Way Out Wednesday: “Things Go Better With …”

Tony Redman May 26, 2010 5

This is a fun album showing just how many recording artists were willing to plug a certain soft drink. It’s interesting to see the different approaches taken. The cuts are short, so I’m including a bunch of them here. There’s really not much else to say here (although I’ll have a few special awards at the end), so let’s see who’s willin’ to be shillin’!

Aretha Franklin
Gary Lewis & the Playboys
Ray Charles
Roy Orbison
Bee Gees
Neil Diamond
The Four Seasons
The Supremes
The Box Tops
Jan & Dean
Jay & the Americans
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little River Band

And now for the awards portion. The “He Even Makes Drinking Cokes Sound Sexy Award” goes to …

Tom Jones

The “Making It Through the Whole Commercial Without Even Mentioning the Product Award” goes to …

Mary Hopkin

The “Selling Out Again (Again) Award” goes to …

The Who

The “Wait, They’re Talking About the Soft Drink, Right? Award” goes to …

The Moody Blues

The “Strangest Dream Involving a Soft Drink Award” goes to …

The Fifth Dimension

And “The Most Famous Version of This Commercial Award” goes to …

The New Seekers

If you want to hear other artists’ jingles, including the Everly Brothers, the Shirelles, Petula Clark, and Sherbet (who?), you can find the entire album here!

  • Russ

    Ray Charles shilled both Coke and Pepsi in his career.

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    Without being able to see the cans, maybe he didn't know the difference.

    What?

    Oh, come on. That's funny.

  • http://jabartlett.wordpress.com jabartlett

    Yeah, it is. +10.

    I've had this album of Coke jingles for years, and I rather enjoy it when one of them pops up on shuffle. There's one with both Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin which hints at potentially fine duets never performed. And years before Vanilla Coke, there was Vanilla Fudge.

  • http://tshirtfort.blogspot.com/ SB

    What year is this from and did the commercials overlap as in on one commercial break you would hear Jan and Dean and the next it would be The Who? Most of the artists are 60s so I am guessing 60s but I associate Niel Diamond and the Bee Gees more with the 70s.

  • http://www.popdose.com DwDunphy

    I'm thinking 1970 on the head, 1972 may be the cutoff. The Bee Gees had a couple hits prior to the disco summer of 1977 so it's not unlikely that they're here. Gary Lewis though? Really?

    “Everybody loves a Coke, so why don't you?”