The Beverly Hillbillies theme song once had extra verses
What i miss is TV theme songs .. Huge in the golden age of TV all the way through the 90’s. It got you pumped for the show you where about to watch, plus in most cases it set the show’s premise if you where not to familiar with it.
But then, maybe in order to say time and have more commercials, shows slowly got rid of them. These days you can hardly tell where one ends and the next begins.
There has been may show theme songs that became well know (some in the late 70’s and early 80’s even where re-recorded and released as actual songs). But no doubt one of the most familiar was the The Beverly Hillbillies:
“Come listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed….” You know how the tune goes. The Beverly Hillbillies theme song was a No. 1 country hit, after all. The folksy bluegrass ditty told how Jed Clampett became a millionaire. However, not everyone is lucky enough to find oil while shooting at animals in the backyard. Some people have to make millions the old-fashioned way — collecting cash from corporate sponsors.
In the early days of television, if you didn’t have a corporate sponsor, you didn’t have a show. Even Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz unsuccessfully shopped I Love Lucy around to several advertising agencies before Philip Morris finally gave in and agreed to help finance the sitcom. Big Tobacco was a major backer of TV sitcoms. Even The Flintstones showed Fred and Barney puffing Winston cigarettes to promote the smokes.
The same brand worked its way into The Beverly Hillbillies.
Come along and visit with the Clampett family
As they take you to their mansion in the hills of Beverly
And when they do, you’ll run into
A friend of theirs you’ve met
That good ol’ friend with filtered blend
Winston cigarette!
Take a look at a vintage clip:
Then came the additional verse sang about Kellogg’s cereal.
Now come along and visit with the Clampett family
As they learn the simple pleasures of the hills of Beverly
That includes the products of your sponsor of the week
The cereals of Kellogg’s, Kellogg’s of Battle Creek
K–E-double-L-O-double-good…
Kellogg’s best to you
Maybe if TV networks thought it could make extra money these days, theme songs would come back.
Source – MeTV.com
