W.O.C.K on Vinyl: Let's Swing The Jingle for Coca-Cola (U.K / U.S Artists)

 Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

This WOCK posting comes under the 'Obscure' category and is part 3 to earlier Coke postings, which included Coca Cola jingles by Australian artists (see Part 1 & Part 2). This third collection of Coke Jingles were performed by UK and American artists from the 60's. 

Music is a big seller of products and services and is an important part of advertising. In particular, well known bands and artists have been used to reproduce commercial jingles to sell their products (in this case that magic elixir we call Coca Cola).

This posting provides a sample of some more classic jingles from Freddie & The Dreamers, Roy Orbison, The Shirelles, The Supremes, Jan & Dean, The Who and others.

Coca-Cola was developed in 1886 by John Pemberton, a Pharmacist at the Eagle Drug & Chemical Company. Initially being sold as a patent medicine for a nickel, the first sale of Coca-Cola was on May 8, 1886 at a Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. On May 29, 1886, Pemberton placed the first Coca-Cola ad in the Atlanta Journal. Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler who began to market it as a soft drink. The Coca-Cola Company produces extract not soda! They then sell the concentrate to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers who hold exclusive territory rights with The Coca-Cola Company. They in turn produce the final product in bottles and cans.

It was in 1963 that Coca-Cola started using the slogan "Things Go Better with Coke". Advertising agency McCann-Erickson worked with popular acts to create musical jingles utilising the slogan. The jingles became so popular that Coca-Cola eventually distributed 60,000 promotional "Let's Swing the Jingle for Coca-Cola" singles through their bottlers, as featured here in this post.

In these short radio spots, the original artists would rework their own popular songs to reflect the idea that "Things Go Better with Coke." What's amazing is that these short little reworkings are actually strangely compelling to listen to. In fact, even listening to several of them in a row is enjoyable, sometimes in a head-shaking kind of way. What's bizarre to me is that something that today would seem like such a crass sell-out was deemed not only acceptable, but was actually incredibly popular. What helps, I'm sure, is the earnestness that went into the production of these tracks. Clearly less cynical times, mind you.

All jingles have been ripped from vinyl to MP3 (320kps) format and are mostly mono recordings. Label scans have been included. Note that the Who jingles were not released on the "Let's Swing The Jingle for Coca-Cola" 45 and have been included here as bonus tracks.

Tracks

01 Freddie & The Dreamers 1

02 Freddie & The Dreamers 2

03 Roy Orbison

04 Little Milton

05 The Shirelles

06 The Supremes 1

07 The Supremes 2

08 Wayne Fontana  The Minbenders

09 Jay & The Americans

10 Jan & Dean

11 The Who 1

12 The Who 2

Let's Swing The Jingle For Coca-Cola Link (30Mb) New Link 31/08/24