Radio advertising long has included jingles in radio commercials.

In this article, we’ll look at the jingle styles of the 1960s.

Sixties vocal stylings

The typical jingle vocal group of the Top 40 days usually consisted of one of these configurations:

1) Five-voice mixed group (three guys, two girls);

2) Seven-voice mixed group (four guys, three girls);

3) All-male sound (either four or five guys in harmony or three voices in unison)

Occasionally, writers experimented with all-girl groups, kids’ vocals, and male leads with three females as a back-up group; but those were distinctly in the minority.

Memorable soloists popped up in certain PAMS packages.

For example, Trella Hart added her distinctive breathy sound to Series 32 and 33, Bill Simmons sung those classic bass solos in Series 17 and 18, and Peyton Park contributed soulful and intense Ray Charles-like scat lines in Series 24, 25 and 34. The blistering rock solos from Series 34? That was Lucy Crane.

Often the lead female vocalist from the group would step up to take a solo, as Jean Oliver did in the “Smooth Sailing” cut from PAMS Series 17. Jackie Dickson did similar chores from 1967 to 1973 on many packages.

A versatile male singer, Dan Alexander had a rare combination of solo and ensemble capabilities. He sang on jingles in the Dallas studios beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the ’90s. Almost every singer to whom I spoke singled him out as absolutely the best singer in a group or as a solo.

In the late ’60s, PAMS began experimenting with a younger vocal group named after the studio in which they recorded, “Studio C.” The music charts were topped by “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell”. Times were changing. It was the Age of Aquarius.

The Studio C group, led by Jim Kirk and later Chris Kershaw, had a more contemporary sound; the personnel were more familiar with current rock. This was the first generation of singers for jingles that wasn’t born until after the Big Band era. Kershaw and Kirk were equally skilled in writing, arranging and singing solos or with an ensemble.

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Jingle fans — passionate, sometimes fanatical — can be found all over the world. Some love radio station jingles; others are devoted to radio advertising jingles created for radio commercials.

Most radio jingle fans remember fondly just about everything they ever heard by PAMS. However, the studio also was capable of horrid, embarrassing and sometimes expensive failures. Those audio flops were quickly consigned to the vaults, never to be syndicated.

All creative folks have peaks and valleys. Those who never make mistakes are playing it too safe. PAMS often took chances and usually succeeded.

Having said that, the first really putrid, unlistenable PAMS package in modern memory was recorded in 1960. After coming off the brilliant Series 15, “Living Radio,” which was heard on many stations, PAMS recorded the first of three high-school jingle packages. Dubbed Series 15A, “High-School Salute,” this series had the singers attempt to sound like cheerleaders as they warbled the names and slogans of local schools and teams.

The harmonies were simplified and sung a bit loosely — so loosely, in fact, as to be teeth-grindingly out of tune most of the time. The few brave program directors who ordered these cuts must have been tone-deaf. And they were few, indeed.

Interestingly, PAMS recorded another high-school series in 1963 (Series 25D, “The Cheerleaders”), which turned out great. Its instrumental tracks were smokin’, and the male/female octave singing was a bit more in tune. The series did well on such stations as KXOK(AM) in St. Louis, Detroit’s WXYZ(AM) and many others.

In the early 1960s, PAMS tasted success with innovative hits like Series 17, “The New Frontier,” and Series 18, “Sonosational.” But the winning streak came to end in 1962 with the release of Series 21, “The Friendly Giant.”

It was a huge stink bomb.

“The Friendly Giant,” piloted for middle-of-the-road WCKY(AM) in Cincinnati, was a mistake from the beginning. Apparently a new in-house arranger was unfamiliar with the PAMS practice of writing the instrumental tracks to accommodate a variety of call-letter melodies, so the call letters in this package were forced into a repetitive up-and-down melody that pleased no one. The all-male vocal group featured in the package sounded fine, but they lyrics were both lame and much too busy. The only other station to order this package was country-format KHEY(AM) in El Paso, Texas.

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