Great Shakes were a instant chocolate powder on the shelves in the 1960's, much like Ovaltine. One of the cool things about Great Shakes though was how they got popular bands of the time to rework their songs into jingles for the Great Shakes brand. The Who and the Blue Magoo's were among those who participated as well as The Yardbirds.
The Yardbirds chose to re-record their classic song "Over Under Sideways Down" that they did when Jeff Beck was in the group with Jimmy Page on guitar for the jingle you hear above. It was quite canny of them to do so, and really was a forerunner to advertising today, in which this sort of thing is done all the time. Jimmy never scoffed at making a buck, despite his aversion to using his music in advertising later in life. Peter Grant once said, "If anybody ever wanted to off Jimmy Page, all you had to do was throw tuppence in front of a bus."
Jimmy Page actually posted about this on his website under the "On This Day" section:
THE YARDBIRDS RECORDED A RADIO COMMERCIAL FOR GREAT SHAKES
"During the course of the recording at IBC Studios in London, I discovered what Great Shakes was all about because two American people appeared from the control room, one carrying a sachet in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. The packet was torn and dispensed what appeared to be flavoured granulated sugar and probably other ingredients. It was poured into the milk, stirred up and offered round for everyone to drink. It was essential that we did this before we continued recording; apparently this was de rigueur when it came to commercials and products.
It’s a pity we hadn’t done a commercial for Mercedes."
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| Quite the Lineup! |
The song itself begins with the classic "Over Under Sideways Down" riff played twice that looks a little something like this:
---------------------------------|--------------------------------- ---------------------------------|--------------------------------- 12------12h14p12s10------10h12s14|12-------12--14-b15*-----14------ ---------------------------------|--------------------------------- ---------------------------------|--------------------------------- ---------------------------------|---------------------------------
From there it really is just a G Chord and an A Chord for the verses played all the way through
Open G Barred G
e---3-- e------3--
B--3-- B-----3--
G--0-- or G-----4--
D--0-- D-----5--
A--2-- A-----5--
E--3-- E------3--
Open A Barred A
e---0-- e------5--
B--3-- B-----5--
G--3-- or G-----6--
D--3-- D-----7--
A--0-- A-----7--
E--0-- E------5--
The lyrics are:
G
Any place can be a soda fountain now,
A
With Great Shakes,
G
New Great Shakes,
G
Shake it up with milk and make the rich thick shake
A
New Great Shakes
G
New Great Shakes
(Announcer Dialogue)
G
It's so dreamy, thick and creamy,
G
Any place can be a soda fountain now,
A
With Great Shakes,
G
New Great Shakes,
G
If you want to own a soda fountain now,
A
Got to the store and get (Hey!) Great Shakes
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| The Yardbirds (A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!) |
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