THE NEW SEEKERS - “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing”
(#308, 8th January 1972)
In his book How Brands Become Icons, marketing expert Douglas Holt lays out his theory of brands that transcend simple commercial strength and assume a role as cultural icons. Coca-Cola is one of his examples. He theorises that whereas standard branding plans involve continuous restatement of a set of brand values, the iconic brand relies more on a series of dramatic performances that address and resolve existing cultural contradictions, cementing the brand’s position at the heart of the zeitgeist. Most of his examples involve adverts in which, for instance, black people and white people are nice to one another.
The “Teach The World To Sing”/”Buy The World A Coke” campaign features heavily in his analysis of Coca-Cola’s iconic development. A dramatic success on its debut in 1971, it gave Coke a worldwide sales fillip and cemented its status as one of America’s top brands. Holt argues that this was because its unifying message was what the US needed to hear in the troubled wake of our old friend, the Vietnam War. Whatever the truth of this, the New Seekers’ decaffeinated folk warble became an absolute monster of a hit, so maybe resonances were being struck somewhere.
The hit was so big, and so simple, that it made the crossover to playgroups and school assemblies. By 1975 or so, you could buy a chunky music box which, at the turn of a dial, would play the song’s melody while a frieze of smiling faces, apple trees, honey bees rotated gently to illustrate the lyrics. Somebody bought that music box for me, and so it is that - even though I wasn’t born at the time - this is my earliest musical memory from the list.
Not a particularly happy memory, though. I got bored of hearing the tune well before I got bored of bashing the box around, and my main recollection is of how the toy and the tune gave me an accidental introduction to sound manipulation, as holding the dial back or forcing it to turn faster would speed or slow the music. Listening to the New Seekers now the song is as repetitive, static and chimingly cloying as I remember from the box. And, dramatic cultural performance or no, it sounds older than almost anything surrounding it: for all the horrid persistence of “Imagine” as a standard, this kind of singalong message song has vanished from pop’s remit. 2
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Rosie on February 2nd, 2007
Taken aside from its commercial context it’s a pleasant enough ditty but not, I’d have thought, blockbusting material. Its bland, cloying sugariness has about the same effect on my teeth that Coca Cola does - I’ve never been a fan - so I guess it’s appropriate.
Where’s the box for ’should have been a 10, Tom? Nah - only kidding!
Two might be a tad harsh but I’d be hard-pressed to give it more than three.
FT's Tom on February 2nd, 2007
Erm yes I “forgot” should have been a 10.
I did actually forget, but then could have gone back and changed it, but then couldn’t be bothered. New Seekers fans should complain to the “Leave A Reply” box below.
Erithian on February 2nd, 2007
The biggest selling single in the UK for four years - according to some sources the first UK million-seller since “The Last Waltz”.
The number 1s of 1972 range from the sublime to the downright inexplicable - but when I was compiling my all-time top 10 number 1s for an office poll to mark the 1000th, 1972 was the only year with two entries in my top 10 (Don McLean and Alice Cooper, since you ask).
FT's Tom on February 2nd, 2007
Don McLean
Ulp. That comments box could get interesting :)
jeff w on February 2nd, 2007
I quite like this, and am (just) old enough to have memories of the original Coke ad. Am I right that in the ad version, the song starts with one voice singing the tune, then two, three => a multitude? A very effective way of tying music to message, if so.
This is something the (five?) New Seekers on their own couldn’t really replicate. Hence their version must always fall short.
Now, “Beg, Steal or Borrow” (their Eurovision entry), that was a classic!
FT's wwolfe on February 2nd, 2007
Did the Coke commercial air on British TV? If not, then that means it was a bigger hit in the UK than it was in the US, despite the UK listeners not hearing it twice an hour for months on end while watching TV, as we did in the US. That must mean something, but I’m not sure what.
Funny that this should be Greenaway and Cook’s biggest hit. (Not sure if that’s “funny/strange” or “funny/haha.”)
FT's Doctor Mod on February 3rd, 2007
Like jeff w and wwolfe, I can’t hear this song without thinking “Coca-Cola.” Indeed, I immediately hear the backing vocal line that wasn’t in the recording–”It’s the Real Thing!” And, yes, I seem to recall that the commercial featured “the whole world” (figuratively speaking, of course) backing the New Seekers vocally.
Well–crass commercialism indeed.
I was going to vote “too low” because there are so many other songs that are far worse. And then I remembered that “This is My Song” got a 1–and it’s better than this.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on February 3rd, 2007
yes it aired on brit TV, and yes, as jeff sez, it begins with one voice — strapping blonde girl iirc — then two then three, then more and more as the camera pulls back and up
i was kind of fascinated by the ad bcz it seemed to be part of a story i wasn’t party to (by no means the first time this happened with a song but the first time it happened with an ad): like who WERE all these people and why where they all gathered, apparently in a desert, singing? wqhat doies singing in harmony have to do with coke? what IS coke? (normally british ads were extremely self-explanatory)
Marcello Carlin on February 3rd, 2007
this kind of singalong message song has vanished from pop’s remit
um…feed the world…
Tom on February 3rd, 2007
That was 20 years ago though! (OK, Band Aid 20 wasn’t, I admit)
Tommy Mack on February 3rd, 2007
Wonder if Noel Gallagher had that same music box as a nipper?
Billy Smart on February 3rd, 2007
If this merits a 2, then I trust that by the time we get to 1988 ‘First Time’ will get a zero. Though I don’t know with which song the experience of drinking Coca Cola bears the least affinity; global harmony or losing your virginity.
However ‘Things go Better With Coca Cola’ by the 5th Dimension (as found on the RPM ‘Magpie’ compilation) really does sound like sunshine and pleasure
Chris Brown on February 4th, 2007
Speaking of backing vocals, I remember Jim Tavare performing this in his show at Edinburgh many a year ago, with a pre-Landlord Al Murray supplying the backing vocal “…Shit with love”. And that’s about as much as I’ve ever enjoyed the song, although being forced to sing it at school didn’t help. I blame the teachers.
I suppose there’s a certain aptness when we’re talking about brands that this is the work of the New Seekers, whose connection to the old Seekers is tenuous.
BTW, of course Don McLean had a Number One in 1972. I’ll save my comments for the time.
FT's Doctor Mod on February 4th, 2007
I suppose there’s a certain aptness when we’re talking about brands that this is the work of the New Seekers, whose connection to the old Seekers is tenuous.
In effect, the New Seekers, unlike Coca-Cola, weren’t “the Real Thing.”
FT's Martin Skidmore on February 4th, 2007
What I remember about this isn’t the lame and annoyingly ubiquitous song so much as the demonstration of my late-developerness in grasping how music releases worked. I was 12, and had grown up in a home without a record player, with parents with zero interest in music. The New Seekers had an album out at the time or pretty immediately after this, and I was confused because I thought albums were collections of singles, and even including B-sides there surely weren’t 12 tracks, which I seemed to think was the standard requirement.
Marcello Carlin on February 5th, 2007
Number Two Watch: I mean that most sincerely friends, Opportunity Knocks winner 12-year-old Neil Reid and his heartrending “Mother Of Mine”!
intothefireuk on February 5th, 2007
Re:- Neil Reid, for heart-rending read nails down the blackboard.
I was always disappointed hearing this that the words were completely different to the ad (I was too young to understand about advertising restrictions). ‘Over and over’ just isn’t the same as ‘Coca Cola’ ! Although the ad was mind numbingly catchy, the New Seekers version was pretty appalling and 2 is very generous.
Erithian on February 5th, 2007
Neil Reid – call it heart-rending, nails down the blackboard, or perhaps in keeping with the concurrent number one, just tooth-rotting. Number 3 at the same time (don’t worry I won’t make a habit of this) was “A Horse With No Name”, which would have been a great improvement.
Sadly, Jeff, Number 2 Watch is the only place we’ll encounter “Beg, Steal or Borrow”. I liked the occasional New Seekers song at the time (and had a big primary school crush on Eve Graham), although wouldn’t argue much in their favour these days. I remember a pep talk given at work by our new head of division, which boiled down to admitting that our ‘new deal’ was as close to a decent deal as the New Seekers’ version of “Pinball Wizard” was to Pete Townshend’s power chord.
Jon on February 6th, 2007
This is a pretty good tune. It has a much stronger melody and hook line than alot of the songs you have given 5 or higher. I bet you give the Oasis tune that rips of the melody a higher score when you get to the Ninties.
FT's Pete Baran on February 6th, 2007
I wouldn’t bet on it Jon.
FT's Tom on February 6th, 2007
That Wasis track didn’t get to #1, so it’s moot really. If it’s the one I’m thinking of I would indeed have given it a higher mark - 4 probably.
Marcello Carlin on February 6th, 2007
“Shakermaker” which got to #11.
Kat on February 6th, 2007
We had to sing this at school as well. The eighties, there.
Jon on February 7th, 2007
What kind of lunacy is this where plagiarism would get a hypothetically higher mark than the original? Is it because you don’t like the New Seekers or because you don’t like Coke?
I know its kind of irrelevant because Shakermaker didn’t get to number one – but still this seems rather unfair on the New Seekers.
FT's Tom on February 7th, 2007
I think Liam has a better voice than the New Seekers, the Oasis track has better lyrics, and the band do more with the hook.
(”Better” and “more” being relative as 4 is still not a high mark.)
Marcello Carlin on February 7th, 2007
Tom are you John Harris?
(nb: DNFTT)
Jon on February 8th, 2007
Noels lyrics:
I’d like to be somebody else and not know where I’ve been
I’d like to build myself a house out of plasticine
Shake along with me
I’ve been driving in my car with my friend Mr. Soft
Mr. Clean and Mr.Ben are living in my loft
Shake along with me!
FT's CarsmileSteve on February 9th, 2007
Mr Benn, obv.
Marcello Carlin on February 9th, 2007
Not necessarily. He could have been harbouring Mr Ben Benison, seldom-renowned co-star of Vision On and The Up And Down In And Out Roundabout Man.
Lena on February 9th, 2007
“Grasshoppers in Honey” by The Meligrove Band is better than anything else mentioned here.
Marcello Carlin on February 9th, 2007
(nb: the MB song paraphrases the New Seekers one)
Erithian on February 13th, 2007
Blimey, this site got a bit feisty while I was away over the weekend! What can one say but “it’s only rock’n’roll”…
Tom has justifiably closed discussion on the “Telegram Sam” thread and not invited it on his entry about comment box policy, but I hope it’s not too late to have my two-penn’orth, and I hope you don’t mind me posting it here.
To be honest I thought I’d been the target of flaming from certain people here when I ventured to suggest that I liked the Sandi Thom record and preferred “Black Night” to “Band of Gold”. Those were among my first postings on the site, having “lurked” for a while, and at the time I felt like backing out of the debate myself, much as Doc Mod is talking of doing. But I’ve persisted and like to think that I’ve gained a measure of respect, while recognising that some people do have strong views and forceful ways of expressing them. So when Tom hinted earlier in this thread that my liking for a certain upcoming Number 1 (errr… it’s about a painter) might prove controversial, my reaction was “bring it on”.
We don’t want to lose someone with insights of the quality of Doc Mod (and btw it’s good to see the other Doc back as well) so I fully echo what Tom said in his separate post. As for “spoilers”, I don’t know whether it’s a particularly British usage deriving from newspapers giving away soap plots in advance, but I think DM is taking it a little too literally when she says “sorry if I spoiled the fun”. I do agree with Marcello to the extent that some people on this site are not as familiar with the sequence of number ones as others, and it is part of the game to hold off commenting on them until Tom gets there (with the obvious proviso that it’s fine if you’re making relevant comparisons) – but it’s nothing personal to appeal to people not to jump the gun. Please stick around though Doc – the more the merrier.
And Tom, not to jump the gun but I’ve had a certain synthesizer-based intro running around my head for a week now.
Bill Compton on June 4th, 2007
Hi Jim. Photos i received. Thanks