[LenGroat]

It’s taken me over 40 years, but I’ve finally bought from TM ! Okay, I know this song is about 40 years old, but I’m posting in ‘Jingles Today’ as it will be on my Trentsound.com show in 9 days time, and to me it WORKS as it juMPs out of the speakers!

Regular readers will recall the Joe Myers/ You Tube posts of the WMAQ ‘Sound of Chicago’ song on this site. Well, I was hooked in about 2 plays and HAD to have it. My home is full of smashed ‘piggy banks’, the dog is starving… but HEY Sean at iJingles, Greg Clancy at TM + engineer Dave and some of THE Singers, pulled out all the stops! THANK YOU.

It took a while to lyric.. but as you hear it ‘build’, you’ll see how adaptable it is…. Tracy gave me some background on the cut, and I’ll post that too…

Meanwhile, nothing like a little suspense…. so let’s start with the Finale!

http://soundcloud.com/len-groat/len-groat-radio-like-it-used

http://youtu.be/wA3IHFFI2X8

[IainJohnstonMember]

Brilliant Len!

As someone who has still has that on a creaking near 40-year-old 7.5 IPS tape straight from WMAQ themselves, THIS sounds as “fresh” as the original!
Excellent work from TM

This must be only the second-ever “UK client re-sing” of that cut…I know who “did” the first, a long long time ago. but that cannot be revealed (for very good reasons )

[Barras]

Even after 30+ years of collecting radio ID jingles, it`s still great to hear a jingle surprise and this is certainly a superb surprise, Len Groat going to TM and choosing one of the best TM jingles of all time !

Can`t wait to hear the actual long jingle on-air and congrats to everyone involved in making this jingle.

[logikreader]

Len, this is tremendous! This is an area where iJingles really shines. I never realized that they would go the extra mile to find backing tracks for almost every TM jingle in the company’s history. It’s really cool. I ought to hear your trentsound.com show sometime.

[ratnobMember]

What a tease you are, Mr G! Tension mounts.
If the full version sounds like the finale, it will be sublime.

[LenGroat]

Thanks for the comments – appreciated ! There is a LOT of story behind this song. To start with it was only after I heard the Joe Myers cut that I then heard the FULL song which is (an amazing) 1.38!

Tracy C. was kind enough to both fill in some details on its background and dig out some versions of the track to help. The studio master they sang over was “an 8-track digitized reduction of the original master so TM enginer Dave Giangiulio was able to mix the fronts and ends of the mixes from the track elements, strings, harp gliss…”

I was totally knocked-out, and up until 1.30am just ‘enjoying’. It’s different to JAM’s vocal sound in that I wanted the ‘vocal swoops’ that were part of the original style (the now retired Jackie Dickson) as it gives it that more ’70s swing’, casual sound, as if it is part of a broadway show!

BTW.. the ‘bug’ has truly got me and next week I’m ordering again from JAM, a classic cut I somehow missed back in the GEM days !

I’m afraid the ‘tease’ goes on….. as I’ve not been able to get the 1.38 version to upload, so here next is the version with one verse, the 0.56 one…

Len Groat ‘Radio Like It Used to Be’ song – SHORT by Len Groat

[Litic]

Great jingle Len, thanks for sharing

Calling Wixy >>>> now this is interesting regarding our problem. I can see Lens first sound post, but not the second.

[tomobie]

Len..

Brilliant…the best re-sing I’ve heard in a long time. Absolutely stunning!!! It’s got the WOW factor…

[ratnobMember]

Speechless.

[LenGroat]

Thank Guys. I cannot believe it myself! It makes me feel… ehh.. welll .. it’s like admiring a red Jaguar ‘E’ type in the 60’s and being able to actually buy one decades later…

Now I MUST thank TM Studios for the ‘extra’ services! I asked if it was possible to take a picture of the vocal group so I could imagine the day, and how they all looked, and they went a LOT further. In fact it’s ‘Radio Like it used to be – The Movie’ ! Here’s a shorter clip; I will upload a longer one later but it takes HOURS with my Portuguese internet connection

Okay, time to ‘get out the Popcorn’ !

http://youtu.be/lX-CoDpuMRA

[AT-GrooveMember]

Wow, congratulations Len & TM!
Great cut choice, brilliant singers performance, creative lyrics – amazing jingle! This jingle IS the reason why we all here love jingles, right? Can’t wait to hear the full 1.38 version.

[ratnobMember]

Blimey, Len, this gets better every time you post. You are quite right to be thrilled by all of this.

[professor1036]

Very nice Len…the folks at TM have done a fantastic job!

[dianablanton1984Member]

All I can say is… WOW!

[Butler Henderson]

Like the “have a golden day” inserted in it – any more old Trent / GEM straplines to come?

[LenGroat]

AT ~ Prof ~ Geoff ~ Diana

Thank you, it was indeed a ‘lyrical labour of love’ because:

Butler: well-spotted! It does indeed include allusions to my favourite ‘straplines’, from my Trent/GEM days, it was how I solved the problem of so much lyric to complete !

So in the second verse I included the one we used on Trent from 1980 to 1994. ~ 14 years is pretty good for one line to endure.

LG – RLIUTB Song – ’24 Hour Friend’ short by Len Groat

http://soundcloud.com/len-groat/lg-rliutb-song-24-hour-friend

I won’t have this song on my Trent Sound show until 11 March but this Sunday I’ll post the whole thing, with an ‘extra !

[LenGroat]

♫ ♪♫Sunday will never be the same♫ ♪♫….

I doubt if there will ever be another Sunday…

….. when I’m able to reveal something as elaborate, beautifuly produced and sung as the ♫♪♫’Radio Like It Used To Be♫♪♫ song….

As Butler ‘sussed’ I wove into it several lines from past jingles, there’s even an allusion to music going ’round’ based on a cut from Trent 1 back in 1980… Yet this song goes back to before my first show on ILR, but for some strange reason I never really ‘clicked’ it until now.. so I can say without contradiction, it is an Iconic example of the true art of jingle making and, like Joe Myers, I’m humbled to have my own version…

THANK YOU everyone at iJingles/ TM

Len Groat ‘Radio Like It Used to Be’ FULL Song by Len Groat

[Barras]

wowwwwwwwwwww !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don`t care if I`m over-the-top, I mean it, absolutely “wow” !

[IainJohnstonMember]

Simply…sheer…CLASS!

In a way, its the nearest anyone’s got in years to the idea of the original “TM Song” from that same era (or the JAM Song, which in itself was very much a “tribute” to that of years earlier); …anyone got enough dosh to try for a re-sing of that? I’ve heard a sort-of “short version”, or at least using the same intro bars, on a station TM composite.

Len – all you need now is a follow-up “alternative” & suitably lyric’ed version entitled…
… “JINGLES Like They Used to Be”

[SeanMartin]

We made a few video clips during several of the “takes” and so, now that you’ve read the book, time to see the (home-made) movie, Len Groat & Radio like it used to be.

http://youtu.be/XEsf43-yiqw

More than ever, the iJingles motto “musical imaging is evocative, emotional and memorable” is confirmed here.

Enjoy!

[LenGroat]

Thanks Sean, as polished as the jingle !

And for the connoisseurs who like to see EVERYTHING, you are now IN the studio ‘live..’

It was worth getting the song just to see Annagrey smile at ‘me’ as she sang my name !

[bossjockMember]

Only one thing to say..”PHENOMENAL….Yeahhhhh!!!!”.

Thanks for sharing this with us Len. I’ve listened to it over and over an it makes me grin broadly with pleasure every time. Fantastic.

[ratnobMember]

I found myself singing it when cooking Sunday lunch: a sign of how sung IDs still work.

[professor1036]

Brilliant Len…great work by everyone at TM! Nice to see footage of the session as well (should of asked for that myself!). I agree with the comments about recreating that distinctive Tom Merriman sound from the 1970’s!

Now then…maybe my turn again?!

[Litic]

A true masterpiece

[Author]

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