Once Upon a Time at the Top of the Charts: The New Seekers, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”
44 years ago today, The New Seekers hit the top of the UK Singles chart with a song that started life as a Coca-Cola commercial and ended up scoring a key moment in the final episode of one of the most critically-acclaimed TV series of all time.
It's a story that would be written off as ridiculous if it wasn't completely true, but it all started with a delayed flight. Bill Backer, an advertising executive with McCann-Erickson, and songwriters Roger Cook (“Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”) and Billy Davis (“Lonely Teardrops”) were sitting in an Irish airport, waiting for their plane to show up, when they noticed some other travelers chatting, laughing, and drinking Coke. Backer scribbled the words “I'd like to buy the world a Coke” on a napkin and gave it to Cook, who teamed up with his regular collaborator Roger Greenaway to compose the jingle for a new Coke TV commercial.
The commercial was a success, the song was expanded into a radio commercial, and the hook was so insidiously catchy that after the Hillside Singers - a folk group complied by McCann-Erickson - took their version to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100, The New Seekers recorded a version of it as well. Not only did their take on the track rise higher on the US charts, all the way to #7, UK listeners were so charmed that they took it all the way to #1.
The original Coke commercial is still considered one of the greatest TV ads of all time (as well it should've been, since its reported $250K price tag meant that it was at that time the most expensive TV ad of all time), and its pop culture relevance has never been higher, thanks to the last scene of AMC's Mad Men suggesting that in the universe of the series, it was Don Draper who came up with the idea for the song.
Sure, the lyrics are about as schmaltzy as they come, but the music of “I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing” was memorable, and not only did it sell a lot of records, but it sold a lot of Coca-Cola. If you're looking for a bona fide success story, then look no further: this is the real thing.
