More Silliness from Boston

Awhile back, good pal and fellow blogger Ernie gifted us with an EP produced in the palmiest (and silliest) years of the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler. Called Fiedler's Folly, it included four musical parodies as presented during the concerts of that legendary aggregation.

The idea was to break up the serious parts of the concert with mirth. Back then (1954) I think they used to sell beer at the old hall (see tie-in ad below), so perhaps the audience was in the mood for a hoot and holler - or at least a discreet giggle.

Now Ernie has returned with an additional and intriguing Pops find. It is artifact called "TV-ana," a product of longtime Pops arranger Richard Hayman, who played the harmonica and recorded mood music and pops albums of his own when not under Fiedler's patronage.

In this record, Hayman weaves together various television themes and jingles of the time in a jovial manner. These would have been instantly familiar to the Boston audience, but 65 years later may be more arcana than "TV-ana" to any of you who didn't overdose on American television back in the day.

Click to enlarge

I was a five-year-old at the time, and would happily watch anything from Norman Vincent Peale to I Love Lucy, so I have something of a grounding in the material Hayman covers. Even so, I didn't identify nearly all of the jingles he jangles at us. I caught (in order) the NBC theme, the Halo Shampoo and Oldsmobile jingles, the Dragnet music (an easy one), Ajax cleanser, Robert Hall (an early clothing discounter) and Colgate toothpaste. It says something about the memorability of this nonsense that I could recall these - and sing many of the them - many decades later. I am reminded that the Ajax and Colgate jingles were very similar. This allowed you to combine them thusly: "Use Ajax / the foaming cleanser (bah-bah-bah-ba-bum-bum-bum) / Cleans your breath as it cleans your teeth." Fortunately I did not put this into practice at the sink.

If any of you recognize anything else in Hayman's arrangement, please let me know. Ernie is far too young to be of much help - but I do thank him for the contribution, as always!

By the way, the other side of this 45 is "The Glow-Worm Turns" - but that number also appears on the Fiedler's Folly EP previously on offer.

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