The 1970s were interesting. There are many things out of the era that came and went (I mentioned a few in my things we should not recycle post), actually I think most if not all of it went. You may not remember having only a handful of televisions stations or when having a remote considered a luxury, however take a stroll with me down memory lane with a relic of yesteryear, and something truly worthy of being recycled/revived: The Musical Television commercial. Yes the Musical Television commercial. Coca-cola, Burger King, The U.S. Army, Alka-Setlzer, they all had them. Not only did we have the words memorized, we even enjoyed playing the music in the school band. One of the best: Coca-cola and I’d Like to Teach The World to Sing! <YouTube, Please Work>
Most televisions stations weren’t broadcasting in stereo at the time, in fact, most of us didn’t even have a stereo in our homes. We still sung along with them. Nobody hit the buttons on the remote when your favorite commercial aired. And remotes were an interesting animal; if you had one, it only had a few buttons on it, and they made noise, specifically chimes. If you could figure out the right combination of house and car keys on a key ring, you could jiggle them and the sound would make the television react. Yes, as a youngster I could really annoy my brothers by causing the television to change channels during the best part of the show, and I could get away with it most of the time. But that is definitely getting off topic.
Getting back to that 3 to 4 button remote, the 30 second forward button invented and deployed to the absolute disgust of advertisers didn’t exist back then. The VCR, DVR and many other types of recorders didn’t either. So you were stuck watching the commercials. The cassette tape recorder did exist, was relatively inexpensive, and did a great job recording the songs. And we actually recorded them. That was the saving Grace of it all; thankfully medications, attorneys, politicians and communications companies didn’t have much to say back then. And I’ll ask them to turn a deaf ear on my request. Many of the subjects of today’s commercials aren’t worthy of children singing about them!
I wish I could find that old Shasta song: “…Why do the god times go so fast? Why can’t the fun just go on and last? But you can…slow…your….Sha…sta….dooowwwwnnnn. Taking your time, drinking your Shasta, taking…your….time……..” And if you are going to sing the Coca Cola song, you may as well divide the class up into thirds and sing it in rounds.