One of my favorites. There should be more string quartet and nylon string guitar concertos.
This is a cover of the original Munsters theme and very, very strangely sounds better than the original. Purely subjective opinion, of course. An orange 12 String Vox/Phantom was used for the main riff and…well…it’s a Duesey, for sure.
My longest running ad, still airs to this day in various parts of the world. Recorded in 2006 on duelling ukeleles. Well, one’s a Uke, the other is a mandolin. In this poster shot Jen is about to say ‘fffff… oh no not another Aveeno ad’. Another really long running ad that still airs in various parts of the world. I came up with a sound for Jen and did all her Aveeno’s from 2013 to 2020. Now Jen’s sound, that was made personally for her, I recognize on various similar brands. Some of them I’m even, like, head to the side, is that my track? Very flattering.
Oral B – Sometimes they just want truly mediocre music
Pedigree – This track is called “Awesome Little Guitars” and was made with all undersized guitar type instruments, i.e mandolins, banjo, ukeleles. The definition of cuteness. It’s also a lesson, (at this point standing at about 100,000 hours), on how to score a 30 second commercial. I still own this piece of music. It was non ex. It’s a work of art.
Richard Simmons – Geico – I’m pretty sure I was born to make 80’s disco.
Harmon Kardon – I used to have the same manager as J Lo. Benny ‘cold’ Medina. He called me once and said my album was doooope. I asked him are we talkin bout the same record?
More Ralph Lauren
Revlon – Halle Berry – The sound of the kick drum in this track was requested and insisted upon, no lie. I kept going half measure and then getting feedback that just said ‘More’. Obviously this is way before Gaga educated the American mainstream on how ‘electronica’ should sound and feel. I’m not to blame, basically. I must say, once Gaga did her thing, American electronica producers took it to the next level, beating out the best of the best, the Swedish and the few great Englanders. Daft Punk obviously can’t be FW but hey… classics.
Neutrogenas – I must have won close to 30 Neutrogena spots. This is one of the better compositions. Some of them, to my mind, were just awful. Truly awful, saccharin, dated, even at the time. Insincere?? No, I don’t know how to do insincere, which is why I won and beat out so many composers again and again. At the end of the day, people like Neutrogena products and all my treatments were on brand, for the time, and melodies that were, I guarantee, catchier and friendlier than anything else submitted.
This is one of the first spots I won. A Maybelline. After an initial Gaterade win and then a bunch of misses, this is when I realized winning these things, beating out dozens of other composers is a matter of sheer will. Nothing else. If you want it bad enough and focus on making a banger. Guess what…
Wow, truly truly awful. Who approves these things? I hope their mix of it was better than this ‘rough’.
Another perfectly scored Pedigree ad.
Yeh, this played for ever. Seven years. Of course it was a buy out. Fuckers.
I didn’t win this. And no one can tell me why, cuz it’s a good composition. I guess the ‘classical music’ market is just absolutely saturated with amazing stuff. It’s like the human race has really figured out how to make amazing classical music on a daily, throw away basis. For that reason I, personally, think classical music in film is offensive. It needs to stop. Commercials is fine though. AAAAnd maybe one day this piece of music will find a home and sell some product of some kind.
Wow, another Maybelline. I musta got really screwed on the early Maybellines, cuz they’re like gold. As a composer, if you win a Maybelline it literally translates into piles of gold. But not with the agency I did my early Maybellines with, though. I wonder why? Mind you, this track sucks really bad. Its almost in the ‘crimes against music’ catagory. Actually it’s firmly in that catagory, lol. No it’s not even funny.
Back when you might still hear a rock track on a commercial.
More Neutrogena. This one is pretty good too. It really stood out in a batch of dozens, for some reason. As soon as you heard it, it was, like, ‘yeh that one’s gonna win’.
