 Friend or food? – foto by smith One of our new friends down here is an 82 year young life traveler who’s famous for writing one of the best known TV ad jingles – “Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner.” When I become Dictator, I’m going to make it mandatory that everybody be happy. I’ll hire Happy Police, have them go door to door asking everyone if they’re happy – and if not, my Happy Police will do their little Happy Dance and sing “Oh I wish I were” to cheer them up. I can solve the unemployment problem at the same time. There are lots of unhappy people and lots of the unemployed, so I’ll hire the second as Happy Police to cheer up the first. It’s a Win-Grin situation. Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner! (I asked him if I could use his name and got this reply): Officially, the Oscar Mayer Weiner jingle is ascribed to “J. Walter Thompson Staff.” But hell, the assistant ad manager at OM, who just died, claimed it too. Success creates many fathers. Does it not. It’s mine, and I claim it. Actually, the first 4 bars are directly from the old barroom song, “I Only Want a Buddy, Not a Sweetheart.” I put it into 6/8 time and wrote the rest. It was done in May of 1962, recorded by Dick Trentlage’s kids at his home studio in Fox Lake, IL. Dick often gets credit, and I don’t blame him, because he shaped it. Later arranger Marty Rubensteing and I flew to Vienna Austria and recorded a full instrumental TV version, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic. And the jingle was nearly scrubbed because Oscar Mayer people began getting dirty parodies in the mail, and on some local radio stations. Thanks, Budd Blume Interesting placed people down here. Met 2 other folk who used to room with Bob Dylan in college, and a man who was on the bridge with poet John Berryman the night he jumped to his death.  Yellow Blue Green Mitla Mexico – foto by smith |