Have you ever noticed how many song lyrics feature the word Frigidaire? It's uncanny and the result, I suspect, of an active and successful product placement department in Frigidaire's advertising agency back in the 1930s and 40s. Here are just a few I have come across recently (and be warned, once you start looking out for them they are all over the place) :
Two Sleepy People (Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser)
Here we are, in the cozy chair,
Pickin' on a wishbone, from the frigidaire,
Two sleepy people with nothing to say but too much in love to break away.
I'm Through With Love (Gus Kahn, Matt Malneck & Fud Livingston)
I've locked my heart, I keep my feelings there
I have stocked my heart like an icy Frigidaire
For I need to care for no one
That's why I'm thru with love.
I have stocked my heart like an icy Frigidaire
For I need to care for no one
That's why I'm thru with love.
I'm Going To Move To The Outskirts Of Town (Roy Jacobs & William Weldon)
I'm gonna tell you baby
We're gonna move away from here
I don't want no ice, man
I'm gonna get me a Frigidaire.
We're gonna move away from here
I don't want no ice, man
I'm gonna get me a Frigidaire.
I am sure there are many others and I confidently expect a more than usually active comments section with suitable nominations. There may be more recent songs that I don't know about, but it does seem that lyrical product placement may be a dying art. In my contribution to its resurrection, I have rewritten the first verse of Cole Porters' classic song "You're The Tops". If any of the companies concerned would like to show their appreciation, I can be contacted in the usual way.
You're The Tops (Cole Porter & Alan Burnett)
You're the tops,
You're an Apple iPhone,
You're the tops,
You're a Gucci Gemstone,
You're a flat-screen TV, made by LG, there
You're a Big Mac breakfast, a Toyota Lexus
Tesco Camembert.
My Dad used to do product placements in his cartoons for the old London Evening Star. It got him an endless supply of Whiskey at Christmas and I benefited with a Phillips radio he handed on.
ReplyDeleteHilarious! Makes me think of Janis Joplin's 'Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.' Wonder if MB ever showed their appreciation to Miz J? Though I suppose she could have bought herself one...
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how brand names make it into common speech. Here in the US we don't grab a tissue to blow our noses, we grab a kleenex. And during the '70s and '80s you didn't photocopy something, you xeroxed it (that one died out in the '90s with the introduction of inkjet copiers). An d of course I still know people who refer to their refrigerator as the frigidaire, even when it's an Amana or an LG. And I do believe on your side of the pond people still refer to vacuum cleaners as "hoovers" no matter what company made the one they use.
ReplyDeleteBetter be careful with the iPhone - Steve Jobs tends to sue people who use his brand names rather than reward them!
Your lyrics are fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI do remember the song Kodachrome by Paul Simon.
I guess now it'd have to be the memory card instead of film version.
I had no idea Frigidaire was in so many songs. That pickin' on a wishbone line is great. Your lyrics are very good too...especially when it gets to the camembert.
ReplyDeleteNice re-write; I was unaware that Frigidaire came up so often, tho I did now about the "Two Sleepy People" lyirc--the Alice in Wonder Band used to perform that song.
ReplyDeleteHa . . don't laugh, that's how language is born, how many times to you 'hoover' the carpet?
ReplyDeleteAlan you're a bad un. I usually let music just wash over me whilst I do my thing. It is a standing joke in this house that I only know the first line of any song. Now I'll have to suspend all activity and really listen to the 'wireless'.
ReplyDeleteTed - you're becoming a Geek.
ReplyDelete