 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-05-02 04:09
Here's an uncredited clarinet solo in a 1964 Chevrolet commercial. I bet dimes to donuts it's Pete Fountain- if not it's somebody working hard to sound like him. I wonder whether GM would have had to pay more for him than just "studio musician" (lots of folks hate that term).
Fiddled with the link... can't make it hot.
Clarinet starts at :12- couldn't link to that time either...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQfeEF8876I
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-05-02 04:12)
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-05-02 06:36
Whether it's a CT or Leblanc Dynamic (as Pete played), or even an R13, that's some nice pitch bending. Can anyone go from Mozart Clarinet Concerto to this style and play both "correctly"... without any change of equipment?
And what's the name of this tune? A full recording anywhere (by Pete or whoever)? Shazam couldn't help.
I'm also a bit amused by the cultural setting. The wailing clarinet is supposed to help imply a sophisticated high class (but not too expensive or exclusive!) life style. Would one drive a big new Chevy to the symphony in 1964? or the night club? 1964 was pretty early in the marketing psychology game- today every nuance of music would be geared to precisely the correct demographic for the vehicle.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-05-02 07:07)
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Author: DougR
Date: 2014-05-02 08:59
Really, it could have been anybody. It was close enough to the swing era so that you'd have had lots and LOTS of guys in the studios who'd done plenty of time in big bands, and could knock off that style easy as breathing. Not that it's not well played, but plenty of guys could have done it.
Again just guessing, but I'd bet the tune was written specifically for the spot by a staff composer at the agency. If you could find out who Chevy's agency was at the time, and find out who the agency producer was, who the staff music producer was, and where they are now, MAYBE they'd remember, but I doubt it. But if you do, by all means report back! it'd be fun to know who it was.
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Author: TomS
Date: 2014-05-02 17:12
I purchased every Pete Fountain record from about 1964 until the early 70's and listened to him a lot on recordings ... but never in person.
IMHO, does not sound like Pete ... vibrato is different (wider and slower), more pitch bending than he would use, and sound not quite the same. Has some similarities, though ... sounds like a rip-off by unknown.
Contact Pete and see if he remembers ... is he still alive and kicking?
Tom
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Author: BobD
Date: 2014-05-02 17:59
I don't think its Pete F. either. But I did own a '64 Chevy.
Bob Draznik
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-05-02 18:13
Tom- so far as I know Pete is OK, and I sure hope he's playing for his own enjoyment, though I'm pretty sure he retired from public play a few years ago.
My collection of PF records was small, sorry to say, but revered and well listened to. A few years ago I encountered some YouTube videos of his from Bravo, and these wowed me more than my 1960's recordings. My favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mimWHUWuaG4
Doug- I think your take is far more likely than GM's agency team going to the trouble to hire Pete, even if he was willing and available, and wouldn't GM or Pete want to credit- or not... might detract attention from the car. Ditto better to write your own music and avoid paying anybody for the use of a snippet. Then the composer of the ditty also gets no credit. And the whole studio scene (as I mention "studio musician") reveals far too well that most of our music is a commodity... whether you play Mozart or DeLange/Alter. Now let me make some other folks mad by suggesting that, if the agency had wanted a background that sounded like Mozart, but they couldn't use any of the real thing without paying a bunch of royalties- they could equally well have found (and not credited) somebody to write a 60 second Mozartesque bit that would have been equal or superior in quality to the genuine article. It's a big world of composers and performers, most of whom struggle or long ago gave up trying to buy bread with their talent.
Bob- I don't suppose you still have the '64 Chevy? If not, do you wish you did? I sometimes do portraits of families visiting Disney for 50th or 60th anniversaries. In 2009 I asked a gentleman, "What were you driving when you got married in 1959?" He said, "A new Chevy Impala convertible" and got a dreamy look in his eyes.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2014-05-02 21:20)
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