Baja Marimba Band in 1969 radio commercial?

[lgarvin]

In the summer of 1969, in Bradford, PA., I heard a commercial on the radio with music that sounded unmistakably like Baja Marimba Band. The melody resembled Dave Clark Five's "Because" but the tempo and style matched the trombone opening to BMB's "Yes Sir, That's My Baby." No marimbas, but the style still sounded like it's right out of BMB's recording sessions. There's also some singing at the end. I don't recall what product was being promoted, or if it was a local or widespread ad, but if anyone has any idea what this music is and if it's available anywhere, just thought I'd ask some "experts."

 

[DAN BOLTON]

Was it a male voice? The only vocals in the BMB repetoire were by Julius himself and Frank DeVito, and these were very rare, Julius did I DON'T WANT TO WALK WITHOUT YOU, and Frank did WALL STREET RAG and WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. SHE'S LEAVING HOME featured the whole group as a chorus, too.


There were literally dozens of clone groups at the height of the BMB's popularity; about this time, I was in high school band, and we did a folk rock piece that featured brief passages of music that were written to sound like the TJB, BS&T, CHICAGO, and the BMB. I was the only member of the band who recognized the BMB passage...

I also remember a commercial on TV that had a soundtrack that sounded a lot like CAST YOUR FATE TO THE WIND, but had a lot of improvisation and some modulation. I searched all the BMB recordings, but it wasn't them...

Dan

 

[PartyRico]

Igarvin it's nice to hear about the Dave Clark Five, a highly underrated band that gave the Beatles a run for their money around 1964, and recorded about 18 hit records in the USA. They sold about 60 Million records, and featured a great bluessy sounding soul singer and keyboardist composer named Mike Smith. They have recently been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Yes indeed the British Invasion was felt round the A&M stable... Petula Clark was featured in a scene with Herb Alpert on one of his tv specials.

 

[DAN BOLTON]

When I think of the Dave Clark Five; especially BECAUSE, I'm reminded of the similarity to The Buckinghams and DON'T YOU CARE. The only real difference is the horns in the latter. Both have a jazz feel to them, and I wonder what Herb might have done with BECAUSE.

These were two of my favorite non-TJB songs as I was growing up.



Dan

 

[Rudy]

Igarvin it's nice to hear about the Dave Clark Five, a highly underrated band that gave the Beatles a run for their money around 1964, and recorded about 18 hit records in the USA.

It's also noteworthy that of all the hitmaking bands out there, the DC5 have NO CDs on the market right now. I think there was only one legitimate release, back in the 90s, and from what I've heard it was not all that good. All the CDs out there now (which you'll see on eBay) are unauthorized bootleg needle drops! It's even harder to find DC5 on vinyl--there are only two genuine stereo releases of the classic tunes, and both are compilations. I have the UK Starline compilation, but don't yet have the Epic 2LP set released here in the US. Other compilations claiming to be stereo are all fake stereo...so in some cases the mono LP versions are the ones to get.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

Not that it answers the original question, but related to the topic - Julius and the Baja men did an ad campaign for General Foods of Canada - Maxwell House Coffee. It was very popular there and won an award. In fact, the tune, Man, That's Coffee!, was released as a single on Quality Records - which A&M licensed before opening their own A&M offices north of the border.