Yesterday, September 7, was Commercial Song Day in Japan (it was also Labor Day in the US so we had the day off). On that day in 1951, radio stations in Japan aired the country’s first commercial jingle. It was actually an entire song, “I’m an Amateur Photographer“, about a man who tries to take pictures of his girlfriend but which end up all being out of focus. It was written specifically to promote Konishiroku Photo’s (now Konica Minolta) Sakura brand of film. Notably, it never actually mentions Sakura or Konishiroku by name.
As applied to cars, when I’ve looked at my old Toyotas (4Runner and A70 Supra) I can’t help but hum two songs. One is the “I Love What You Do For Me, Toyota” jingle, and the other is Huey Lewis’s “Power of Love” from Back to the Future, even though Marty’s dream Toyota pickup is first shown several minutes after that song is used in the movie.
What’s your favorite song or jingle associated with a car?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What other ‘outdated’ things do you enjoy?”
To say we were impressed with the vast range of “outdated” interests harbored by our readers would be a massive understatement. Y’all are cultured!
Music media was naturally a popular category, but we had enthusiasts of all types of audio media. From crank_case‘s and CDs digital downloads and Joe Musashi‘s burned CDs to Jenda‘s cassette tapes and Michael Jue‘s 8-track it ran the gamut. brkr12002 and TheJWT not only enjoyed tapes and vinyl, respectively, but old school video games as well, putting them with Jacob B and his restomodded GameBoy Advance.
If speaking strictly about automotive ephemera, Jim Klein rightfully prefers paper owner’s manuals, and Taylor C. still reads physical copies of Car and Driver. More broadly, for things that go, we share ra21benj‘s zeal for vintage Tamiya RC cars and Ian G.‘s enthusiasm for classic road bikes.
There really is something for everyone. Vitor David and Alan both have an affinity for Japanese automatic watches. Kyuusha Corner prefers vintage espresso machines and computers. And we deeply respect Aaron Cake‘s devotion to the Blackberry.
However, this week’s winner is Bryan Kitsune, who appears to be a true renaissance man when it comes to obselete objects:
Vintage Synths – I currently have a Roland Alpha Juno and Casio CZ-101, too bad I have bare bones playing/composing skills.
Film Cameras – haven’t been active with this in awhile, but still have a few old Nikon SLRs
Video games – don’t play much anymore, but kept most of the systems around. The 16-bit era is my favorite. A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy III (6), Super Mario World, Sonic, etc.
CRT TV – I got a little old HITACHI tv to hook the older game consoles up to and get a nice warm CRT glow going on. It has woodgrain side panels, so you know it’s legit.
VCR – HD/4K is a bit much sometimes. Nothing like popping in the VHS of “The Princess Bride” that somehow hasn’t been eaten up after 3 decades and hundreds of viewings.
Cassette/Vinyl – I think I prefer cassette here, as I have more nostalgia for that format, but also a pretty small vinyl collection. The benefit being that this tends to lead to listening to full albums in their intended order. Not a random shuffle or easily skipped.
Music in General – 80’s New Wave is my preference
Books/Magazines in print – while I’ll read on a kindle sometimes – usually for things I can’t find at the library, I’d much rather have paper in my hands.
Watches – I’m not a watch collector, but I have 2 watches, both Casio. One has a *calculator*. Who needs a smart watch?
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Not Japanese at all, but my favorite song associated with a car is “History Repeating” by Propellerheads f/Shirley Bassey. This was used in launch commercials for the retro-styled Jaguar S-Type in 1999.
Here’s the link for the commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UueOqsyeHpc
And here’s the full-length song video:
Whoa! Shirley Bassey caught my eye as she is so awesome in so many ways. Her voice is classic and instantly recognizable. Yello have some great tunes with her doing vocals, check those out….as a matter of fact, “The Race” by Yello is fun. Not with Shirley though. Did I mention that she is hot? 🙂
https://youtu.be/Y4QbJRAWvRU?si=TDyulKY6AddgrnOR
Hands down. Rush = Red Barchetta.
Ultimate Rally song.
And sadly a portend of the current and future state of motoring.
Mine is a bit nerdy. Whenever I see a A80 Supra, I start to hear a song from Ridge Racer called Speedster Overheat. The music is from 1993 or so, and the car in the game bears a resemblance, although the game car is not “really” a Supra.
Also not JDM, but it’ll have to be Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz”
I mean, is there anything that matches vibes better than the 300ZX and Van Halen’s cover of “You really got me”?
My hobby/interest ADD finally paid off! 🙂
As for this week’s question, I must be totally unoriginal…but the first one that came to mind even before reading it in the QotW post is “I love what you do for me, TOYOTA!”
If memory serves me right, I think they used the tune of that jingle in Super OFF ROAD for the SNES, but it’s been awhile since I’ve played that one. (Never owned it, but rented it enough to probably buy it multiple times…)
Well, Steve, you beat me to it. I really enjoyed that Toyota jingle, and we’ve used it to as jokes for other things, like saying “Suzuki” instead, or when we had PE in elementary school the teach would tell us to jump high and yell out Toyota. I also like how Toyota managed to find some narrator with a “tough guy’s” voice but not like today’s GMC / Ford / Dodge HD truck commercials stereotypical driver’s voice (no offense to Will Arnett nor Sam Elliott).
Peugeot 405, “Take My Breath Away”.
Great looking Pininfarina-styled car, exploding corn, dramatic 80s synth pop ballad – what else could you want?
Overjoyed by Stevie Wonder
It was used for many an EF Civic ad in Japan 🥰
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r3O2O10licQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mKbOdT-eWdo
Favorite song associated with a car is “Beat City” by the Flowerpot Men in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s the driving/cruising scene after Ferris, with Cameron, picks up his girlfriend at their high school in the Ferrari 250 GT California (Modena Spider). Another song is Tears for Fears “Everybody Want to Rule the World” music video with the Austin Healey 3000.
Beat City is a pretty dope song by an otherwise pretty terrible band. Good one.
Because of Miami Vice, I will always associate Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” with a black Ferrari 365 GTS/ Daytona 4 and driving at night.
I can’t remember any jingles right off the bat, other than a local dealer jingle from a while back, went “Blue Ribbon Sallisaw, home of the low-priced cars~”
Would like to throw an honorable mention to the FSO Polonez and the song “Wakacyjny Romans” by Skaner both of which were introduced to me by the Moje OHV chce miodu meme.
Chromatics, tick of the clock – from an opening scene of “Drive” movie, Kavinsky “Pacific coast highway” and “Nightcall”. And to keep it with JDM theme – the track from the Legacy of the Legacy (the baton).
“The beautiful roooootaryyyyy….Savaaannaaaaaaaa, arrr ex sevennnnnnnn!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBUUYPwqjBU
A longer, extra jazzy version can be heard at ~16:00 in this video, and it slaps pretty hard. The whole video definitely deserves too be watched, notwithstanding the catchy jingle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHIOGH1bcA&list=LL&index=58&t=2s
If Mazda still has the full-length version of this song somewhere in the archives and would share it for the rotary enthusiasts everywhere, it’d be a small miracle.