Wrote SILLY Song About Candy Bar…Was SO Big…HAD to BUILD a 2nd Factory to Keep Up!-Professor of Rock
7,653Get ready for a good one. Today, we’re telling the wildest stories behind the television tunes that ruled the 80s. The ones that played in between your favorite shows. They’re those quick bite-sized hits that were permanently burned into your brain, and you’ll know them when you hear them. It’s nostalgia overload. You may know them even more than the biggest hit songs of the time. So one was a throwaway song, intentionally written to fail… but it sold so much candy, the company had to build an extra factory just to keep up with the demand. Then there were those coffee commercials with a wholesome morning tune… but later that same song was used in an infamous ad about a brother and sister with way too much chemistry. Or how about the song from a cola shoot where a megastar’s hair caught on fire. And then there was the catchy song that came from a guy accidentally stuttering the product name cuz he was drunk, and it became legendary… If you lived through the 80s, you’re gonna love this one. The best bite-sized hit of the neon decade, NEXT on Professor of Rock.
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Executive Producer
Brandon Fugal
Honorary Producers
Robert Taylor, Missy D, Stan Summay, MG, David Fritz
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So we’ve done the greatest television theme songs from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. And all those episodes were a hit. But since doing those, many of you have asked about the songs that came between your favorite shows…So today we’re doing it. And you’re gonna love it. It’s the best of the surprisingly crazy world of advertising jingles… 80s edition. The neon decade has given us some of the catchiest commercial tunes of all time… And on this countdown, I’m giving you my picks for the ten most unforgettable jingles of the 80s.
But first, here are a few that just missed out on the countdown… Alright, let’s get to it. So starting things off at #10, it’s a classic 80s jingle disguised as a cartoon theme song… Transformers, “More Than Meets the Eye.” This one came by way of songwriter Anne Bryant… In the 70s and early 80s, Anne got into writing music for advertisements. And throughout the decade, she and her assistant Ford Kinder created some of the most memorable cartoon themes for Hasbro toy lines… Jem, My Little Ponies, Visionaries. Kinder also contributed to GI Joe. But Transformers just might be the most unforgettable theme they worked on together. From day one, the idea was that the animated series would be a marketing tool to promote Hasbro’s Transformers toys. And Anne Bryant delivered a metallic masterpiece.
Her driving, synthesized anthem became the sonic DNA of the entire franchise. The song was pure marketing genius with its tagline, “More than meets the eye.” So it’s no surprise that the same exact cartoon theme was used in the toy commercials. And man, those 80s Transformers toy commercials were pure sensory overload. They opened with lightning-fast animation sequences, often showing the Autobots and Decepticons in battle. And they always showed off how they transformed. These scenes were like mini-movies. Then there were always kids playing with the actual toys. But what really drove it all home was the shots of the kids staring into the camera and saying in that robotic voice, “robots in disguise.” It was 80s advertising theater at its best. Kids absorbed these ads like sponges, and Transformer toy sales skyrocketed. In fact, the campaign was so successful writers for the show just kept coming up with more Transformers just so they could sell more toys.
3 years into the show, there were nearly 200 different character toys to choose from. And that’s not including variations of the same characters. It was insane. But if you were a kid in the 80s, you loved it. Anne Bryant's jingle created a generational soundtrack that still triggers instant nostalgia.
In at #9… It’s a ZZ Top Special. It’s Legs! In 1983, ZZ Top made a permanent mark on the decade with Eliminator.