Snap, Crackle, P-P-P-POP!
1. Medley 1 (2:16)
2. Medley 2 (3:37)
I have to thank my good friend Kris Earle for this find, "Snap, Crackle Pop Tunes" from the good folks at Kelloggs circa 1983. This was a mail-in promotion for those kids who just couldn't get enough of their favorite breakfast cereal's jingle. No narrative, no context, just medleys of commercial variants.
No matter what kind of music your child enjoys, there's a pro-Krispies song to enjoy. Medley 1 opens with a wholesome, gospel-themed version, then fades into the sound of joyous singing children before going medieval with harpsichord and horns. You know, for those kids who like dragons. Cue the singing kids again at the end.
Medley 2 is a strange but instantly classic piece of promotional fluff. It opens with that '80s rock groove and lots of overproduced guitar, and it's hard to knock lyrics like, "Cruising to the kitchen, got breakfast on my mind."
Then it gets bizarre. Really. At 1:14, there's a strange psychedlic interlude that sounds like George Martin's countdown for the pre-orchestral studio track of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life." Two seconds later, it goes country. Finally it closes out with perhaps the greatest New Wave song ever written in support of a breakfast food. Images of Lena Lovich and CBGBs will be dancing through your head, and Snap, Crackle, and Pop even drop in for some backing vocals.
I don't know what they were thinking, but you can bet that parents would be flooding Kellogg's customer service if they tried to produce this kind of Snap, Crackle, Propaganda today.
Bizarre -- the countdown bit from the second medley is actually a sample from the TV Series "The Prisoner". You can hear it (without the bits about how much fun cereal is) on the first track of the second "Prisoner" soundtrack CD (The Prisoner File #2).
Posted by: Mike the Radio Guru | September 17, 2008 at 03:59 PM
Now that is bizarre, and I can't blame it on radio bleed because I didn't have a copy of that CD in the station, and I'm pretty sure the commercial stations in Boston would never play that CD.
Subliminal messages from a playful engineer, perhaps?
Posted by: Hear It Wow | September 17, 2008 at 04:11 PM
Totally rocked out to that when I was 5.
Posted by: Hoh | September 17, 2008 at 07:53 PM
Wow, I used to have this. For some reason, I sold all my vinyl a couple years ago (rather than being selective). This is one I regret giving up. Thanks for the great post.
Posted by: U. Squeegee | September 17, 2008 at 08:25 PM
Hmm, I'm no expert, but it seems like at least some of that between-track junk must be from the radio...
Posted by: DavidLG | September 17, 2008 at 09:16 PM
There's definitely some radio bleed on the track, thanks to a poorly grounded turntable. However, the talking bit at 1:14 is on the record and it's at a much higher level than the bleed, so it's something from the record itself.
Posted by: Hear It Wiw | September 18, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Great upload, but where are the other tracks on the record? I'm dying to get THIS version of the old old 50's "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" Jingle because, well, it just Snaps, Crackles, and Pops better than this original version video I found on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6TIsxTdrCU
Posted by: Jerry Gnoza | September 18, 2008 at 01:44 PM
I totally have this. Got it from Goodwill for a quarter!
Posted by: Brent | September 18, 2008 at 02:08 PM
It doesn't seem any more bizarre to me than, say, Disco Duck or It's A Small World. How about Free To Be? And I don't know why parents today would be bothered by it.
Posted by: Rich | September 18, 2008 at 03:18 PM
Gotcha. Thanks for this!
Posted by: DavidLG | September 18, 2008 at 10:02 PM
Great find. Still, nobody did Rice Krispies jingles better than the Stones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBmhEMFdl0
Posted by: chikoz | September 19, 2008 at 07:55 AM