As I said in a Tweet the other day, I saw none of the Super Bowl, thereby maintaining my lifetime cumulative record of watching football games which stands at about ten minutes. That's where it's been since 1971 and where it's likely to remain 'til I plotz. I say this without pride or shame or any criticism of those who love it. When I see how happy Super Bowl Sunday makes some people, I wish I could join in. But some people simply can't wrap their brain around Italian Renaissance Madrigals and I can't even feign caring about football. The extent of my interest in last Sunday's game was that my mother's caregiver has a son who plays defense on whatever team won. If I had any more interest than that, I'd click over to Google and find out the name of that team.
The only moment I saw was not of the game but of a commercial which I've embedded below. I was sitting in a restaurant in San Francisco. The pre-game show, which I gather lasts for forty days and forty nights, was on a big projection screen on one wall. I heard no audio over the noise of the diners but believe it or not, I guessed the song was probably "Brotherhood of Man" from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It just looked like that's what they were dancing to.
Years ago, I read an article that said that was the most-played, ASCAP-lucrative of all the tunes written by the great Frank Loesser. He wrote arguably better songs but "Brotherhood of Man" was used a lot in commercials, including a long run in ads for Hamm's Beer. Every time they sang "Brotherhood of Hamm's," a little cash register at the Loesser estate went ka-ching. It's like that with most composers. Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote better, more loved songs than "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" but none that Groucho used every week on his game show…and almost everywhere else he went.
Anyway, when I got back I wanted to see the commercial with audio and here it is. There seem to be at least three different versions on the web and this is the longest I've found. If I were Jay Leno, I might look at how much money I've made for my network the last twenty years and wonder why they don't give me more attention…or in this case, camera time. Then again, Leno was in three separate Super Bowl commercials and will probably be working long after everyone else in this ad is sitting behind a table at an autograph show selling photos. Including Donald Trump…
And say, while we're on the topic: Here's one of those Hamm's Beer commercials that made the ka-ching sound at the Loesser house…