[LenGroat]

Back in the late 60s I thought having the (50s crooner) Jimmy Young on Radio1 mid-mornings after Tony Blackburn was poor programming, it should have been Keith Skues. But I DID like the Pepper Tanner ‘Now Sound’ cut the station made for JY:

Pepper Tanner – Now Sound – Radio 1 Jimmy Young Show by Len Groat

I liked it SO much that 44 years later, thanks to Sean at iJingles, and Greg and the team at TM Studios, I have had it customised!

Pepper Tanner – Now Sound – Len Groat personal cut 2012 by Len Groat

That is the basic mix, and I’m now finding there is a lot more to tell about this package, the vocals, the ‘pre-records’. and its recreation…

[IainJohnstonMember]

I won’t “steal your thunder” Len, just reprise the Radio One side of the package…

http://jinglemad.com/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/22604#Comment_22604

http://www.4shared.com/file/35941471/d83134d1/Wixy1360-RadioOne-1969-PT-NowSound.html

There’s plenty of other JMers that can tell the “Now Sound” story better than I can.

[IainJohnstonMember]

…a quick “top-up”
Wixy1360-ClassicPT-LenG-JYcut-andmore by Wixy1360

[LenGroat]

Iain I spent an HOUR re-reading re-hearing your excellent Radio 1 topic: I realised us ‘anoraks’ are creating a well of information on radio ID’s, which is great for NEW collectors to’fill-in’ the history, but also for us old-uns who are starting to forget…

As well as the PT stuff I enjoyed hearing the Audio Producers package (too much girl vibrato but they WERE catchy!) and still LOVE the PAMS 1971 stuff, ‘Album of Today’, ‘Newspin’, ‘It’s A RayDeoWunDerFulWeeKend’… Jackie Dickson SOARS on those….

And thanks for the various Now Sound sings; the PT vocals WERE rather ‘inconsistent’ shall I say ?

Golly I’m getting diplomatic in my old age!

[tomobie]

Len & Iain …

Here’s a mix of more “Now Sound” tracks

Pepper’s Now Sound

-tom-

[glen]

Norm Barrington has a demo too.

[IainJohnstonMember]

The WJAC Johnstown Ohio definately rings a bell! (…on ‘orrible “back-treated” tape…sqeak, squeak…)

[LenGroat]

Tom: thanks for all the extra ‘Now Sound’ mixes !

Here’s one of the mixes of my cut : the package originally came with a longer instrumental version of each cut (a pre-record) and as you will hear these are cleverly written to give a longer ‘donut’ mix of the jingle.. The editing by TM / iJingles is perfect, and it’s VERY useable!

Now Sound – Len Groat personal cut DONUT by Len Groat

[tomobie]

Len…

Love the vocals & the mix. They just seem to jump out. So different and much better than the original Memphis P&T singers of the 60’s.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

Here’s one of the mixes of my cut…

The really demonstrates that the cut was a rip off of LAZY DAY by Spanky & Our Gang.

[bobgreenradioMember]

indeed indeed. you know; i really liked that group. mercury if i recall. i played the hell out of it in the summer of 67, at the ‘big t!’ 1450. now, just turn a bit, look up the river (north) and squint hard, real hard. see the tower beacon? i bet you were listening to wspr, right?
we were running the ‘its whats happening’ pkg then, and kept bugging gary edens for a better deal on pams 29/32

[Tracy CarmanMember]

Actually, I would have been listening to WHYN. WSPR was doing “swinging sounds without the screaming” (and using Kintel jingles). WTXL was also rocking, using Pepper-Tanner’s Quick Sig B. WHYN was airing PAMS 32 followed by 33.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

Oh… and yes… It was Mercury records. I’ve got sheet music autographed by Spanky and Stuart Scharf, who wrote (and produced) ’em.

[LenGroat]

Bob & TC

You are making me ‘pea green with envy’ as I would so much have liked to be an American (and in radio) back in that era…

I (and quite a few other early ILR people here) based a lot of we did on ‘clocks’, the US formats, and of course GREAT Dallas jingles!

TC; the daft UK record buyers ignored LAZY DAY by Spanky & Our Gang so ironically Jimmy Young was playing a jingle based on a (British) flop ! I actualy saw Spanky when she did the ‘Mama Cass part’ of the Mamas & Papas in a 1990s UK tour …. Brilliant voice

I’ve found a picture of Cyd, the original female lead-singer, on the Now Sound package (and the Jimmy Young version)… trying to get permission to use it !

[TServo2049]

And thanks for the various Now Sound sings; the PT vocals WERE rather ‘inconsistent’ shall I say ?

Yes, some of the sings were done in Dallas, and some in Memphis. (And weirder still, I believe that the original demo was sung in Dallas, but with Cyd Mosteller on lead!)

[JAM / PAMSMember]

In the late 1960s Pepper-Tanner opened a studio in Dallas. In that era some of their packages were sung in Memphis, and some in Dallas. But frequently there would be generic lyrics on the front of cuts which had been sung by the Memphis group, and new call letters at the end sung by the Dallas group. The mismatch seems obvious and awful to me now, but at the time no one seemed to notice or care very much.

By the way, the address of that studio was 1349 Regal Row. That’s right, the same building that TM moved into in the early 70s. There was a huge “Pepper-Tanner” logo built into the floor of studio A. TM installed new flooring over it when they renovated the building prior to moving in. But every TM track cut in that studio was done just a few inches above a giant P-T logo!

[dreke61Member]

You should write a book Jon! This is the kind of trivia I would really like to read.

[TServo2049]

In the late 1960s Pepper-Tanner opened a studio in Dallas. In that era some of their packages were sung in Memphis, and some in Dallas. But frequently there would be generic lyrics on the front of cuts which had been sung by the Memphis group, and new call letters at the end sung by the Dallas group.

Actually, from what I’ve heard, it was usually the other way around. At least in the case of The Now Sound, the vocal pre-records were done in Dallas. For example, the “ba-ba-ba-ba” on this cut, where you can clearly hear Brian Beck’s voice up front.

There were actually a couple packages which had the vocal pre-records done in Dallas, but which were (to my knowledge) never actually sung there, even for the demo. All the station sings for the Swingle package were done in Memphis, but the Swingle Singers soundalike vocals on the tracks are clearly the Dallas group.

[bobgreenradioMember]

yup. you are most correct.

[LenGroat]

It’s good to see so many posts and comments about this package. I used it pre-ILR (edited of course) on Swansea Hospitals Radio (Radio City) 1970-72. We also had edits of It’s What Happening + naturally, a ton of old PAMS stuff…

There is also a VERY interesting parallel with my post about the new ‘This Is Gold’ package. Pepper Tanner had to go to Dallas to get vocals of the necesary quality to try and ‘take on’ PAMS, but clearly ‘blew it’ when they re-sang them in Memphis with local singers.

In the same way IQBeats (of Seattle) in their press-release about the GOLD jingles (ironically) make it clear that in order to make a package with the right feel (they call it ‘retro’ now) THEY had to use Dallas singers!

Here is the last audio from me about my Now Sound cut, the acapella open which gives a ‘neat’ namecheck.

Now Sound – Len Groat personal cut Namecheck acapella by Len Groat

By the way, I had no idea the Now Sound cut was sung in ‘2-part harmony and unison’ which shows how little I understand vocal writing (after all these decades) and how GOOD the Dallas singers can make even a simple arrangement sound…

[bobgreenradioMember]

you know; looking back, i think it was an accent thing i objected to with pepper. sure, texas had its accent too, but not like memphis.
dont get me wrong here. memphis had a great record company (stax) with tons of talent in that town. i loved all of that stuff, but pepper always had a ‘haystack country twang’ on everything they cut. pams didnt. oddly. perhaps rick sklar trained them better?
take those pepper tracks to any other part of the country, resing em, as is now being done, and many tingle through the airwaves.

media general figured it out (to late), but their thing was newspapers and we all figured pepper wasnt here for much longer. and it wasnt.

[TServo2049]

There’s a great example of the “twang” Bob is talking about in this early-70s P-T jingle for Nelson Brothers Furniture in Chicago:

http://youtu.be/b-k49ahme0E?t=1m4s

BTW, here’s a later version featuring Trella Hart. Tracy Carman said that Trella moved to Memphis and sang for Tanner some time in the 70s, after Marv Shaw relocated in ’73, but other than Gettin’ It Together (which was done in Dallas a couple years earlier), this is the first Tanner jingle I’ve actually heard her on:

[ratnobMember]

Nothing I can add, but loving this whole discussion …

[simon_t123Member]

ahh this is great Len and pleased to see it via iJingles / TM … Ben Freedman I believe also offers resings of the ‘Now Sound’ or did ? and on JM’s Soundcloud some recent ‘Now Sound’ Tony Blackburn / Pick Of The Pops cuts sound very much like they come from the studio of BF … I like these “pre-record” versions of the cuts, kind of the same ethos from then used now where jingle companies offer the shotgun, slogan and usually a fuller ramp of cuts rather than the straight 8/10/15 second cut by itself … value for money I say and a great job by TM for Len here

[Richard]

Yeah love this cut Len, always loved the Pepper Tanner jingles for Radio 1 and the Jimmy Young cut reminds me of when I was at home a young 4 year old with mum and Jimmy Young on in the background, even at that tender age I noticed the jingles. Must be in the DNA. I am really impressed with how close TM have got to the original Pepper Sound. Brilliant! In fact they could have both been sung in 1968.

[Author]

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