Three jingles that are bouncing around my head from when I was a kid, but I’m not sure which could be the “earliest:”
Tum, tum, tum, tum, TUMMMMS! (looking further into it, this came out in '81; I was 6)
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is (came out in '76, when I was 1, but I’m not sure when I first heard it)
By Mennen. (couldn’t find out when this came into being exactly, other than “80s.”)
I’m Chiquita Banana, and I’ve come to say
Bananas have to ripen in a certain way
When they are flecked with brown and have a golden hue
Bananas taste the best and they’re the best for you
The song first aired in 1944, but I remember it from the early 1970’s when it was still going strong ( or perhaps was back).
That’s gotta be the '60’s equivalent to Hot Pocket!
I initially thought of the Meow Mix jingle, but Wikipedia says that premiered in 1974.
The oldest I personally remember hearing is
From the Land of Sky Blue water (waters)…
which Wiki says Hamms started using in 1953, but it was still in regular rotation when I was a kid in the 70s.
I also remember older kids singing
Ay yi yi yi, I am the Frito Bandito
but Wiki says Frito’s stopped using that one due to racism complaints by the time I was 4, so those must be second-hand memories.
Tref-LAN!
From E-lan-CO!
Dadadadada! Dadadadada!
and
Double your pleasure, double your fun,
with Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint gum!*
*Alternative version:
Double your pleasure, double your fun,
take two girls on a picnic instead of just one!
Apparently a surprising number of other South Jersey natives also remember the Starn’s ShopRite jingle going back at least as far as the 1960’s:
… Starn’s has
Sandwich bags and cornflakes,
Icing for your cupcakes,
Hot dogs and hamburgers too!
And big red apples for you!
“I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid.” LOL
But the kids may still have been singing it, it was catching.
Local to Portland, Grandma’s Cookies (unaffiliated with any Grandma’s Cookies in any other location, at least until the 70’s). I remember this from the mid to late 50s.
Try Grandma’s Cookies,
You’ll like them right away.
Buy Grandma’s Cookies,
You’ll eat them every day.
Yum yum yum yum
Yum yum yum yum
They’re so tasty
Better be hasty
Buy Grandma’s at your grocer’s
Today!
The other one I remember was probably national, also from the 50’s, for Kraft Cottage Cheese. Set against the background of a countdown clock is some kind of bird:
[Spoken] I’ve got six seconds to sing!
[Sung] Buy Kraft cottage cheese, you’ll love it love it.
Buy Kraft [screeching sound while bird pushes second hand back] cottage cheese!
According to YouTube, the Chiquita Banana song was introduced in the 1940’s.
I’m a Chiquita Banana and I’m here to say…
‘Hot water, cold water
Boo for Goldwater”
it’s Slinky; it’s Slinky.
For fun it’s a wonderful toy.
It’s fun for a girl and a boy.
I’ve tried to locate online proof that my memory is close to correct on this one, but so far with no luck. Maybe others who remember the 1950s TV will recall (in the days of Bardahl and such) an additive or “top oil” called B4 (may have been B-4). The jingle is the earliest I can be sure I remember:
You’ll be for B-4 before
You drive six city blocks
This was before my driving days so it was just the catchiness of the jingle and the accompanying tune that has it burned into my memory.
Any other geezers remember such a thing?
As for “the earliest” jingle in my memory, I can’t be sure it wasn’t for a cereal, beer, cigarette, toothpaste or car. There were hundreds that have left some traces in my memory, but I can’t be clear on dates/decades/whatever.
If the question were more about products than jingles, I could name at least 100 from radio alone! We didn’t even have TV until mid-50s or so. And the earliest of those things would be absolute guesswork.
A fun offshoot of this issue would be to name hair products for men and/or women!
Does anybody else remember something called Artra Skin-tone Cream?
'Cause it’s thick and rich and chocolatey
And you can’t drink it slow
(Nestle Quik, circa 1974)
My dog’s better than your dog
My dog’s better than yours.
My dog’s better ‘cause he eats Ken-L Ration
My dog’s better than yours.
I sure remember the Bardahl Detective commercials, which creeped me out when I was three or four (1958 or '59). :eek:
I think they were on at the same time as the Treflan commercials (with the big drum of chemicals slamming down).
I remember a lot of the ones already mentioned—Pepsodent, Brylcreem, Chiquita…
Anyone remember the commercial for chili con carne that had the mariachi band? I know there was a jingle, but I can’t remember how it went (this would have been around 1960).
There were way too many to remember the oldest one. Brylcreem was mentioned, but there were tons of beer and cigarette commercials like “Calllll forrr Philip Morrrrressss” and the mentioned Hamm’s commercial in the 50s. The Philip Morris call goes back to the 1930s, but I would have heard it in the 50s, called out by the same guy, Johnny Roventini.
Not sure its the earliest but one that for some reason stuck in my head a few months ago
"Here comes Wrangler, and he’s one tough customer and he knows what he wants when he see’s it. Wrangler! "
Also of course,
My bologna has a first name, …
and
I wish I were an Oscar Meier Wiener …
From a local siding company, the Home Corporation of Cleveland.
Garfield 1, 2-3, 2-3. It must have started in the 50s. I remember it as a small kid in the mid-late 60s.
Miller High-Life,
the champagne of bottled beers!