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.

Related posts

• JINGLE VOCAL STYLES OF THE 1960s (0)