The Sounds of Les Baxter Selling Spark Plugs

This is one of my occasional posts devoted to promotional records, usually ones literally singing the praises of some mundane product line. In this one, we get to hear Les Baxter and three vocal quartets intone hymns to spark plugs and oil filters.

The Sounds of Selling was a 1962 effort from the AC plugs and filters people aimed at the good folks who retailed their products. The object was to convince them that AC was putting some advertising muscle behind their wares, the better to drive demand to the retailers' doors.

From AC's 1963 print campaign

Today, of course, you could send the merchants a link to a website where they could watch and listen to the ad spots. Sixty years ago, you sent them a record, which worked well enough for the radio spots. The TV commercials, however, were missing the visuals so required some explanation of what was going on, which was inevitably clumsy.

Cy Harrice

Fortunately, AC - or more accurately, its ad agency - employed the distinctive voice of Cy Harrice as the voice of the product line. Harrice had been a radio announcer and newscaster for many years, becoming best known for his commanding delivery of the final line of the commercials for Pall Mall cigarettes - "And they are mild!" Later on, his voice became just as associated with AC's wares.

On this record, he introduces three TV spots, two for spark plugs and one for oil filters. The latter tries to interest women in the health of their oil filters by mocking stereotypical "female" behavior - gossip, etc. I can't imagine why the agency thought this was a good idea. These TV ads were set to appear on the TV's Laramie, one of the then-popular Westerns.

Also on the LP are three radio spots featuring vocal quartets - the Modernaires, who began in the 1930s; the Sportsmen, who started in the 40s, and the more up-to-date if hardly hip Kirby Stone Four. The nostalgic approach is understandable - adults were buying spark plugs, not kids. The pleasant results all present some variation on AC's "Action Song."

Les Baxter in action

Vocalist-turned-arranger Les Baxter provided the musical background for these spots, or at least he arranged for the arrangements to come into being. He was notorious for not writing the charts ascribed to him, farming them out to others.

The AC spots take up one side of the record. The other is devoted to half of Baxter's latest LP, Voices in Rhythm. By this time, Baxter had abandoned the mood music/exotica realm for an impossibly bland, Ray Conniff-style vocal approach to such fare as "Pennies from Heaven." The results aren't especially good. I did replace the mono tracks found on The Sounds of Selling with stereo versions derived from my copy of the Voices in Rhythm LP.

Bios and photos are on the back of the Sounds of Selling album (below and in the download).

Click to enlarge

The Sportsmen Carol at Christmas

Capitol records put out this Christmas album in 1949, at the same time it issued the Jimmy Wakely set posted a few days ago.

These were among its first LPs, and they were brief, with their six songs replicating the three-record 78 and 45 albums that came out at the same time.

Here we have an entirely conventional program of Christmas material. The album is titled "Carols at Christmas," but this is only loosely the case. While carols do not have to be religious, "Wassail" is a drinking song that doesn't fit well with the stained glass on the cover.

The Sportsmen would have been very familiar to any American within earshot of a radio in 1949. They were a mainstay of Jack Benny's popular program, and appeared on several other shows as well. Their specialty on Benny's show was popping up in unlikely places to sing about the merits of sponsor Lucky Strike cigarettes, often to the star's disgust. This kind of loony vernacular surrealism was one of the main sources of humor on Benny's program. You can hear how it works in a Christmas audio clip included in the download. In this scenario, Jack is Christmas shopping in a department store, and the Sportsmen are elevator operators who sing about the wonders to be found on every floor (including plugs for Lucky Strikes) while ignoring Benny's loud demands to be let off on the mezzanine.

On the Capitol record, the Sportsmen are accompanied by organ. As with the Jimmy Wakely record, this is probably played by Buddy Cole, who was recording Christmas music on organ for Capitol at the same time. The other connection with the Wakely LP is that Thurl Ravenscroft and Max Smith of the Mellomen (who accompany the cowboy singer) were former members of the Sportsmen.