Barry Manilow Was Paid $500 for Writing the Iconic Insurance Company Jingle, “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There”

In 1965, Barry Manilow started working in the mailroom at CBS and became known as the “piano-playing mail boy” while attending Juilliard. After being promoted to file clerk and briefly leaving his position job to tour with actress and singer Jeanne Lucas, Manilow was asked to take on the role of music director of a new show, Callback, when he returned to CBS in 1967, and later arranged the new theme song for The Ed Sullivan Show.

By the early 1970s, Manilow already had a small catalog of commercial jingles in his songbook, arranging and composing for television and eventually moving into writing commercial jingles, including the “Bathroom Bowl Blues” for the Green Bowlene toilet cleaner and the Pepsi song “Feelin’ Free.” He also started singing some of the commercials himself, including the Randy Newman-penned “Join the Pepsi People” for Pepsi and “Give Your Face Something to Smile About” for Stridex acne products in 1971, along with more songs for fast food chains, incluidng KFC and McDonald’s in the early ’80s.

“I learned the most about music working in the jingle industry,” said Manilow. “It was the best music college I could ever imagine. What I learned most of all in my jingle days was how to write a catchy melody.”

In 1971, Manilow also wrote one of the most iconic brand jingles “Stuck on Band-Aid”—I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me—which he said was written “in one pass,” along with lyricist Donald B. Wood.

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‘Like a Good Neighbor… ‘

That year, Manilow also came up with the melody for Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is there, and got paid $500 without any additional residuals. “You get residuals if you’re singing or talking on the commercial, but as a composer, you get a flat fee,” said Manilow. “It’s been going for 45 years, but nobody expected a jingle to last that long. Same thing with Band-Aid. And $500 was great for me at that point.”

For the jingle, Manilow was only given the company slogan. “They just give you the lyric: ‘Whenever you’re driving and wherever you’re bound… like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,’” recalled Manilow. “That’s it. Then you try to write a catchy melody, something that will stick in listeners’ ears in 15 seconds. For television, you get 15 seconds. If you’re lucky, 30.”

Whenever you’re driving
And wherever you’re bound
On freeways and byways
The whole country round

You’ll feel better knowing anytime, anywhere
That like a good neighbor
State Farm is there

Your home’s where your heart is
It’s a feeling that grows
The house that you live in
The love that it shows

You’ll feel better knowing anytime, anywhere
That like a good neighbor
State Farm is there

“It’s my greatest hit,” joked Manilow of hearing the State Farm jingle still played on TV more than four decades later.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images