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John Doyal

Mike, I bet Johnny Cash never thought his song would be the background music on a post office comercial.  He is one of the few that I am able to remember the name or song title of, I just enjoy the songs.  Lately I have recognized several older songs used as background music in comercials, but can't name them or the musicians.  I also still play my old vinyls and cdsof our music.  Pat , maybe you can give me the names and artists.

Patrick Riley

Wow ... old music used in commercials (not all 60's music but still "old") ... I actual sit up and take notice when I hear a song I recognize in any ad. There's certainly thousands of examples but a few I recall include:

Rocket Man by Elton John (Samsung)
Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin (TD Ameritrade)
Catch the Wind by Donovan (GE)
Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum (some airline ... don't think it was Spirit Airlines?)
It's Your Thing by the Isley Brothers (Heineken)
America by Simon & Garfunkel (Volkswagen)
You're My Best Friend by Queen (Carnival)
Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin (guess for who!)
Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band (USPS)
Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf (Mercedes-AMG)
Shout by Otis Day and the Knights (from Animal House) (Shout Laundry Spray)
It's a Beautiful Morning by the Rascals (Bounce)
When the Ship Comes In by Bob Dylan (can't remember which commercial?)
Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones (Pepsi)
She's a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones (Apple)
Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones (Microsoft)
Do You Believe in Magic by the Lovin' Spoonful (Kohl's)
Happy Together by the Turtles (some department store?)
Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye (some raisin company?)
Make the World Go Away by Ray Price (some candy company?)
Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash (Preparation H ... amusing song choice!)
Golden Years by David Bowie (some insurance company?)
My Way by Frank Sinatra (Gatorade)
Turn Around, Look at Me by either the Vogues or the Lettermen (not sure which version) (Kodak)
Like a Rock by Bob Seger (Chevrolet)
Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding (can't remember which commercial?)
Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd (KFC)
Midnight Rider by the Allman Brothers (Geico)
Fortunate Son by CCR (Wrangler)

There's a lot of better examples that I can't remember (curse of old age).

AND A SIDE NOTE ... Most of you have likely seen the VW Beetle's End of the Road goodbye commercial but if you haven't it's one of the best ads ever made (in my opinion). The background music, Let It Be, is not the Beetles' version but a recorded-just-for-Volkswagon version by a boy's choir from Boston (had to research that one). Go here to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuYXNLGlOc.

John Doyal

Pat, you are truly a musiic conasuer.  My wife thinks I am imaginatiioning that they are actually old songs because I can't name the song or artist.  When I was in highschool I worked after school as a janitors assistant sweeping the rooms.  I had a transistor radio with an ear piece that I listened to while I swept.  I was stopped by several teachers and told I couldn't have it until they found out I was working and not just a student ignoring the rules.  That little radio picked up KOMA real good at night and the Lousiana Hayride on Saturday, or XEG Del Rio til the preachers came on.

Mike Curtis

The very fact that so much of our era music is used speaks to the quality.  Not only as a targeting means for those of our ‘vintage’ but for its ‘ear candy’ quality.

When the various aggravations of the day seem to build up all I have to do is grab a vinyl from the stack and let the music smooth off the rough edges.  It does work wonders to sit for a minute and reminisce. Nothing calms the ole blood pressure like a tug on the heart strings.

 Just “give me the beat boys to save my soul I want’a get lost in your rock and roll and drift away

Patrick Riley

John, you bring back many memories. I plead guilty to being too wrapped up in "our" music. I work from my home office every day but listen continually to my well curated personal music collection in the background.

In high school, we always tuned in KOMA when the sun went down. As I recall, most Roswell radio stations played "hillbilly" music; we were all to cool for that!

Was it XEG radio? I remember tuning in XERF from Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico (across from Del Rio). It was one of the original, and maybe the first "border blaster" stations. I also tuned it out when the preachers came on.

You're in a coveted position having a transistor radio. That was the iPhone of its day and you definitely turned heads if you owned one. I, unfortunately, did not ... above my pay grade!

A shared FYI ... more and more lately, I'm listening to Amazon Music rather than my own collection. I started ripping CDs to MP3s in 1998 when the first MP3 players came out (mine was the Diamond Rio 300 ... it would hold all of about 150 tracks if they were ripped in low quality). At the time, I had 5,800+ CDs and ripped all those. Then I started to download music from the sharing sites (like Napster and others). Next I started buying digital music from eMusic, Amazon, Google Music, MP3Sparks, and many others. My MP3 collection currently has about 407,000 tracks.

And why am I moving away from my own collection? I found Amazon Music Unlimited (AMU). A few FYIs about this service:

1) AMU currently has 90,000,000 tracks ... makes my collection seem absolutely puny. They continue to add tracks ... soon will be at 100,000,000. No ads, of course.

2) It's cheap at as little as $3.99 a month (one user, one device) to $14.99 a month for a family (up to 6 simultaneous users, unlimited devices).

3) Music is ultra high quality surpassing the music quality from a CD (Amazon calls it "HD quality sound").

4) A special surround sound mode (Amazon calls it "Spacial Audio") is supported ... obviously this is optimized with suitable multi-speaker configurations but works on even a single speaker.

5) Play AMU on anything, phone, computer, tablet, smart watch, smart devices, etc.).

6) Download songs of your choice to play on your devices when Internet service is not available.

7) Supports creations of your own "playlists" of favorite tracks.

8) Display synchronized lyrics (on devices with screens) for most tracks. I particularly like this!

9) Cover art display (again on devices with screens).

10) Operated by voice commands on Amazon and many other devices. My most favorite feature!

11) Fuzzy or precise voice command support. I can say "Alexa play song name" and AMU chooses most popular version; "Alexa play song name by artist name" plays version by named artist; "Alexa play song name by artist name from album name" gets you the exact version you want. Subsets of the above, of course, are supported; "Alexa shuffle songs by artist name"; "Alexa play album name"; etc.

12) All kinds of command variations like "Alexa shuffle classic rock music from the 60s"; "Alexa play music from World War I"; "Alexa play bagpipe music"; "Alexa shuffle college fight songs"; "Alexa shuffle Music Box top hits from 1962"; etc.

13) And, seemingly black magic nto me, you can request a song if you just know a few words of the lyrics ... example "Alexa play the song with the lyrics 'all my bags are packed'" and AMU will play I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane ... pretty cool!

14) Music info anytime when listening to a song you don't recognize just say "Alexa song info" to get artist, song and album information.

15) Millions of podcasts also on AMU.

Another FYI ... despite AMU having 90,000,000 tracks I occasionally can't find a song I want to hear ... example Pinto the Wonder Horse is Dead by Tom T. Hall. Note that AMU does have this title by other artists. Perhaps I'm being too picky.

Anyway AMU coupled with an Alexa device ... highly recommended.

John Doyal

Pat, yes both stations were on the air.  XEG in later years was clearer to get on the car radios. Does anyone remember the old house song with dog howling cause he was sitting on a thorn and just to tired to move over?

Mike Curtis

John;

I think this is the one you refer to:

John Doyal

Mike, that is it but not all the verses, do you know the artist?  It was on a 78 that we played on a hand crank Victrola and got thrown out when we moved to town because it was so worn.  There was another by the same artist about his first time seeing a football game.

Rex Booth

One of our early rock ‘n roll artists (besides Little David) was our beloved Buddy Holley! Buddy Holley’s music influenced many artist who 'affected' his style! Buddy was gradually evolving from his West Texas “Rock-a-Billy” style into “Rock ‘n Roll” and simple love ballads that we all loved. Here’s an early song from 1956 published in 1963… four years after his plane crash. Notice the echo effect and tube amplifiers which ‘souped-up’ that “twangy” country-western sound. Was it Jerry Lee Lewis who picked up Buddy Holley’s shout?

Rex Booth

John D,

The song you mentioned about the old hound dog was "Life Gets TeeJus Don't It?"  It was originally recorded and spoken by Carson Robinson in 1948.  Walter Brennan in 1960.

"Hound dog howlin' so forlorn
Laziest dog that was ever born
He's a-howlin' 'cause he's a-settin' on a thorn
An' just to tired to move over"

This cover is by Hank Williams Jr...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957Zr2Pre2s

Patrick Riley

Rex, good listen. Thanks for sharing link!

Rex Booth

Thanks Pat,... but I figure it's my fault for sending that  2 TB external hard drive  to you 10 years ago. When I got the HD back it was full of MP3 songs. 320,000 to be exact!! Will never be able to llsten to them all in a lifetime! But I've sure had fun trying!  Thanks again my friend!

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

John D, Andy Griffith did a song about his first Football Game! 
Very funny!!

https://youtu.be/PfMEC58rhRc
 

John Doyal

Sherry, that is it.  Played it for my wife and son who is into football and they found it very funny.  That was describing of a game that I also knew nothing about until I was almost 10 years old.  When my dad played it in our Victrola, I had no idea what was so funny about it.  Rex, that is the song, I believe that verse got left out on laterr recordings.  On a somber note, today is the day to remember everyone who was lost and those that served in Viet Nam

Sherry Hester (Trasp)

Thanks John for the reminder!
 

Prayers for All Viet Nam veterans and the Families who Lost a Loved One.
 

Fred Miller

Reading about all the music  back in our HS days, I had to share my favorite. I lean more towards instrumentals, and I could not get enough of The Ventures. I still have 16 of the vinyl albums from back then....no record player, just the albums.

On Amazon Music, I have a playlist of 35 of my favorites, and I still add one every now and then.  

John Doyal

Fred, I will listen to about everything but jazz and metal rock.  I have different styles I listen to on pandora that includes a Ventures choice.  You can listen for free with commercials or pay for commercial free.  I also have their vinyls, but not that many and do have a record player I play them on.  I still prefer the vinyl sound versus the digital.

Rex Booth

April Fools’ Day. In 1561, a Flemish poet wrote a comical verse about a nobleman who sends his servant back and forth on ludicrous errands in preparation for a wedding feast (the poem’s title roughly translates to “Refrain on errand-day which is the first of April”). The first mention of April Fools’ Day in Britain was in 1686, when biographer John Aubrey described April 1st as a “Fooles Holy Day.”

It’s clear that the habit of sending springtime rubes on a “fool’s errand” was rampant in Europe by the late 1600s. On April Fools’ Day in 1698, many saps were tricked into schlepping to the Tower of London to watch the “Washing of the Lions” (a ceremony that didn’t exist). On April 2 a local newspaper had to debunk the hoax - and publicly mock the schmoes who fell for it.  ~ "A Public Service Announcement for the Day…"

  An 1857 ticket to "Washing the Lions" at the Tower of London 

Rex Booth

Fred,

You Bet! "The Ventures" were one of the hottest instrumental groups in the early '60s! Providing the 'surfer sound' of the day including other artists. The Ventures played at the New National Guard Armory on West 2nd in 1963. My All-time Numero-Uno Hit... "The Chantays" doing "Pipeline"!  Many a dashboard were pounded to the beat of this sound, many moons before them-thar dangerous air-bags hit the scene!

Saundra Bennett (Whiteside)

Rex,
Haven't heard Pipeline in years!  It had me tappin' my feet, and slapping my knee! Thanks for sharing this  upbeat instrumental!  Love it!  Loved the Buddy Holley song, as well!

Diane Alley ((Webb))

Fred Miller

Diane, some of the songs these days, I am glad I can't hear the words...

John Doyal

Happy Easter to all, hope the bunny don't leave too many rotten eggs.  I quit hiding real eggs when it took too many to have enough to hide.  Once I started hiding plastic ones(yard is 2 city lots) at least 2 wind up not being found.  The wind will usually blow them out later.  Took one til the day before Easter to come out  3 years ago.

Rex Booth

Was looking at pictures of old custom cars.... ran across this!

'Chopped'  1940 Mercury

Alan Jackson did a song... where he sang:

"I'm going to buy me a Mercury & cruise it up & down the road" !!!  

Fred Miller

For over 20+ years, on a backroad going into Sherman, I have seen a mid 30's Ford coupe parked under a carport next to a house.  Solid black and covered in dust. For some time, I thought of stopping and asking if possibly it was for sale.

I would have done a ground up refurbish and turned it into a copy of the Eliminator, pictured below.  But my body is no longer up to the task.

Who did the Eliminator belong to?