Barry Manilow Wrote The Songs And The Jingles
Barry Manilow is known for writing songs that get stuck in your head, like “Copacabana.” Over the course of his career so far, he has written and released 51 Top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart, with 13 hitting number one. He has also released 13 platinum and six multi-platinum albums. However, before he became a pop star and wrote his earworms, he was writing tunes you may not know were his.
He Briefly Studied Advertising
After high school, he started studying advertising at City College of New York, but not because he had a passion for the subject. He didn’t stick with it for long, and soon entered the New York College of Music, and studied music theater at Juilliard. He took a job in the mailroom at CBS and took piano gigs, and, in 1964 Manilow met Bro Herrod, a CBS director. Herrod asked him to arrange some songs for a musical adaptation of The Drunkard. Manilow went above and beyond and wrote an entire score, which Herrod used for the Off-Broadway musical. It ended up having an eight-year run.
His First Jingle Was For Dodge
He started writing songs and recording demos, although, as he says, he didn’t think of himself as a singer. When he sent out the demos, the word of his songwriting began to spread. A commercial agency called him because they liked the way he sounded. They asked him if he would compose something for a Dodge commercial. They gave him the lyrics and he wrote the melody. After finishing his first one, they started calling him to do more. For each of the jingles he composed, he was given the lyrics, and then he had to create a melody that lasted only 15 seconds (30 at the most) but one that stayed with people a long time after.
He Wrote The State Farm Jingle
One of the many jingles he composed in the ‘60s and ‘70s was the jingle for State Farm. Yes, Manilow was responsible for the music behind the commercial that begins “Like a good neighbor…” State Farm still uses the hook that Manilow wrote for their commercials. Despite the fact that the State Farm commercial has played for decades, he has only received $500 for the music he composed since composers do not receive residuals. He also composed a jingle for Dr. Pepper in 1974, although it was not a jingle that was used over and over again like the jingle for State Farm. He wrote jingles for Pepsi, McDonald's (he has called this jingle his big break), and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Another earworm that seemed to stick around for a while was “Stuck on Band-Aid” for Band-Aid, a jingle for which Manilow altered his voice to sound more like a kid when he sang it. This jingle won the advertising agency a CLIO in 1976.
He Didn't Make A Lot Writing Jingles
However, jingle writing was not going to make him rich, even once he started to sing as a background singer and collect residuals since singers, unlike the composers, do get paid whenever the jingle is used. However, he learned a lot about writing catchy tunes that stuck with the listeners which translated into his career.
They Launched His Career
Before he started writing jingles, he had not considered starting a career as a performer. In 2009, he received an honorary award at the CLIO advertising awards where he said that writing jingles was “the best music college I could ever imagine.” Those jingles helped him to learn how to write a catchy melody, and his hits would soon follow.
He Turned Them Into A Medley
While you can still hear the introductory notes to the State Farm jingle, and you can find many of the others online, if you are one of the “fanilows” and attend a concert, you might just hear him sing a song called “A Very Strange Medley,” which is a collection of his jingles.
