, actor Richard Chamberlain, and others. That segues into a robust Limelighters ad for Coke, followed by the DJ's intro over the opening chords to "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Now, that's Top 40 radio of the 1960s as I remember it. It was fast-paced, fun, and hip (yet sometimes touchingly corny if the DJ was a quick wit who told jokes and one-liners). Top 40 radio possessed a sense of generational community back then. We knew that thousands (or many thousands, if we were tuned in to a station in a major market) of other young people were hearing the same song or the same news update or the same episode of "Chicken Man" as we were at that very moment. In that respect, I guess, radio is no different today than it was in the '60s; it's just not as much fun to listen to (and, for the DJs, contemporary radio--on the whole--does not allow them to be all that creative). CD1 clocks in at about 44 minutes; CD2 clocks in at a little more than 42 minutes. All of CD2, by the way, covers the year 1965.This 2-CD collection is really about the advertising jingles that helped keep the Top 40 stations on the air and the economy humming along. Mostly this collection is Coca-Cola ads--more than 30 of 'em. But there's at least one ad each for Pepsi, Diet Rite, Bubble Up, Sprite, etc., and even a smattering of ads for other products or services.What strikes me now, hearing these ads nearly 40 years after they originally aired, is the musicianship and production values the advertisers (particularly Coca-Cola) invested in their ads. I mean, some of these ads clock in at 90 seconds or better, and the singing and instrumentation are solid. (It's my understanding that many of the session musicians who played on hit singles of the time also played on these jingles. And if you should decide to buy this collection, you'll quickly hear how some of the artists' Coke jingles are cleverly written and arranged to remind listeners of the artists' actual hit singles.) Among the top-name acts contracted to sing the praises of their favorite soft drink were Jan and Dean, Lesley Gore, the Supremes, Jay and the Americans, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Tom Jones, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Four Seasons, and Petula Clark. Even the Shirelles, the Drifters, and the Coasters, all of whom hit their stride before 1964-1965 but were still part of the musical landscape, serve up some winners. (There are several other acts on this collection I haven't mentioned.) Am I going to listen to this 2-CD set as often as I do, say, "Shut Down Vol. 2," "Rubber Soul," or "Mr. Tambourine Man"? No. But as a collection of familiar artists promoting familiar products during a memorable period for Top 40 radio, it's great fun. Combine the soft drink jingles with the DJ banter, the station I.D.'s, and numerous rarities (Howard Cosell doing a promo for Jets games broadcasts; a DJ announcing how some lucky listener can win a trip to London to hang out with the Dave Clark 5; a chance to win two tickets to the upcoming Beatles concert, etc.), and this is a good way to insert the real deal into those cassettes and CDs you make that cover those specific years.This collection earned just 4 out of 5 stars from me because, as a trivia junkie, I found the liner notes a bit sparse, and a complete track listing would have been helpful. As it is, CD1 has two tracks of about 17 and 26 minutes, respectively, and CD2 has one track of about 42 and a half minutes. The sound quality of the many jingles and DJ segments on these two CDs, on the whole, is very good. There's an instance or two when the original broadcast signal evidently drifted a bit. (Oh, and so you don't misunderstand an earlier comment I made, there are no Chicken Man episodes contained in this 2-CD set.)"
Track Listings (3) - Disc #1