“See the USA in a Chevrolet”, which a remember being sung by Dinah Shore (and others) when I was a tyke, has been revived in a new set of commercials with it now being sung by an up-and-comer named Brooke Lee, with an additional lyric though: “America’s the greatest land of all.” What do y’all think of this version?
I believe that was in the original version?
See the USA in your Chevrolet
America is asking you to call
Drive your Chevrolet through the USA
America’s the greatest land of all
On a highway, or a road along the levee
Performance is sweeter
Nothing can beat her
Life is completer in a Chevy
So make a date today to see the USA
And see it in your Chevrolet
Thank you for correcting a faulty memory.
Here’s Dinah singing it.
And here’s the new version. Frankly I hate it.
Yeah, too much Nashville twang in it.
Makes me wanna drive my Chevy to the levee.
Or my Ford to the fjord.
I wondered was that a country singer. Never heard of her before. I don’t listen to any top 10 anything. I’m good with classics.
It’s still a catchy tune. Good for this Brookie Lee for getting a big contract.
I have no issue with the lyrics/music themselves, but I’m dismayed that Chevy thinks it’s fine and dandy to hearken back to a time when black motorists couldn’t (safely) see all of the USA. Dinah Shore’s jingle began airing in 1951, three years before Brown and 13 years before the Civil Rights Act. Jim Crow laws and the Green Book were still very real in the early '50s.
That’s what I think of every time I hear the new version. It’s an unwelcome reminder of an era that, IMO, no one should deliberately echo.
I certainly knew the slogan “See the USA in a/your Chevrolet” from kid-hood. If I had ever heard the long form song I’ve utterly forgotten that. No part of @Qadgop_the_Mercotan’s cite of Dinah Shore singing is familiar sounding. OTOH, that song would be a few years old when I was born and a decade-ish old by the time I was remembering watching TV.
As to Brooke Lee and the new version …
I’ve never heard of her, but I listen to zero C&W so that’s not too surprising. I do listen to current non-C&W music.
I listened to QTM’s cite of her Chevy song and a few of her other songs on YT. She’s sure got the vocal sound and the artistic tone that will resonate with the US domestic car or pick-em-up truck crowd. This is a pure nostalgia / nativist play. Very nakedly so.
In the preview still in QTM’s cite she looks rather Hispanic. Both as to skin tone and as to features. Which surprised me. Hard on the heels of Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl I’d think Chevy might create a real stink with a clearly Hispanic singer spokesperson. Which frankly I’d love to see them do.
Actually watching the vid it’s clear that’s not the case. I also don’t see any of that skin tone or features in her other vids. So is it that still, or is it just me seeing that?
Still, it’s sorta scary that I found myself evaluating this performer’s racial profile versus prevailing RW white supremacist orthodoxy. Not because I want her to be white. But because I’m cautiously measuring how much I think Chevy wants her to be white. My answer is: A LOT.
I don’t think General Motors thinks it’s fine and dandy to harken back to our racist history.
I think it’s a catchy tune that they are using for advertising purposes.
I’ve seen the ads in recent days. It does strike me as interesting that they revived a slogan, and a jingle, which is going to be nostalgic for a lot of people over the age of 60, and probably unknown to anyone younger than that.
I also noted that, as part of it, they’ve revived the visual of a Chevrolet “parked” on top of Castle Rock (a.k.a. Castleton Tower) in Utah, which they had done in ads in the '60s and '70s.
Is the over-60 crowd their targeted customers? Who else will be buying Chevrolets?
I’m of the wrong generation for this kind of nostalgia. I associate Chevy commercials with Bob Seger.
As long as they don’t bring back “Dodge Fever”.
I’m 67. As noted upthread I’m too young to really associate the song w ads from early childhood, much less from my car brand awareness formative tween years.
So seemingly now Chevy is chasing the 80yo car buying demographic? Good luck w that.
Which is why I concluded they’re doing something else. They’re pursuing the MAGAt market. The folks yearning for an imagined idealized 1950s-ish insular inward looking America they were never alive to see. A 20yo MAGAt can yearn for his imagined version of that. And want a Chevy because of it. And feel vindicated when Brooke in her thick Southern White working class accent sings that there’s no reason to.leave the USA; everywhere else isn’t as good.
I would imagine the target demographic has never heard that jingle before. Everything that’s old is new again.
But with global climate change, the levee is dry.
That could well be. Yes, the jingle is nostalgic to older consumers, who probably really aren’t their intended market, as many of them aren’t likely to ever buy another car (or at least, another new one).
But, it certainly leans into America.
Interesting. I’m 68 and I remember that old song vividly. I could even sing about a third of it, before seeing the video. Just another example of the junk that’s stored in my brain.
My dislike for the new version is similar to @Fear_Itself’s reason. Too twangy. Clashes with the old version in my head.