Some Unusual Music Beds

Today, from my vast collection of tapes which come from the world of advertising, is a set of musical productions, many of which seem to fall somewhere between advertising and things which were, perhaps "on the road" to becoming advertising. Most, but not all, are just about a minute long. Many feature variations on the same melody - perhaps someone out there recognizes it. The last few tapes also feature the repeats of a melody - a different one!

This is a 22 1/2 minute reel which came in a box simply labeled "Radio Commercials". Here is what you'll hear.

1.) A guitar led instrumental, which leads into some wordless vocals for its second half.

2.) A lengthy ad about the Buxton company, and it's leather products. This is a medley of songs, nearly all set to tunes belonging to the pop songs from the late 1960's. Given that every tune here was a hit by the end of 1969, my guess is that this is from around that period. But where would this have been used - it's about 3 1/2 minutes long! Was this from an industrial show?

3.) A jazzy instrumental.
4.) A flute-led, Latin tinged instrumental, on essentially the same tune as above.
5.) A laid-back guitar/piano solo number.
6.) A horn driven jazz-pop thang.
7.) A mid-tempo samba instrumental
8.) Another light Latin thing with xylophone.
9.) A rooty-toot 1920's pastiche.
10.) A small combo, Dixieland number. This one is nearly two minutes long.
11.) Another jazzy, trumpet led number.
12.) Ibid. This one, again, is almost two minutes long, and features the same melody.
13.) The same melody again, in yet another setting.
14. ) A Dixieland number, which seems to have been recorded off of a record, unless I'm mistaken.
15.) A "beautiful music" setting, led by trombone and guitar. This is also one of the longer ones.
16.) A similar "beautiful music" setting of the same tune as the previous track, and again, a long one.

Does anyone have any insight into what these, varied length music beds would have been for. Enough of them are far too long to be for commercials. And what is that lengthy Buxton thing doing mixed in?

Download: Unknown - An Unusual Set of Music Beds and An Ad
Play:

As an extra treat, here's a short bit of tape from another reel. It's another music bed, in this case, a cute, hoedown flavored thing, a lot more fun, to my ears, than any of the 15 instrumental tracks above. After it's over, there is a separate little tag, which may or may not be for the same ad, and then, just a moment of whatever the hoedown music was erasing, something featuring a lovely vibraphone.


Download: Unknown - Unidentified Hoedown Music
Play:

All About Lipstick!!!!!

Well, the tape box indicated that it contained a series of ads from the 1950's, presumably by an advertising firm. The writing was a bit confusing and it seemed to have been revised a few times, but there was definitely a list of products there.

I would love to have heard that tape. But I still got to hear something fun.

Because either the original tape had been stored in the wrong box, or, more likely, had been erased by a later project, because that's what was contained on the reel. And as mentioned, the material on the reel isn't bad at all. It's quite fun and interesting, in the way it gives us a glimpse of the way a product was marketed way back when.

The product is a new shade of lipstick, and this tape (missing the first minute or so of the presentation, unfortunately) is clearly the soundtrack to a promotional film, from Avon, The Company for Women (I drive by one of their manufacturing sites regularly, and see that slogan every time). I don't have a date on this, but given the other dates on the box, and the tone of this presentation, I would strongly suggest the 1950's.

What we have is a description of the making of a shade of makeup, from development to completed lipsticks.

As I mentioned, the beginning of the presentation is gone - for the first 70 seconds, you'll hear a short musical cue which was apparently recorded over the Avon material (in 1960, making it even more likely that the Avon material is from the '50's), and then a very short sound effect of some sort. When those end, the newer recordings end and what is left of the Avon material (about 12 1/2 minutes) begins.

Download: Avon - The Story of Lipstick!
Play: